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Because Matthew is a book on the kingdom of the heavens, Christ is here revealed as the heavenly King. In the other Gospels He is revealed as a man (Luke), as a slave (Mark), and as the Son of God (John).
The first thirteen chapters of Matthew cover many crucial items related to Christ. In chapter one we have the genealogy of Christ and the birth of Christ. In chapter two there is an account of the youth of Christ. In chapter three Christ is recommended by John the Baptist through baptism in water and anointed with the Spirit, and in chapter four He is tested and begins His ministry. After Christ was recommended, anointed, and tested, He came into His ministry. At the beginning of His ministry, He decreed, in chapters five, six, and seven, the constitution of the kingdom of the heavens. After issuing this decree, He came down from the mountain to continue His ministry. His ministry afforded Him excellent opportunities to reveal Himself to the people in many aspects. In chapter nine Christ revealed Himself as the Physician. As fallen people, we all are sick and have need of a physician. Because we stand in need of the Lord’s healing, He firstly unveiled Himself as our Physician, our Healer. After this, He unveiled Himself as the Bridegroom, the most pleasant person; as our Shepherd, the One who takes care of us; and as the Lord of God’s harvest. In chapter twelve Christ unveiled Himself as the real David, the greater temple, the Lord of the Sabbath, the greater Jonah, and the greater Solomon. If we put all these titles together — the Physician, the Bridegroom, the Shepherd, the Lord of the harvest, the real David, the greater temple, the Lord of the Sabbath, the greater Jonah, and the greater Solomon — we shall realize that Christ as the King of the heavens is so much to us.
In addition to all these revelations of Christ, in chapter nine Christ unveiled that He is the new untreated cloth for the new garment, which is also Himself. Furthermore, He is the new wine and even the new wineskin. Do you not desire to enjoy Christ as the new cloth and as the new garment? Do you not want to drink Him as the new wine and preserve your enjoyment in Him as the new wineskin? I certainly desire this.
We have pointed out that Christ as the Savior and King is our Physician. Are you sick or even dying? I am concerned that some of those reading this message may be dying. But Christ is our Physician, our Healer. Any who are sick or dying can say, “Lord Jesus, thank You. You are my Physician, my Healer. I believe that You will grant me a complete healing.” I have the assurance that we are all under His healing. Therefore, we are healthy and sound. How wonderful that Christ is our Physician!
Christ is so much to us. He is our Bridegroom. The most pleasant person is a bridegroom. We have the privilege of enjoying the best married life with Christ, our Bridegroom. As our Shepherd, Christ knows our needs and cares for them. Hence, we may forget our needs because He is our Shepherd. Christ is the Lord of God’s harvest. He is also the real David, and we are His followers. In addition, He is the greater temple, and we are the priests serving, worshipping, and ministering within Him. We are not ministering in a religion; we are ministering in a Person who is the greater temple. Christ is also the Lord of the Sabbath, the Lord of rest. Thus, we have not only rest, but the Lord of rest. We do not need to seek for rest, for we have the Lord. Eventually, Christ is our greater Jonah and our greater Solomon. He is the Prophet, telling us what to do, guiding us, and leading us, and also the wonderful King, our beloved Solomon, within us. Oh, this is our Christ!
Although as a result of His ministry Christ was unveiled in such a way, His ministry resulted in complete rejection. At the end of chapter twelve, this rejection reached its climax. Christ was utterly rejected by that incurable generation of Jewish religionists. The rejection in chapter twelve exposed the fact that the rejecting nature of that generation was incurable and, in a sense, unforgivable both in this age and in the age to come. Because the Jews rejected the heavenly King to such an extent, He forsook them. He forsook the natural, fleshly relationship with the Jews and denied His natural relationships with His kindred. At the end of chapter twelve we see that the Jews firstly rejected the Lord and then that their rejection resulted in the King’s forsaking them.
In chapter thirteen the King went into a boat on the sea. This signifies that He went into the church. In the church He unveiled the mystery of God’s kingdom. In other words, He revealed the mystery of the church, which is the life-pulse, the reality, of the kingdom. Because the mystery of the kingdom was delivered in parables, only those who loved Him, followed Him, and were one with Him could understand it. We have seen that the Lord decreed the constitution of the kingdom to the crowd on the mountain. But in chapter thirteen He unveiled the mystery of the kingdom to His followers.
After we have seen the unveiling of the Lord Himself and the unveiling of the mystery of the kingdom of God, we as His followers need to know the way to follow Him. Peter, Andrew, James, and John, and all of the other disciples knew that the Lord was the Physician, the Bridegroom, and the Shepherd. They realized so many aspects of what He was. Furthermore, they heard the mystery of the kingdom. Now they needed to know the way to follow Him. Therefore, what is revealed beginning at the end of chapter thirteen is the pathway to follow this rejected King.
