Matthew chapter 16 this morning. I invite you to turn to Matthew chapter 16 and we are going to look at verses 1 through 12. We're working through this book. We are preaching through this book. It's glorious to study the gospel of Matthew and today verses 1 through 12. Let's give our attention to the word of the Lord. 977 in your Bibles is the page number. Let's hear what the Lord has revealed to us for our good and blessing. And the Pharisees and Sadducees came and to test him, they asked him to show them a sign from heaven. He answered them, when it is evening, you say, it will be fair weather for the sky is red. And in the morning, it will be a 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. 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. When the disciples reached the other side, they had forgotten to bring any bread. Jesus said to them, watch and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees. And they began discussing it among themselves, saying, we brought no bread. But Jesus, aware of this, said, oh, you of little faith. Why are you discussing among yourselves the fact that you have no bread? Do you not yet perceive, do you not remember the five loaves for the 5,000 and how many baskets you gathered, or the seven loaves for the 4,000 and how many baskets you gathered? How is it that you fail to understand that I did not speak about bread. Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees. Then they understood that he did not tell them to beware of the leaven of the bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees. They're in the reading of God's Word. Let's pray together. Gracious Lord, as we open your Word now and hear what you've revealed to us, Give us understanding by your Spirit that we might understand the Scriptures, comprehend the Scriptures, and see what you have said to us. That we might value your kingdom and understand the priorities that you have put in place for our good. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Well, I recently said, I think maybe it was last week, that the Christian life is not all rainbows and butterflies. We want that. We want the Christian life to be that. because ultimately what we want is to sort of reach a life that is carefree and comfortable. We're all, who doesn't want that? I want that. Everyone's trying to pursue that. Everyone's trying to achieve that. The problem is that as we see throughout the scriptures, and as you know from experience, life is full of testing and trial. That's exactly what Jesus has been showing us in the gospel of Matthew. And to avoid that, what we do is spend most of our lives worrying about certain things, trying to overcome these problems so that we can achieve the life that we think is a life of peace and blessing and comfort. Well, I believe that's exactly what's captured for us here this morning in Matthew chapter 16. There are a set of priorities that Jesus has that are fundamentally different from the priorities of the disciples. And here we have Jesus shockingly exposing in the disciples, again, a lack of faith. Little faith, he says. Did you catch that? Oh, you of little faith. But it's a surprising way that Jesus captures this problem. What is he talking about? Why is he so concerned about this? What has worked him up? Something has worked him up in this text, if you didn't see that. Big time. The reason their faith was obscured was because of the worries in this life that come and over their personal interests, their self-interest and personal needs. As I read the scriptures at times, I think it's challenging to sort of get the emotion and the sense of exactly how these statements are made and what is being said. But I believe here, as with Jesus on the storm, when they were on the boat and they are so worried about the winds and the waves, I think he's agitated. Do you guys really think this storm is going to take you out? Be calm storm. Come on. I've got control over all of creation. It's the same kind of thing here. Maybe not so much with the disciples, but because his concerns are not matching theirs. And that's crucial today to this text. His concerns here are far different in life than their concerns. And that's fundamental and helpful to us in Christian life to understand priorities, which is what this passage is about. And in the midst of this, it's as if Jesus relieves a huge burden. He takes the burden right off of us and sets us free about all the worries and the cares of this life. If there was any application to Matthew 6 when he said, do not worry, here we see it playing out in real time in the life of the disciples and what it looks like and how Jesus wants us to trust him in the face of all these worries that come at us. So I want you to see this today. Jesus here is teaching them again. Remember, this is discipleship. We forget that. Christian life is discipleship. We're growing in that. It takes work. It takes patience. It takes effort. Jesus is demonstrating all of that with his own disciples in the discipleship, but here we see this crucial point that he wants total reliance upon him. He wants total dependence upon him for everything. Over all the things that we are worried about, and I'm sure we are all sheep. Sheep, just study sheep. Some are here very anxious right now over something. What is it? Well, here Jesus is engaging what is most important for us and our loved ones while simultaneously relieving that burden. So it's a glorious text. We get a window here into the loving protection of the good shepherd. And it's intended that we might listen to him in our discipleship and walk with him and