Gospel of Matthew Chapter 16 -- John Karmelich

1. My short title for Chapter 16 is “consider the source”.

a) When someone insults you, before you get upset, stop and consider the source that insulted you and then see if it is worth getting mad about.

b) If someone compliments you, ask yourself if you respect that person who gave the compliment.

c) Finally, if the source is biblically inspired and you take your bible seriously, sometimes we (yes we!) have to ask ourselves if we are obeying that source.

2. This concept of “consider the source” ties together a handful of stories in Chapter 16.

a) First we have the story of some Pharisees and Sadducees asking Jesus for a miracle.

i) Jesus refuses to give them what they want and only gives them a bible reference to prove that he is the Messiah.

b) Next is Jesus tells the disciples to beware of teachings of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

i) Jesus is warning to consider the source when listening to these groups.

c) Finally we have the story of “Good Peter and Bad Peter”.

i) Peter confesses Jesus as the Messiah and is complimented by Jesus.

a) Jesus says it was the Holy Spirit who inspired Peter to make that statement.

ii) A moment later Peter rebukes Jesus after Jesus predicts his death.

a) Jesus tells Peter that the devil is the source of that rebuking.

d) The final story is Jesus teaching what is the cost of discipleship.

i) Some of the verses in this section are repeats of what was taught earlier in Matthew. We’ll discuss why they are repeated and emphasized here.

e) The common denominator of all these stories is the source.

i) Jesus rebukes the Pharisee’s and Saducee’s as being a bad source.

a) They had excellent biblical knowledge, but despite that knowledge couldn’t figure out that Jesus is the Messiah.

b) We’ll talk more about that in today’s lesson.

ii) Jesus states the Holy Spirit was behind Peter’s positive statement.

iii) Jesus states Satan himself was behind Peter’s negative statement.

iv) The final section is Jesus himself being the source of information.

a) It calls for full obedience if we consider Jesus our Lord.

f) With the idea of “consider the source” in mind, let’s go to Verse 1.

3. Verse 1: The Pharisees and Sadducees came to Jesus and tested him by asking him to show them a sign from heaven.

a) First of all let’s discuss who are the Pharisees and Sadducees.

i) Let me describe the Pharisees:

a) The Pharisees were very religious sect among “the common folk”.

b) They were not part of the aristocratic structure.

c) They were only leaders because some Pharisee’s were elected to a ruling council on religious decisions.

d) The Pharisee’s were very strict in their interpretation of the Old Testament Commands. In summary, their belief is “when in doubt, take an extreme view of how to interpret the Law as we don’t want to offend God”.

(1) That is an oversimplification, but you get the idea.

(2) A major emphasis in their views on Judaism was on their own interpretations. Some of their traditions and commentaries were taken as God-inspired as the bible itself.

ii) Let me describe the Saducee’s:

a) The Saducee’s were part of the ruling class.

b) They are sometimes associated as being “Pro-Roman”. In Mark’s Gospel, Jesus does not say the “Pharisees and the Sadducees “, but of the “Pharisee’s and Herod”. (Mark 8:15)

(1) Saducee’s were “Pro-Roman” and thus the Gospel writers can correctly use the words “Herod” and “Saducee’s” interchangeably.

(2) The Sadducees believed the bible was the word of God, but didn’t take it literally. They believe it is “stories to teach us lessons”.

(3) The Sadducees denied the literalness of such aspects as angels, the resurrection, a coming Messiah, etc. They just took the bible as a bunch of nice stories designed to teach us life lessons.

iii) Here’s my point. These two groups didn’t get along at all. J

a) Imagine some extremely zealous Democrats and Republicans coming together to test Jesus.

b) What we have here is “enemies united against the common enemy”.

c) It will go to show what people will do who oppose Jesus.

b) Let’s get back to the verse. The key phrase is they ask for a “sign from heaven”.

i) The view among religious Jews is that Satan has the power to perform all sorts of miracles. This is a strong biblical view even to Christians.

ii) Let me paraphrase what they were asking: “OK Jesus, we heard about you doing these miracles. We believe Satan has that type of power too. Prove to us that you are from God with “heavenly” miracles as opposed to just “regular” miracles.

a) They seem to have forgotten that some of the miracles were casting out demons. If Jesus’ power were of the devil, why would he want to cast out demons? That would be defeating the purpose.

iii) One of the lessons to learn from this verse is “You can’t come to God only before he proves himself to you”.

a) I don’t believe God responds to the question, “OK God, prove you are real, and then I will follow you”. It is always the other way around. Once we commit our live to God, it is then we begin to see him work in our life.

b) I cannot think of one time in the New Testament where Jesus helped or healed somebody just to prove He was sent from God the Father.