How can His followers follow Him after His rejection? Remember that Matthew is not a book of history, but a book of doctrine. The record of Matthew is not according to historical facts; it is according to the sequence of doctrine. In his Gospel, Matthew presents the doctrine concerning the heavenly King and His genealogy, birth, youth, recommendation, anointing, testing, ministry, unveiling of Himself, and His unveiling of the mystery of the kingdom. After seeing all this, we may say, “How wonderful and marvelous! We know so many things about the King and the kingdom. What else do we need?” What we need is the way to follow Him. He is wonderful, and the kingdom is marvelous; but we need to know how we can get into this kingdom and follow Him. Therefore, the section from the end of chapter thirteen to the middle of chapter seventeen, a large section in this doctrinal book, gives us a clear map of the pathway to follow the rejected King.
If we are honest and faithful to Him, we must be on this way following the Christ who has been rejected by this age. Where are you today? You may say that you are in the Lord’s recovery. But the Lord’s recovery is a pathway on which we follow the rejected heavenly King. This King has been rejected by this generation and is still being rejected by it. Nevertheless, we would follow Him as those preferring to participate in His rejection. Hallelujah, we are the partakers of the enjoyment of Him and partakers of His rejection! He is the rejected King, and we are His rejected followers. He took the lead to be rejected and He is still taking it, and we are following Him on the pathway to glory. At the beginning of this pathway, there is nothing but rejection; however, at the end of it there is glory, the manifestation of the kingdom.
In this message and in the messages following I have the burden to show you how to walk on this pathway to glory. Although you are following Christ, you may not know how to walk on this pathway. In order to walk on it, you need a map. In these messages we shall learn how to read this map. We are following the rejected King, and our destination is glory. How we thank Matthew for including in his doctrinal book not only a diagram of the kingdom, but also a map of the pathway so that we may enter into the kingdom. From the end of chapter thirteen to the middle of chapter seventeen we have a clear map showing us how to walk on the pathway as we follow our beloved King into glory.
The first thing we face on this pathway is rejection. Because Christ is the rejected One, we must be rejected also. We have no choice. Do not expect to be welcomed, for no one will welcome you until the glory comes. Instead, you must be willing to be rejected. In 13:53—14:13 we see the increase of rejection. Many of us have experienced some measure of rejection by those who opposed our coming into the church. But I need to tell you that this rejection will not decrease; rather, it will increase. There will be rejection upon rejection. Be prepared for this.
The heavenly King was rejected firstly by the Jewish religionists. The religious leaders rejected Christ to the uttermost because they were fully occupied, possessed, and veiled by their religion. Because religion was everything to them, they could not recognize this heavenly King. Blinded by the religious veils, they rejected Him. After the Lord had been rejected in Jerusalem, the religious center, He turned to a geographical area that was not so religious — Galilee, the place where He was born and raised. Galilee was rather close to Gentile territory. However, He was not even welcomed in Galilee. Although the Galileans did not oppose Him, they rejected Him because of their natural knowledge. When they saw Him and heard Him speak, they said, “Is not this the carpenter’s son? Is not his mother called Mary, and his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas? And his sisters, are they not all with us? Where then did this man get all these things?” (13:55-56). Here we see that the Galileans knew Him according to the flesh, not according to the spirit (2 Cor. 5:16). Thinking that they knew everything about Him, they were blinded by their natural knowledge. They saw the wonders, the miracles, He did, but they were preoccupied by their natural concepts. The religious people were preoccupied by their religion and by their religious concepts, and the Galileans were preoccupied by their natural knowledge.
If we would know Christ and follow Him, we need to realize that religion and natural knowledge are both veils. Some of our opposers belittle us by saying that we do not have theological training. But the Lord Jesus, a carpenter’s son, had no theological training Himself. Brother Nee, the one who helped me so much, much more than anyone else, had no theological training either. Religion and natural knowledge are two great obstacles frustrating people from recognizing who Christ is. If you follow religion, you will remain in Jerusalem, and if you follow your natural knowledge, you will be in Galilee. But Christ neither stays in Jerusalem nor remains in Galilee. As we shall see, He departs to the desert. Because Jerusalem was filled with religious concepts and Galilee was filled with natural knowledge, the Lord went to the desert. Are you in Jerusalem or Galilee, or are you in the desert? In the desert there is no religion, culture, or theological training. In Jerusalem there is religion and in Galilee there is natural knowledge, but in the desert there is the presence of Christ. Oh, in the desert we have Christ! This is our boast and enjoyment. We do not have religion or knowledge — we have Christ.
Because we belittle knowledge, we have been condemned and accused of being mind benders. But our minds are not being bent — they are being renewed from natural and religious knowledge. We must be bold to declare that we are no longer religious or natural. Instead of natural and religious knowledge, we have Christ as our wisdom, a wisdom that surpasses knowledge.
Any attempt to know Christ by natural knowledge will result in rejection. According to natural knowledge, Christ was the son of a carpenter and his mother was an ordinary woman. His countrymen knew all of His outward features, but they did not see that God was in Him. In 2 Corinthians 5:16 Paul says that, along with others, he knew Christ according to the flesh. When Paul was Saul of Tarsus, he knew Christ according to the flesh; he thought that Jesus was merely a little Nazarene. He did not realize that within Jesus was God. But one day on the road to Damascus the Lord Jesus said to him, “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?” When Saul asked the Lord who He was, He responded, “I am Jesus.” On the road to Damascus Saul realized that Jesus of Nazareth was now in the heavens. Jesus seemed to be saying, “I was not only the flesh — I was God, for the very God was in Me. Saul, you knew Me according to the flesh, not according to the spirit within.”
