Series: All!
Scripture: Matthew 16:1-12
Title: “How to Avoid Making Bad Bread” (Mikey Brannon)
Bottom line: We avoid making bad bread by remembering that God can, God cares and therefore by heading his warnings.
Discussion questions for group and personal study.
Reflect and Discuss
1. How does self-righteousness blind us to Christ?
2. If Jesus performed signs in His ministry, why was it wrong for the Pharisees and Sadducees to request signs?
3. How is self-denial different from works-righteousness?
Final Questions (optional or in place of above)
What is God saying to you right now?
What are you going to do about it?
Find our sermons, podcasts, discussion questions and notes at https://www.gracetoday.net/podcast
Q. What do I want you to know?
A. Jesus invites you to come and feast with him and his family by grace through faith.
Q. Why?
A. To empower us to save, satisfy and serve all peoples of all nations.
Q. What do I want you to do?
A. Accept his invitation by faith.
Q. Why?
A. So that you’ll be propelled to save, satisfy and serve your neighbors.
Mikey’s notes
JANUARY 22, 2023
Bad Bread
Grace Christian Fellowship
FALLEN CONDITION FOCUS
Because our flesh weak, we are susceptible to influences that can corrupt our beliefs and our discipleship.
INTRODUCTION
Please turn in your Bible to Matthew 16:1-12. It is an honor to be up here this morning. Thanks to Darien, and to such a gracious and loving church family to allow me to share with you this week.
Let us just have a word of prayer.
When Brooke and I were just married, we were in college, and we lived in a manufactured home in North Alabama. And back then we were young and all I can remember is we could sleep for days back then. There were no kids to wake us up, and on Saturday morning after we had worked all week in the day, and went to school at night when Saturday rolled around we would just sleep until lunchtime.
But on this Saturday there was a bout of severe tornadoes that were working their way through our town. And we rented the “land” our house was on from an elderly couple across the street. Very sweet people, they had a house with a foundation, and they even had a storm cellar that they always said we were welcome to use. And on that morning, all the weather radios were blaring in the town, and the sirens on top of the water tower were blaring. And the TV was flashing red because guess what there was, a Tornado warning. All morning long, just tornado after tornado. And guess what Brooke and I were doing. Yep, sleeping. Not a care in the world. And across the street that elderly couple who could see our house from the cellar they were in were just worried sick, because we were not heading any of the… warnings.
We are familiar with warnings in our day and age. We get them all the time. You may see a tornado warning, hurricane warning, you may get a warning from you car regarding your engine temperature or something like that. But what we really don’t expect to see is a warning about bread. Today I want to talk to you about just such a warning that Jesus gave his disciples after an encounter with his disciples.
I. The Unreachable Moment
We know from Chapter 15 that Jesus is on the West side of the Sea of Galilee in a place called Magadan. And when they arrive they approached by 2 groups of people.
[Mat 16:1 ESV] 1 And the Pharisees and Sadducees came, and to test him they asked him to show them a sign from heaven.
Pharisees and Sadducees came
At first glance this may remind you of what we saw back Matthew 12:38. In fact, Jesus is going to give this group the same answer that he gave those guys. But there is something different here. We now have not scribes, but Sadducees.
We know the Pharisees right. They were the keepers of the law. They were religious leaders who made sure everybody was following the rules. They would be considered the “right wing” of the Jewish religion. These legalist as we have discussed “added to Scripture” all sorts of rules and regulations.
The Sadducees were sort of like the Jewish elite. They were the upper class, and generally worked in the care of the temple (corruption) and held positions like high priest or chief priest. They had very different beliefs than the Pharisees. For instance they really didn’t believe in anything supernatural. They didn’t believe in miracles. They didn’t believe in resurrection. They sort of spiritualized all of scripture so that it was basically just meaningless. They took away from Scripture because they only believed in the first 5 books of the Bible.
So one group of Scripture adders, another group of Scripture subtractors. These 2 groups did not get along very well at all. But they are united in our text today in their hatred toward Jesus, and their commitment to try to expose him as a fraud.
test him they asked him to show them a sign from heaven.
