LIFE OF THE MESSIAH – 009
DR. ARNOLD G. FRUCHTENBAUM
III. THE CONTROVERSY OVER THE KING
4. Power Over Nature
Paragraph 65 –Mark 4:35-41; Matthew 8:18, 22-37; Luke 8:22-25
Let’s continue our study; we’re down to paragraph 65, His power over nature, and now following the declaration of His new policy concerning His miracles and teaching, and the announcement of a new form of the Kingdom we now have new miracles to illustrate the issues coming up. Now Mark’s account, notice verse 35 says, “And on that day when even was come,” the same day all that has been around since paragraph 61, it’s been an awfully long day, and He’s finally alone with His apostles. As they’re going across the Sea of Galilee a storm hits and the waves were really hitting against the boat and they were in danger, and the extremity of the situation is at the end of Luke’s account, verse 23, “and they were filling with water, and were in jeopardy,” their life was now at stake.
As for the Messiah, He wasn’t being shook at all by these events, Mark 4:38 says He was just down in the stern of the ship having a nap. And (?) they come to Him and say, “Master, do you not care for us that we perish?” And we’re told in Mark 4:39 He rebuked the wind, all the Gospels make the same point but the word in Greek has the meaning to muzzle, He literally muzzled the wind. And Mark points out in the middle of verse 39, “And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.” And this was all instantaneous, suddenly the wind ceased to blow and just as quickly the sea is as calm as it can be.
Mark 8:40, “Why are ye fearful? Have you not faith?” And in verse 41, “And they feared exceedingly.” Now there’s two different Greek words being used; the word in verse 40 of Mark means a cowardly fear, they’re filled with cowardly fear, but now they were in an awesome fear, meaning… the one in verse 41, they were in awe of God. And the question they raise to themselves in Matthew 8:27, “What manner of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him?” And what they took from this lesson is that he is in control of these natural events. And the very question they raise in verse 27 is a (?) of the Pharisaic explanation. The disciples do not repeat what they said, “well by the power of Beelzebub does He perform these special events.
5. Power Over Demons
Paragraph 66 – Mark 5:1-20; Matthew 8:28-34; Luke 8:26-39
Now paragraph 66, power over demons. Now notice although He has cast out demons before, we’re simply told what a demon did, this or that, he made him blind, he made him dumb, he made them deaf and so on, but now only after He Himself has been accused of being demonized, for the first time in Mark’s account, notice you have a detailed description of an extreme demonic estate in Mark 5:2-5 and what he describes here is a very extreme form of demonism. Not all demonized people went to the same degree. It’s a situation where the one that has been accused of being demonized will now be facing a legion of demons, and shows that He has power over them; they do not have power over Him.
And the territory they cross, they cross from the northwest side of the Sea of Galilee to the northeast side of the Sea of Galilee. Now in that day the northeast side was Gentile territory. The Jewish territory basically went from Bethsaida all the way down to Magdala and then from Tiberias all the way around and up again was the Gentile side of the lake. So what we have here is one of those few times He’ll cross over into Gentile territory to get away from the Jewish crowds to be able to teach His disciples.
Now someone pointed out a contradiction here because as you can see in Mark 5:1 and Luke 8:26 He went to the country of the Gerasenes, but Matthew says in Matthew 8:28 He went to the area of the Gadarenes, and people have noted this as a contradiction and argue against inspiration. That’s just a lack of knowledge of the geography of that day. Let’s look at this map of Israel. Here you see basically the key cities on the area between the Mediterranean and the Jordan River, basically all on the west side. There was a section on the east side that was when it (?) was a Gentile territory; there’s a region called Gadara. Now Gadara was on the east side, it was primarily Gentile with a small Jewish population and within the region of Gadara you had several cities, two of which play a role here; one is the city of Gadara.
The word “Gadara” can refer either to a city or to a region, similar as we use in this country New York; when I say New York do I mean New York City or New York State? Only by the context can you tell; and New York City is in New York State, but New York State is not in New York City. There are other cities in New York like Albany, Syracuse, Camp Shoshanah. So New York refers to a city and New York can refer to a state, the context tells you which. The same thing here; Gadara might refer to a region or it might refer to a city. And essentially what we’re told in Matthew is just giving us the region; he’s not giving us the city, he’s giving us the region. Another city within the region of Gadara, besides the city of Gadara was the city of Girgasat (?) and so the event described here takes place in Girgasat in the region of Gadara. So no contradiction occurs here.
And here again we notice what demons probably know, first of all they have no problem recognizing who Jesus is in Matthew 28:29, they recognize He’s the Messiah, the Son of God. Also notice they also know their future doom in Luke’s account in Luke 8:31. Before that, in Matthew 8:29, “Have you come hither to torment us before the time?” They know they are destined to go into the lake of fire; the lake of fire originally was not intended for fallen humanity but for fallen angels, and now it will also be for fallen humanity. So they recognize who Jesus is, they also recognize their future. It’s here that Jesus uses the traditional Jewish approach, in Mark 5:9, He asked them, “What is your name,” and he says “My name is Legion; for we are many.” Notice the change of pronouns from “my” to “we.”
