Fear

Matthew 14:1-12

Matthew 14:1-12, At that time Herod the tetrarch heard the report about Jesus 2 and said to his servants, “This is John the Baptist; he is risen from the dead, and therefore these powers are at work in him.” 3 For Herod had laid hold of John and bound him, and put him in prison for the sake of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife. 4 Because John had said to him, “It is not lawful for you to have her.” 5 And although he wanted to put him to death, he feared the multitude, because they counted him as a prophet. 6 But when Herod’s birthday was celebrated, the daughter of Herodias danced before them and pleased Herod. 7 Therefore he promised with an oath to give her whatever she might ask. 8 So she, having been prompted by her mother, said, “Give me John the Baptist’s head here on a platter.” 9 And the king was sorry; nevertheless, because of the oaths and because of those who sat with him, he commanded it to be given to her. 10 So he sent and had John beheaded in prison. 11 And his head was brought on a platter and given to the girl, and she brought it to her mother. 12 Then his disciples came and took away the body and buried it, and went and told Jesus.

Chapter 13, Kingdom Parables were spoken. Chapter 13, Jesus says how the world is going to react to them. What it’s going to be like out there as they labour and minister in the harvest. From this passage at the end of 13, through the beginning of 16, we find Jesus out now in the harvest, proclaiming the message as the rejected King, still calling men to come to His kingdom.

The major mark of this period of time of the King’s rejection until His return to be received in power and glory. During this period mixed good and evil will remain here in this church age. To illustrate this, Matthew gives us from Matthew 13:53 till

Matthew 16:12, eight incidents in the life of our Lord which illustrate the kind of response that there will be to the King.

They are masterfully presented. The first response: Matthew 13:53-58- Unbelief! The second response is Fear that Forfeit’s Christ!

Matthew 14, Luke 9 and Mark 6 parallel perspectives more information to make this story full.

• 1st Incident dealt with a town that rejected Christ.
• 2nd one deals with a man who rejects Christ.
• 1st Incident dealt with common people who opposed the King.
• 2nd one a king who opposes the true King.  1st Incident revealed the treatment of the Messiah.  2nd one the treatment of the forerunner of the Messiah.  1st Incident showed rejection based primarily on jealousy.  2nd one shows rejection based primarily on fear.

But both have the bottom pride, selfish pride. Verses 1-2 talks about their reaction. Verses 3-12 is the flashback of what has happened. V 1, At that time Herod the tetrarch heard the report about Jesus At that time, An indefinite phrase.

“Time” is kairos, not chronos.

Chronos means “a specific time.” Kairos, “a general season.”

• At the general time of Christ’s preaching and the disciples’ preaching.
• At the general time when He was being rejected.
• At the general time when hostility was beginning to grow.

Herod the tetrarch heard of the fame of Jesus. Main character of this passage the one who is the rejecter or the stony ground. Tetrarch is a mathematical kind of word. It means “a ruler of a fourth part.” There were many subordinate rulers in Israel at that time and he was one of them.

V 9, he is called “king.” He was not a king. In fact, he sought to be a king. On one occasion, he went to Rome to ask Caligula to make him a king, primarily because his wife wanted to be called “queen.” That wish was not granted to him.

But he wasn’t really a king. It is a very generous use of the term “king,” which was frequently used for people of lesser stature than we would imagine a king to have. Now the name “Herod” immediately is familiar to us.

Matthew 2:1, Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem,

This was Herod the Great. Herod the Great was an Idumean. He was a descendant of Esau. He was an Arab. Herod the Great was married to a Samaritan. So, you can imagine how a non-Jew, a son of Esau, married to a Samaritan would be unpopular in the hearts of Jews. Yet he was their king, appointed by Rome, over the whole area.

It was he who was so fearful when he heard the word that a King had been born. As a result, slaughtered all the babies, in order that he might eliminate anyone who would pose a threat to his throne. Herod the Great has long been dead, however this is one of his sons.

History tells us that he was known as Herod Antipas.

