Matthew 14:34-36 | "Fertile Soil"

This sermon was recorded at Faith Evangelical Free Church in Grand Forks, North Dakota.

Take your Bibles again, if you would, and make your way to the Gospel of Matthew.

The Gospel of Matthew and chapter 14.

And as you make your way there, I'm going to talk more about Isaiah.

Isaiah chapter 35 records a prophetic statement about God's promised Messiah.

Isaiah 35 · chapter mention

Isaiah is thinking and hearing from God about what God is going to do.

And as he's putting his pen to paper, he's thinking about the time when God would come to save.

And in Isaiah 35, it says this.

Men up there in the computers, are we able to get slides on the screen this morning?

Says, then the eyes of the blind will be opened, and the ears of the deaf will be unstopped.

When God's Messiah comes, the lame will leap, like deer leap, and the tongue of the mute will sing for joy.

Jesus, interestingly, refers to that exact prophecy in Matthew chapter 11, when John the Baptist disciples come to Jesus, wondering if he is the one they should expect to come from God.

Matthew 11 · chapter mention

And Jesus says, Well, look at what you're seeing.

That's your answer.

Isaiah said this is what to expect, and if this is what you're seeing, then put those two together and come to a conclusion.

Because for Jesus, healing, healing in ways that medicine and physicians cannot, is a key biblical indication of God's promises being fulfilled.

Now that's an important thing to note, because Matthew structures his gospel in particular ways, and he ends strategic sections with general statements about Jesus healing untold numbers of people.

One of those sections is at the end of chapter nine.

The end of chapter nine, it says that Jesus went through all kinds of cities and villages, and he taught everyone in their synagogues, and he proclaimed the gospel of the kingdom.

And he healed every disease and every affliction.

Notice that repeated use of every.

It's all inclusive.

Matthew likes to do that.

He ends particular sections of his gospel by saying, look at all of this healing that Jesus did.

Why does he do that?

Because it points back to what God promised to do.

Another one of those summary healing statements comes at the end of Matthew chapter 14.

Matthew 14 · chapter mention

And that's where I'd like to direct our attention for a few moments this morning.

Just three verses, beginning in verse 34.

It says, Now, when they, that is, the disciples and Jesus had crossed over the Sea of Galilee, and they came to land at Gennesaret.

And when the men of that place recognized him, they sent around to that region and brought to Jesus all who were sick, and they implored him that they might only touch the fringe of his garment, and as many as touched it were made well.

Amen.

And it begins to transition to a new section in chapter 15.

For example, there are some groups in ancient Jewish religious culture, like the Pharisees, that were uncomfortable in crowds of people.

Some of us are like that, right?

We'd rather be in smaller numbers of people.

We don't like large groups.

But the Pharisees were a little bit different.

Because being in crowds of people means that you are rubbing shoulders with other people.

Maybe other people you don't know, you've never met before.

Who knows where they've been, maybe they've been to the restroom and haven't washed their hands.

Who knows what's going on?

And that spelled potential doom for Pharisees.

Because rubbing shoulders as a Pharisee with unknown people was the spiritual version of walking into a COVID-19 unit at the hospital without a mask.

If they bumped into someone who was ceremonially unclean, then they too would become unclean.

And surprise.

That's exactly what the next section is about in chapter 15.

It's exactly about Jesus associating and doing things that made him unclean and Jesus' disciples.

But before we get there, we see Jesus in a crowd of people being touched by people he doesn't know.

They are reaching out and they are touching him, and he has no idea where they've been.

He has no idea theoretically from a human perspective, knowing what kind of people they are, whether they're clean or unclean, and how that might impact him.

That would send shivers down a Pharisee's spine.

So we can see then that Jesus, Matthew is using this section of Jesus' healing to transition, and he's doing it very, very well.

What we read here introduces us to what comes next, but our our interest this morning is more in how this short section summarizes what we've already covered.

So to know that we have to kind of review what we've already covered.

So let's go back to chapter 11.

Chapter 11, we saw Jesus bringing condemnation and judgment on those who saw his mighty works, who saw his miracles, who encountered his power but did not repent.

He brought words of condemnation and judgment, yet there was still an invitation and even a command to believe in Jesus and to follow him in discipleship.

The end of chapter 11 includes those words of Jesus where he says, Come, come to me, take my yoke upon you and learn from me.

