The King’s Warning (Matthew 16:1-12)
Notes
Transcript
The King's Warning
Matthew 16:1-12
Sunday, April 13, 2025
Land O’ Lakes Bible Church
Introduction
In April of 2011, a tornado outbreak ripped through the southeastern portion of the United States. Multiple systems of tornadoes would follow similar paths from Tuscaloosa, AL to Dalton, GA, to Chattanooga, TN. Tornado sirens would go off over and over again throughout the day. Warning to take cover as yet another system approached with circulation in the sky.
The storms ripped through town after town, leaving with it devastation. One of the storms that came through Northern Georgia and then into the Chattanooga area with such an eerie feeling. You could see the circulation in the sky and just knew you needed to take shelter from the movement. The warning signs were clear.
Less than 15 miles from where I lived at the time, that storm that I could see circulating, dropped down as an EF-4 tornado destroying homes and lives. One street had a house that remained perfectly standing. The next house was fully intact, but completely blown of its foundation, then the next few houses were completely demolished. Another 15-20 miles up the road where the tornado continued, a house was completely cut in two. The bottom story was intact, but the upper story was gone with only a dresser remaining.
It was a day that is hard to forget. A day in which we were thankful for the signs of the sky and the warnings we received to take cover. Signs and warnings are an important thing, when rightly understood and when rightly used.
And this morning, I want to talk with you about another sign and warning that come from King Jesus himself as we continue our study through the Gospel According to Matthew. Please then take your copy of God’s word and turn with me to Matthew 16:1-12, our sermon passage for this morning. Feel free to use the table of contents if you need it. Or if you do not have your own copy of the Bible, you can find it on page #976 in the Red Pew Bibles there in your seat. Matthew 16:1-12, page #976 in the Red Bibles.
While you are making your way to Matthew 16:1-12, let me give us a running start into our passage. Last week, as we were in Matthew 15:21-39, we saw a glimmer of brightness as Gentiles of all people were receptive to Jesus. They had an understanding of who he was that was absent among the Israelites. For prior to this entering into Gentile territory, Jesus had continually been rejected.
The people would flock to him, be amazed by his teachings, even his miracles. Yet, Jesus was rejected in his own hometown, his opponents were growing more and more hostile, and that will only increase.
Yet, Jesus continues to go about preaching the message, the gospel, of the kingdom of heaven that is at hand. And he continues to teach all of this and do all of this before his disciples. Disciples who still have much to learn, yet who should be learning none the less. Read Matthew 15:39–16:12.
Main Idea: All the proof necessary for right faith in Jesus has been given, therefore we must entrust ourselves to him and him alone.
The Doubters’ Test (Matthew 16:1-4)
The King’s Warning (Matthew 16:5-12)
1. The Doubters’ Test (Matthew 16:1-4)
1. The Doubters’ Test (Matthew 16:1-4)
Jesus, along with his disciples, have just left Gentile territory and now returned to Galilee. They have returned to Israel. And in their return, they have left those who wondered and glorified in exchange for the testing of opposition.
In Matthew 16:1 we are told the Pharisees and Saducees have come for the purpose of testing Jesus. The Pharisees and Saducees are two groups of Jewish leaders who on normal circumstances cannot stand one another. They themselves are in much opposition.
The Pharisees were about both the oral traditions of the elders, as well as the written law. The Sadducees were politicians who accepted nothing but the written law. The Pharisees believed in resurrection. The Sadducees did not. Yet, despite these differences and history of strife, the Pharisees and Sadducees have joined forces. They join forces because of their common enemy, Jesus.
Jesus threatens all that the Pharisees and Sadducees hold dear, especially being allowed to practice their religion as it stands. And so, they combine forces to seek to set a test that will trap Jesus and disprove him as they ask for a sign from heaven.
But instead of a sign, Jesus first challenges them. Look with me at Matthew 16:2-3…
The Pharisees and Sadducees are trained in the writings of the law of God. That is, they are trained in what we presently would call the Old Testament. They were meant to know it and understand it. But they were not trained weathermen.
Neither the Pharisees, nor the Sadducees were trained to read the skies and forecast the weather that is to come. And yet, without any such training, they are able to look at the sky and affirm whether it would be good weather or stormy weather based on the red sky and its timing of day.
And make no mistake here, Jesus commends them as good weathermen, though they lack training. In fact, these Pharisees and Sadducees would likely have made better weathermen than what we often have in our news rooms today.
But there is a problem with this. These two groups could interpret the signs of the sky, despite their lack of training. But they could not interpret the signs of the times in light of their training in the law of God.
The signs of the times being that God’s kingdom is at hand. That is, God’s rule being brought about by God’s agent, among God’s people, in God’s place. A kingdom, a rule that Jesus is bringing about. A rule that is visible in all the mighty works that he has already been doing in overturning everything effected by the curse of sin.
Jesus has shown he is the one bringing God’s rule to earth in his authority over nature and sickness and even death itself. He has shown his rule over creation in being able to make satisfying meals out of little of nothing to feed the multitudes. Time and time again, these signs have been done, some have even been seen by the Pharisees themselves.