When Herod the Great died, his dominion, which was all of Palestine north of it, east of it, and even south of it in part was divided among three of his many sons. It will be very difficult for us to keep track of his sons, because he had them by different women. Some of them were half- brothers. Some of them even had the same name having different mothers, but the same father.

Herod Family Tree

Three prominent sons of Herod the Great

Archelaus, Philip, and Herod Antipas.

Archelaus was assigned the area of Judea and Samaria, over which he ruled. Philip was given Trachonitis and Iturea, which was the northernmost part of the land of Palestine. Archelaus in the south, Philip was in the north.

Herod Antipas got the middle, which was Galilee, and into the east of Galilee, the area known as Perea. So, this man had become a small-time king, a subordinate ruler of Rome. He had some kind of imprint of power and control on the society of Jews.

Now there are two other Herod’s that appear later in the New Testament. The next Herod we meet is a man named Herod Agrippa I. Acts 12. He declared it Herod Day, celebrated his power, and did not glorify God. God smote him, and he was eaten by worms, and died.

Herod Agrippa II, Acts 26. Paul preached to Agrippa. So basically, you have these four.

• Herod the Great,
• Herod Antipas,
• Herod Agrippa I, and
• Herod Agrippa II.

Herod Antipas is in his thirty-second year of rule. So, he is the one who ruled Galilee and the area during the ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is the Herod then most familiar to the time and place in the text of Scripture. His area was from the Sea of Galilee down to the northernmost tip of the Dead Sea. From the coast to east, beyond the Jordan. That was the area which he ruled.

He had lived in Tiberius, is a city on the southwest shore of the Sea of Galilee. A very lovely place. He had built a palace there.

His father also had built a massive fortress at a place called Machaerus, and that was his summer home. Because it had natural mineral springs and he spent much of his time out in Machaerus, and the rest of his time in Tiberius on the shore of the Sea of Galilee.

What is interesting about this is that Jesus, in all His ministry in the Gospels, at no time is indicated to have ever visited Tiberius. You could walk from Capernaum to Tiberius. Jesus did so much in Capernaum. You could walk from Nazareth to Tiberius.

You could walk from Cana to Tiberius, where He did His first miracle, to Tiberius. Yet Jesus is never indicated to have gone there. It’s almost as if there was an obvious effort to avoid a confrontation with Herod. He had already had a confrontation with Herod the Great as an infant, who tried to massacre Him.

There is no indication that He ministered in Tiberius, which is where this man lived. Therefore, the man was not particularly aware of the ministry of Jesus at first. V 1, that he heard of the fame of Jesus.

It is approximately two years since our Lord’s baptism. For almost 2 years have gone by and Herod hasn’t heard.

• May be because the Lord never came there.
• It may have been because he was at Machaerus much of the time.
• It may also have been because he lived in his ivory tower, and the Jewish people weren’t about to make him privy to what was going on.
• It may have been that he was so consumed with his luxurious living and his decadence and all the rest of it, that he never bothered with such petty matters.

But finally, he heard of the fame of Jesus. V 2, and said to his servants, “This is John the Baptist; he is risen from the dead, and therefore these powers are at work in him.” This was a great concern to him because he had murdered John the Baptist.

The fear of any murderer would be most realized in the possibility of the one he murdered coming back from the dead.

The tremendous guilt that he had for murdering John the Baptist, added to his amazing curiosity, brought him to the conviction that this was John the Baptist raised from the dead.

Luke 9:7-9, Now Herod the tetrarch heard of all that was done by Him; and he was perplexed, because it was said by some that John had risen from the dead, 8 and by some that Elijah had appeared, and by others that one of the old prophets had risen again. 9 Herod said, “John I have beheaded, but who is this of whom I hear such things?” So he sought to see Him. As time goes on, and as he thinks it through, and as the word keeps coming, he sees the similarity between Jesus and John. Assumes it’s John raised from the dead. Fearful kind of guilty conscience would conjure up in his thinking. Although he was certainly afraid, there was that same morbid curiosity that wanted to see Jesus to verify whether his fear was legitimate.