think about why we are here, why we exist, what the mission is, what is good for others. This is all in place in this text. Jesus has just fed the 4,000. Two feedings, of course. Remember the 5,000 and the 4,000 we looked at? Throughout Matthew 15, a theme has been running through it of the theme of the provision of bread. And you'll remember it began with the Pharisees coming and criticizing Christ at the beginning of chapter 15 for not washing their hands properly according to the tradition of the elders when they ate bread. That tradition, remember, had been elevated over the Word of God. That is legalism. We looked at all of that and how actually those who are legalists are actually end up being antinomians because they end up violating the very law of God by creating their own laws. Well, in the next scene, the Canaanite woman is begging for just the bread crumbs that fall from her master's table, and then he provides another feeding of 4,000, and so many baskets of bread are left over. So this is a crucial section in all the Gospels on these feeding events to teach us something important, and it comes to a conclusion today. The thread and the theme comes to a conclusion today over the leaven of the Pharisees. Jesus is not primarily just a food bank, is he? Jesus doesn't want people to treat him like a slot machine. He wants faith. He's willing to help people. But in the history of Christianity, people have just wanted that, him to be that for them. But something much more important is being shown here about him to us as the bread of life, the bread of eternal life. Remember, that's what he said. Whoever eats of me, think of the offense of that. That's why people walked away. What's he saying? Whoever eats the bread that I give, eats my flesh, will live forever. He's the bread. He's the sign. All this is capturing that he gives his life for us, giving the true bread of eternal life as a humble and compassionate Lord and King to us. Well, the scene closes today with something at first glance that may not seem to be that important, but as I reflected on it this week, I realized how deeply important it is to the Lord and for us. Notice verse 1. Upon the feeding of the 4,000, we now have a united coalition of the Pharisees and the Sadducees. By the way, historically, these groups hated each other. They hated each other. But they had had enough of Jesus. They have united together and made a coalition to take him out. They are done with him. They are furious with him. They are jealous of him and the attention that he's received. And so verse 1 says of chapter 16 that they came to test him. Now you could read right over that. They came to test who? They came to test God. That has a long history. You remember in Exodus when they complained about the Lord's provisions of bread and water in the wilderness. The quarreling of the people of the Lord happened. And because of this, they tested the Lord by saying, is the Lord among us or not? So God had tested them. Now they test back. There's no God among us. Well, this is deja vu. This is happening again. All the gospels show us the same thing that happens in the wilderness happens here with Jesus walking right in front of them. Show us a sign. Give us a sign. We want to see something. Jesus has been doing signs everywhere, giving them, hasn't he? He was healing the blind. He was, you know, helping the sick. He even raised the dead, Jairus' daughter, Lazarus. None of that was good enough. Now, that ties in directly to last week. But the kind of sign they wanted was something like this. Listen, Moses gave bread in the wilderness, but they saw the bread fall from heaven. Show that. Then we'll believe you. Or Joshua, he made the sun go still. Make the sun go still. Then we'll believe you. Or you've been parting back over here to the sea. Raise up the sea like a heap and walk through it. Then we'll believe you. You see? Now that was just what we dealt with with the resurrection. Even standing before them, they could not see him. As we looked at last week, remember, he opened their understandings from the scriptures to see him and to show them that he is the sign from heaven. He is the sign from heaven. And that's why he says, I'm not giving you, I'm not, I'm not catering to this. No sign will be given to this wicked and adulterous generation except the sign of the prophet Jonah who was in the belly of the fish and there was a resurrection-like event. The resurrection will be the sign. You remember that in the parable of Lazarus and the rich man, even if one rise from the dead, they still won't believe. This is important and it captures something important about faith and about Christianity, doesn't it? People with no faith. When people have no faith, listen carefully, there is nothing that is ever good enough in the ways of the Lord that will convince them or convince them to believe and to follow him. Nothing. So they're always critical. They're always critical. It's not as if if the conditions were right, they'll finally accept this. Do we get this point? I think this point is so crucial for Christianity. We should notice it. Our general default way is to never be satisfied with the Lord's ways. He doesn't do things the way we think he ought to do things. That's why we're often frustrated. And it does not mean that if some better sign were given to the people, they'll finally take it all in and believe. We approach church this way with sort of purely subjective experience. We think the better the experience, if we could make it so, finally it'll create faith, the better the worship, the people will actually