The legion of demons was anywhere from 3,000 to 6,000, that’s what a legion was; a small legion was 3,000, a full legion was 6,000, so in these demonic state men, the one we’re focused on, there are two altogether, there’s a total of a minimum of 3,000 demons. Now normally when a demon is cast out of a person he will spend some time in a segment called abyss, I’ll say more about the abyss in a segment of Scripture we’ll look at later on.
So in Luke 8:31 “they intreated Him that He would not command them to depart into the abyss.” That would be normative; the abyss is a segment of Sheol or Hades which was a temporary place of confinement for fallen angels or demons. A demon was cast out, he would spend some time in the abyss and then be released again. And they asked Jesus not to be sent into the abyss, rather to be allowed in Mark 5:12 to be sent into a herd of swine there on the hill. Now why He allowed this is not clear because this is not Jewish territory where pigs were forbidden; this is Gentile territory where pigs were allowed. So we do not know why He actually allowed this to happen. If I was to guess I would say it’s for the purpose of providing a biblical basis for a very popular Gentile food dish called deviled ham. But at least we see that pigs tend to have a higher ethical standard than humans have because this man was quite content with a legion of demons within him; people have none of it.
And so when the swine went to these herd of pigs, these pigs all run into the Sea of Galilee, commit mass suicide and drown themselves. And now in Mark 5:15 the man is able to sit in his right mind. And while the man might be happy the people who owned the pigs are not so happy, they lost a whole lot of income. And so in Mark 5:17 they beseech Him to leave the territory, which He does. Because in Luke 8:37 “they were holden with great fear,” it’s not so much they lost their income as it is their fear of who He is or what He is.
And now the man that’s relieved of the demonic state wants to become a disciple of Jesus but Jesus would not accept Gentile disciples at this stage. He tells him in Mark 5:19, “Go to your house, unto your friends and tell how great things the Lord has done for you, and how He had mercy on you. [20] And he went his way, and began to publish in Decapolis,” notice, “how great things Jesus had done for him: and all men did marvel.” Decapolis was a union of ten Greek speaking Gentile cities, nine of which were in the east side of the Jordan; only one, (?) which in New Testament times was a Gentile city, it was on the west side of the Jordan. So at this point He is not accepting Gentile disciples; as a result he cannot become a disciple of Jesus at this stage.
And the prohibition not to tell people about what he’s done is limited to Jews but not to Gentiles. And we’ll see the success of His ministry later in the feeding of the 4,000. So for now Jesus is asked to leave; next time He comes there He will be welcome.
6. Power Over Disease and Death
Paragraph 67 – Mark 5:21-43; Matthew 9:18-26; Luke 8:40-56
Now Paragraph 67, power over disease and death. Now for the disciples this would be a lesson of Messiah’s power, and for the woman and Jairus it would be a lesson of faith. He now crosses back on the Jewish side of the lake and in Mark 5:22, “And there comes one of the rulers of the synagogue, Jairus by name;” and the fact that he comes to Jesus and beseeching Him, “My little daughter is at the point of death,” shows he has belief in this person, obviously expresses a personal need. And again He will respond by needs of individuals and on the basis of faith.
Luke spells out that the daughter, in Luke 8:42, that she is twelve years old at this point of time and she was very close to death. As they’re walking to, we’re told He’s really crowded by the people, at the end of Mark 5:24, “and they thronged Him.” The Greek word used for “throng” means they pressed upon Him, and it’s a Greek word that means to be so pressed upon to the point of suffocation. That’s important to note, that means a lot of people were touching Him at this stage.
And on the way He has an encounter and Matthew 9:20 says, “Behold, a woman, who had an issue of blood twelve years,” she had some kind of a blood infirmity for the same amount of time that the daughter lived; she’s twelve years old and this woman had twelve years of a blood disorder. Which, by the way, according to Mosaic Law, Leviticus 15:19-32, it made her permanently unclean, ceremonially unclean. And Mark points out in Mark 5:26, she “had suffered many things of many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was nothing better, but rather grew worse.” And Mark points out two things, notice, first of all, that “she suffered at the hands of many physicians,” or many doctors, and secondly, she spent all her money and was not healed. But notice some professional courtesy here; Luke is a doctor so Luke will admit that she’s spent all her living but she couldn’t get any better, but he drops the phrase about having suffered at the hands of many physicians. He’s protecting his own territory there.
Now in Luke 8:44, she was saying if she touched the borders of His garments she could be healed and when she does so she is healed instantaneously. Now the word “border” refers to tassels, these are tassels that were commanded by the Mosaic Law and because Jesus kept the Mosaic Law perfectly He had these tassels on the (?) of the garments and she didn’t hold Him, she could not do so because of her uncleanness, but she could hold the tassel and she feels by holding the tassel she will be healed as assumes that it is the holding the tassel that will heal her.