Luke 1:17, He will also go before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, ‘to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children,’ and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”

The spirit and power of Elijah was that of a miraculous power. Elijah was one of those men in God’s Old Testament who was given the power to accomplish miracles. John the Baptist may well have been able to do some of the same. When Herod hears that Jesus has this miraculous kind of power, which he knew to be demonstrated in John. Herod in his guilty conscience that John is back from the dead, and his curiosity demands that he find out for sure.

The reason for that reaction: Flashback. V 3-4, For Herod had laid hold of John and bound him, and put him in prison for the sake of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife. 4 Because John had said to him, “It is not lawful for you to have her.”

Let us look at some of the characters to understand what had happened. John the Baptist, the last Old Testament prophet. A great, holy, righteous man of God. Herod even said that of him.

Matthew 11:11, “Assuredly, I say to you, among those born of women there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist; but he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.

A marvellous, incredible man. The forerunner of the Messiah, the cousin of the Lord, through the relationship of Mary and Elizabeth. This man’s job in the world was to announce and introduce the Christ. In Luke 1, it says he would be great in the sight of the Lord.

He would drink neither wine nor strong drink. He would come in the spirit and power of Elijah. He would turn many of the hearts of the people to the Lord their God and he did. His message was very clear. “Repent.” He was a confronter.

He called people to confess their sin. John the Baptist confronted sin, and he called with a strong message for holiness, to prepare a people for the arrival of the Messiah. He was very popular. The whole country was going out to see him, and multitudes responded to his message.

Herod Antipas character.

• He was a descendant of Esau, ruling the sons of Jacob, which put him in a very difficult position.
• He was evil.
• He was immoral.
• He was shameless.

• He was hen-pecked, pushed around by an overbearing woman.
• He was troubled but refused to obey.

Here was a man with tremendous popularity. Here was a man to whom the multitudes of people were moving. Josephus tells us that Herod Antipas was nervous about John. Herod realized that the best thing to do with this guy was to kill him, just like his father had tried to do with the Messiah originally when he slaughtered all the babies.

He was like every other weak, fearful, impotent, suspicious, frightened tyrant who can only think of killing a rival and he had learned it well from his father. Machaerus was a huge place fortified by Herod the Great, incorporating a summer palace, as well as a fortress. It was on a mountain higher than the city of Jerusalem, and so you could see for miles around.

Archaeologists have dug that area up and found there was a great dungeon there, plunging deep into the earth and in that dungeon made from masonry. There were holes in the masonry where wood and iron were attached, in order that a prisoner might be chained to the very dungeon wall.

They believe that is the place that, no doubt, was the prison of John the Baptist. He was put in prison to be kept there approximately a year. Herodias, the wife of Herod Antipas. “his brother Philip’s wife.” Herodias is one of the worst people in the Bible. She is wretched.

She is not designated as his wife. However, she was married to him. But the Bible says she was his brother Philip’s wife. So, the Holy Spirit refuses to recognize her marriage to Herod. God wouldn’t recognize that.

Herod Antipas was married to the daughter of King Aretas. Now there was an area south of where we’re speaking, southeast of the Dead Sea called Nabatean Arabia. It’s where Paul went during those years when he was silent, and God was preparing his heart before he came back to minister.

But Nabatean Arabia had a king named Aretas. Aretas had a daughter Princess Phasaelis, Herod Antipas married to her, that was his wife. Herod Antipas also had a brother named Philip, but not Philip the tetrarch. Another brother named Philip. This is another Philip, by a different woman, but the same Herod the Great father.

Herod went to Rome to visit his brother Philip because Philip lived in Rome. He was a private citizen. He lived over there. He didn’t get any place to rule. He lived as a private citizen over in Rome. He had a wife named Herodias.

So, Herod Antipas went on a trip to see his brother Philip in Rome. While he was there, he seduced Philip’s wife. Apparently, she responded positively to the seduction. Herod Antipas promised to divorce his wife and asked her to divorce her husband Philip which she did.

Herodias was the daughter of another brother of Herod, his name was Herod Aristobulus. So, he was one son of Herod the Great. Philip is another son of Herod the Great. There was another son of Herod the Great who had a daughter who was Herodias. So, he was marrying his brother’s daughter.