Signs that were long foretold would come from the seed of the woman who was long ago promised to come! The Pharisees and Sadducees had missed all these promises from their Bibles and how Jesus was fulfilling them all. They above all should have been able to read the signs of the times, but they could not interpret these signs. They could not interpret them, because they did not rightly seek God and his kingdom. They sought a kingdom of their own. Verse 4…
The request for a sign was denied. And we see here that it is because the Pharisees and Sadducees are an evil and adulterous generation. Both groups are evil. To borrow from J.C. Ryle, “The Pharisees, we are frequently told in the Gospels, were self-righteous formalists. The Sadducees were sceptics, freethinkers, and half infidels.” (1)
Both turned away from the word of God without rightly holding to it. Both were adulterous in turning from the God of the Bible as he revealed himself to pursue a god of their own likeness. And so, no new sign would come to them. The only sign to be had was the sign of Jonah.
Jesus has already pointed to this sign once in confrontation with the Pharisees, along with the scribes. This coming back in Matthew 12:38-42 where these two came asking Jesus for a sign. And the same sign of Jonah was given.
However, in Matthew 12:38-42, the sign is briefly explained, unlike here now in Matthew 16:4. So what is this sign of Jonah, so that all may rightly understand?
The sign of Jonah is the call to remember how Jonah who was swallowed by a great fish and in its belly three days and three nights before being spit out was a foreshadowing of Jesus’ own coming death and resurrection.
For just as Jonah was really swallowed by a fish and three days and three nights in the belly of the fish, Jesus would die on the cross and be buried in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights. But just as Jonah was spit out on the third day, Jesus would rise on the third day, coming out of the tomb. Jesus would rise from the dead and leave an empty tomb.
For the next three weeks, Jesus’ death and resurrection are going to be front and center in our passages. But as we see this only sign to be had is the sign of Jonah, we must understand that Jesus is saying that this is the sign they need to grasp if they truly seek a sign from heaven. A sign that Jesus is truly who he says he is as the Anointed Son of God! The Christ, the Messiah King! They need to see that Jesus will die, but he will also rise victorious over even death itself.
This sign is what they need to now read and rightly interpret if they are to turn from their evil ways and be redeemed and be saved from their transgressions.
And it is this same sign that we too must read and rightly interpret and understand and believe, if we too are to be redeemed and saved from our transgressions.
Some of you are much like this group of Pharisees and Sadducees. You are doubters and skeptics. You keep telling God, show me this and I will believe. Get me out of this mess, and then I will believe. But you have missed continually God’s faithfulness to his promise and the clear sign that Jesus is his only way of redeeming a people to himself.
You miss the sign that Jesus really did die and was raised from the grave. That despite the soldiers and Pharisees attempt to cover it up by spreading a lie, the news went forward. That eyewitnesses truly saw Jesus alive with his nail pierced hands and feet. They touched him. And they were willing to die as they continued to proclaim this.
Friend, the burden of proof lies not on Jesus for your lack of faith. Jesus has given you all the proofs you need to believe. The question for you is whether or not you will actually believe these clear signs that have already been done? Or will you allow the evil and adultery in your heart to finally harden your heart in unbelief?
Beware the danger of a hardening heart, for it may soon harden to the point of this gospel truth never penetrating, just as it is for these Pharisees and Sadducees. For Jesus leaves them with this sharp rebuke and he leaves them. And Jesus may soon leave you in your unbelief due to your hard heart that is resistant and unpenetratable by the message of the gospel. Hear this warning and believe.
As for you, beloved. You who have already repented from your sin and placed your faith in Jesus. Take heart, be encouraged. The sign of Jonah pointed us to what would happen in Jesus’ sacrificial death on the cross and his resurrection. We have a clear sign from heaven that Jesus truly is the Christus Victor who has come! That he has come to bring God’s reign on his people. That he even now is at work turning back the curse of sin and will one day soon come again and fully establish his kingdom once and for all!
However, even as Christians, we must beware this evil and adulterous generation that seeks a sign lest they lead us away into their ways.
2. The King’s Warning (Matthew 16:5-12)
2. The King’s Warning (Matthew 16:5-12)
We are now told in Matthew 16:5 that he disciples, with Jesus, go back across the sea of Galilee. They are right back into Gentile territory and will remain there until Matthew 17:22.
But as they reach the shore, the disciples remember that they have forgotten to bring bread with them. And it causes them concern. And as they are concerned, Jesus gives them a warning using the illustration of leaven. Verse 6…
What Jesus is aiming for and what initially happens are two different things. Jesus aims to warn his disciples to beware the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees. But they completely miss what Jesus is talking about and mistake it as if Jesus is talking about bread. First let us deal with Jesus’ warning. Then we will deal with the disciples misunderstanding.
The King’s Warning
The King’s Warning
Jesus tells his disciples to beware the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees. Now, to ensure we all get this, we see down in Matthew 16:12, that this leaven that Jesus is calling them to beware of is not the leaven of bread. It is the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.