Now dealing with the Jewish leper mentioned the rabbinic writings have many cures for many diseases but leprosy was left out of these rabbinic cures, but they do have a way of curing a woman with blood disease, and here’s what they suggest you do, and I’ll read this passage from rabbinic writings: “In order to heal a woman with a blood disease, take of gum of Alexandria the weight of a (?) and alum the weight of a (?) and a crocus or (?) the weight of a (?), let them be bruised together and be given in wine to the woman that had the issue of blood. But if this does not benefit, take of Persian onions, thrice three logs, boil them in wine and give it to her to drink and say arise from your flux. But if this does not prevail, set her in a place where two ways meet and let her hold a cup of wine in her hand and let someone come up behind her and scare her, and say, Arise from your flux. But if that does not do any good take a handful of cumin and a handful of crocus, let these be boiled in wine and give them to her to drink and also say, Arise from your flux. If this does not help then let them dig seven ditches in which let them burn some cuttings of trees that have not yet been circumcised,” meaning not yet four years old, “and let her take in her hand the cup of wine and let them lead her away from the first ditch and make her sit down over that, and let them remove her to the second ditch to sit down over; in all seven ditches, and say, Arise from your flux. And then if there is no cure from that there is no cure forever.” So she may have underwent some of these treatments and why she spent all her money, according to Mark, not according to Luke, and suffered at the hands of many physicians.
Now again, in Mark 5:29, “And straightway the fountain of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of her plague.” She recognizes she was instantaneously healed. But again the focus on these healings is for the disciples so He raises the question at the end of Mark 5:30, “Who touched My garments?” Which for the disciples would be a frustrating question, and they said to Him in verse 31, “You see the multitude thronging You, and yet you say, Who touched Me?” meaning… a lot of people touched You, what do You mean, Who touched You? But now He’s got their attention.
And in verse 32, “And He looked around to see her that had done this thing,” it shows He knew who it was; He knew exactly who did the touching but the purpose of the question is to catch the apostolic attention. So they learned a lesson of faith.
And Luke 8:47, “And when the woman saw that she was not hid,” she now recognizes He knows what she did, she confesses. Notice what He says to her in Matthew 9:22, “Daughter, be of good cheer; for your faith has made you whole.” He corrects her theology, it was not her touch of the garments that healed her; it was the faith that healed her. And the power is not issued from His clothing, it issued from Him. Now if she had no faith and touched His garments, and others have done so, there would be no healing; it was her faith that did the healing, her touch was merely the outworking of her faith.
Now this incident causes a delay and the message comes to the party that the daughter has died, and therefore don’t trouble the Master any further. But He says to the man at the end of mark 5:36, “Fear not, only believe.” And now notice He does not perform miracles just for the sake of the public, and so He has everybody else removed, the only ones he brings in are three of His apostles and the parents, and in verse 40, “But He, having put them all forth, takes the father of the child and her mother and them that were with Him, and goes in where the child was.” And [41] “He says to her, Talitha cumi,” meaning… Talitha is an Aramaic female name, that was her name, Talitha cumi, meaning rise up.
And as a result she is resurrected from the dead and now notice a new policy in Mark 5:43, “He charged them much that no man should know this,” and at the end of Luke 8:56, “He charged them to tell no man what had been done.” Nevertheless, Matthew points out in Matthew 9:26, His fame continued to spread.
7. The Power Over Blindness
Paragraph 68 – Matthew 9:27-34
Now paragraph 68, the power over blindness. Now as He continues His ministry, He’s walking in various places and on His way two blind men when they hear who passes by cry out, “Have mercy on us, You son of David.” This is verse 28. And again, the term Son of David is a Messianic title so they’re asking for a miracle on the basis of His Messianic character, a character that has been rejected by the people of Israel and so on that basis he can do nothing for them. So He does not respond, but then when he’s alone in the house, and they come in, now it’s a private matter between Him and them, not public. They obviously explain their need. What about their faith, so He asked them in verse 28, “Believe ye that I am able to do this?” Remember, there’s no record of Him asking this kind of question before paragraph 61, now He raises these questions. And when they say yes, then they are healed.
And again, the new policy in force in verse 30, “Jesus strictly charged them, saying, See that no man know it.” They went ahead and spread the news anyway, but notice the admonition is for them not to do so.
But in Matthew 9:32 when He casts out another dumb demon and again the multitudes were saying, in verse 33, “It was never so seen in Israel,” never in Israel has this miracle been done before His time. But the Pharisees’ explanation remains the same now, “By the prince of demons does he cast out demons.”
G. The Final Rejection in Nazareth
Paragraph 69 – Mark 6:1-6; Matthew 13:54-58
Now paragraph 69, the final rejection in Nazareth. Back in paragraph 39 we have the initial rejection and now in paragraph 69 we have the final rejection in Nazareth. And again Nazareth plays a microcosm for the nation as a whole. What happens locally in Nazareth is going to happen nationally. So we had the initial rejection of the Messiahship of Jesus in paragraph 61 and in paragraph 119 we’ll see the final rejection by the nation.