There is so much in this that can confuse you! Philip and Herod Antipas were one generation from the loins of Herod the Great. Herodias was two generations. She married her uncle. Now that’s incest.

Herodias had another brother named Herod Agrippa I, who was the one eaten by worms in Acts 12. They decided to go through with their divorces, come together in marriage. Now John the Baptist confronted the situation. Some believe that it may have been that Herod Antipas called him because he wanted his stamp of approval.

King Aretas was really upset. He was so upset he came in and destroyed Herod’s entire army. Herod Antipas would have been killed, except the Romans saved him. The Jews could see the evil of the whole thing, and they really felt that what was happening when Aretas came and devastated the whole thing was punishment for this terrible thing that he had done.

Herod Antipas and Herodias now they were married by the time we come to this scene. Philip Tetrarch, the brother of Herod Antipas, dies the one who ruled Trachonitis and Iturea, the northern area. Immediately, Herodias wanted that area. She wanted to be the queen, and more territory.

However, Romans Emperor Caligula, gave it to Herod Agrippa I. Herodias was so upset. She persuaded Herod Antipas to go to Rome, and even though he didn’t get the other territory, asked him to make him as a king. Because she wanted to be a queen.

Herod Antipas tried to talk her out of it, but he couldn’t handle her at all. So, with his tail between his legs, he makes a trip to Rome and she could be a queen. However, Herod Agrippa I, brother of Herodias doesn’t like him at all. Agrippa sends a faster messenger to Caligula, and tells Caligula that he has a rebellion, that Herod Antipas is planning a rebellion, and all of this is a ruse.

When Herod Antipas comes in to ask to be made a king, Caligula already believes he has got a revolution and a rebellion on his mind. So, he takes away all his throne, and puts him in exile till his death. The worst of it is, he exiled Herodias with him. Happens in the last.

John the Baptist said that “It is not lawful for you to have her.” Greek text kind of indicates he kept on saying that. He probably said it all over every place. John the Baptist did not butter up the rulers. It made Herodias livid. She was furious that he said it, and they were angry, and as a result, they threw him in prison.

This is the mark of the man of God.

Fearlessly confronting the sins of men, even though they be the highest leaders in the nation or in the world. You don’t piddle around with leaders of the world. When there is sin to be confronted, you confront it. They hold your life in their hands, but that’s okay.

You are God’s man.

• Christ confronted it,
• Stephen confronted it,
• Paul confronted it,
• Peter confronted it,
• John the Baptist confronted it.

It’s the only right thing to do. It cost him his head. But it is better to have a head like John the Baptist and lose it, than to have an ordinary head and keep it. V 5, And although he wanted to put him to death, he feared the multitude, because they counted him as a prophet.

Herod Antipas lives by fear. He fears his wife. He fears the loss of his throne to John the Baptist.

But he was afraid to kill him because he is afraid of the people. He was paralyzed. He was afraid of everything. So, he just keeps him in prison just to try to buy time. But something very interesting happens. As he has got John the Baptist in prison, he becomes fascinated with him.

He was afraid of him but because he was imprisoned and he can’t do him any harm, his fear turns to fascination, and he becomes enamoured with this man. Jesus said there was never a man in the history of the world. He must have been a marvellous, incredible kind of person.

Herod was so drawn to him, that he began to have rather regular conversations.

Mark 6:20, for Herod feared John, knowing that he was a just and holy man, and he protected him. And when he heard him, he did many things, and heard him gladly.

• He was responding to John.
• He was listening to John.
• He was fascinated by him.
• His fear was turning to fascination.

But Herodias was seething.

• She was a woman of immorality and infidelity.
• She was vindictive.
• She nursed her wrath to a boiling point.
• She wanted revenge.
• She wanted John condemned.
• She wanted him dead.

She became a parent so incensed with anger and fury that she would stain her child with guilt beyond description. V 6, But when Herod’s birthday was celebrated, the daughter of Herodias danced before them and pleased Herod.