(1) I can only think of one Old Testament analogy where an Israelite prophet asked God to prove himself. That is the story of Elijah and the water-soaked wood that was consumed by God (1^st Kings 18). In that story God wanted the nation of Israel to turn back to him. I can’t think of an individual situation were God allowed anyone to put him to the test.

(2) A better example is the story of Job.

(a) After Job suffered a little, J he wanted to stand trial before God and prove his worthiness. God responded by saying in effect, “Who are you to question me?” Job realized he couldn’t do that, repented, and then God blessed him.

(b) Now you have all 42 chapters of Job in one sentence. J

(3) If you read through your bible, you will see that God spends very little time and space explaining who he is. The most holy title for God (“Jehovah”) simply means, “I am” or “I am that I am”. The idea is that God exists and he doesn’t have to explain himself.

c) The corollary is God is more than willing to help those who come praying to him as God. Coming to Jesus just to test who he is won’t get you a response. God is under no obligation to prove who is he to you.

(1) It is after you unconditionally accept Jesus as God, only after you declare that your life is now in God’s hands, that He is willing to turn and help you.

iv) Which leads us back to the Pharisee’s and the Saducee’s.

a) These common enemies came to Jesus to demand a sign.

b) Even if the rest of this passage didn’t exist, I can tell you that Jesus wouldn’t respond simply by the patterns of the rest of the bible.

4. Verse 2: He replied, "When evening comes, you say, `It will be fair weather, for the sky is red,'
<sup>3</sup> and in the morning, `Today it will be stormy, for the sky is red and overcast.' You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times. ⁴ A wicked and adulterous generation looks for a miraculous sign, but none will be given it except the sign of Jonah." Jesus then left them and went away.

a) Let me try to paraphrase what Jesus said: “When it comes to predicting the weather, you are aware of the common cliché that you can judge the weather by the color of the sky at dusk and dawn. That is a good cliché and holds true. Yet, you people, who majored in Old Testament studies in seminary J don’t recognize that the “signs” of the Old Testament point to me and you should know that I am the promised Messiah.”

b) This set of verses is a reminder that Jesus holds you and I accountable for the information we do know. Jesus was much tougher on the religious leaders than the common folk as they had access to the bible and studied it thoroughly.

c) Notice Jesus calls these guys a “wicked and adulterous” generation to ask for proof that Jesus is God.

i) Jesus is saying in effect, “Look guys, you know your bible. If you don’t believe the predictions about the Messiah in the bible fit what I am doing, then nothing I show you will convince you otherwise”.

d) Jesus then went on to say that the only sign I will give you is the sign of “Jonah”.

i) Personally, I can just visualize these guys arguing amongst themselves at this point. “Jonah? What did he mean by Jonah? What sign is he talking about?”

a) While they were busy trying to figure out what Jesus meant, Jesus just walked away from the scene. By the time they stopped debating among themselves long enough to look for Jesus again, he was gone.

e) It may be helpful here to summarize the story of Jonah in a few sentences.

i) Jonah is a short 4-chapter book in the Old Testament.

ii) It is logically assumed to be written by Jonah himself, but it is never stated so.

iii) The story opens with God telling Jonah to go preach to the (gentile) City of Nineveh that they either repent of their ways or God will destroy that city.

a) Nineveh was a menace to Israel and a threat.

b) It would be like asking a modern Jew to go to Germany before WWII and to preach repentance.

iv) Jonah wanted God to destroy Nineveh, so he took a boat in the opposite direction.

v) To quote Chuck Missler, God then explained his “executive incentive plan” better.

a) The boat owners threw Jonah overboard as they blamed him for a storm.

b) A “great fish” swallowed Jonah.

c) Three days later the fish spit up Jonah, and off he went to Nineveh.

vi) Jesus is teaching that just like Jonah was 3 days and 3 nights in a great fish, and then “resurrected” to life is a pattern of Jesus on the cross.

vii) Nineveh repented of their sins and God spared Nineveh.

viii) The great miracle of the story is not that Jonah survived three days in a fish.
The great miracle is that Nineveh actually collectively repented of their sins.

f) Here’s my main point (pay attention! J): Where does it say anywhere in the story of Jonah that “Jonah is a model of the Messiah to come”?

i) The answer is nowhere. Nowhere in Jonah is there even a hint that Jonah is a model of how Jesus will die and rise again on the third day.

ii) Which leads us to the biblical concept of “typology”.

a) This is a fancy word bible scholars use that simply means you can study people in the Old Testament as “types” of Jesus.