But He comes into Nazareth, this time not living there any more. Here we learn, for example, in Matthew 13:55 that his foster father, Joseph, was a carpenter. We also learn from Mark 6:3 He Himself is a carpenter. So He followed His foster father’s profession. Here we learn the four names of His four half brothers, in Mark 6:3: James or Jacob, Joseph, Judas and Simon. We also see He had at least two half-sisters because the word “sister” is plural, so a minimum of two if not more. And so Miriam or Mary became rather productive after Yeshua was born.
Once again there’s whole scale rejection, in Matthew 13:57, many there are offended by Him. And so in verse 58, “He did not many might works there because of their unbelief.”
H. Witness in View of Rejection
Paragraph 70 Mark 6:6-13; Matthew 9:35-11:1; Luke 9:1-6
1. Introduction – Matthew 9:35-10:4
Now paragraph 70, the witness in view of rejection. On your outline I’ve broken this paragraph down a bit for you to follow. There’s a witness that is sent out to witness but as you’ll see as I go through it, it’s the light of the rejection and so the ministry is a bit different than it was hereto for.
But Matthew explains the three-fold ministry; number one, teaching in the synagogues, secondly preaching the gospel of the Kingdom, but now the gospel of the Kingdom emphasizes the Mystery Kingdom, and thirdly “healing all manner of disease and all manner of sickness.” And in spite of the leaders rejection of His Messianic claims the people are not yet following the leaders; they will later on as we’ll see, but at this point the people by and large are not themselves following the people and therefore they are as sheep without a shepherd because it (?) among the people is should we follow the old shepherd or should we follow this new one, and therefore they’re in their time of indecision they’re like sheep without a shepherd. And that’s the focus of the ministry.
He points out in Matthew 9:37-38 those who pray for laborers should become and be willing to become laborers and to also pray for the harvest and should be ready to receive the harvest as well. So He sends them out, this time He sends them out two by two, they’re sent out to proclaim the same message, the first time the message of the Mystery Kingdom, and they’re given delegated authority to authenticate their message.
2. Practical Instructions for the Mission – Matthew 10:5-15
Now Matthew is the most detailed; obviously we’ll use him as a base, but in Matthew’s account, Matthew 10:5-15 He begins by providing some practical instructions for their mission. And he points out five things here. First of all in verses 5-6 He gives them their territorial assignment which is only to Jews, verse 5, “Go not into any way of the Gentiles, and enter not into any city of the Samaritans: but go only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” Until (?) comes along their ministry is limited to a Jewish audience, and not even the Samaritans are to be targeted, but go “to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”
Secondly, in Matthew 10:7-8, the nature of the work involves two things, first of all, the message about God’s Kingdom program and secondly in verse 8 the message was to be authenticated by the miracles they perform. He also instructs them as they move on not to take any wealth with them, or funds with them, these will be provided, and again rabbis did not get paid for teaching, and just as they received freely they should be able to give freely.
And the one point of thing to note here because here again people note a contradiction. In Mark 6:8 he says take a staff only, but Luke says in Luke 9:3, “neither staff,” and in English that sounds like a contradiction except in Greek those are two different words used, one is a staff to help you walk, and one is a staff primarily for the purpose of fighting. So the kind of staff they’re not to take is the aggressive staff, only a walking staff.
And in Matthew 10:10, “the laborer is worthy of his food,” because God will provide for their needs as they proceed. When they go to a city, notice, the focus that they must focus on is specifically on finding believers within the city. So in verses 9-10 they’re not to be concerned for the necessities of life, these will be provided. And fourthly, in verses 11-13 they are to find someone who is “worthy,” and the word “worthy” means those who actually believe. Go into a city and find out who the believer is and make your home with the believer. Salute him if he truly proves to be worthy leave your blessing with him. But the emphasis here is on individual and not national; on families, not masses.
And fifthly, in Matthew 10:14-15 if they are not worthy, “shake the dust off your” shoes, which is a symbolic action of witnessing against them, it’s a sign of judgment. And while judgment will come upon the city the worthy one within the city will be spared. These are five elements of simply practical instructions but notice the focus is on go into a city but focus your ministry on the believer, the remnant of that day.
3. Instructions in View of the Coming Persecution – Matthew 10:16-23
Now in Matthew 10:16-23 He gives them instructions in view of coming persecution. First of all, in verse 16-18 He points out the coming trial, “Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves,” and while they are to be as “wise as serpents” they themselves should be “as harmless as doves.” And they should be ready to be taken before councils, and synagogues, be ready to be scourged, and this is not for just their immediate ministry but the long-term ministry because the synagogues would be Jewish places but the governors and kings shall be Gentile places. And they should expect a widespread rejection from both the Jewish and Gentile community but if they take their persecutions correctly, in verse 19, this will be a testimony to them, the Jews, and to Gentiles. See, He began by telling them not to go to Gentiles but He promises they will some time, some day have a Gentile ministry.
