The Concern of Jesus
Matthew 16:1-12
January 1, 2012
This morning we continue with the gospel of Matthew,
And talking about something that I find very interesting.
And that is “The Concern of Jesus”
To say it another way: What was it that caused Jesus concern?
We all understand the concept,
For we have many things that cause us concern every day.
• We’re concerned about our children…
• We’re concerned about our finances…
• We’re concerned about our health…
• We’re concerned about our safety…
And if you were to tell your children, “Watch out for ______________”
The list really could be endless.
Well I hope I have your mind going just a bit this morning,
Because I want to show you Jesus’ concern for His children.
Ten times in the New Testament we find the statement
“Beware” from Jesus’ mouth.
He was concerned to warn us about something.
He saw a definite threat.
He saw a definite danger.
The interesting thing is that of the ten times He made the phrase,
Nine of those ten times all refer to the same thing.
And that is the deceptive nature of humanity.
The one exception is found in Luke’s gospel.
Luke 12:15 “Then He said to them, “Beware, and be on your guard against every form of greed; for not even when one has an abundance does his life consist of his possessions.”
But all of the other nine all consist of a warning
Regarding the deceptive nature of men.
Matthew 6:1 “Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them; otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven.”
(There the warning is actually about ourselves, but men none the same)
Matthew 7:15 “Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.”
Matthew 10:17 “But beware of men, for they will hand you over to the courts and scourge you in their synagogues;”
Mark 12:38 “In His teaching He was saying: “Beware of the scribes who like to walk around in long robes, and like respectful greetings in the market places,”
Luke 12:1 “Under these circumstances, after so many thousands of people had gathered together that they were stepping on one another, He began saying to His disciples first of all, “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.”
Luke 20:46 “Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes, and love respectful greetings in the market places, and chief seats in the synagogues and places of honor at banquets,”
And the other three times Jesus says to “Beware”
Are found here in our text this morning.
As He tells us to “Watch out and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”
And what we begin to realize when we see it that way is that
Jesus perceived a very real and definite threat to His church
• It wasn’t the threat of persecution…
• It wasn’t the threat of economic struggles…
• It wasn’t the threat of political instability…
• It wasn’t the threat of changing culture…
The threat Jesus saw as the most dangerous
Was the threat that men would deceive His children.
• It could be those who would pretend to be your friend,
only to hand you over to governors and kings…
• It could be those who would pretend to speak truth,
only to push you through the wide gate onto the wide road…
• It could be those who would pretend to model truth,
only to lead you in to the blind man’s pit…
And this, above all other dangers is what Jesus warned His children about.
As I pondered this, it became apparent to me that
Jesus had a definite cynical side.
A cynic is defined as: “A person who has little faith in human sincerity and goodness.”
John 2:23-25 “Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name, observing His signs which He was doing. But Jesus, on His part, was not entrusting Himself to them, for He knew all men, and because He did not need anyone to testify concerning man, for He Himself knew what was in man.”
John 8:31-32 “So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, “If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”
It is obvious that Jesus didn’t put a lot of faith
In the devotion or sincerity of men.
When they said they believed, He took it with a grain of salt…
When they promised devotion, He said, “We’ll see”…
And just because He saw people wrapped in religious garb
And committed to religious ceremony,
He never assumed they were truly devoted to God.
Jesus always looked much deeper.
He always looked for evidence.
He always looked for fruit.
That is why He always hammered the Pharisees so much.
One of the most blatant is found in Matthew 23
As Jesus exposes them quite easily.
Matthew 23:23-24 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected the weightier provisions of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness; but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others. “You blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel!”
Jesus looked right past their outward religious pretense
To the true fruit of their lives and found them desperately lacking.
They tithed (outward religion)
But they neglected “justice and mercy and faithfulness”
They were all external.
Which is why Jesus went on to say:
Matthew 23:25-26 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside they are full of robbery and self-indulgence. “You blind Pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup and of the dish, so that the outside of it may become clean also.”
And so it was obvious that Jesus wasn’t about to buy it just at face value.
• He knew what was in man.
• He knew that man is wicked and evil.
• He knew that men would rather fake religion than be truly faithful to God.
• He knew that man would rather pretend than be sincere.
That is why He was so impressed by people like the centurion,
Or the Canaanite woman, because although they didn’t look the part,
They actually did have great faith.
And He went to great lengths to make sure His disciples saw the difference.
He wanted His church to be true and genuine and pure,
Not just all for show.
So He applauded great faith and He exposed hypocrisy.