Jerome, a major theological scholar in the early days of the church, wrote, “Leaven has this power that, if mixed with flour, that which seemed small would grow into something larger and draw to its own essence the whole loaf. So too with heretical doctrine, if it tosses even a tiny spark into your heart, in a short time a huge flame grows beneath and draws to itself a person’s entire substance.” (2)
Therefore, Jesus seeks his disciples then and now to beware such leaven that can easily spread and take over the whole. Such false doctrine that diminishes and dismissed Christ for the sake of tradition.
For though the disciples presently follow Jesus, there will be great dangers that lay ahead for them, tempting them to turn from truth to traditions.
Pharisees and Sadducees will always exist. Even in present day. For there is the danger of two extremes. There is the danger of the leaven of self-righteousness and the danger of the leaven of the flesh. Spurgeon writes, “Faith will find them both to be her deadly foes.” (3)
We must always beware the dangers of both extremes! The leaven of self-righteousness upon entering us would lead us to turning from confidence outside of ourselves in Christ alone to trusting in our own flesh, in our own efforts, in our own purity. Such self-righteousness chokes out humility that is called for in the Christian life. And such who are self-righteous will be uncorrectable.
Many such self-righteous men and women are rising in the ranks and if not careful and quick to repent, such will turn further to their own righteousness instead of a righteousness that comes only from Christ.
On the other hand, you have the leaven of the carnal, of the flesh. The leaven that seeks to live by and according to the flesh. A leaven that in its start might be simply chasing after innocent desires. But the longer desires are what leads and controls, those desires will become more evil and lead further and further into fleshly sin. Giving into the cravings of the flesh. The desires of the flesh are a poor god.
We must beware of such leaven, such teaching that leads us away from Christ and Christ alone! This is why we want to persistently labor here at Land O’ Lakes Bible Church to hold the line of Scripture. We do not want to go above that line or below it. For going either way can allow these two types of leaven to enter our midst and affect the entirety of our church body. We must beware!
This is the great warning that King Jesus gives to his disciples, both then and now! Beware such leaven that will fill the whole and destroy!
Yet, because of their circumstances, the disciples completely missed this at first. For they heard the word leaven, and their mind went to their own grumbling bellies.
The Little Faith
The Little Faith
The disciples misunderstood Jesus and show that they still have little faith. We see this as they discuss not having bread in Matthew 16:7. And further as Jesus rebukes them for this. Matthew 16:8…
Jesus does not say they have no faith, but little as it is still weak. To borrow from the book of Hebrews, their faith is weak to the point of still being on spiritual milk instead of meat.
Why is there faith said to be little, and essentially weak? For one they fail to perceive, to understand. We see the question asked at the start of v.9, “Do you not yet perceive?” And then in v.11, we read….
The disciples have been with Jesus long enough now, that they should be able to understand his teaching and his use of analogies and illustrations. They have heard all his teaching, they have seen all his miracles. They are to be growing and maturing to the point of not having to have everything explained again and again.
Part of our discipleship is to be maturing in Christ! To be increasing in our knowledge of God and what it means to follow Jesus! As disciples of King Jesus, we should know more about God, the effects of sin, the depth of what Christ’s atoning work has accomplished for us more this year than we did last.
And the reason for this need to be growing in understanding is to better know our King so that we may more fully follow him in joyful obedience! For the more we know about the length Christ went to in order to redeem us, the more eager we are to please him and serve him in all we do!
A lack of such understanding and growth in understanding though is why the disciples are said to have little faith. For they have not been growing to understand and grasp this.
The second reason they are told they have little faith is their forgetfulness in the midst of failing to understand. For at the very least, the disciples should have remembered what Jesus has done in the feeding of the 5,000 and again in the feeding of the 4,000.
Jesus points this out there in v.9-10. The disciples have quickly forgotten who is with them and what Jesus has already done. They are forgetful to remember that Jesus is the Sovereign Lord who provides for and cares for those who come to him. That compassion runs freely out of his very heart. Jesus is able to provide for them in their lack of bread. They need not worry, only remember!
Beloved, maybe bread is not what you are worried about like these 12. But worry about something is feeling your heart and mind. Let me encourage you to remember who it is that has promised to be with us, as his disciples. That Jesus has promised that he will never leave us or forsake us. And so, we can remember that he will care for and provide for us in our need. The disciples only needed to have remembered, and so do we as Christians!
Little Faith not abandoned
Little Faith not abandoned
The disciples were challenged for their little faith, but they did eventually come to understand what Jesus was talking about. They eventually came to see the leaven was not about bread, but the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees. And though they were slow, Jesus did not abandon them in the process. All who persevere, even sluggishly with Jesus by the smallest amount of faith in him, will be saved.
Therefore, no matter how immature your faith is, how weak, how little, take heart! Presuming your faith is a faith in Jesus and Jesus alone for salvation. For the smallest and weakest faith, if it perseveres, is a saving faith! Jesus will not leave and abandon those who are seeking to rest in him!
Hallelujah! What a Savior! What a King who has come to bring God’s rule and who goes to such lengths to not only save us through his death and resurrection, but who further cares for us in warning us and then being patient with us in our sluggish following.
Let’s pray…