Secondly, He points out they are not to be concerned for what they will need to say, Matthew 10:19-20, when the time comes to defend their places God will give them what to say. Now here we see a repetition of a point He made on the Sermon on the Mount, you know what applies by these repetitions. Now some have used this verse as an excuse, why I did not prepare the Bible lesson for Sunday School class, because I’m claiming the promise that I will simply open my mouth and God will fill it. After a few words I can tell by what he’s saying they did not come from the Spirit, the Spirit is not quite that shallow. This is not dealing with Bible lessons; this is dealing with defending yourself in a court of law because of your faith.
Now thirdly he points out the scope of their persecution in Matthew 10:21-23 is even family members. “And brother shall deliver up brother to death, and the father his child,” and so on. And normally the Jewish family is a very close knit unit, but now because of the rejection of the Messiahship of Yeshua, He now becomes a point of division in the Jewish family unit. And so He says in verse 23, when they persecute you in one city just go to another. He says at the end of verse 23, “Ye shall not have gone through all the cities of Israel, till the Son of man be come,” some take this to be the Second Coming and normally that’s what it would be a reference to though in this immediate context I would say it’s probably a reference to the triumphal entry; they would not get through all the cities of Israel before the triumphal entry into Jerusalem.
4. Instruction in View of Rejection – Matthew 20:24-33
Now Matthew 10:24-33 gives them some instructions in view of rejection. He says first of all in verse 24-25 they should expect to be rejected on the same basis as He was. Verse 25, “If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of His household!” So just as He was rejected on the basis of being demonized they should be ready to be rejected on the same basis of being demonized. And in verses 26-27 he points that it’s not the persecution that they should… they should never become afraid of those, they merely kill the body, the one they should fear and respect is the one that can send the soul to hell.
Now the issue for that generation is spelled out in verse 32, “Every one therefore who shall confess Me before men, him will I also confess before My Father which is in heaven. But whoever shall deny Me before men, him will I also deny before My Father which is in heaven.” And individual members of that generation have to make this choice; either affirm Him or deny Him. If they affirm Him on earth they’ll be affirmed in heaven; if they deny Him on earth they’ll be denied in heaven.
5. The Results of Rejection
Matthew 10:34-39
And Matthew 10:34-39, He spells out some of the results of the rejection. Verse 34, “Think not that I came to send peace on the earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.” But again, as long as He’s offering the Messianic Kingdom He’s offering them a peace, but the prerequisite to establish that peaceful Messianic Kingdom required them to accept Messiah; this they failed to do. And so now in place of peace it is a sword; in place of unity it was now division, a father against son, a daughter against mother, and so on. He Himself would now become the symbol of the acceptance or rejection, just as Simeon told Miriam, or Mary at the time of the presentation when he was forty days old. There’s a (?) necessity to be willing to lose one’s life in order to gain it.
6. Rewards for Individuals Who Accept – Matthew 10:40-42
Now in Matthew 10:40-42 He spells out the rewards for individuals who accept. And so those who receive the apostles are receiving Him and vice versa, so even if you give them a cup of water it will result in a reward. So rewards would not be handed out, only for those which (?) call greater spiritual things, like evangelizing, teaching, whatever we do to further the program of the Lord will be rewarded. A local church has to have a staff of teachers and so on, but somebody has to clean the carpet, somebody has to clean the floor, those who are willing to do so in honor of God will receive their rewards. If you can make coffee you will receive your reward. Now there are ways that you can increase your reward, for example, there’s a greater reward if you can serve regular coffee in place of Decaf, but even the Decaf will have its reward.
7. The Fulfillment – Matthew 11:1
And then we have the fulfillment in Matthew 11:1. Now the word “repent” means to change the mind and what they’re telling the Jewish people to do is they need to change their mind about Jesus; He’s not demon possessed, He’s the Messiah, and that will give them eternal life. And while the 70 AD judgment is now inevitable, it does not close the door to individual salvation. So if individuals will come to faith they will receive eternal life though the Kingdom will not be established at this point of time.
I. The Death of the Herald
Paragraph 71 – Mark 6:14-19; Matthew 14:1-12; Luke 9:7-9
Now paragraph 71, the death of the herald. Now John had an active ministry of about 12 to 14 months. He did have an inactive ministry for just under two years. So the total length of his ministry was about three years, the same as Yeshua, though he was in jail for two of those years. And the reason that he was in prison is because he was proclaiming the wrong marriage between Herod Antipas and a woman named Herodias.
Now Herod Antipas, the Herod here, he was the son of Herod the Great, and Herodias was the grand-daughter of Herod the Great, through another son, one of the sons Herod killed. And she was first married to an uncle, which of course violated the Mosaic Law; she then left her uncle and was married to… became a mistress rather to a step uncle, and then she married Antipas while her first husband, Philip, was still living, which also violates the Mosaic Law. And by marrying his brother’s wife it’s a violation of Leviticus 18:16; also Leviticus 20:21. And the uncle/niece marriage also was a violation of Leviticus 18:12-14 and Leviticus 20:19-20. Altogether she was guilty of triple adultery and guilty of incest; two counts of incest and three counts of adultery.
