As we continue to study the synoptic gospels comparing them to John's gospel, we have come to two miracles that John records that are found in Matthew.
Feeding the 5,000 follows the death of John the Baptist. This miracle is found in all four gospels. Matthew 14:13-21, Mark 6:30-44, Luke 9:10-17, John 6:1-14
Jesus walks on the water. This miracle is recorded in Matthew 14:22-33, Mark 6:45-52, and John 6:15:15-21. Peter is only mentioned in Matthew's account. John records the distance they had actually rowed – 25 to 30 furlongs (furlong = 600 feet). So, the fisherman, John thought it was important to record that Jesus walked about three to three and a half miles on the water to meet the struggling apostles rowing in the storm. Yes, he could have just transported there where they saw him walking, but it is not recorded. Matthew says, Jesus went unto them, walking on the sea.
We are given a great metaphor of man's lost condition in Peter's cry when his circumstances overwhelmed him...Lord save me!
The third miracle is the healing of the multitudes by simply touching the hem of his garment. This miracle event is recorded in two gospels – Matthew 14:34-36 and Mark 6:53-56. This is a picture of the national healing of Israel when Messiah King Jesus returns at the 2nd Advent. Romans 11:25-27 tells us of the national salvation that will occur when the Deliverer will come out of Mount Zion and turn away ungodliness from his people.
Matthew 15:1-20 and Mark 7:1-23 record the confrontation between Jesus and the Pharisees regarding the tradition of the elders versus the Law. This is the battle between religion and relationship. Religion wants to enslave its followers through the keeping of external rules where a person's spirituality is observed through doing.
Jesus reveals the universal / transdispensational principles concerning the condition of the heart. He speaks about what comes out of the mouth is what defiles a man. We know that death was never part of God's original design. Death was brought into God's creation by Adam...Romans 5:12. Jesus stated in Mattthew 12:34: for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. Jeremiah 17:9 states it as follows: The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
We are given two lists of universal truths concerning the heart:
Matthew 15:18-20: But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies: These are the things which defile a man: but to eat with unwashen hands defileth not a man.
Mark 7:20-23: And he said, That which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: All these evil things come from within, and defile the man.
Matthew gives us seven manifestations of the heart, and Mark adds six more. These are the 13 manifestations of a wicked heart. Jesus is reminding us that, regardless of the dispensation, the heart of man in its fallen condition is wicked. From Adam to Cain to Nimrod to Abraham to Moses to David, etc., man is corrupt in his old Adam nature.
Paul's own testimony of the struggle between the old man and the new man is clearly explained in Romans 7:15-25. He has concluded that it is not him in his new man, but sin that dwells in him. He confessed that in his flesh dwelled no good thing. All the attitudes and actions of our flesh has no eternal value. It is all left here!
Romans 7:24-25: O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.
1 Corinthians 15:50: Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.
We will conclude our study of the heart condition of man next Sunday.
