WWUTT 2036 Beware the Leaven of the Pharisees (Matthew 16:1-12)

The Pharisees and Sadducees Demand a Sign from Heaven

Jesus said to his disciples, beware the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees. Beware of their teaching, for even a little bit of their false teaching will corrupt the good message of truth when we understand the text.

Many of the Bible stories and verses we think we know, we don't. When we understand the text is committed to teaching sound doctrine and rebuking those who contradict it. Visit our website at www .wutt .com.

Here once again is Pastor Gabe.

Thank you, Becky, and greetings, everyone. This week in our study of the Gospel of Matthew, we're up to chapter 16, and I'm gonna begin by reading through the first 12 verses out of the Legacy Standard Bible.

Hear the word of the Lord. And the Pharisees and Sadducees came, and testing him, they asked him to show them a sign from heaven. But he replied to them, when it is evening, you say it will be fair weather, for the sky is red.

And in the morning, there will be a storm today, for the sky is red and threatening. Do you know how to discern the appearance of the sky, but cannot discern the signs of the times? An evil and adulterous generation eagerly seeks for a sign, and a sign will not be given it except the sign of Jonah.

And he left them and went away. And coming to the other side of the sea, the disciples had forgotten to bring bread. And Jesus said to them, watch out and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

Now they began to discuss this among themselves saying, he said that because we did not bring bread. But Jesus aware of this said, you men of little faith, why do you discuss among yourselves that you have no bread?

Do you not yet understand or remember the five loaves of the 5 ,000 and how many baskets full you picked up? Or the seven loaves of the 4 ,000 and how many large baskets full you picked up? How is it that you do not understand that I did not speak to you concerning bread, but beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

Then they understood that he did not say to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees. So we have the Pharisees and Sadducees mentioned together here and they were not often together.

They were in the Sanhedrin together, which was where matters of law were decided among the people. The Pharisees were more blue collar kinds of theologians. Sure, they were rulers in the synagogue, but they worked the physical labor jobs even among the people.

The people really liked the Pharisees, all things considered, but the Sadducees were more the upper echelon. They rubbed shoulders with the Herods and with the Romans, and they were appointed to these authoritative positions because of the money they had and because of the political power that they kept fellowship with.

The Sadducees, it was from the Sadducees that the high priest would be decided. And in addition to there being class separation between the Pharisees and Sadducees, there were also theological differences.

The Pharisees believed in life after death, but the Sadducees did not. They denied the resurrection of the dead. Now, after the destruction of the temple in 70 AD, the Sadducees came to an end. There wasn't anything to gain from being a Sadducee anymore.

And since they were of like a richer class, then there was no value in becoming part of the Sanhedrin. So the Sadducees went away. The Pharisees continued after the destruction of the temple, and you had that post-temple rabbinic period that helped to preserve some of the Jewish writings and teachings about that period of time, but all of that was beyond Christ, of course.

They did not see that Jesus was the son of God, so they did not worship Christ or honor him as God, but their teachings just became further and further unbiblical from that point on. You had quite a divergence in Jewish teaching beyond the destruction of the temple.

It was even worse than what the Pharisees were teaching prior to the destruction of the temple, even during the time of Christ. So you have Pharisees and Sadducees here that don't get along together all that well, but here they conspire together against Jesus.

If there was one thing that they were of like-mindedness on, it was that they hated Jesus together. And you see the Pharisees and Sadducees mentioned in the beginning and the end of this particular passage.

It's just really like the first three words, the Pharisees and Sadducees, and the last three words mentioning the Pharisees and Sadducees. And in the middle here, you have Jesus rebuke of them again and saying, no sign will be given except the sign of Jonah, but taking the opportunity to teach his disciples to beware of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

And that's really what this leads to when you get to the end of verse 12. This is a story that progresses and ultimately ends with this warning against the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees or any kind of teaching that would go beyond the word of God.

Those that will not accept the signs of God, they want signs on their own terms, and nor do they pay attention to the word of God. They want laws and regulations on their own terms. So let's consider this together again, as we come back to verse one, and the Pharisees and Sadducees came and testing him, they asked him, Jesus, to show them a sign from heaven.

So they're specifically saying, give us a sign, and they want to see a sign from heaven. They don't care about these other signs that have to do with healing the people. Those things that were charitable that Jesus did, those clear, obvious miracles that he was performing in healing sicknesses and diseases and restoring withered limbs and whatnot, even raising the dead, had been witnessed by members of the Sanhedrin.