Those are three commands, if you remember.

Jesus commands people to come to him, to be his disciples, to learn from him.

That's an opportunity to recognize what Jesus is doing and to leave behind everything that you've been following, whatever idols those might have been, and to come to Jesus.

Chapter 12 then identifies for us a group of people that could not do that.

The Pharisees.

They completely rejected Jesus.

In fact, chapter 12, verse 14 told us that the Pharisees went out and conspired against Jesus how to destroy him.

The Egyptians, the ancient Egyptians, are known to pay special attention to completely obliterate a Pharaoh from all of history if they didn't like what he did.

They chiseled out his name from rocks, they removed everything that they could from history so that he might not be remembered.

That's what the Pharisees are attempting to do for Jesus.

Let's destroy him.

But at the end of chapter 12, there was a little bit of hope still presented because Jesus says that whoever comes to him, whoever takes his yoke upon them and learns from him by being his disciple, is considered his family, his own personal family.

And that hope finds its basis in chapter 13, and Jesus picturing himself as a sower of seed, casting out seed that will land on the soil and produce fruit.

And so through a series of parables in chapter 13, Jesus spoke of different kinds of responses to the gospel message.

Some seed, he said, falls on the well-worn, well-trodden path.

It doesn't sink down into the ground, it's hard, and so birds are easily able to come and pick up the seed and eat the seed.

Other seed, Jesus said, falls on rocky ground that doesn't have much depth.

What he's picturing there is thin topsoil, and so there's bedrock very close to the surface, and so there's not room for the roots to go down.

So it doesn't last long when it sprouts and grows, and some seed falls among thorns that steal away the nutrients of the seed and chokes out the plant as it grows.

And then some of the seed, Jesus says, falls on fruitful, fertile soil, and the plant grows up and produces fruit.

The chapter then ends with Jesus facing complete rejection from his hometown.

Then we come to chapter 14.

How will other people respond to Jesus?

In chapter 14, depending on how we divide the text, there are four or five accounts of people responding to Jesus.

Herod hears about Jesus, right?

Herod hears about Jesus.

The 5,000 are taught and fed by Jesus.

The disciples are directed by Jesus out on the sea, and the people of Gennesaret here are healed by Jesus.

Some Bible scholars actually see this chapter, chapter 14, as the outworking of the parable of the soils.

In that way of thinking, Herod would be like the pathway where the birds come along and snatch up the seed before it has a chance to take root.

The 5,000 would be like the rocky soil.

Their interest in Jesus was sincere, maybe, but it only lasted as long as their stomachs were full.

And the disciples and Peter were like the soil overgrown with thorns that choked out any fruitfulness.

And finally, then the unnamed sick people.

The poor in spirit would be the fruitful soil.

I'm not so sure that Matthew is deliberately making that kind of a connection between the accounts, that clearly, anyway, but maybe there are some illusions that are possible.

Interestingly, the Jewish historian Josephus records that the region of Gennesaret was especially fruitful in the land of Israel.

It's a very low plain right next to the Sea of Galilee, between the Sea of Galilee and the hills to the west.

It's about three miles long and about one mile wide.

And Josephus records that fruits and nuts were grown there in abundance.

Not just fruits and nuts, but olive trees and all kinds of grains.

So it wouldn't be out of the question for there to be an intentional parallel between what this region was known for and the people who inhabited it.

But there's a little bit of difficulty with that because the people to whom we are introduced are not presented to us as fruitful people, but rather as unnamed people.

Not just unnamed people, but people who are overcome by all kinds of bad things.

That's what they're presented to us as.

So it would be a little bit unexpected for the folks in this account to be the fruitful ones in the parable of the soils.

They're unnamed and they're they're beset with all kinds of problems that humanity faces.

But isn't that how the gospel often works?

Think about it.

Those we expect to be first are not when it comes to the gospel.

Those we expect to be last are often first in the faith.

It's rare, Jesus says, for the rich and the powerful to be in the kingdom of heaven.

It's the poor in spirit, he says, who inherit the kingdom.

Now, Matthew may intend for us to see that this fruitful region is filled with people who are poor in spirit, mourning over their sins, who become fruitful in Christ's kingdom.

That's very possible.

But maybe we should be a little bit careful to be too forceful about that, because nothing is said to tell us that that is Matthew's intention.