believe. And that is patently false. patently false. That whole premise is wrong. It's proven right here. Jesus points out the glaring hypocrisy of it all. You guys, when evening comes, you say, ah, it's going to be fair weather tomorrow for the sky is red. And in the morning, it'll be stormy today for the sky is threatening and red. Jesus is saying, you guys study the weather all the time. Isn't it just weird we do that? I bet about 50 conversations after church today will be about, oh, the weather's kind of weird today, isn't it? We do this, don't we? Why are we so infatuated with the weather? And we know what's coming. And we talk about it all the time. We're always predicting how we're going to go about our day by the signs. Well, you're good at interpreting that. How is it you can't observe and discern the sign of the times? He's it. He's the sign everywhere that the kingdom of God has come. You're here, aren't you? You're worshiping, aren't you? I've said a million times in this pulpit, you couldn't make this up. You see, among those of no faith, no matter how great the experience, they have no ability to believe in him. They have no ability to believe in him. Now that leads us to the great moment here. That leads us to the great moment here of Christ with the disciples. You'll notice here, Jesus is done with these guys. He's done with them. There is a definitive break in this passage where he essentially wants no more to do with them. It says that. It's very important. He left them and departed. He had just given the final blow. Now, in verse 5, I want you to notice what happens. It's a very important connection that I think you could miss. When the disciples reached the other side, they had forgotten to bring any bread. Clearly, Matthew is capturing how worried they are about this. Why would you say that, right? We're hungry. We're hungry. I mean, I hope my sermon doesn't go too long today, because I know you're going to be hungry. It's deja vu, isn't it? The Lord is so patient with these guys, but they had just witnessed two feedings, right? They had witnessed a feeding of 5,000 in the wilderness, and multiple baskets are, I mean, the bread just kept coming from a couple loaves and fish and then they witness another feeding with the 4,000 and Jesus knows they're deeply burdened about this. And so notice that Matthew captures a great contrast here. He knows they're panicked about bread, worried about bread and right after this, notice what he says. Watch, Jesus said, therefore, watch and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees. What we have captured here is a real glimpse into the character and mind of our Lord. How something is radically different, this is the point, that is burdening him as opposed to what's burdening the disciples. I think he's righteously angry here. I think he's stirred up here. He's deeply concerned about their leaven. Leaven had a long history in Israel. When they came out, they were not to leaven the bread, remember, to be ready to go because, you know, that takes a long time to, it's a whole process. My wife tells me, I have no idea. I've never tried that and never will. But you're not waiting around for that, the leaven. You go, you be ready to go. And then elsewhere, it became sort of a proverbial caution for anything that was evil or wicked. But I don't know if that's quite the contrast here. I want you to notice this in verse seven. They began discussing what he said. Watch for the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees. They began discussing it among themselves. It's because we brought no bread. What is he talking about? Well, clearly in verse 12, it ends with saying to us that Jesus was concerned about the teaching, the doctrine of the Sadducees and the Pharisees. What was Jesus' great concern? What in his pastoral shepherding did he really want them to understand? what was on the heart of our good shepherd namely this is what they were running up against that their greatest danger in the Christian life and their greatest danger in Christian ministry is false teaching what was their whole ministry of the Sadducees and the Pharisees it was one of entire opposition because of their man-made tradition to people coming to Christ for mercy so roadblocks were being put up everywhere they set up the entire tradition of the elders that stood in the way and all they did was oppose him you see beloved from jesus's perspective this is the greatest threat to christianity right here and his purpose in coming to this earth it's false teaching it's false doctrine it's the kind of stuff exposed in this test that in this text that give us a sign sign seekers the devil was always working to pull people away from christ into the kind of religion that's been exposed in Matthew. Now listen, that was just external. Keeping of the rules. And it made them entirely careless about the needs of people. And what did Jesus come for? Save people. The entire purpose of Christ was undermined by these groups. For the needy and the broken, you know? This is why I said, it's sometimes so important to, how do we look at, if Jesus could have compassion on the multitudes, how do we look at the people bumbling around on the street, drug, addicted, loss of their lives, ruin their lives. You understand now what he's up against. You understand what he's reacting against. It's so burdened Paul when he left the church in Ephesus that he said, listen, after my, they were worried about this all the time. After my departure, fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock, and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things