In his commentary on this particular section, Matthew Henry says the following, the Pharisees and Sadducees were opposed to each other in principles and in conduct, yet they joined against Christ, but they desired a sign on their own choosing.

They despised those signs, which relieved the necessity of the sick and sorrowful, and called for something else which would gratify the curiosity of the proud. It is great hypocrisy when we slight the signs of God's ordaining to seek for signs of our own devising.

And so you see the hypocritical nature even of the Pharisees and Sadducees here. But there's a certain sense in which I do relate to what the Pharisees and Sadducees are calling for, what they are challenging Jesus on, show us a sign from heaven.

Now, of course, they're approaching this with much more hypocrisy than I believe that I had at the time that I was asking God for signs from heaven. They're asking Jesus this because they don't think he's really gonna produce a sign from heaven.

They're trying to ask him this question in view of the people, so that the people will come back to their side. Yeah, if you are the one who is promised in the scriptures by the prophets and the law, then shouldn't you be able to show us some kind of sign from heaven to affirm that you are who you are?

Of course, a sign had already been given from heaven. It was the voice of the father saying, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. So that sign had indeed already been given, whether or not the Pharisees and Sadducees were there to hear it.

But they're challenging Jesus in the midst of the people so that the people will see that Jesus cannot manifest this sign from heaven, and therefore they will turn away from him and go back to the Pharisees and Sadducees.

There was a time in my life I was asking God for signs, but that wasn't my motivation. It wasn't a catch -22. It wasn't that I didn't think God could not show me a sign. I really believed that he could, and I wanted my faith to be strengthened.

So I was asking God, can you show me a sign from heaven? And then I would believe, and I would believe all the more. This was when I was about 18, 19 years old. I was asking God this. I was asking for a favor, some kind of sign from heaven that would bolster my faith.

But then I came to the scriptures and I was studying the scriptures, and I was studying about signs and miracles, especially in the book of Exodus, because I loved Exodus, reading about the burning bush, God speaking to Moses.

And I envied that story because I wanted God to speak to me that way. Can I see a burning bush and hear the voice of God like that? And then the plagues of Egypt, that seemed pretty frightening to me, but maybe I could see something like the Red Sea part, or God speak through a cloud or something to that degree.

Can God show me something, some miraculous sign beyond the natural that would help to strengthen my faith? But I noticed something as I was reading through this, especially in the book of Exodus, that the Israelites saw these miracles and more, way more than I was even asking God to show me.

They heard the voice of God himself speaking from the mountain when he had descended upon Mount Sinai. And yet they were terrified and frightened and wanted to go back to the arrangement where Moses went up on the mountain to talk to God and then came back and told the people what God said.

When Moses goes up on the mountain to receive the law, the people turn around and what do they start doing? They make and worship a golden calf. They saw all of these signs and wonders that had been performed before their very eyes.

And did it strengthen their faith?

No.

And that was something I recognized as I was reading the scriptures. I'm asking God for a sign, believing that it would strengthen my faith when the reality is, the Israelites saw so much more than that.

And yet they doubted and perished in the wilderness. And Paul talks about this in 2 Corinthians and we read about it in Hebrews. Don't make the same mistakes that they made out in the wilderness, where they saw these signs, but doubted God and they perished there.

They disobeyed God and he did not bring them into the promised land. And so the word of God that I had in front of me was enough for my faith. I began to realize that. I began to understand that. And that these examples that were given to us of the Israelites who had witnessed these signs and yet they did not believe.

I should not be so proud to think of myself as somebody who would be strengthened in my faith if I could see such signs. The word of God is sufficient. It is everything that I need. Everything I need for life and godliness to grow in Christ likeness is right here in the word.

The Pharisees and Sadducees were given opportunities to see great signs and wonders, but they did not believe them. They doubted and they challenged Jesus and demanded of him to manifest a sign or a wonder on their own terms.

But Jesus likely knows their hearts that he's not gonna show them such a sign. He knows that even if he gave them this kind of sign, they wouldn't believe anyway. We read previously in Matthew that when Jesus was healing in his own hometown of Nazareth, that he could do no mighty work there.

Instead, he just healed a few sick people. Couldn't do a mighty work there in the sense that no matter what he did, the people were not gonna believe that he is the Messiah, that he is the son of God that was sent to them for the forgiveness of sins, by the sacrifice, his death upon the cross that was coming up.

Jesus knew that no matter what he did for this people, they were not gonna believe. And so he says to them, and this in view of the people that are around the Pharisees and Sadducees so that they might learn something from Jesus' teaching.