Nevertheless, we do have some hints about what Matthew intends for us to take away from these three sentences of chapter 14.

At the very least, the very least, the accounts of Herod, the 5,000, and the disciples on the sea, all indicate questionable levels of trust.

Each one of them has a questionable level of trust.

There's no indication whatsoever that Herod had saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

He merely saw Jesus as a miracle machine.

And yeah, maybe, best case scenario, John the Baptist raised from the dead, right?

The 5,000 on the hillside, or maybe even up to 10,000, didn't grasp the implication that Jesus was a new Moses feeding Israel out in the wilderness out of his own abundant power.

They were curious.

But not much more.

The Gospel of John tells us they followed Jesus the next day looking for more food.

That's what they wanted.

The disciples, they're still growing in their faith out on the sea.

Peter's not going to make his astounding confession of the deity of Christ until chapter 16.

And most of the disciples out on the sea are scared out of their minds.

Peter's faith at least gets him out of the boat, right?

But Jesus says that his faith is small and it's insufficient when the cares of the world begin to choke out any strength in his faith.

Of all the stories in this chapter, only these unnamed people from the region of Gennesaret have no indication of faithlessness.

Quite the opposite, in fact.

Whereas Peter had little faith, different terms at the end of this chapter are piled up about people coming to Jesus for healing.

I say piled up because Matthew uses several terms in these three sentences that one commentator refers to as excited absolutes.

Excited absolutes.

And we find them five times in these three verses.

And when we pay attention to what Matthew's doing here, we begin to see that he wants us to notice the faith of these people from Genneseret.

How does he show us their faith?

Well, first he shows us a faith that believes in the identity of Jesus Christ.

Matthew employs two all-inclusive terms, demonstrating the faith of the people.

Notice how deftly, carefully, strategically Matthew uses words here.

He says, when, in verse 35, when the men of that place recognized him, they sent around to all that region and brought to him all who were sick.

Who is the hymn?

Who is the hymn?

Now we we tend to read this so quickly that we make an automatic assumption that the pronoun refers to Jesus.

That's what we've been talking about all along in chapter 14, right?

And that's not a wrong assumption, but we do miss some details if we jump right to that assumption.

We need to ask the question: who does the pronoun him refer to?

You didn't think you were coming to grammar school this morning, did you?

Who does the pronoun him refer to?

And so we need to go backwards to answer that question.

So let's look at verse 34.

When they crossed over, they came to the land of Genneser.

Well, that doesn't really help us answer the question, does it?

In fact, it brings more confusion because him is a singular pronoun, and verse 34 includes a plural pronoun, they.

And those in the boat worshiped him, saying, Truly, you are the Son of God.

Here's why it's important to pay attention to small details.

There's the hymn.

Matthew doesn't repeat anything about Jesus except for a pronoun.

Why does he do that?

Because he wants us to go back to the last thing that we knew about Jesus.

And what's the last thing that we knew about Jesus?

He is Jesus, the Son of God.

The disciples have witnessed a demonstration of power and authority unlike anything they've ever seen.

God is in their midst, trampling the waves of the sea.

That's why they worship him.

Their grasp of who Jesus is informed and strengthened, heightened their worship.

It is that Jesus, the Son of God, who makes the waves of the sea his personal highway.

And it's that Jesus, the Son of God, whom the men of Gennesaret recognize.

Oh, they wouldn't have had a systematic theology scroll stuffed into their pockets of their robes.

The disciples are probably a little closer to that.

No, these people only knew that Jesus could do things that belonged to God's realm.

And that belief informed their convictions, and those convictions motivated their actions.

How do we know that?

We know it because they acted like apostles.

It says, and when the men of that place recognized Jesus the Son of God, they sent around to all that region and brought to Jesus the Son of God all who were sick.

Now, did you see what I did there?

I replaced the pronouns in verse 34 with, or verse 35, with the identification of Jesus from verse 33.

The hymn is Jesus the Son of God.

They recognized Jesus, the Son of God, and they apostolized the entire region.

That's right, I made up a word and it's an appropriate word.

They apostolized the entire region.

When Matthew says they sent around, he used the term that we know as apostle.

Apostle means sent one, somebody who was sent out.

And here it's used as a verb.

The folks from this fertile region acted like apostles.

They sent everywhere in the region.

