“The Last Prophet”

(Matthew 14:1-12)

Series: God’s Fulfilled Promise [on screen]

Rev. Matthew C. McCraw, EdD

First Baptist Church, Bartow, Florida

October 6, 2019

The Passage

Matthew 14:1-12

1 At that time Herod the tetrarch heard the report about Jesus. 2 “This is John the Baptist,” he told his servants. “He has been raised from the dead, and that’s why miraculous powers are at work in him.”

3 For Herod had arrested John, chained him, and put him in prison on account of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, 4 since John had been telling him, “It’s not lawful for you to have her.” 5 Though Herod wanted to kill John, he feared the crowd since they regarded John as a prophet.

6 When Herod’s birthday celebration came, Herodias’s daughter danced before them and pleased Herod. 7 So he promised with an oath to give her whatever she asked. 8 Prompted by her mother, she answered, “Give me John the Baptist’s head here on a platter.” 9 Although the king regretted it, he commanded that it be granted because of his oaths and his guests. 10 So he sent orders and had John beheaded in the prison. 11 His head was brought on a platter and given to the girl, who carried it to her mother. 12 Then his disciples came, removed the corpse, buried it, and went and reported to Jesus.

Introductory Comments:

We are back in our study of Matthew. I so appreciate Pastor Richard bringing the Word last week in my absence. 

Today, we will hear about Jesus’ friend and cousin. We’ve talked about him a few times before. His name is John the Baptist. 

Remember where we are in the book of Matthew. Jesus has just finished teaching a lot of parables about the kingdom of heaven. In the coming weeks, we will hear about several miracles that Jesus will do. However, sandwiched right in the middle of that is a story about John the Baptist. 

Let’s learn about the history of what happened, and then learn several truths for us as Christians. 

Let’s pray together before we continue. 

(prayer)

We’re going to do this a bit different than normal. I go out of town for one week and I totally mix everything up. First, we’re going to discover some history, then we’ll discover some spiritual truth. Are you ready?

Let’s look at the passage again:

Read Matthew 14:1-12

1 At that time Herod the tetrarch heard the report about Jesus. 2 “This is John the Baptist,” he told his servants. “He has been raised from the dead, and that’s why miraculous powers are at work in him.”

3 For Herod had arrested John, chained him, and put him in prison on account of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, 4 since John had been telling him, “It’s not lawful for you to have her.” 5 Though Herod wanted to kill John, he feared the crowd since they regarded John as a prophet.

6 When Herod’s birthday celebration came, Herodias’s daughter danced before them and pleased Herod. 7 So he promised with an oath to give her whatever she asked. 8 Prompted by her mother, she answered, “Give me John the Baptist’s head here on a platter.” 9 Although the king regretted it, he commanded that it be granted because of his oaths and his guests. 10 So he sent orders and had John beheaded in the prison. 11 His head was brought on a platter and given to the girl, who carried it to her mother. 12 Then his disciples came, removed the corpse, buried it, and went and reported to Jesus.

Ok, let’s discover these truths. 

First, . . .

I. The Historical Truths [on screen]

We learn from this section about King Herod. We’ve heard about Herod before. 

The last time we heard about Herod was when we heard about Herod the Great who was trying to kill all the babies in the land in order to stop the coming of King Jesus. The Herod in this passage is not Herod the Great. This is one of Herod’s three sons, named Herod Agrippa. 

He’s called Herod the tetrarch here because a tetrarch is a ruler who rules over one-fourth of a kingdom. So, Herod Agrippa is a tetrarch who rules a certain area of Palestine. 

Herod Agrippa was a bad man, just like his fathe