Because of John’s proclamations against this marriage she convinced her husband to have him arrested, but could not talk him into having John executed because of a remark in Mark 6:20, Antipas knew that John “was a righteous man and a holy one,” and therefore he simply kept him in prison. What changes is that he has a birthday party and the daughter of Herodias, she was a daughter by a previous marriage, did a dance that Herod Antipas liked and made a commitment without thinking it through, he probably also was a bit drunk at this stage, and promised her she could have anything she wanted. Now historically her name was Salome and Salome is the Hellenized form for the Hebrew Shulamite. And when she didn’t know what to ask for as a reward for her dance; she asked her mother, and her mother asked her for the head of John the Baptist. While Antipas did his best to avoid it, he finally was trapped by his own commitment, which he made public anyway. And so as a result John the Baptist was beheaded.
Now keep in mind that John was beheaded for personal reasons. But if you look at the footnote that A. T. Robertson gives you on the bottom of page 82, the charge against John was a political one. He was killed for personal reasons but the charge was political. He quotes from Josephus. And one more time, what happens to the herald will happen to the King. As for Salome, the Shulamite, the daughter that danced, she later also married to an uncle, Philip 2, she later became a widow and eventually, according to Josephus died a rather horrendous death. But for Yeshua, for Jesus, as a result of this event He now begins to remove towards His own coming death.
IV. THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE BY THE KING – Paragraphs 72-95
A. The feeding of the 5,000
Paragraph 72 –Mark 6:30-44; Matthew 14:13-21; Luke 9:10-17; John 6:1-13
That brings us to the fourth main division of His life, the training of the twelve by the King; He’s training them for their future mission in the book of Acts. This comprises paragraph 72-95. And paragraph 72, we have the feeding of the five thousand. The unique thing about this miracle is this is the only miracle that He performs that’s recorded by all four Gospel writers. All other miracles He did were either by one, two, or at the most three Gospel writers; this miracle alone is reported by all four Gospel writers, and for John this is the fourth of John’s seven signs.
And for the apostles the purpose of this miracle was to teach them the nature of the ministry entrusted to them, and instructions concerning divine provision. And John’s account, John 6:4, Mary mentions the Passover was very near, which would be the third Passover of His public ministry so this marks His ministry now as being two years old and also inaugurates His last year. And while the 5,000 are there, following Him for reasons that we’ll see a bit later, the conversations are private between Him and the apostles because the lesson specifically is for them. And again, the interest of the masses is still rather large, (?) there’s explanation that try to explain Him away. And they are following Him primarily because of the signs and we’ll see a bit later, in paragraph 76, they were following Him for the wrong motivation.
Again the attitude of Jesus to them in Mark 6:34 is that as having a sheep without a shepherd because again they have not yet made a decision whom they should follow: the old leaders, the old shepherds or the new one. But He recognizes their personal need of being fed and the ministry that He performs is the typical ministry of a rabbi where he’s teaching, tending and feeding. Now in custom to give the people something here, notice in John 6:7 it is Philip that responds because this happens to be Philips territory and Philip knows that there’s just not that much food available, and even if there was they couldn’t afford to purchase it. This is John verse 7. It would take more than 200 denari; now one denari was one day’s wages so to feed all these people it would be 200 days wages. And also Andrew is mentioned in verse 8.
There’s a personal discussion for them to learn three lessons here; first of all, they are responsible to feed the people. They’re responsible to feed the people, Luke’s account, Luke 9:13. Secondly, they’re incapable of doing it themselves. They’re incapable of doing it themselves, John’s account, John 6:5-9. So thirdly what they’re responsible is to distribute what He provides; this is Matthew 14:19. But when they have fed everybody they counted the leftovers, and it turns out, this is Mark 6:43, there were “twelve basketfuls” of bread and fish. What began with just five loaves and two fishes in John 6:9 ends up being leftover 12 basketfuls of bread and fish. And Matthew points out that while there were 5,000 men, this is not count women and children, so keep in mind the crowd was much bigger than 5,000, the 5,000 counts only the men.
B. Messiah’s Rejection of the Galilean’s Offer to Make Him King
Paragraph 73 – Mark 6:45-46; Matthew 14:22-23; John 6:14-15
Now paragraph 73, His rejection of the Galilean’s attempt to make Him king. Now having been fed with all of this food and doing nothing to earn it, what the people do is they now want to make Him the king of Galilee. And in fact John points out in John 6:15, it didn’t matter whether He wanted it or not, they were ready to make Him king by force. But He rejects the offer. In Mark’s account they’re departing for the mountains and He rejected the offer for three reasons:
First of all, the unpardonable sin has already been committed and being unpardonable it remains unpardonable. The second reason is the Messiah was to be enthroned in Jerusalem, not in the Galilee; Jerusalem is the place of Messiah’s enthronement, not the Galilee. But thirdly, they’re being motivated for wrong reason; their whole motivation was wrong and this will come out in paragraph 76.