The motivation for this request is evil. We have seen already that Jesus has produced numerous undeniable miracles. In fact if you recall in Matthew 12:24, that when Jesus cleansed a demon-oppressed man they said that the miracle was in fact performed was performed by the power of Satan. So we know that even when faced with overwhelming evidence of Jesus’ deity they will not believe. They are spiritually blind and spiritually dead.
In Matthew 12 they asked for a “sign”, but here they as for something more, they ask for a “sign from heaven”. Bible scholars tell us that some in this day had the belief that Satan could do a miracle on the ground, but only God could do a miracle in the sky or in the heavens. So they want something grand.
Now don’t miss this. They are looking for a sign from heaven, when THE sign from heaven is standing in front of them
[Luk 2:34 NIV] 34 Then Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother: "This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against,
And now we see from Luke that in denying him as a sign from heaven fulfills the words and fulfills this prophecy from Simeon so many years ago.
II. They Lack Vision to See
[Mat 16:2-3 ESV] 2 He answered them, "When it is evening, you say, 'It will be fair weather, for the sky is red.'
3 And in the morning, 'It will be stormy today, for the sky is red and threatening.' You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times.
As you might expect, Jesus does not grant the request to perform a sign for the Pharisees and Sadducees. Instead he draws their attention to their Spiritual Blindness.
This saying that we read Jesus saying is one that you are likely familiar with even today. “Red sky at night, sailors delight, red sky in the morning sailors warning.” The saying can even be traced back to shepherds in this day who applied the saying to their occupation in a similar way.
I think its first of all kind of funny. In a way, Jesus says, you are better meteorologist than you are theologians. The problem is that they were supposed to be experts on theology not on weather, but Jesus says your theology is so bad, perhaps you should stick to being a weather man.
I suspect that Jesus has something in mind when he makes this statement. In order for them to discern the weather, they had to utilize one of their five senses right. We see in verse three the word “red”. In order for them to discern what the weather would be they needed to be able to SEE the sky.
[Mat 15:14 ESV] 14 Let them alone; they are blind guides. And if the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit."
I think Jesus is pointing out that they have the vision to see the physical world, but when it comes to His Kingdom, when it comes to Him, they may as well not even have eyeballs in their head. They are completely and totally Spiritually blind.
This is the condition of man as he enters the world. It was the condition of his disciple even at one point. It is likely the condition of somebody here today. Spiritual things are not just dim, or hard to understand, but they are invisible. Unless the Holy Spirit brings about conviction, and illuminates the gospel there is no hope to see the Kingdom.
4 An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah." So he left them and departed.
It wasn’t very long ago I was riding in my car, and a long time I used to listen to the radio, but I don’t know if people still do that. I usually have my phone and I listen to podcasts. And it was a particularly popular podcast, completely secular, and the subject came up about God. And the guest was sort of half-heartedly advocating for the existence of God, but the host wouldn’t have any part of it. And at the conclusion of the conversation the host said, “why won’t God just do one big miracle and make it so obvious that there is no debate.”
“Evil and adulterous generation”, we have God’s full revelation of Scripture. We have the biggest miracle that we could ever hope for in the resurrection of Jesus, and we have the nerve to ask God to do something else? It’s pure evil.
Jesus along those lines, answers as he did back in chapter 12, “no sign will be given except the sign of Jonah.”
The Old Testament is full of what theologians call Christ types. And this term is used to acknowledge someone who in the OT that is meant to forshadow the work and person of Jesus Christ. I don’t have time to go through them, but there are many Christ types in the Old Testament. One of those Christ types is Jonah. Now obviously Jonah had his issues, but that’s not the point. As we read his story we get a picture of Christ. Christ would be sent to bring salvation to his people. Johan would be sent to save the people of Nineveh. Jesus would be crucified put in the ground for three days and then live again. Jonah would spend 3 days in the belly of a fish, and then appear on dry land again to do God’s work.
