(Conflicts, Confession, and the Cost of Discipleship)
Matthew 16:1-28, Mark 8:27-30, Luke 9:18-21, Luke 14:25-33
Summary: In this chapter, the Lord Jesus will yet again confront the Pharisees and Sadducees for their religious hypocrisy, and Peter will confess that Jesus is the Son of God, which is the rock upon which the church will be built.
After feeding the 4,000 residents of the Decapolis, Jesus and His disciples traveled to the region of Magdala near the city of Caesarea Philippi. It is here where the Pharisees and Sadducees came together for the specific purpose of bringing down Jesus. Their mutual contempt for Him had woven them together into an evil common bond. What did these two groups of religious leaders believe?
The Pharisees believed in the coming of God’s Promised Messiah, the existence of angels and demons, supernatural powers, and the might and power of God. They were strict adherents to the Law of Moses found in the first five books of the Bible. Their interpretation of the Law bordered on fanaticism in their attempts to avoid anything that might violate it. They believed that all Scripture was from God. The problem was that God was there in the person of Jesus Christ, and they were too blind to notice.
The Sadducees were the religious liberals of the day. They believed that the five Books of Moses (Genesis-Deuteronomy) were the only legitimate Scripture. They rejected all forms of supernaturalism, including the existence of angels and demons, and did not believe in an afterlife. They taught that this world was where you received any blessing from God. Any idea of a Messiah was purely political with no religious significance for Israel. They were supportive of the occupying forces of Rome and did not want to upset the situation. They were like the Pharisees in that they were also blind to the obvious when it came to the person and work of Jesus.
While both groups clamored for “signs” from Jesus to show that He was from God, the truth is that they closed their hearts and minds to Him by this point. They chose to be willfully and deliberately blind and ignorant of the visible and undeniable work of God done by Jesus. They could discern the signs of changing weather, but not the signs of God’s presence and power. Their character was a visible symbol of casting the pearls of the Gospel to pigs, content to wallow in the dung and mud of their own stubborn unbelief. He would not waste His time or effort on them. He rightfully called them out for their wickedness and spiritual adultery. He chose to leave them with the “sign of Jonah,” a reference to His inevitable death, burial, and resurrection. Afterwards, He left them, a painful and eternal sign of their coming destruction.
Verses 5-12 describe Jesus’ departure from Galilee. Matthew writes here that they had forgotten to take bread for the trip. Jesus told them to beware of what He referred to as the “leaven” of the Pharisees and Sadducees. Unfortunately, the listening skills of the disciples had waned. They thought that Jesus was upset over the fact that they had forgotten to bring bread for the trip. One can imagine the Lord sighing and shaking in frustration and disbelief. If the Pharisees’ request for a sign despite the obvious work of Jesus among them constituted as dumb, then the disciples were acting dumber, thinking that physical bread was somehow the centerpiece of discussion.
Jesus expressed His frustration in a blunt manner, accusing them of having little faith. They had seen Him feeding 5,000 men, not including women and children. He had done the same for 4,000 people just a while before. Creating food was no problem for Him. That was not the point. Jesus had taken little and turned it into plenty. He had healed the sick, taught the Word to the crowds, and performed authentic miracles for God’s glory and shown that He was the Messiah promised by God to His people Israel. What had the Pharisees produced? Miracles? Teaching from the Scriptures? Healing the sick? Did they proclaim the coming of the Kingdom of God?
The only things they had done were to continually attack Jesus and accuse Him of doing the work of the devil, giving Him nothing but trouble. Their leaven produced a rise of nothing but evil and sorrow. What Jesus had told the disciples was a warning to stay away from these hypocrites and false teachers. They understood at that point. They would meet these reprobates after Jesus ascended to heaven (Acts 1:8-11). They would receive the wrath of their rotten harvest and pay a price for their devotion and faithfulness to Jesus.
What type of leaven are you producing in your life? Are you playing some sort of religious game to somehow merit favor with God? It doesn’t work that way, friend. The Bible says that our righteousness is nothing but a filthy leper’s rag in His sight (Isaiah 64:6; Romans 3:23). The only way that we can be made righteous before God and be permanently cleansed of our wickedness is to repent of our sins and trust in Jesus Christ alone for salvation (John 14:6; Acts 4:12; Romans 5:6-11, 6:23, 1:9-10). Our leaven produces nothing but a rancid harvest of pride and evil that leads to eternal hell from which there is no exit (Hebrews 9:27; Revelation 20:11-15). Turn to Jesus today.
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