Only Pagans held birthday celebrations. Jews never did. The Jews used to look on the Pagan birthday celebrations as a terrible act of shame. There was a phrase, “Herod’s dies” in Latin, which means “Herod’s birthday,” and it came to be a proverb for excessive, orgiastic festivals.

In those days, the Romans held stag birthday parties. All the birthday parties were stag parties only men came and they were gluttonous. They were drunken brawls. They were climaxed by women who came in and danced immoral, lewd,

seductive dances. Then the thing became an orgy and that was Herod’s birthday. “and the daughter of Herodias” Josephus tells us her name is Salome. “Danced before, them and pleased Herod.” Herodias has got this all planned. She wants John dead.

She knows that by the time you get to the end of this party, he is drunk, he is gluttonous, stuffed to the gills, and just primed to really be vulnerable. When it’s time for the dancing girls, the immoral, suggestive, shameless women to come in in their lewd dances, she brings in this young, probably 16 or 17-year-old daughter to do this dance to really accomplish her goal.

“It pleased Herod,” He fell to the lust and the lewdness. He became a ogling drunken sot. V 7, Therefore he promised with an oath to give her whatever she might ask. He was really suckered into this and in his drunken, gluttonous stupor, in his state of sexual seduction,

• he lost all dignity,

• he lost all sensibility,
• he lost all desire to do what was right and sane.
• wanting to be the magnanimous,
• magnificent benefactor,
• he makes a stupid promise, and
• then makes an oath to sign himself to it that she can have anything she wants.

Mark 6:23, He also swore to her, “Whatever you ask me, I will give you, up to half my kingdom.” V 8, So she, having been prompted by her mother, said, “Give me John the Baptist’s head here on a platter.” Herodias didn’t want to wait till Herod sobered up. She wanted it now. Herod Antipas the fool was too proud to break his stupid oath, because he wanted to come off as a magnificent, magnanimous benefactor. He wanted everybody to think his word was pure gold. He wanted people to think he knew what he was doing and hadn’t made a foolish statement. Out of fear of losing his reputation and the respect and out of the fear of losing face with the captains, and the chiefs, and the famous men that were at the party.

• Instead of saying how enormously stupid such an oath was!
• Instead of saying, “There’s no reason to commit an enormous crime that’s not what I had intended by the promise.”

A weak fool, in pride, fear of his wife, fear of John the Baptist, fear of the people there, filled his cup with iniquity. V 9, And the king was sorry; nevertheless, because of the oaths and because of those who sat with him, he commanded it to be given to her.

“The king was sorry.” He was trapped, and he knew it, but his pride wouldn’t let him do what was right. He was just like Pilate. Pilate was trying to hold on, until they said to him, “Well, if you don’t kill Jesus, you are no friend of Caesar.”

Afraid of losing his name and reputation and throne, he killed the Son of God. So does Herod kill the messenger of God, for fear of losing his face.

V 10-11, So he sent and had John beheaded in prison. 11 And his head was brought on a platter and given to the girl, and she brought it to her mother. Cut off his head. Silently, privately, in the depth of that dungeon. John the Baptist was murdered.

Herodias had an ancestor by the name of Alexander Junius, and historians tell us that one time, Alexander Junius was holding a big feast, and he brought in 800 rebels to make a display. He crucified all 800 of them in the view of all the revellers at the feast. While they were hanging on the cross still alive, he murdered their wives and children in front of their gaze.

When the dish was brought in with the bleeding head on it, no doubt she took it daintily in her hands, lest a drop of it should stain her. She tripped away to her mother as if bearing her some choice dish of food from the king’s table. It was not uncommon to bring the head of one who had been slain to the person who ordered it as a sure proof that the command had been obeyed.

When the head of Cicero was brought to Fulvia, the wife of Antony, she spat on it, she pulled its tongue out and drove her hairpin through it.

That is what Herodias did with the head of John. We can’t verify that, but we know the Herod family seemed to want to mimic all the worst atrocities of the Roman nobility. The extent of rejection that comes under the pressure of the fear of man.

• He was afraid to lose his throne.
• He was afraid of John.
• He was afraid of his wife.
• He was afraid of the people around him.