iii) Remember what Jesus taught about himself in the Old Testament.

a) “You diligently study the (Old Testament) Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life.” John 5:39-40, NIV

b) Also, Hebrews 10:7b says, “In the volume of the book it is written of Me” (NKJV). This is a quote of Psalm 40:7. The point is that the volume of the Old Testament is about Jesus.

iv) Compared to the volume of the Old Testament, there are not that many passages that blatantly say, “this is about a future king who will rule forever”. There are hints here and there, and some passages that are more blunt than others.

a) But hints and some blunt passages are not the “volume” of the Old Testament. Jesus is saying he is the main topic of the Old Testament.

b) This is where “typology” comes into play.

(1) You can study Jonah and see how parts of his life model Jesus.

(2) You can study any Old Testament character and compare how parts of their life are like Jesus.

(3) You can study Psalms, predictions by the Prophets, even the laws of Moses and see aspects of Jesus ministry.

(4) I take the view that every aspect of Jesus life, death, ministry, first and second coming are shown as predictions or patterns somewhere in the Old Testament.

(5) The fact that Jesus himself says, “Jonah speaks of me” is one of many New Testament validations where one can study the Old Testament and look for “types” or “patterns” of Jesus purpose.

v) OK, John, that’ nice. Now what do I do? So glad you asked! J

vi) Ever come to a passage in the bible, particularly in the Old Testament that is confusing to you? Good! Me Too! J

a) There is a bible rule called, “Try putting Jesus in the middle”.

b) Try reading that same passage and ask, “What does this have to do with Jesus? What does this passage have to do with Jesus purpose & ministry?

c) I am not guaranteeing this will work every time. But you will be surprised how many passages “now makes more sense” once you try putting Jesus in the middle of that passage.

vii) Getting back to Matthew (you knew I eventually would), Jesus is saying, “No sign (from heaven) will be given except the “Sign of Jonah”.

a) Nowhere in Jonah does it say that Jonah is a type of the Messiah.

b) It is by only understanding that one can study the Old Testament by looking for passages about Jesus is when one sees the signs.

viii) Last thing on this topic: I use the New Testament as my validation to explain the Old Testament.

a) You can go overboard on bible “types”. If I look hard enough, maybe I can say, “Well, Moses is a type of me, or Abraham is a type of you”.

b) I am simply warning you and me to be a cautious on studying typology.

c) Remember that the bible validates itself. Jesus himself and the New Testament have hundreds of examples of where Old Testament word-patterns and predictions are fulfilled in the New Testament.

d) I am simply cautioning against reading things that are not there. If you have a theory about how a certain Old Testament passage speaks of Jesus, test it against the New Testament. Se if it fits the facts and you are not stretching the truth.

5. Verse 5: When they went across the lake, the disciples forgot to take bread. ⁶ "Be careful," Jesus said to them. "Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees." They discussed this among themselves and said, "It is because we didn't bring any bread."

a) Remember that “yeast”, often translated “leaven” is a negative-Jewish idiom.

b) On Passover, part of the ritual is to clean the house of any yeast (leaven).

i) It is word-picture of sin, because if you leave it alone, it grows.

ii) Yeast is added to bread to make it grow.

iii) So when Jesus says to “beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees”,
the disciples, being religious Jews should have known what he meant.

c) So since we know Jesus is talking about the sin of the Pharisees and Sadducees, what specific sin is Jesus talking about?

i) Jesus does not explain further, so we have to look elsewhere in the bible and go back to our understanding of who are Pharisees and Sadducees.

a) In my opinion, the danger of the Pharisees is the danger of being too strict without any balance of having grace and compassion.

b) The Pharisees followed were obsessed with their rules and traditions to a point of a lack of any compassion (except for other Pharisees, of course).

c) The danger of Pharisees is to elevate yourself or your self-discipline following of rules above God.

ii) I can see how being a Pharisee is appealing. We all want to please God. Here are these sets of rules and rituals, and if you follow them, then you “win the game” and God loves you on the false-notion that he is pleased with your efforts.

iii) The danger of Pharisees does creep into Christian churches.

a) There are churches where their traditions are as important as bible doctrines. There are churches were specific dress ware is required, or particular kind of music is required. Any exception in their mind “means you are not one of us and don’t belong here”.

iv) The other extreme is the danger of the Sadducees.

a) The modern “Sadducees” is the view of “don’t take your bible too seriously”. This is the danger where you allegorize the entire bible and refuse to take any part of it seriously.

b) Where the Pharisees pose the danger of being too strict and lack love, the danger of the Sadducees is the danger of too much compassion without any standard for Christian living.

c) You can always tell when you are in a church where Sadducees teaching comes in. This is a church that uses tag lines like “we love everyone just as you are. We will never condemn your actions here. Just come as you are and we will love you just as you are”.