They sent and proclaimed throughout the entire valley that Jesus, the Son of God, was there.

That says something, doesn't it?

It's like the woman at the well in John chapter 4, who, when she was finished talking to Jesus, what did she do?

John 4 · chapter mention

She went back into her village and she told everybody.

Pretty soon the whole village is coming out to see Jesus.

These people had faith in the person of Jesus, and when he came to their area, they worked to make sure that everyone knew.

Is that the kind of faith that we possess?

Don't just dismiss that question out of hand.

Is that the kind of faith that we possess?

Or are we so comfortable with Jesus that it's no big deal to us if somebody doesn't know?

Maybe we need our own trip on the Sea of Galilee to be reminded of his greatness.

The people of Gennesaret believed something about Jesus' identity.

And it was enough to motivate them to tell others.

They acted as apostles.

They sent out and they invited everyone.

But they didn't invite everyone to a party.

This wasn't a thousand dollar a seat dinner party where only the rich could come.

In fact, it was the opposite.

These were fringe people.

These were the folks who were avoided because they were sick.

They were diseased.

They were demon-possessed.

They were beset by all kinds of problems.

Matthew uses here a general term that just means bad things, evil things in life, things that come with being a human being, whatever those might be.

Maybe you've heard that saying that evangelism is really very simple.

It's merely one starving beggar telling another starving beggar where to find bread.

That's the image here.

The men of Gennesareth had been impacted by Jesus, the Son of God.

And they know there are many more folks in the area who have tried everything in life and yet were still without hope.

And those were the people they sent for to bring to Jesus.

And it's there that we see the second all-inclusive term: all who were sick.

Go to the hospital and empty it.

Bring everybody who's been admitted to Jesus.

Everyone who's been to the doctor, everybody who's spent their life savings on medical bills, everybody who's beset by demons, everybody who's down in the dumps because of mental concerns and depression and disease.

Bring them all.

Bring them all to Jesus.

You don't apostolize an area if you have no faith in Jesus.

But if you really do know him, you can't help but want others to be helped.

And it's there that we see a faith that believes in the power of Jesus.

Now Matthew wrote this for the church.

He put these accounts together decades after they actually happened.

And he wrote it for the church to be instructed, for us to learn, to be challenged.

And he put them together for us for a reason.

And as readers, we know the power of Jesus.

He fed 5,000 to 10,000 people with five loaves and two fish.

Twelve baskets left over from his own power.

He took a leisurely stroll across wind-driven waves without stumbling or drowning.

Now, what would we expect when Matthew tells us that everyone within a three-mile radius beset with sickness and disease and demons comes to see Jesus?

Well, in my mind, at least, we would expect to see some grand display of power.

Jesus is the new Moses, after all.

He's the ruler of the wind and the sea.

What will he do next?

He doesn't do anything.

Wait.

What?

But the people are healed, you say.

Yes, they are.

But how are they healed?

Everyone struggling with bad things implores him that they might only touch the fringe of his garment.

Do you remember the ruler who came to Jesus about his servant?

And he told Jesus, Jesus, there's no reason for you to come to my home.

Just say the word.

Just say the word, and that's good enough.

That is faith in the identity and the power of Jesus, because his authority and his power is over all.

And here these people have gathered to be impacted by the power of Jesus, the Son of God, and their faith motivated them to believe that all they needed to do was touch the edge of his prayer shawl.

Notice the careful use of Matthew's pen once more.

We've gone from large and all-inclusive groups to an inclusive element of just only.

Just one tiny, almost insignificant thing, just touching just the fringe.

Having recognized Jesus, the Son of God, the people acted as apostles and sent for everyone in the entire region who might benefit from his power, and all of those who came believed that only a touch would bring them relief.

But not a touch from Jesus.

Jesus didn't touch them.

If only I can touch the hymn.

What incredible, simple faith.

My friends, no prayer, no prayer said in humble faith.

No matter how fumbling or incoherent is ignored by Jesus.

No one who comes to the Lord Jesus, poor in spirit, mourning over their sin, seeking mercy before Jesus, the Son of God, is turned away.

And as many as touched it were made well.

Matthew moves back to the all-inclusive.

No one, no one's left out who, with faith motivating their actions, reached out and touched Jesus' prayer shawl, was left unchanged.

Power poured out of Jesus without him actively doing anything.