It is the same today. We need to know other Christians not according to outward things, not according to their country, language, parentage, education, or outward appearance or qualification. If we know Christians according to these things, we know them according to the flesh. But we should know Christians according to the spirit, because Christ is in them. Several months ago, one of the opposers was invited to my home for lunch. We spent more than three hours together. At one point he said, “You don’t have scholars among you, do you? We have more than a hundred scholars with us.” However, eventually we, who are not supposed to have scholars among us, printed articles in the newspaper that the opposers are not able to answer. They have been troubled by so many carpenter’s sons.
As we follow the Lord in His recovery, we should not know people according to the flesh or estimate them according to the flesh. We should know them according to one thing — according to the measure of Christ. Knowledge, intelligence, and outward appearance mean nothing. Perhaps a certain brother cannot speak well and uses poor grammar. Yet whenever he opens his mouth, Christ comes out. Even when you are sitting in his presence, you realize that some amount of Christ is with him. In the church life in the Lord’s recovery we do not care for the outward appearance; we care only for the spirit within, where Christ is. This is the way to know Christ, the way to know other Christians, and the way to follow the Lord.
Verse 58 says, “And He did not do many works of power there because of their unbelief.” The rejection of the Pharisees caused the heavenly King to forsake them. The unbelief of the Galileans caused the Lord not to do many works of power among them. Because of the Galileans’ natural knowledge, the Lord Christ could not do anything with them. The Galileans did not say, “Jesus, we don’t want You! Get away from here!” They simply asked, “Is this not the carpenter’s son? Where did this man get this wisdom and these works of power?” These questions were sufficient. The heavenly King could no longer remain there, and His gracious works of power could no longer be enjoyed by them. Therefore, He departed from them to the desert where there was no culture, no religion, and, as we shall now see, no politics.
In 14:1-13 we see the rejection by the heathen tetrarch. Politics is always alongside religion and culture. According to Matthew’s presentation, after the rejection by religion and natural knowledge, there is the rejection by politics. Herod the tetrarch represents the rejection by politics. This is the basic principle of 14:1-13.
Herod had John the Baptist beheaded in prison. In 12:24 the Jewish religious leaders, representing the entire nation of the Jews, rejected the heavenly King to the uttermost. This forced Him to forsake His natural relationship with them (12:46-50). Then in 13:53-58 He was also rejected by the Galileans. Now in chapter fourteen, Matthew in his doctrinal arrangement unveils to us how Gentile politics treated the King’s forerunner. Gentile politics were evil and full of corruption and darkness. Up to this point Matthew has given a full picture of how the Jews, Galileans, and Gentiles rejected the ministry of the kingdom of the heavens.
Firstly, the rejection by religion reached its climax. Following this came the rejection due to natural knowledge. The rejection by politics coincided with the rejection by religion and natural knowledge. The religionists, those with natural knowledge, and the politicians did not hold a conference for the purpose of rejecting the Lord Jesus. Nevertheless, their rejection of Him coincided. Religion, natural knowledge, and politics all came together in the rejection of Christ.
In chapter fourteen we see the darkness, rottenness, and injustice in politics. Our eyes need to be opened to see that in religion there is no welcome to our heavenly King. Neither is there a place for Him in natural knowledge nor in today’s rotten, dark politics. In this generation there is no place for the heavenly King. Religion, culture, and politics are all one in rejecting the heavenly King. How I thank the Lord for the record in the Gospel of Matthew. If you read the chapters prior to fourteen, you will see the deceitfulness in the Jewish religion. You will also see that natural knowledge has caused great damage to people. Furthermore, you will see the rottenness and darkness in Roman politics, which was the leading political system on earth at the time. But even in the best political system there is nothing but rottenness and darkness.
Thus far, we have seen the first two stations on the pathway to glory. The first station is the rejection by natural knowledge, and the second is the rejection by politics. The rejection both by culture and by politics compelled the heavenly King to retreat. When He heard of the execution of John the Baptist, “He departed from there in a boat to a desert place privately” (14:13). Due to the rejection by all the religious, cultured, political peoples, the heavenly King left them for a desert place. This indicates that henceforth He would hide Himself privately in a desert, in a place without culture, away from the religious, political, and cultured people. He did this in a boat, implying He would do this through the church. Due to the rejection of the civilized world, the Lord, through the church, has always been hiding Himself privately from the religious and political circles in a realm without much culture.
The remainder of 14:13 says, “And when the crowds heard of it, they followed Him on foot from the cities.” In spite of the rejection of all peoples, there was still a good number who followed the heavenly King. They did this by leaving their cities. It was not that the King came to their cities to visit them, but that they left their cultured cities to follow Him in the desert. Through all the centuries, the true followers of Christ have left cultured spheres to follow their heavenly King outside the cultured world. We are among those who have followed Him. Where He is, we go. We follow Him through all manner of rejection to the desert.
