Matthew 16:1-12

16 And the Pharisees and Sadducees came, and to test him they asked him to show them a sign from heaven. 2 He answered them, “When it is evening, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red.’ 3 And in the morning, ‘It will be stormy today, for the sky is red and threatening.’ You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times. 4 An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah.” So he left them and departed.

5 When the disciples reached the other side, they had forgotten to bring any bread. 6 Jesus said to them, “Watch and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” 7 And they began discussing it among themselves, saying, “We brought no bread.” 8 But Jesus, aware of this, said, “O you of little faith, why are you discussing among yourselves the fact that you have no bread? 9 Do you not yet perceive? Do you not remember the five loaves for the five thousand, and how many baskets you gathered? 10 Or the seven loaves for the four thousand, and how many baskets you gathered? 11 How is it that you fail to understand that I did not speak about bread? Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” 12 Then they understood that he did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees. [i]

 

You know what they say about all persons being born equal: “Some are equaler than others.” So also with the Bible. Some chapters are more important than others, though all are important. Matthew 16 is one of these “more important” chapters. It is the central or critical chapter in Matthew’s account of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Or to put it another way, it is the high point in Jesus’ teaching and the disciples’ growth in spiritual understanding.

Chapter 16 is the climax of those chapters in which Jesus withdraws from the crowds to teach his disciples privately. The change began in chapter 13, when Jesus began to teach in parables, explaining that this was so the crowds might not be able to understand his teaching while those who had been given to him by the Father would understand it. The chapters that follow (chaps. 14–16) contain private teaching through which the disciples make slow spiritual advances. In chapter 16 Peter makes the single most important confession of faith in Jesus thus far in Matthew— “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (v. 16)—after which Jesus begins to teach the disciples that it is necessary for him to die and then be raised again (v. 21).

Chapter 16 also contains the first mention of the church (v. 18), as well as Jesus’ important teaching that anyone who would be his disciple must “deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (v. 24). All in all, it is a critical collection of vital teaching in a small amount of material.[ii]

These first 12 verses of Matthew 16 warn of two dangers. One is false teaching, which Jesus calls “the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” The other danger is that of spiritual amnesia or forgetfulness. We will look at the danger of forgetfulness first.

SPIRITUAL AMNESIA

Spiritual amnesia is forgetting what God has done in the past. More specifically in our text we see the disciples forgetting Christ’s mighty works. We see that in verses 5-7:

When the disciples reached the other side, they had forgotten to bring any bread. 6 Jesus said to them, “Watch and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” 7 And they began discussing it among themselves, saying, “We brought no bread.”

By way of illustration, think of two people driving somewhere on vacation and they pass several large flashing signs warning them that the bridge is out up ahead. The passenger is screaming for the driver to stop. But the driver is oblivious to the signs and suddenly exclaims, “Darn it! I think I forgot my towel my sunscreen.” One is panicking over a life-ending ultimate need. The other is upset over a temporal need.

Have you ever been oblivious to God like these disciples were? One moment you touch and taste and see the Lord is good, and the next you’re wondering about Mrs. Baird’s bread. How does Jesus respond to his bread-obsessed disciples? In verse 8 Jesus tells them he knows darn well they forgot the bread. But he doesn’t care if they forgot the bread because the fact is they have forgotten the Bread of Life! They have forgotten Jesus even though he’s in the boat with them. They have forgotten what he has done twice in the past couple of months. Jesus says:

“O you of little faith, why are you discussing among yourselves the fact that you have no bread? 9 Do you not yet perceive? Do you not remember the five loaves for the five thousand, and how many baskets you gathered? 10 Or the seven loaves for the four thousand, and how many baskets you gathered?

I am not gifted in mathematics. But even I can do the math here. Even I can see the messianic mathematics of verses 9 and 10. One day Jesus took five loaves and fed 5000 men. Then what almost seemed like the next day, he took 7 loaves and fed 4000. Even I can count to 5 and to 7. But isn’t this strange, unmathetacal math, when it comes to the multiplication? Why 5 loaves for 5000 and 7 loaves for 4000? Shouldn’t it be the other way around? One would think the more the disciples had, the more Jesus could do. No. That is just the very point Jesus is making. The less the disciples have to work with, the more Jesus can do!

