Matthew 16:6-12: Beware of Evil Leaven

Even the Lord’s disciples, though men of faith, too often betrayed their weakness and frailty.  When the Lord warned them to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees, they thought He was aiming a subtle rebuke at them because they had forgotten to bring provisions.  This is a poor testimony to their faith.  Jesus reminds them that no privation was insoluble so long as He was with them.  Had He not, after all, so lavishly provided for crowds of thousands on two separate occasions, that there were several baskets worth of leftovers?  How then could they think He was concerned about where they would find bread? 

We too must confess that we sometimes doubt our Lord’s ability to provide, no matter how much He has done for us.  We are made of the same sinful stuff as Christ’s disciples, and except He hold us up, our faith will often wane.  What was important for the disciples at this juncture was not to be concerned about where their next meal was coming from, but that they beware of the deceptive doctrines of the Pharisees and Sadducees, who, if hearkened to, would lead them away from Christ. 

Matthew 16:1-4: The Signs of the Times

No amount of evidence, regardless how overwhelming, could overcome the obstinate unbelief of Christ’s enemies.  Their inveterate hatred led them to close their eyes to His miracles and His powerful teaching, no matter how clearly they attested that He was the Christ of God.  In spite of the mountain of evidence already produced to prove His divine nature and mission, they come to Him seeking a sign from heaven.  But the Lord Jesus never did miracles to satisfy the idle curiosity of spectacle seekers, nor did He ever produce a miracle to placate the unbelief of His enemies.  Truthfully, human nature being what it is, seeing miracles in no way convinces the natural man to repent and turn to God.  If it did, then everyone who lived in the days of Moses, or in the time of Christ, should have been saved.  Abraham told the rich man who called to him out of hell that his brethren would not believe even if a resurrected Lazarus appeared to preach to them.  “They have Moses and the prophets, let them hear them.”  The reason the scribes and Pharisees rejected Christ was not because He did not produce a sign to satisfy them, but because they did not believe Moses and the prophets.  This Jesus plainly told them in John 5:46, 47.

Jesus produced no sign to them, but castigated them as better observers of the weather than the signs of the times.  They themselves knew, through Daniel’s prophecies, that the time was ripe for Messiah to appear.  The evidence that Jesus was the promised Redeemer was overwhelming.  The Forerunner had appeared in the person of John the Baptist.  The great miracles foretold by Isaiah were being performed.  The Gospel was being preached to the poor, glad tidings to the meek.  The evidence was ample, but it was not enough to convince a wicked and adulterous generation, who would not abandon its prevailing sins to follow the Messiah.  Therefore, Christ works no miracle to overcome their skepticism, but points them to Jonah.  The other gospels make clear that, in so doing, He was declaring that the great and conclusive sign proving His identity would be His resurrection, which was foreshadowed by Jonah’s being in the belly of the great fish three days and three nights.

Matthew 15:32-39: Jesus Feeds the Four Thousand

Even after such a great mission of healing was accomplished, the well of Jesus’ compassion did not run dry.  His riches are unsearchable, inexhaustible.  He had healed scores, maybe hundreds.  One might think this was a good day’s work, but it was not the end.  Again He found the crowds hungry, and in no condition to be sent away to shops or to their homes.  As He had on an earlier occasion, He again tests His disciples.  They had seen Him feed five thousand, but they had not drawn the lesson that they should humbly submit the most impossible circumstances to the glorious hand of their Master.  Once more they protest that they have only a little food, seven loaves and a few little fishes.  This could not feed a congregation of thousands, not unless the power of God was with them.  And, indeed, the power of God was with them, for the Man they followed was the Word made flesh.  He thanked His Father for the food, and proceeded again to effect a great miracle in multiplying the bread and fish to feed a throng of four thousand men, besides women and children. 

Once again, our Lord was lavish and abundant in His grace, completely satisfying the hunger of every soul, to the extent that there were actually seven baskets full of leftovers.  We need never concern ourselves that the storehouses of God’s grace will one day be emptied.  When the last sinner is gathered in to the heavenly kingdom, there will be grace enough and to spare for every sinner chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world.

