“The Leaven of the Pharisees”
(Matthew 16:1-12)
Series: God’s Fulfilled Promise [on screen]
Rev. Matthew C. McCraw, EdD
First Baptist Church, Bartow, Florida
December 1, 2019
The Passage
Matthew 16:1-12
1 The Pharisees and Sadducees approached, and tested him, asking him to show them a sign from heaven. 2 He replied, “When evening comes you say, ‘It will be good weather because the sky is red.’ 3 And in the morning, ‘Today will be stormy because the sky is red and threatening.’ You know how to read the appearance of the sky, but you can’t read the signs of the times. 4 An evil and adulterous generation demands a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah.” Then he left them and went away.
5 The disciples reached the other shore, and they had forgotten to take bread. 6 Then Jesus told them, “Watch out and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”
7 They were discussing among themselves, “We didn’t bring any bread.”
8 Aware of this, Jesus said, “You of little faith, why are you discussing among yourselves that you do not have bread? 9 Don’t you understand yet? Don’t you remember the five loaves for the five thousand and how many baskets you collected? 10 Or the seven loaves for the four thousand and how many large baskets you collected? 11 Why is it you don’t understand that when I told you, ‘Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees,’ it wasn’t about bread?” 12 Then they understood that he had not told them to beware of the leaven in bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.
Introductory Comments:
Here we are, continuing our series in the Gospel of Matthew. This is our last message in Matthew for a few weeks. Next week we will start a series called, “Celebrate the Joy of Jesus.”
At the end of chapter 15, after Jesus finished feeding the crowd in the Gentile Decapolis region, He headed back into the land of the Jewish people, to the city of Magadan, which most believe to be the same city as Magdala, where Mary Magdalen was from. I don’t have the map today, but remember, the Decapolis is on the southeastern (or bottom right) side of the Sea of Galilee. Magadan is on the northwest (or top left) side of the Sea of Galilee. All that to say, generally speaking, when Jesus is on the west side of the sea, He is in Jewish territory; when He is on the east side of the sea, He’s in Gentile territory.
So, here Jesus is, back in Jewish territory, and who is waiting for Him? The Pharisees and Sadducees.
The Pharisees and Saduducees were two different groups of Jewish religious devotees. They were quite different in their beliefs and practices.
These two groups may have been divided in many of their beliefs but they were united in this: their opposition to Jesus. They did not like Jesus and the wanted to stop Him.
This brings us to today’s passage.
Let’s pray together and ask God to guide us as we journey through this passage.
(prayer)
Today, we have just two points. However, these are two powerful points. Two things for which we need to be looking.
First, . . .
I. Be aware of the signs. (1-4) [on screen]
If you’ve been with us for any amount of time in the book of Matthew, you know that the religious leaders are always trying to trip up Jesus. They never seem to learn their lesson.
Here they are, at it again.
They are wanting some definitive proof that Jesus really is sent by God. They want a sign!
Let’s see what’s going on. Look at verses 1-4.
1 The Pharisees and Sadducees approached, and tested him, asking him to show them a sign from heaven. 2 He replied, “When evening comes you say, ‘It will be good weather because the sky is red.’ 3 And in the morning, ‘Today will be stormy because the sky is red and threatening.’ You know how to read the appearance of the sky, but you can’t read the signs of the times. 4 An evil and adulterous generation demands a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah.” Then he left them and went away.
The Pharisees and the Sadducees say that they want to see a sign from heaven in order to know for sure that Jesus is sent from God.
They’ve basically implying that they’ve seen a lot of signs, but they want to see a major sign, a real sign, a sign from heaven.
Some believe that when they say “a sign from heaven,” that they actually mean a sign in the sky; something everyone can see!
The truth of the matter is that Jesus has already proved Himself as Messiah in numerous ways, but the Pharisees and Sadducees don’t see it because they have blind spiritual eyes, deaf spiritual ears, and hard spiritual hearts.
They don’t see it, even though they should.
Some of us don’t see Jesus at work because we can’t see properly, spiritually speaking.
Jesus says you can look at the sky and easily interpret what is happening in the natural world.
He says, a red sky in the evening means nice weather tomorrow. A red sky in the morning means rough weather today.
My three-year-old son can even interpret things based on the natural sky. I’ll tell him that it’s time for bed and he’ll say that he doesn’t want to go to sleep. I’ll say, “Let’s look outside and see what the sky looks like.” He’ll say, “It’s dark, Daddy.” “What does that mean?” “It’s time to sleep,” he’ll say. “That’s right,” I’ll say.
Even a child can interpret signs in the sky.
The religious leaders could interpret signs in the natural world, but they were missing the supernatural signs that were right in front of them. They couldn’t read the signs of the times.
Remember, when the disciples of John the Baptizer came to ask if Jesus was the Messiah, Jesus basically responded, “Look at the evidence: people are being healed, miracles are happening, God is at work.” Now, Jesus is basically saying to the Pharisees and Sadducees, “The evidence is right before you!”
Even though these men demanded another sign, Jesus says that He will not cater to this evil and adulterous generation who demands a sign on their terms which suits their evil skeptic hearts.
Here’s a biblical demand for us, church: don’t be like the the Pharisees and Sadducees. Be aware of the signs. Be aware of what God is showing us in the Bible, what He has shown in history, what He is showing through the natural world, and what He is showing as He works supernaturally in our individual lives.
Be aware of the signs. See Jesus at work. Know that He is, indeed, Messiah. Know that He is God.
Jesus says that He will provide one sign for them: the sign of Jonah.