Now think about what Jesus is saying about Jonah and the people of Nineveh. The Ninevites have a long history of idolatry and wickedness. It is not the place you want to go on mission. There are some bad, wicked people in Nineveh.
[Jon 1:1-2 ESV] 1 Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, 2 "Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me."
So we have Jonah, who is just a shadow of Christ. Flawed and sinful, and here he is, sent to the absolutely depraved place. And guess what happened. With just a shadow of Christ, they were broken to the core. They covered themselves in sackcloth and ashes. The fasted in brokenness for their own sin. All in faith that God would turn from his wrath and save them.
Now there is a picture of repentance. So often we (the church) are guilty of watering down what repentance really looks like. True brokenness for sin. It’s so much more than, “I’m sorry God”. It’s starts there, but it goes further into physical action of turning from sin. Does our rebellion from God break us the way it broke the Ninevites?
And so Jesus looks at the Pharisees and the Sadducees and he says you want a sign, just look at Jonah. They didn’t have God the Son incarnate standing in front of them. They didn’t have the countless miracles that you have heard and seen performed in front of you. They didn’t have the Son of Man teaching in their synagogue. All they had was, Jonah, a shadow. The shadow of the one who stands 2 feet in front of your face, and yet you are too blind to see the light.
III. The Teachable Moment
[Mat 16:5 ESV] 5 When the disciples reached the other side, they had forgotten to bring any bread.
In verse 5 we get a change in setting. No longer are we in Magadan in the heated exchange, but now across the Sea of Galilee we move. And I can just picture the disciple begin row the boat out to sea. It’s been a long day, and they realize they don’t have any bread.
Now listen, for those of us who do road trips, we can identify. Brooke is always good when we head off on a long road trip to pack snacks, and let me tell you if I don’t have some snacks you don’t want to be around me. It’s not pretty.
Where they land on the North Eastern side of the SOG, there is likely no place for them to buy bread. And if I’m honest, and I was in that boat, listen, I would be the guy who was like. There are no bread stores here. What are we going to do?
So Jesus recognizes the nutritional unrest that has ensued among his disciples and he uses that as a launching point to what he wants them to hear. As those of us who disciple others, whether it’s in a group or our family or our friends we should follow Jesus’ model here and always be looking for teachable moments like this.
You see Jesus’ mind is still on what happened back west, and the danger that is hidden in what has just transpired with those Pharisees and Sadducees and he issues a warning.
[Mat 16:6 ESV] 6 Jesus said to them, "Watch and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees."
This is where we get the warning “beware”. This is a warning from Jesus that there is danger lurking, but the danger comes from somewhere that they don’t immediately understand. Jesus says watch out for the “leaven” of the P & S.
When Jesus talks ab out leaven what is he talking about. Leaven was used in those days like yeast. Something that was used to make bread rise from something flat to something full. They used a process where they had a “starter” for the bread. And that starter contained the leaven that was required to make the bread rise.
As many times we saw when Jesus would use figurative speech to illustrate a point the disciples weren’t the quickest to catch on to the meaning. I can remember when I was taking High School literature, and we would read an abstract poem that had some deeper meaning often times the teach would ask the class to write a paper about what the poem meant. Usually this meant I was in trouble. I am a very literal person, that’s why I became an engineer and not a poet.
But Jesus like a good teacher, is patient with his pupils.
[Mat 16:7-8 ESV] 7 And they began discussing it among themselves, saying, "We brought no bread." 8 But Jesus, aware of this, said, "O you of little faith, why are you discussing among yourselves the fact that you have no bread?
Now this is where some of you skinny people start getting real spiritual and say those guys are thick head. But I promise you, I know if I had been in that boat I would have been saying the same thing as the disciples. Wait, Jesus is the bread bad or what, we don’t even have bread! We are so hungry.
But Jesus put’s his finger directly on what the real issue. What is the real reason that they don’t see his point. Not hunger. It’s not their thickheadedness or anything else, it is faith! They don’t have faith. And Jesus reminds them of some things that he had done.