The disciples are looking at their own resources and lamenting their lack of power. Jesus is not asking them simply to remember the leftovers, 19 baskets full of scraps. He is also telling them to remember what he had to work with. With seven loaves he fed 4000. With five loaves he fed 5000. Imagine what he could do with zero! They are sitting with the One who spoke every quark of the universe into existence out of nothing by the power of his own Word. And yet they have forgotten who he is. They have forgotten what he’s done. They have forgotten how he works. That’s what Jesus is trying to teach them.

It’s very easy for us to forget what God has done in our own lives and in salvation history. Our generation places little value on two essential components of the Christian faith: history and eschatology. Instead of looking backwards at what God has done in history and looking forward to what God will do at the consummation of all things, we live in the ahistorical/existential now.

There’s nothing wrong with a now kind of faith. I hope you are all trusting into Christ right now. But if we don’t also, in the now, look back to then and forward to that, the growth of our trust is limited. You might look back on a certain date when you became aware of your salvation. You could tell me how old you were and when and where you first became aware you belonged to Jesus. But somewhere along the way, that amazing fact grew less and less amazing. Jesus was still in the boat with you, but you were busy trying to figure out how to get your own bread. You became perfectly happy to live your own life in your own way according to your own wants.

If you were to examine the songs found in the Old and New Testaments you would find songs that recount God’s mighty acts in history. In the Old Testament, God’s people sang of the creation of the world, Israel’s election, the exodus, the giving of the Law, the establishment of David’s Kingdom, exilic judgment, restoration, and other similar events. In the New Testament God’s people sing of Christ’s incarnation, life, death, resurrection, and return. God’s people have always sung of God’s works in history. So should we.

The worship songs of scripture all had this historical/eschatological faith, the faith we need to grow, the faith that looks to the future trusting God will work again because it looks back into history, remembering what God has already done.

FALSE TEACHING

The first danger is spiritual amnesia, forgetting what God has done in the past or here specifically in our text forgetting the mighty works Jesus has performed, forgetting who he is, forgetting what he has done, forgetting how he works, forgetting what he likes to work with (nothing!). The second danger it’s false teaching, a specific false teaching that Jesus labels “the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees (15: 6, 11, 12).

If you were to read the Bible in large chunks and search for themes there would be 3 that tend to stand out. First there is the call to persevere in the faith. Second there is the newness and necessity of Jew/Gentile relations regardless of the cultural and theological tensions and the way forward in unity. Third, you might notice how much attention is given to false teachers and false teaching. Every letter in the New Testament deals with some form of false teaching. Sometimes we merely have an existential faith, a now and now only faith, and so sometimes we read the Bible existentially. We look for topics, themes, verses we can personally relate to, understand, apply (or misapply) to ourselves. But false teaching is a genuine threat. Don’t miss it.

The apostles and Jesus both deal with the theme of false teaching and false teachers because false teachers and their bad self-centered theology are so dangerous. This is one of the tragic flaws in our modern culture – that everyone is entitled to their own opinion. That idea is one of the most brainless thoughts in the world, in my opinion. Ideas have consequences. My opinion is not necessarily equal to yours, and vice versa.

One example would be Adolf Hitler’s two volume book Mein Kampf (“My Struggle”) in which he writes about his struggle with the Jews. He concludes that one cannot be both a German and a Jew. What consequence would his idea have for the world? Ideas have consequences. Those two volumes led to World War Two. Evil ideas are the most dangerous powers in the world, no matter when they arise in history or in eschatology.

First Jesus warns us about forgetfulness, but second, warns about evil ideas or false teaching. He tells us to “beware.” Notice that he does not describe false teaching as some kind of obvious monster, some huge red dragon with six heads that breathes fire and brimstone. These false teachers are not obvious. He calls them “leaven.” Yeast is much less obvious than telling them to watch out for a burnt crust on the bread or mold around the edges. Yeast is not something easy to see, particularly when it dissolves into the dough. You may remember as I’ve said before the yeast back then was entirely wild and airborne, there were no yeast packets because there were no grocery stores. It’s not immediately obvious, but the effects will be deadly. This is why Jesus uses the word “understand” or “perceive” several times in our text.