Jesus will be like Jonah, in that, as Jonah was in the belly of the fish for three days, Jesus will be in the belly of the earth for three days; as Jonah came back to the earth from the fish, Jesus came back to life and back to the earth through the resurrection; as an entire city was able to repent of their sins following Jonah’s preaching, the entire world would have access to the forgiveness of Jesus Christ following Jesus’ ascension into heaven and the founding of the church of Jesus Christ, powered by God’s Holy Spirit.
Yet, many of the Jewish people and religious leaders would still not believe at the sign of Jonah shown in Jesus’ life because they were unable to see. They didn’t see the signs.
Be aware of the signs. See Jesus at work, trust Him, believe in Him, and follow Him.
Second, . . .
II. Be wary of false teaching. (5-12) [on screen]
Jesus and His disciples left the Pharisees and Sadducees thinking about what He said and they went on their way.
They went to the other shore and Jesus began to debrief what had just happened.
Let’s see what happened, ourselves. Look at verses 5-12.
5 The disciples reached the other shore, and they had forgotten to take bread. 6 Then Jesus told them, “Watch out and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”
7 They were discussing among themselves, “We didn’t bring any bread.”
8 Aware of this, Jesus said, “You of little faith, why are you discussing among yourselves that you do not have bread? 9 Don’t you understand yet? Don’t you remember the five loaves for the five thousand and how many baskets you collected? 10 Or the seven loaves for the four thousand and how many large baskets you collected? 11 Why is it you don’t understand that when I told you, ‘Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees,’ it wasn’t about bread?” 12 Then they understood that he had not told them to beware of the leaven in bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.
Can we just acknowledge, at this point, there’s a lot of stuff involving bread in the Gospel of Matthew. There’s bread everywhere! They definitely wouldn’t make it on a low-carb diet.
More than that, the disciples are always forgetting to bring lunch for the journey!
Again, they had forgotten to take bread, and Jesus starts to talk about leaven. Jesus probably knew that their minds were always on food. Jesus says, watch out for the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees, and all the disciples can hear is “bread.” Then they think, “Oh no! We didn’t bring bread!”
Jesus then reprimands them for their lack of faith and their misunderstanding.
First of all, Jesus says, “If we need bread, I can make bread. Don’t you remember when I miraculously fed the 5,000 plus and the 4,000 plus? I can handle feeding thirteen of us.”
Second of all, Jesus says, “I’m not even talking about real bread, anyways.”
We can imagine that the disciples may have felt foolish at this point. After these corrections, they understood, in fact, that Jesus was not talking about bread at all
Well, some of us may not really even know what leaven is, or what it does.
Leaven is used in dough to make bread. It’s put into the dough and it makes the bread rise creating a wonderful, fluffy bread.
Here’s the thing about leaven, a little bit can go a long way and can work its way into all of the dough. It has an effect on all of the bread.
Jesus is comparing the false teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees to leaven. He’s saying that the false teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees is very powerful and it can affect everything around it.
He says to watch out for their leaven; watch out for their false teaching, because it is dangerously powerful.
Jesus doesn’t want His disciples, and others, to be led astray by false teaching. He doesn’t want them to be led away from Him by the Pharisees and Sadducees. He’s essentially saying, stay away from those guys; they’re trouble!
Church, be wary of false teaching. It’s out there and it often comes from those who claim to be the ones who are really devoted to God.
In the American church culture there are four main strands of false teaching circulating: liberalism (those who neglect the Bible’s clear teaching on certain topics), legalism (those who add other things to the Bible and require people to follow them in order to meet their religious approval), the Prosperity Gospel (those who twist the Bible to say that if you really love God you’ll be beautiful, healthy, rich, and successful), and what I call religious-political syncretism (those who mix up their religious and political convictions and believe that one has to believe exactly like they do politically in order to be a good Christian).
Watch out for these false teachings and more. They are dangerous and they will lead you away from a genuine relationship with Jesus!
False teaching can work its way through a church or an individual, like yeast in bread. It’s like an infection that brings disease on an otherwise healthy Christian or church. Be wary of false teaching!
Concluding Thoughts:
All of this comes down to an awareness; a spiritual awareness.
This takes us to our bottom line:
Bottom Line: Be spiritually focused. [on screen]
(repeat)
If you are to be aware of spiritual signs and be wary of false teachers, you must be spiritually focused.
Illustration: I recently spent some time in the woods looking for animals. Let me tell you something, you have to be focused while looking for animals in the woods or you will miss them. Sometimes I would just hear a limb moving, or see the hind end of an animal, because I wasn’t focused enough in my looking. I could easily miss seeing something, and I’m sure I missed some, because I definitely was not always focused.
In the same way, you must be focused spiritually! You must be looking for the signs and looking out for false teaching.
You must be in tune with what God is doing.
The Pharisees and Sadducees were off track spiritually.
Don’t be like them.
Be focused with your spiritual eyes.
Do so, in part, by challenging yourself in the following ways:
Weekly Challenge: [on screen]
- Look for signs of God at work. [on screen]
Have your eyes open to see the signs.
Journal about the signs of God in your life.
Pray for God to show you signs of Him working.
Read God’s Word for signs of Him at work throughout history and in your life.
Share with others about the signs of God at work.
- Fill yourself with truth. [on screen]
Forget about the leaven of false teachers. Fill yourself with truth!
Let the leaven of God work its way through all of your life.
Be careful with new revelations and clever books. Let the truth of God permeate your heart, soul, and mind, so that godly truth oozes out of you.
More Bible, more prayer, more godliness, more truth.
Closing:
If you are a follower of Jesus, keep looking to Him. Keep looking for signs of Him at work. Keep seeking truth and fleeing what is false. Recommit yourself to Him this morning.
If you are not a follower of Jesus, become one today. See the signs. He is there, He is Savior, He is God. The world offers false hopes and promises. Jesus offers the real thing. He can save you. He can make you new.
(Gospel presentation)
(closing prayer)
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