AND HE WANTED HIS CHURCH TO SHARE HIS PASSION.
And that is what we see here.
3 things I want you to see.
#1 THE CONFRONTATION
Matthew 16:1-4
Well, it isn’t hard to spot the confrontation.
“The Pharisees and Sadducees came up, and testing Jesus, they asked Him to show them a sign from heaven.”
This is actually quite an interesting event.
Not that these men tested Jesus, but that they came together.
(These men were enemies, not allies)
And so just the fact that they are together is a huge indicator to Jesus
That something is up.
The second clue is that they want to see a “sign”.
And not just any sign, but “a sign from heaven”
They didn’t just want to see a healing, or even a miracle of nature,
They wanted to see a cataclysmic event in the heavens.
The moon turned to blood, or the sky rolled back,
Something unmistakable and huge.
And of course they asked for this under pretense that
If Jesus could produce one, then they would believe in Him.
They try to paint themselves as thorough and generally interested,
But Jesus sees through their hypocrisy.
And notice His answer:
(2-3) “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?”
It was very similar to what He told Nicodemus:
John 3:10 “Jesus answered and said to him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and do not understand these things?”
“You guys aren’t dumb men, nor are you undiscerning men. You men know how to look at the evidence and come to a logical conclusion. You know how to read the facts.”
The problem here isn’t that they facts done add up,
The problem is that you don’t want to see what they reveal.
You aren’t dumb, you are wicked.
(4) “An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign”
And we have heard that before.
Back in chapter 12 Jesus rebuked the Pharisees not for their failure to see, but for their failure to believe.
You come pretending to be curious.
You come pretending to want truth.
You come pretending to be discerning.
But in reality you are only seeking to spread your wickedness
And so the verdict?
“a sign will not be given it, except the sign of Jonah.” And He left them and went away.”
Jesus was not interested in playing their games.
Jesus was not interested in their outward hypocrisy.
He didn’t have time to sit there and wrangle about who He was.
That is the confrontation.
But you will notice, it leads to another one of those teaching moments
We have recently talked about.
#2 THE CONFUSION
Matthew 16:5-7
Now Matthew actually gives us a little help here to allow us to see
Why the disciples got confused.
“and the disciples came to the other side of the sea, but they had forgotten to bring any bread.”
This certainly is not a big deal, but it is important to understanding
Where some of the confusion comes from.
Because as Jesus meets the disciples,
They have two different things on their mind.
Jesus is still fuming over His encounter with the hypocrites,
The disciples are kicking themselves for forgetting the bread.
And then Jesus gives this warning.
“Watch out and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”
There is the concern of Jesus.
There is a deadly and dangerous deception that will affect the church.
There is a problem that must be detected.
And that problem is that men would rather clean up the outside than the inside, and they will teach others to do the same.
It is far less painful to take a bath than it is to repent.
It is much easier to go to church than it is to live holy.
And so a hypocritical influence is a dangerous one to have.
And Jesus knew that would wreck His church.
And you and I know that in many regards it has.
What is the number one complaint about the church from those outside of it?
“They aren’t nothing but a bunch of hypocrites up there.”
NOW WHY DO THEY SAY THAT?
Because they see us dress up and go to church on Sunday morning,
But they know what we live like the other 6 days of the week.
So He warned His disciples here not to get sucked in
To the outward religion of the Pharisees.
But, the disciples completely missed the point.
(7) “They began to discuss this among themselves, saying, “He said that because we did not bring any bread.”
WHY DID THEY MISS THE POINT?
Because to them a lack of bread was a bigger problem
Than the presence of hypocrisy.
And we struggle there as well.
Churches today are easily more concerned about budgets than holiness.
Certainly the disciples missed the point.
They didn’t think there was anything wrong with the Pharisees.
Remember when Jesus rebuked them for following tradition over the word of God?
Remember the disciple’s response?
Matthew 15:12 “Then the disciples came and said to Him, “Do You know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this statement?”
They didn’t see that the Pharisees were the problem.
And so when Jesus gives the warning, they are confused.
So we see the Confrontation, The Confusion
#3 THE CORRECTION
Matthew 16:8-12
And here Jesus straightens them out.
“You men of little faith, why do you discuss among yourselves that you have no bread?”
In today’s terms Jesus would say, “Seriously?”
“Is that what you are concerned about?”
“Do you not yet understand or remember the five loaves of the five thousand, and how many baskets fully you picked up? Or the seven loaves of the four thousand, and how many large baskets fully 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.”
In other words, the church’s biggest problems
Are not physical but spiritual.