What does such deadly teaching look like? What are we to watch out for? Let’s look at our text and see what we can see. In verse one we read, “And the Pharisees and Sadducees came, and to test him they asked him to show them a sign from heaven.” There are several things to notice here. First, this is the first time the Sadducees are mentioned in regard to Jesus’ ministry. By now, we know who the scribes and Pharisees are. But who are the Sadducees?

We need to know what scripture says about them. This is how Matthew describes them: “Sadducees …say there is no resurrection” (22:23). This was a different theological position not only from Jesus, but also from the Pharisees. Notice that they have entered the drama. Second, notice they approach Jesus with the Pharisees. That is an unlikely alliance. What are the overly ritualistic doing with the overly rationalistic, the super-serious with the super-sophisticated, the legalist with the modernist? They are together because Jesus threatens their religious power individually, so they come together corporately to deal with him. It is a diabolical, not a theological alliance.

Third, notice that they came to “test him.” That word is the same word used in for Christ’s temptation in the wilderness. They come to tempt him. How? The same way the devil tempted Adam and Eve – be like God—and the same way the devil tempted Jesus in the wilderness “act like God. They want Jesus to perform a heavenly sign on demand. Oh yes, they are aware of the earthly signs. He turned bread into more bread, but they want him to turn the moon into blood. Enough with healing the sick, feeding the poor, and dealing with those of the lesser spiritual cast. They want something spectacular in the sky! They want to see a God-sized proof for his God-sized claims. They want to see the sun stand still, or a starless night sky, or lightning that strikes a few trees which fall to spell out a giant “M” for Messiah. They want a voice from heaven.

But what they ask for in verse 1 is directly opposite to Jesus’ person and mission. He has not come to show off his superpowers, but to demonstrate the power and justice and love of God through his own weakness, even his death on a cross. Jesus will never perform merely to prove himself. Do you want to see something from God and hear from God?

According to chapters 8-15, you must come trust into the person and work of Christ first. And then the fireworks begin. No faith, no fireworks. No faith, no heavenly voice. No faith, no manna in the wilderness. No faith, no sky-filled wonders for you from this Messiah. He answered them, saying in essence, “You want to talk about signs. Fine. Let’s talk about signs.”

“When it is evening, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red.’ 3 And in the morning, ‘It will be stormy today, for the sky is red and threatening.’ You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times. 4 An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah.”

It took a great deal of unbelief to ask for a sign from Jesus after he had already given so many. Matthew alone has told us about his healing the sick, casting out demons, calming storms on the Sea of Galilee, feeding the hungry, even raising the dead. Most, if not all, of these miracles must have been reported to these leaders, which is why they had come to challenge Jesus. But it was not really a sign they were after. They hated Jesus for who he was, and their demand was really only an attempt to discredit him. “Show us a sign! Show us a sign from heaven!” At this same point in the next Gospel, Mark tells us that Jesus “sighed deeply” (Mark. 8:12), so we may conclude that Jesus’ answer came from a heavy heart. [iii]

Jesus felt the coldness of these men’s hearts. He saw the impurities of these purity freaks. Well they could generally predict the weather (still the world’s greatest preoccupation) but they couldn’t tell time. They knew if it was going to storm or not, but they couldn’t tell that the fullness of time was upon them, that the King of the Kingdom of the heavens was here. They were like so many of our friends, coworkers, neighbors, and loved ones. They worry about rain tomorrow, but they don’t give one serious thought about Jesus and his death and resurrection.

Weather watchers of the world, do you want a sign? Here is a sign, the sign of Jonah (12:39). That is the sign to look for! Remember Jonah’s self-sacrifice, his willingness to be thrown overboard, his burial in the waters, but then his deliverance from the depths of a watery grave when he proclaimed that salvation was entirely of the Lord. Remember his proclamation to the Ninevites, who, by God’s grace, repented. Do you get what Jesus is saying? He is saying the Pharisees, and the Sadducees are even worse than the barbarically cruel Ninevites because the Ninevites heard the Word of God and repented.