[Mat 16:9-10 ESV] 9 Do you not yet perceive? Do you not remember the five loaves for the five thousand, and how many baskets you gathered? 10 Or the seven loaves for the four thousand, and how many baskets you gathered?
There is a powerful connection that Jesus makes between the current situation, and where they have been. It’s so easy for us to say, they should remember that Jesus can make bread. He has demonstrated to them 2 times that he has the power to make food. But in this moment is their faith has failed them. The don’t remember.
How many times are our eyes so blinded by our current situation that we don’t remember the one who has us in his grip? When the trials of life that we all face come and grab us and shake us up sometimes our first instinct is to exactly what these disciple do. We begin to worry. We begin to talk among ourselves, woe is me I don’t have what I need.
Sometimes our faith can fail us in these moments. We forget the one who sits in the boat with us too. We get so focused on our day to day that we forget the sovereign God of the universe promises us that every detail of our life is in his control. Not only is capable of helping, he is willing.
And I think now he has their attention. They are ready for the bigger picture, so he repeats it again.
[Mat 16:11 ESV] 11 How is it that you fail to understand that I did not speak about bread? Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees."
So we know what leaven is now, but let’s go a little deeper into that thought. I was thinking about this. Jesus could have used any word he wanted. He could have said something like this “Beware of the poison of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” But he didn’t say that. Why do you think that is?
We all know what poison looks like right? You’ve seen it on the cartoons. It comes in a dark brown bottle and what is on the outside of the jar? Right it has a skull and cross-bones and it plainly says right there on the jar “poison”. But leaven is not like that is it?
You see we all love bread. We need bread to eat. And bread is a good thing to eat! But there is something hidden in that bread. A very small amount of leaven was put into that bread. And that tiny amount of leaven has had a huge impact on how that bread turned out.
Jesus is warning his disciple to be very careful that they don’t let something like this leaven of the Pharisees creep into the gospel that he is teaching them. It only takes a small amount, and you may mistake it for something good, and before you know it, it creeps and destroys.
It doesn’t just destroy one loaf of bread, because that starter that was used to make the bad bread, guess what the baker does tomorrow. It gets a new batch of starter and he makes bad bread after bad bread after bad bread. Sound familiar? Have you seen that happen?
That is why Jesus is so right when he says beware!
[Mat 16:12 ESV] 12 Then they understood that he did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.
At the beginning of verse 12, I love this phrase, “then they understood”. Isn’t that wonderful. Jesus is a persistent teacher. He has patience with his students. He sees this teachable moment and walks them right up to the point that they UNDERSTAND. This is every disciple makers dream come true.
What is the leaven? It’s given to us right there in verse 12. Jesus says it is the “teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees”. And his warning is, if you are not very careful this bad doctrine can sneak into you. It can sneak into your teaching, into your preaching, into your life. And if you’re not vigilant, your bread can be ruined, and you can multiply that bad bread further than any of us care to think of.
So real quickly as we close I want to give you just a brief summary
How to avoid making bad bread
1) In difficult circumstances remember that we have a loving Savior who has the ability and the desire to care for our needs. Matthew 16:9-10
2) When your faith is weak, REMEMBER what God has done for others. Mathew 16:9-10 & Hebrews 11
3) When your faith is weak, REMEMBER what God has done for you. Hebrews 12:1-2
4) Guard yourself against bad doctrine, for your sake and for the sake of others. Psalm 1
References/Bibliography:
“Preaching the Word” Commentary, Douglas Sean O’Donnell, Edited by Kent Hughes
“Matthew” by RC Sproul
“CSB Christ Chronological,” Holman
“The Bible Knowledge Commentary” by Walvoord, Zuck (BKC)
“The Bible Exposition Commentary” by Warren Wiersbe (BEC)
“Exalting Jesus in Matthew” by David Platt (CCE)
Outline Bible, D Willmington
NIV Study Bible (NIVSB)
ESV Study Bible
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