C. The Training Through the Storm
Paragraph 74 – Mark 6:47-52; Matthew 14:24-33; John 6:16-21
Now paragraph 74, the training through the storm. Here we have the fifth of John’s seven signs. The situation involves number one, it was sunset; secondly in the middle of the lake; thirdly, they have been now nine hours in the storm. And fourthly, it’s now become a totally hopeless situation. The lesson they are to learn from this is a dependence upon the Messiah. Matthew mentions the fourth watch of the night, that would be somewhere between three and six in the morning. But this time Jesus is not in the boat, they are all out there by themselves and once again they were filled with fear, until Jesus comes walking on the water telling them to be calm and not to be afraid.
And then when Peter sees what Jesus can do, walking on the water, He asks permission to be able to duplicate the miracle in Matthew 14:28; and Jesus says in verse 29, “Come.” And he was able to get out of the boat and he was walking on the water. As long as he kept his eyes on the Messiah he was able to do it rather well. So no matter how big the waves were, he was able to walk on top and do well. But probably somebody in the boat yelled out Peter, watch out for the next one; he took his eye off the Lord and he began to sink. He cried out in verse 30, correctly, “Lord, save me.” And Jesus did.
Now Mark points out at the end of Mark 6:51, [50] “they were sore amazed in themselves… [51] For they understood not concerning the loaves, but their hearts were hardened.” They should have understood the miracles of the loaves, that he could protect them and He could provide for them. And the fact that He has a future mission for them means they would not be destroyed by the storm.
And Matthew says in Matthew 14:33, “And they that were in the boat worshiped Him, saying, Of a truth, You are the Son of God.” Notice here a good example of a good theology but bad application. This is good theology, recognize Him to be the Messianic Son of God; so far so good. But they failed to apply it to their daily living; they failed to accept it and were filled with fear.
D. The Reception in Gennesaret
Paragraph 75 – Mark 6:53-56; Matthew 14:34-36
Now paragraph 75, the reception in Gennesaret. Now He’s back on the Jewish side of the Lake; He still has a following of believers; as a result of His acceptance, as a result of the faith and personal needs healing does occur.
E. Instruction Concerning The Bread of Life
Paragraph 76 – John 6:22-71
We’re going to take one more paragraph and then we’ll pick it up at number 77 tomorrow but let’s do one more paragraph, 76. Now here we have the third of John’s seven discourses, the discourse on the bread of life. And we also have the first of His seven I AM’s, in John 6:35, “I AM the bread of life.” This is the mass of people that had just been fed, they wanted to make Him king, they’re still following Him only because of the physical provision. If Jesus offers them teaching, He offers them a new kind of life as we’ll see, put in parabolic form so they don’t understand, but there is four things about this new kind of life He offers to them.
First of all, it is eternal life in John 6:27; “Work not for the meat which perishes, but for the meat which abides unto eternal life, which the Son of man shall give unto you.” Secondly, it’s also a heavenly life, John 6:32-33, “It was not Moses that gave you the bread out of heaven: but My Father gives you the true bread out of heaven. [33] For the bread of God is that which comes down out of heaven, and gives life unto the world.” So it is also a satisfying life, a satisfying life in verse 35. “He that comes to Me shall not hunger; he that believes on Me shall never thirst.” And fourthly, it will lead to resurrection life. Verse 40, “For this is the will of My Father, that everyone that beholds the Son, and believes on Him, should have eternal life: I will raise him up at the last day.”
Again as he’s speaking to them they don’t understand what He is saying. For example, John 6:28, “What must we do, that we may do the works of God?” Verse 30, “They said therefore unto Him, What then do you do for a sign, that we may see and believe You? What works do you do? Our fathers ate the manna the wilderness; as it is written, He gave them bread out of heaven to eat.” Verse 41, “The Jews therefore murmured concerning Him, because He said, I am the bread of life, I am the bread which came down out of heaven. And they said, Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does He now say, I am come down out of heaven?” Verse 52, “The Jews therefore strove one with another, saying, How can this man give us His flesh to eat?”
He’s speaking parabolically. If they don’t understand… they don’t understand what He’s saying to them; that’s His policy after paragraph 61. It shows they understood the physical but didn’t understand the spiritual appropriation. And notice the way he defines His body becoming bread they need to eat is based upon them believing on Him; it’s not referring to communion, it’s not the bread out of heaven has to do with manna; it’s not the communion service. Furthermore, John is the only Gospel that doesn’t even bother recording the communion service. Only Matthew, Mark and Luke record the last supper, John does not record the communion last supper service. And the correlation here was the manna that came out of heaven, not the unleavened bread of the Passover.
Notice salvation by works, John 6:29, “This is the work of God, that you believe on Him whom He hath sent.” What kind of works save? Only faith; that’s the only kind of work that will save, exercising faith. He points out in John 6:36-38 that in spite of their unbelief He will accomplish His mission and there will be those who believe.
And then He begins to talk about eating His flesh and drinking His blood and this is one of the verses that the Catholics make a big issue of, but again it’s not the communion service, which has not happened yet, and furthermore John is the one Gospel that doesn’t bother dealing with it. But it’s within this same context, the eating of the flesh and drinking the blood simply has to do with believing on Him; we believe upon Him, we appropriate Him to ourselves. As a result, we are given eternal life.