(1) It sounds wonderful and inviting. The only problem is it is not biblical. The bible teaches repentance to come to Jesus. This means the desire to see the sin in your life, say it is wrong and desire to change. It is not about being perfect, it is about seeing the sin in your life and saying I want Jesus to change me.

v) The balance of the Christian life is to understand God’s grace and God’s desire to see people change for the better.

a) One extreme is to focus too much on fixing sin and the other danger is to turn a blind eye to sin.

b) That is the modern danger of the Pharisees and the Sadducees.

c) Remember my opening premise is to “consider the source”.

(1) When someone at church tells you do something, consider the source. Is that person being biblical? Are they having a good balance of God’s grace and God’s requirement for your life? Do they want you to be more like Jesus or more like them?

d) Well, I hate to stop when I’m on a roll, but we have to finish the chapter. J

6. Verse 8: Aware of their discussion, Jesus asked, "You of little faith, why are you talking among yourselves about having no bread? ⁹ Do you still not understand? Don't you remember the five loaves for the five thousand, and how many basketfuls you gathered? ¹⁰ Or the seven loaves for the four thousand, and how many basketfuls you gathered? ¹¹ How is it you don't understand that I was not talking to you about bread? But be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees." ¹² Then they understood that he was not telling them to guard against the yeast used in bread, but against the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

a) In this story, Jesus warned the disciples of the “yeast” (or “leaven”) of the Pharisees and the Sadducees. The disciples misunderstood what Jesus was teaching and thought Jesus was talking about literal bread.

i) Jesus had to remind them about the miracles of the “5,000” and the “4,000”.

ii) Jesus reminded them that when he performed those miracles, the disciples picked up enough leftovers in each case to feed themselves.

iii) Jesus point here is that he is not being literal in this analogy, but Jesus is using a word-picture of how “yeast” is a word-picture of the false-teachings of the Pharisees and the Sadducees.

a) By the way, this section is a reminder of when to take the bible literally and when to take it figuratively.

b) Remember the idiom, “When the plain text makes perfect sense, seek no other sense”. Jesus is saying that his use of “yeast” did not represent literal bread, but false teaching.

c) I take the view to take my bible literally unless the author says so, such as the case here, when Jesus was being figurative.

d) The other time I don’t take my bible literally is when a passage is obviously using a word-picture and a literal translation doesn’t make sense.

b) I can understand why the disciples messed up here. They were hungry.

i) When you are hungry, you think about food.

ii) Even when a teacher gives an idiom or an analogy that is food-related, when you are hungry, you take it literally to be about food and not figuratively as Jesus intended.

c) This is where the practice of fasting comes in. (I bet you didn’t see that coming! J)

i) The purpose of fasting is to say, “You know God, to me you are more important than eating right now. I’m going to take the time I normally dedicate to eat this meal and spend it with you, either in Word-study or in prayer.”

ii) It is the idea that God is more important than your stomach.

iii) There is a lot more to say about fasting, but we’ll save that for another day.

iv) Jesus is trying to get the disciples here to get their minds off of their stomach and unto his teaching.

7. Verse 13: When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, "Who do people say the Son of Man is?"

a) The story now changes. Jesus is now alone with the disciples.

i) “Caesarea Philippi is a Roman-built town about 25 miles north of the Sea of Galilee. It is primary non-Jewish in population.

ii) Jesus probably went here with the disciples to get away from the crowd.

8. Verse 14: They replied, "Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets." ¹⁵ "But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?" ¹⁶ Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."

a) If you read Verse 13 by itself, it appears Jesus is doing a marketing survey. J

i) Jesus is asking the disciples, who do the “people” say that I am?

ii) Jesus is not doing this to devise his strategy on how to teach. This is not a marketing survey!

iii) Jesus is asking that question to see if the disciples are listening to him or to what other people are saying!

a) The application to you and I is “are we using our bible to discover who Jesus is, or are we going by what other people say?”

b) That may sound obvious to us Christians, but you would be surprised the answers that non-believes give.

(1) They derive their beliefs based on some television documentary or something they learned in college or a book.

(2) I have heard many people say, “Well, you can’t trust the bible, it is full of errors”. I ask them to name one, and they say, “Well, that’s what I’ve heard. I don’t know it for myself”.

b) Anyway, the “word-around-town” is that Jesus could be either John the Baptist, or Elijah or