The greatest dangers threatening the church are not a lack of money,
But a lack of true genuine righteousness.
You don’t have to worry about having poor people in your church,
You have to worry about having phony people in your church.
WATCH OUT FOR HYPOCRISY!
• See, it is the hypocrites that lead men to destruction.
• It is the hypocrites who pervert true worship.
• It is the hypocrites who offend God.
Matthew 23:13 “But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you shut off the kingdom of heaven from people; for you do not enter in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in.”
Matthew 23:15 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you travel around on sea and land to make one proselyte; and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves.”
Such hypocrisy destroys men.
Matthew 23:27-28 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. “So you, too, outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.”
They actually made men unclean and defiled
And those around them didn’t even know it.
They tricked men into not being pleasing to God.
But not only that, they also pervert true worship.
We all remember Jesus getting angry at the Pharisees
For breaking the commands of God for the sake of their tradition.
And Jesus said to watch out for them.
• They look the part…
• They act the part…
• But they are not real, and they will destroy the church.
In fact Jesus likened them to leaven.
They spread, they influence, and they are virtually impossible to remove
Once they have taken hold.
Paul used leaven as an illustration as well, in regard to the man having an affair with his father’s wife.
1 Corinthians 5:6-8 “Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough? Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened. For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed. Therefore let us celebrate the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.”
It is danger to leave it around,
And that is what Jesus says about the Pharisees.
THE DANGER FACING THE CHURCH ISN’T POVERTY
OR EVEN PERSECUTION, IT IS HYPOCRISY!
Watch out for it!
(12) “Then they understood that He did not say to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”
Now they get it.
And so do we
We are pushed so hard to be accepting and to have an open door policy
That it almost sounds “unchristian” to think about being leery of anyone.
Now certainly in some regards that open door policy is correct.
Jesus taught us to welcome strangers…
Jesus taught us to eat with the poor and even honor them…
Jesus Himself ate with tax collectors and sinners…
Certainly we don’t turn people away based upon their income or race
Or status or even their past.
But just as sure as we are open and accepting
Jesus called us to be a little bit cynical too.
• He called us to watch out.
• He called us to discern what we see.
• He called us to examine fruit.
He told us not to just believe everything we see,
But to watch out because hypocrisy is a real threat to the church.
Just because a person knows how to dress and knows how to talk
And can quote a reasonable amount of Scripture, does not make them real.
They may just be wearing a great costume and playing a great part.
We must watch out and look for fruit.
And this is a warning that the church must continue to heed.
Even later in the epistles to the churches
We see this warning sounded again and again.
Listen to Peter.
2 Peter 2:1-3 “But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves. Many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of the truth will be maligned; and in their greed they will exploit you with false words; their judgment from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.”
Listen to Jude
Jude 3-4 “Beloved, while I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation, I felt the necessity to write to you appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints. For certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.”
Listen to John
1 John 4:1 “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.”
2 John 7-11 “For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the antichrist. Watch yourselves, that you do not lose what we have accomplished, but that you may receive a full reward. Anyone who goes too far and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God; the one who abides in the teaching, he has both the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house, and do not give him a greeting; for the one who gives him a greeting participates in his evil deeds.”
Listen to Paul
2 Corinthians 11:12-15 “But what I am doing I will continue to do, so that I may cut off opportunity from those who desire an opportunity to be regarded just as we are in the matter about which they are boasting. For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. No wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. Therefore it is not surprising if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness, whose end will be according to their deeds.”
And if you read the pastoral epistles there is warning after warning
About false brethren, Paul even calls many of them by name.
Men like Hymenaeus and Philetus and Alexander.
The point is that this is what concerned Jesus.
AND SO IT SHOULD CONCERN US.
WATCH OUT FOR HYPOCRISY
• Watch out that you are not walking in hypocrisy.
• Watch out that hypocrisy is not being proclaimed.
• Watch out that hypocrisy is not being modeled.
Don’t fret over finances…
Don’t worry about having bread…
If you want to worry, worry about the spread of hypocrisy.
Worry that men are not genuine in their faith.
Worry that the church is losing her holiness in the world.
Worry that your own personal testimony is hypocritical.
It isn’t a lack of bread that wrecks the church,
It is a lack of genuine devotion.
So learn to be a little cynical, just as Jesus was.
Learn to be a little discerning.
Don’t be naïve about the coming deception.
1 Thessalonians 5:19-22 “Do not quench the Spirit; do not despise prophetic utterances. But examine everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good; abstain from every form of evil.”