In John 6:60 there is also a response now from many disciples outside the apostolic group, “Many therefore of His disciples, when they heard this, said, This is a hard saying; who can hear it?” And verse 66, “Upon this many of His disciples went back, and walked no more with Him.” And one major result of this discourse, the discourse on the bread of life, is that many people, who were disciples but were not apostles, no longer followed Him. It went contrary to what they understood.
But secondly there is a reaffirmation of faith on the part of the eleven of the twelve apostles. When He asked them, are you going to too, Peter answers in John 6:68, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. And we have believed and know that You are the Holy One of God.” So there is a reaffirmation of faith on eleven of the twelve apostles. But thirdly, for Judas, in verse 70-71, his apostasy begins here; the first time we have the mention of Judas who will betray Him. And the road to betrayal happens also with this same message of the bread of life. Again, speaking parabolically so they don’t understand, and even the disciples don’t understand and so they leave, but the apostles, they may not understand all He implies as yet but they’re staying with Him. For one apostle we have the beginnings of his apostasy.
We’ll stop here, we’ll pick it up at paragraph 77 tomorrow and the goal for Saturday is to get all the way to paragraph 127 and we’re pretty much on schedule at the moment so we should be able to do so. I’ll take about ten minutes at he most for questions, anybody have any questions about this or anything else, except to ask me questions about future topics, just past topics or other questions.
[can’t hear, sounds like she says you can read it] This deals with information from last Friday: today what can reject the Christ, the Messiah of Israel, reject the salvation offered to Jews today, and believe in the death, burial and resurrection as an offer to Gentiles only can be saved. I offered this in consideration of the message being put forth by John Hagee’s ministry.
What John Hagee basically is gone into heresy, that’s the nicest way to put it, because as soon as you believe there is more than one way to get saved, you move into heresy because there’s only one way for people to be saved, Jew or Gentile; they must believe the gospel message and the gospel they have to believe is the Messiah died for our sins, was buried and rose again, and only that can we believe for salvation. And in fact, the message was first given to Jews and later taken out to the Gentiles, and so it is not possible for any Jew to reject the Messiahship of Jesus but be able to be saved. John Hagee teaches that’s possible but it’s simply not true. And for example, when Peter said in Acts 4, I think it’s verse 12, “There is no other name given under heaven by one could be saved,” He was speaking to Jews, not Gentiles, and furthermore, he was speaking to Orthodox Jews, not secular Jews. There’s only one way to be saved and faith must be put in the Messiahship of Jesus.
If I believed there were other ways Jews could be saved I wouldn’t be in Jewish ministries; I could pick an easier type of work; I don’t need the harassment I get from the Jewish community all the time. But because there is only one way to be saved it makes the necessity of this message further. So Hagee has become a heretic, it’s that simple. Unfortunately other people follow him because of his pro-Israel stands, which I’m all for. But as soon as you compromise the gospel the pro-Israel stands loses ground. The one people Satan wants least to hear the gospel is Jewish people and so very pro-Israel don’t preach the gospel to Jews and fall into Satan’s trap.
[can’t hear] About communion, about not having it? [something more said] Well, He tells you what you need to be saved, He tells you that earlier in verse 29, it’s simply “believe on Him whom He hath sent,” that’s all you have to believe to have eternal life. So that sets the stage where everything else He says parabolically, but you have to believe on Him. Everything else is just put parabolically which is His methodology after paragraph 61. The communion we’ll discuss next weekend when we get into His last week.
Let me give you a rabbi story to keep you laughing for the night. I picked this one up in Israel actually. A man came to see his rabbi and says rabbi, I really believe my wife is trying to poison me. The rabbi says I find this very difficult to believe; I’m sure it’s just a misunderstanding, you probably got into an argument with your wife and something’s been said, you wait here in the office, I’ll go talk to your wife; we can get the whole thing straightened out, it shouldn’t take very long. He left; he did not come back for many, many hours. It was already night time when he came back. When he came back he told the man I just spend hours and hours and hours talking to your wife, actually I just spent hours and hours and hours just listening to your wife. Take the poison.
[I have a question: You’re based in San Antonio now, how did that start, how did you get to San Antonio in the first place.] In the first place, which was 30 years ago you mean? [Yes] I was working for a CPM Ministries, it wasn’t CPM then it was the American Board of Missions to the Jews, and I received an invitation to teach on the Christian Jew foundation radio ministry. So I went to San Antonio, for two years I was in a Christian Jew (???), but then people came into my life saying they needed to see a ministry that focused more on teaching and (?) evangelism and so I left the ministry to start Ariel and stayed in San Antonio for seven more years; (??) nine years, and then Board voted to move us to Southern California with a large Jewish population, we were there for twenty one years, and then due to new circumstances we came back to San Antonio a year and a half ago. There’s a saying if you live a good life God will bring you back to Texas, I guess I led a good life.