But we ought not to be surprised.

Because we just saw a brutal winter windstorm bear down on the Sea of Galilee, stirring up the waves such that experienced fishermen and sailors were outmatched by the storm.

Yet when Jesus strolls to the boat and steps off the wave and onto the boat, there's instant calm.

He doesn't say a word, it just happens.

Jesus, the Son of God, possesses all power because he is the creator who sustains everything.

But that's not all.

Matthew ends this section with an unusual word.

It's often translated with two words in our English Bibles.

Made well.

Made well.

As many as touched it were made well.

It's an important word that functions sort of like the cherry on top.

That tells us, shows us that these people had a saving faith, a faith that completely saves.

There are several terms that Matthew could have used here.

For example, there's a word that simply means to be healed, to be healed from sickness or disease.

But Matthew doesn't use that term.

There's a word that he could have used that means in general to be saved.

And it is often used in healing contexts to refer to being rescued or delivered out of that situation of sickness or disease.

But Matthew doesn't use that word.

The word Matthew chose here is a very strong form of the word saved that carries the sense of completeness, of wholeness, of nothing left untouched.

Those who responded to the apostolizing of the region and by faith came and by faith touched Jesus' garment were completely and utterly healed.

There was not a part of them that was untouched in their touching.

There was not a part of them that was left unhealed.

There was not a part of them left burdened.

The implication that Matthew leaves us with is that faith in Jesus results in complete and total healing from the power and the curse of sin.

And is that not what we look for in God's Messiah?

Is that not what Isaiah was pointing to?

And speaking of the good news that God was bringing?

So in this chapter, we've gone from rejection by Jesus' hometown, from his friends and his acquaintances, all the way to saving and healing faith among the unnamed, unknown, and unclean folks of Gennesaret.

The poor in spirit have gained the kingdom of heaven.

Maybe we could say the fertile soil of Gennesaret proved to be a place of fertile soil of the heart, for the seed of the Word of God to take root and produce faith.

This summary at the end of a series of powerful demonstrations, one after another, of Jesus' deity is deceptively simple.

So simple that we can be tempted to rush right over it.

But my friends, if we do, we miss some of Jesus, the Son of God.

We miss some of Jesus, the Son of God, that wave-trampling God who provides.

Who, like a shepherd that causes his sheep to lie down in green pastures, also restores the soul.

He provides completely.

And if we rush over these few sentences, we miss the simplicity of genuine faith.

We didn't find it in the lavish party of Herod's palace.

We only found death and depraved people.

Even among the disciples, faith was still small.

But in an insignificant little valley, among struggling people beset by the burdens of life, simple faith brought eternal life to those who reached out to Jesus.

So we have questions that we're left with.

What about us?

Are we among the disciples whose faith is challenged and tried but still needs to grow as we look to Jesus and trust?

Are we among the unnamed folks here who acted like apostles and sending out the word about Jesus?

Or are we like those who, hearing the word of Christ, say to themselves, I must go.

I must see Jesus.

My friend, if this has challenged your heart this morning and you must see Jesus, cry out to him.

Reach out in faith.

Say, I believe that you are Jesus, the Son of God, who takes away the sin of the world.

The life of a disciple includes all three of those, doesn't it?

We come to Jesus in simple faith, trusting in who he is and in his power to save, and so we place our faith and trust in him alone.

Then in our following him and our coming to him and taking his yoke upon us and becoming his disciples, trusting in who he is, we encounter throughout life those rough seas that test our faith and grow our trust in this one who tramples the waves.

And at some point, somewhere along the disciple road, we say to others, Come.

For you must see Jesus.

Let's pray together.

Lord Jesus.

May we see you clearly this morning.

As we hear of you in your word, and as your spirit stirs our hearts and our minds, may we see you like these people.

As one who is powerful to save, as one who is capable of rescuing, as one who is able to take us through the stormy seas, and in the end to cause our faith and our trust to grow.

Take away the blindness of our eyes and our hearts, give us eyes to see and ears to hear, that we might sing your praises forever.

Even if we, like these people, might forever be unknown, so that you and your glory might be known to all.

Amen.

That concludes this sermon from Faith Evangelical Free Church.

Our mission is to declare the Word of God and disciple believers into mature, devoted followers of Jesus.

You can learn more by visiting our website at faithfree.com.