Jesus is proclaiming that what Jonah did, he will do. Just watch and see! Watch what he does. Listen to what he teaches. See if it fits with Moses and the prophets. See if it fits with the promises of God. See if it fits with the pattern of the prophet Jonah. Because if they don’t watch and listen right then and there, they won’t believe even if Jesus rises from the dead (Luke 16:31). You want a heavenly sign. They are looking at the heavenly sign — the heavenly Son of God, the Bread of Life, come down to earth.

Those are the first 4 verses. Question and answer time with Jesus is always invigorating. So, first we have the false teachers, but now we have the second point Jesus is making. The second dual danger is the leaven of those leaders. What is the leaven? What are we looking to avoid? What does this leaven look like?

We still live in a world where Pharisaism and Saduceeism are continually striving for power in the church of Christ. Some try to add to the gospel, and some want to take away from it. Some would bury it, and some would pare it down to nothing. Some would stifle it by heaping on additions, and some would bleed it to death by subtracting from its truth. Both parties agree only in one respect. Both would kill and destroy the life of Christianity to get their way. Legalism and license are simply two sides of the same coin, the coin of complete and utter self-interest.

When you look, for example, at 15:1-9 and how the Pharisees by their oral traditions (ceremonial hand washing for all Israelites always) added to the word of God, and if you look at 22:23-33, where the Sadducees, by their denial of the resurrection, subtracted from scripture, then you see what Jesus is talking about here. The question for us is are we staying on the line of scripture, or are we straying above it (legalism) or below it (license), above it (perfectionism) or below it (antinomianism), above it (traditionalism) or below it (pragmatism)? Are we pretending and performing, or are we recognizing and repenting of our sin?

So the leaven of the false teachers adds to or subtracts from scripture. However, in the immediate context of the text, we have these religious leaders looking for a heavenly sign, and Jesus saying that he’s only going to give them only one sign. That reveals a dangerous doctrinal tendency found in both groups and found too often in us. That danger is wanting more than Jesus and wanting more from Jesus than what he has offered to give, or in our case more than he is given.

That is the attitude found in much of the Western church today. It says, “Give me something more lively than the life of Christ. Give me something more powerful than the passion of Christ. Give me something more dynamic than the death of Christ. Give me something more relevant than the resurrection of Christ.” It’s like children who want “more.” They want more applesauce, cookies, or chips. Spiritually immature people are like that, always wanting more of the wrong thing, they’re not satisfied with the Bread of Heaven. They are not satisfied with the sufficiency of the suffering and resurrected Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit.

They consider a simple faith in the crucified and risen Lord himself to be merely milk, not meat, nor appetizers, not the meal. But they are so wrong! The person of Jesus and his work (his death and resurrection) is the milk, water, bread, wine, filet mignon, and a big slice of apple pie. That’s the full substance of our faith. You already have all the “more” you are going to have in this life.

These leavening agents are alive and still rising today, working their way through the church. Beware of going above or below the line of scripture and beware of wanting more from God than Jesus and his death and resurrection. These dual dangers are what God’s Word urges us to think about so that we beg the Spirit to apply to our lives. We have to do that because we have no power (no bread) to live the way God commands out of our own resources.

The first danger is forgetfulness, forgetting what God has done in the past, especially forgetting Christ’s mighty works. The second danger is false teaching, though it is very much related to the first danger. The sad evidence of that danger is when your spiritually dead friends and loved ones say, “I won’t believe in Jesus until you show me more than Jesus.” The apostle Paul sums this idea up with a wonderful presentation of law and gospel:

8 Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. 9 For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 10 Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.

11 Besides this you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. 12 The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. 13 Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy. 14 But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires. [iv]

 

[i] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Mt 16:1–12.

[ii] James Montgomery Boice, The Gospel of Matthew (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2001), 295–296.

[iii] Id., 296–297.

[iv] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Ro 13:8–14.