“The parties in…

“The parties in this conflict are not merely abolitionists and slaveholders–they are atheists, socialists, communists, red republicans, Jacobins on the one side and the friends of order and regulated freedom on the other. In one word, the world is the battleground–Christianity and atheism the combatants, and the progress of humanity is at stake.”

James Henley Thornwell on what was at stake in the War for Southern Independence

Matthew 15:30, 31: Christ’s Endless Compassion

The Lord Jesus was constantly on the move, rarely finding any time to rest.  Always He was besieged by multitudes seeking to hear His teaching, or to have their sick healed.  Near the sea of Galilee, He again was presented with an incredible scene of human misery.  The lame, the blind, the dumb, the maimed, and many others, were brought to Him, and every one was healed.  There was no case too difficult for the great Physician, nor were His stores of patience and compassion ever exhausted.  He rose to meet every challenge, graciously answering every request, to the astonishment of the witnessing multitudes.  They saw Him heal all these afflicted, and could not but have called to mind that the prophets had foretold Messiah would do such things.  Therefore they glorified the God of Israel, Who had been faithful to His promises by sending a Redeemer unto His people.

Matthew 15:21-28: Jesus and the Syro-Phoenician Woman

Jesus thence departed into the coasts of Tyre and Sidon, where one of the more touching incidents of His entire ministry occurred.  He went there apparently to rest, yet he could find no peace and solitude because a Syro-Phoenician woman besieged Him with pleas to show mercy and heal her demon-possessed daughter.  It is always pleasing to observe how many supplicants began their plea by acknowledging Jesus as Messiah.  This is precisely what is intended by the title “son of David.”  That was, in fact, the first title given to Him by Matthew in this gospel: “The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.”  This woman, though a heathen by birth, still acknowledges Jesus as God’s anointed, and entreats Him as such. 

Yet Jesus answered her not a word.  This is a remarkable action by our Lord, for we do not find Him behaving so anywhere else in the gospels.  But it is certain He had a purpose in so doing, and that was to test her faith.  The disciples must have mistaken His silence for contempt of the Gentile woman, for they requested leave to have her sent away.  Like He so often did, Jesus refrained from giving a direct answer, but instead responded, “I am not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”  This was both a statement of the mission the Father had given Him, and a severe test for the Gentile woman.  Although the graces of the Messiah were bound to be sent to the Gentiles, yet all the prophets had made it clear that the Messiah would come from Israel, and be sent to Israel.  Thus we find Christ only very rarely reaching out to those outside His own nation.  The fullness of the Gentiles would not be gathered in until after He had ascended back into glory.

In spite of the apparent rebuff, this woman persisted.  Though she may have never heard it, yet she acted upon the same principle enunciated by Christ, “Ask and it shall be given you, seek and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.  For every one that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth, and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.”  Desperate, and knowing that no help could be found for her devil-ridden daughter except in Christ, the woman persists.  She worships Him, and begs for help.  Again she meets with the discouraging words, “It is not meet to take the children’s bread and to cast it to dogs.”  These words were sharper yet, for Jesus intimates His grace was for the Jews, and that the Gentiles were mere dogs who did not deserve to partake of the children’s meat.  But this did not shake off the woman.  She was content to lie as a dog under the master’s table, so long as she could enjoy some crumbs of His bounty.  She pleaded for a crumb, and received the entire dish.  Jesus did not mean to send her away empty-handed, nor to stint with His grace.  He meant to draw her out to a full confession of her strong faith, doubtless doing so in order to show His disciples that great faith could be found even in those not of the stock of Abraham.  When the woman acknowledged herself to be but a dog, but still one who might perhaps have a claim upon the Lord’s mercy, Jesus bountifully answered her request, and gave her everything she wished.  The woman then returned home to a daughter sound in mind, to rejoice in the rich reward of faith.

The Coming Hour of Resurrection & Judgment

This link is to my sermon from Wednesday, May 1.  It covers verses 28 and 29 of John 5, and deals with the sober reality that the time is coming when the voice of the Son of God will call forth both the righteous and the wicked from the graves to the judgment.  In light of this tremendous event, it behooves every person to immediately flee to Christ, that he may take part in the resurrection of the righteous.