Under the intimidation of that, he damned his soul to hell forever. So, after a year imprisonment, John the Baptist is dead. His work is done. He has gone to his reward a faithful man, uncompromising. The true prophet of God – no compromise.

V 12, Then his disciples came and took away the body and buried it, and went and told Jesus. You can imagine how it was to pick up that headless body of that man whom they loved, who was the voice of God to them. The greatest man they had ever known, who made such

a profound impression, who preached repentance, under whose preaching they had confessed their sins, repented, and been baptized in preparation for the Messiah. They took his body, and they buried it. The thoughtfulness of Herod in his sobriety as he would permit that.

Jesus would have wanted to know that, for John was so beloved to Him. V 13, When Jesus heard it, He departed from there by boat to a deserted place by Himself. But when the multitudes heard it, they followed Him on foot from the cities.

Luke tells us His disciples were with Him, and they were alone. The timetable did not involve Herod, and so Jesus doesn’t go to Tiberius, or Machaerus. He doesn’t confront the man. But it would have been a very important time to be alone with the twelve to talk about what it’s going to cost them to preach the kingdom.

Here was the first preacher and he was killed. Christ would be the second. Majority of the twelve would be martyred for their faith as well.

This was a very important time to be together to talk about the price, the cost, and a time of instruction.

Conclusion

Herod wanted to see Jesus. He thought He was John the Baptist risen from the dead, and he really wanted to see Him. He wanted to resolve in his mind that anxiety, and he wanted to see the power of Jesus.

Luke 9:9 says he desired to see Him.

There was that morbid fascination, that curiosity with the miraculous and the supernatural, and that incredible guilt and anxiety over who it might be that made him want to see Him. Jesus never saw him. In the intervening period, He ministered, but he never saw the man.

Once, He sent a message to him.

Luke 13:32-33, And He said to them, “Go, tell that fox, ‘Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I shall be perfected.’ 33 Nevertheless I must

journey today, tomorrow, and the day following; for it cannot be that a prophet should perish outside of Jerusalem. Jesus called him a fox and He never saw him.

• He moved with quiet dignity beyond the grasp of Herod.
• He left him to his guilt.
• He left him to his unresolved fear.
• He left him to his vile, wretched sin.
• He left him to the woman who was his doom, until one fateful day.

Luke 23:6-8, When Pilate heard of Galilee, he asked if the Man were a Galilean. 7 And as soon as he knew that He belonged to Herod’s jurisdiction, he sent Him to Herod, who was also in Jerusalem at that time. 8 Now when Herod saw Jesus, he was exceedingly glad; for he had desired for a long time to see Him, because he had heard many things about Him, and he hoped to see some miracle done by Him. Pilate didn’t know what to do with Jesus. He’s on trial now, mock trial. Finally, the two meet.

Luke 23:9, Then he questioned Him with many words, but He answered him nothing.

The Lord can give him all the answers.

He desires to see Him for a long time. The Lord could do some miracles. The Lord could give him all the answers he wants. But He answered him “nothing.” He never said one word.

Luke 23:10-12, And the chief priests and scribes stood and vehemently accused Him. 11 Then Herod, with his [c]men of war, treated Him with contempt and mocked Him, arrayed Him in a gorgeous robe, and sent Him back to Pilate. 12 That very day Pilate and Herod became friends with each other, for previously they had been at enmity with each other.

They used to hate each other, but now they became friends.

Do you know how they become friends? Common mockery of the Son of God. They were two very tragic men. Herod rejected Christ, and Christ rejected Herod. Hard, stony ground.

• For fear of a woman,
• Fear of a reputation,
• Fear of his peers,
• Fear of his throne,

Herod damned his soul forever. John the Baptist lost his head but lives forever in the presence of God. Christ wants to reveal Himself to you! But if you proudly are holding onto your reputation for fear of what others may think, for fear of the attitude and the actions of those who may reject you, for fear of the loss of face or reputation, for intimidation by evil people, you have forfeited Christ!

You damn your soul. A day will come when you ask the questions and get NO answers.