He replied and said, when it is evening, you say, it will be fair weather for the sky is red. And in the morning, there will be a storm today for the sky is red and threatening. What is Jesus referring to?

I mean, he's using natural revelation here, but what's he pointing to basically? He's pointing to heaven. You know how to look for signs in heaven. You know how to discern the appearance of the sky, he says, but you cannot discern the signs of the times.

A sign has already been given to you. It's in the word of God. And if you were actually reading the word of God and understood what it said, then you would know who I am. That's what Jesus is saying to them.

Remember going back to the beginning of Matthew, back in chapter two, you had the Magi who came saying, where is he who has been born King of the Jews? For we saw his star in the east and we've come to worship him.

And the people in Jerusalem had no idea what they were talking about. So much so that Herod had to consult his own wise men to say, what are these people talking about? And they said, oh yeah, there is a prophecy concerning a King who is coming.

And it says that he's gonna be born in Bethlehem. The Jews themselves did not understand the signs of the times. These pagan men from a foreign land had been reading the same scriptures, those scriptures that had been left behind by Daniel and other Hebrews during the time of the exile.

They had those scriptures. They read those scriptures and they knew that a King was to be born. And God placed a star in the sky to guide them to that city, to the town of Bethlehem, where the King of the Jews was born.

The Magi understood the scriptures, but the people to whom Jesus was born did not understand the scriptures. This is an indictment against the Pharisees and Sadducees for Jesus to say, you cannot discern the sign of the times.

The signs have already been given to you. The indication has been given in God's word and you don't know it. And so Jesus goes on to say something that he said previously back in chapter 12, an evil and adulterous generation eagerly seeks for a sign and a sign will not be given it except the sign of Jonah.

And he left them and went away. You know, even as I was reading this in our opening reading, you might've been thinking, didn't we hear this already? Yeah, it was same thing that came up back in chapter 12.

You do see some parallels like this in Matthew. Matthew will repeat things, showing that Jesus said these things over and over to various people and yet they did not believe, they did not understand. Now the difference between this statement here and what Jesus said back in chapter 12 is in chapter 12 when Jesus said that no sign will be given except for the sign of Jonah, he actually explained what he meant there.

But here coming to this occasion in which he gives that same response, he doesn't explain it because he doesn't have to, he's already explained it. And yet the Pharisees and Sadducees refused to believe.

Remember what Jesus said back in chapter 12. He said that an evil and adulterous generation eagerly seeks for a sign just as he said here, and yet no sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah the prophet.

For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so will the son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will stand up with this generation at the judgment and will condemn it because they repented at the preaching of Jonah and behold something greater than Jonah is here.

This was quite offensive to the Pharisees and Sadducees for Jesus to say that no sign will be given to this generation but the sign of Jonah. Because to the Jews, Jonah was a prophet to the pagans. Jonah went to Nineveh.

He's not a prophet to the Jews, he's a prophet to pagans. And so for Jesus to say, you get the sign of the prophet Jonah is to say to them, you are just as far from God as the pagan men of Nineveh were.

And as said back in chapter 12, even those men are gonna rise up at the judgment because they repented, they believed in God. God granted mercy to them. And at the judgment, Ninevites are gonna be there condemning you.

It's the same sign that you should be believing in but you don't. And so you're even worse off than these pagans. And so that's really part one of chapter 16, part two is where Jesus goes away with his disciples and warns them about the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

Beware the Leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees

Coming to the other side of the sea, the disciples had forgotten to bring bread and Jesus said to them, watch out and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees. This is like Jesus, we've seen him do this before where he takes an example from something that's right there with them, right there around them, something that would have been familiar to the disciples and turn a lesson out of it.

They don't have bread. They're talking about bread. They've seen a lot of bread because where are we reading this story in the placement in Matthew's gospel? This is right after Jesus feeding the 4 ,000.

That was at the end of chapter 15. Previously, we read about Jesus feeding the 5 ,000 and he brings up those two miracles here with the disciples after they began to discuss this among themselves saying, he said that because we did not bring any bread.

And Jesus aware of this said, you men of little faith, why do you discuss among yourselves that you have no bread given that this was not long after the feeding of the 4 ,000? And remember how many baskets full they had left over after feeding 4 ,000.

There were seven large baskets full, but the disciples didn't bring any bread with them. So it's likely that they had taken those seven baskets and then dispersed what was left over to those who were poor or those who were needy in the towns and villages and things like that.

They didn't save any for themselves. So they don't have any rations to be eating during their journey. And they're talking about being hungry. And Jesus uses their hunger to teach them this lesson. Just because you're hungry, don't let that mean that you start gobbling up any morsel that's set in front of you.

Beware the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees. And the disciples say, well, he said this to us because we didn't bring any bread. But Jesus aware of this says, why do you discuss among yourselves that you have no bread?

It says you have little faith. Why does Jesus address them that way? You men of little faith. Well, he explains verses nine and 10. Do you not yet understand or remember the five loaves of the 5 ,000 and how many baskets full you picked up or the seven loaves of the 4 ,000 and how many large baskets full you picked up?

So remember when Jesus fed the 4 ,000, it was like the disciples even forgot about what had happened with the 5 ,000. How are we gonna feed all these people? We just have seven loaves here. Jesus divides up the seven loaves and the few small fish and he feeds 4 ,000 men, not counting the women and children.

They were also fed, but they just weren't part of the number. When we read 4 ,000, it was 4 ,000 men. So Jesus likely fed 10 ,000 people with seven loaves and a few small fish. They've seen this miracle done twice now.

And Jesus says you have little faith to say to them, don't you know that I can take care of you? If you're hungry, I'll provide for you.

You know this.

How many baskets full did you pick up when I fed 5 ,000 and then when I fed 4 ,000? You know that I can give you bread and I'm not gonna let you go hungry and starve. You're missing the point. Verse 11, how is it that you do not understand that I did not speak to you concerning bread, but beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees?

Then they understood that he did not say to beware of the leaven of bread. Why would you beware of the leaven of bread? Unless you intended to eat unleavened bread, there's nothing wrong with leaven, but rather what Jesus was warning them about was the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

This is an illustration we see come up multiple times in the scriptures. Paul uses it in 1 Corinthians 5 to talk about those who are evil in your midst that you won't remove from the church, but you allow them to be there and then they pollute the rest of the church.

Purge the evil person from among you. Cleanse out the old leaven so that you will be a new lump of bread is the illustration Paul uses in the instruction that he gives to the Corinthians. If you put leaven in bread, then the whole lump of dough is leavened.

So if you're intending to make unleavened bread, but you get a little bit of leaven in there, all the dough is leavened. And the leaven that's being talked about here is most likely like sourdough. It is a piece of fermented bread.

If it gets in contact with the dough, that is being made for unleavened bread, well, then that whole lump of dough becomes leaven because it came in contact with a little bit of fermented dough, then the whole dough is leavened.

So using that illustration, Jesus says, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees. You get into even a little bit of it, it will pollute your entire teaching. Don't listen to those who will not receive God's word, but they go on puffed up without reason by their own sensuous minds, is an instruction Paul gives to the church.

He said to Timothy, don't let anyone teach any different doctrine or pay attention to myths and endless genealogies which give rise to mere speculation rather than furthering the stewardship of God, which is by faith.

Remain firm, fixed in the gospel, the word of God. Know what it is that God has said, and this is what brings salvation, what grows in godliness, what raises the dead to life, what will transfer you from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light, that keeps you walking in the light as he is in the light, that grows you in Christ likeness.

It is the true word of God. We come to understand the will of God and what it means to live in such a way that is pleasing to the Lord when we read his word. The Pharisees and Sadducees had gone beyond that.

They did not understand the word enough to know that the Messiah had come, and nor were they even teaching the word to the people that the people would know that the Messiah had come or even what God was expecting of them.

Beware the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees. And my friends, there's all kinds of teaching going around in the world today that we need to be aware of as well. Time escapes me to go through many examples, but most of the teaching in most of evangelical churches in America today is false.

Most of it is false. Know the word of God, know what the scripture says, hold fast to this and test all things according to it. Beware the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees, still abundant in this adulterous generation even today.

The Sufficiency of God's Word Over Signs and Wonders

Heavenly Father, teach us your word. Let us be fixed upon your truth, not turning to the left or to the right, but we love who you are, we love what you have said. We do not try to separate God from his word.

For as is said in Psalm 138 too, I bow down toward your holy temple and give thanks to your name for your steadfast love and faithfulness, for you have exalted above all things your name and your word.

Teach us your word and keep us obedient to it, we ask in Jesus name, amen.

Pastor Gabe is the author of several books and Bible studies, available in paperback or for your e-reader. For titles and more information, visit our website at www .wutt .com. Join us again tomorrow as we grow together in God's word when we understand the text.