to draw away disciples after themselves. That's what the Pharisees were doing all the time. They weren't creating disciples of the Lord. Therefore, be alert, remembering that for three years I did not cease day and night to admonish you, every one of you, with tears. He was so burdened by this. Here's the great contrast among the sheep. What did the disciples say right after this concern. Beware of the leaven of the scribes and the Pharisees. It's as if they can't even hear him. Because all that's on their minds are what? Their hunger. Is he saying this because we brought no bread? They think their biggest problem is the lack of bread. In other words, it's the mundane things of life that most concern us. We have come to think, and I'm just as guilty. Listen, this is a sermon I preach to myself, I promise. We have come to think that life is just about our present comforts, our present needs. And like the Pharisees, we're more concerned often about the weather than the kingdom of God. And our creaturely comforts are what are driving life. And yet Jesus' greatest concern here is false doctrine. He is most concerned for them and their children to keep them in the truth of the gospel. And on their minds are not heavenly things, but earthly things. And Jesus, aware of this, says, oh, you of little faith, are you discussing among yourselves the fact you have no bread? I think I wish I could have heard it. It would have sounded something like this. Are you kidding? Are you serious? You're still worried about that? Don't you remember the loaves for the 5,000? Don't you remember how many baskets you gathered? And then how many you gathered for the 4,000? Are you kidding me? Haven't you learned anything yet? These are not the things that should concern you. Now, apply the Sermon on the Mount for a minute. Therefore, I tell you, do not be anxious about your life. What you will eat, plays out, right? What you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air. I mean, I just saw one fly right now. It's out there getting its meal. You ever seen those guys? It comes out a big worm. How did they see that? They neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Which of you, by being anxious, listen to this. What are we all trying to hold on to? life. I get it. Which of you, by all your anxieties and worry about your bodies and sickness and all these things, I do it all the time, adds a single hour to your life. You don't add a single hour to it. And yet, we spend most of our life worrying about these things. How am I going to retire? Or how much money will I have? I think the more you have, the more you worry about it. What am I going to do tomorrow? Buy and sell? As if some sort of pursuit that we have will actually create once we get there the calmness we think we can create in life of the comforts and self-interest that will achieve that. What do we spend most of our life worrying about? My dad on his deathbed said, Chris, I regret certain things in life. He says, and he trusted Christ. He knew he was forgiven. because I regret, and it's interesting what he said to me, I regret most of my life worrying so much about money. This will sting a bit. I had David Bonson on AGR, Bounding Grace, the other day. He's one of the top 200 financial advisors in the nation, the Bonson Group. He's got offices all over the nation. He's written a book called Full Time, Work and the Meaning of Life. And he says, here's what our society has programmed us to think like. This is what he wants to take down. We're programmed to view life as we work hard for the first half of our lives so that we finally achieve a financial number. And once we achieve the financial number, we aim for a 30-year vacation. He says, the goal of life has become a monetary one. so that many think they can just go and golf the rest of their life. It's hard for us, but what he wants to do is recapture the biblical creational design that God created us to be productive and to be active in life and work for who? The good of society, the good of others. And my point with that is just to raise this. That's why you say, what do people say? We don't, we retire from something to something, right? We store active as people made in God's image. But here's the purpose here. Here's what Jesus is doing here. Haven't you yet learned that I'm going to care for you for all these things and all these things? Haven't you yet learned that? I'm going to care for you. That's my commitment. That's what he's saying. But you're worrying about all these things demonstrates little faith. So what are we worried about? You see how worrying about this stuff stifles what's most important in our life. Worrying about self-interests. Listen, they could, if we heard Jesus here, do not worry these things. Here's what he's done. He's released you from the burden. This is so gracious gospel's announcement today. He's essentially saying, I got you. I've got you. I'll take that burden. It's over for you. Have faith in that. He wants dependence on him. How much time do we give to the things of this life? I will provide. And you see the point. When we're worried incessantly about all the things, our own self-interest, faith is obscured. weakened this way. And the point is, when we give our energy to all the worries of this life, we miss what's most important. That's why I raised it with our children. See how important it is in how we train our children in this. Over the years, too many parents, and I say this again to myself, our priorities with my children were all wrong. we're going to make our children the best MLB baseball player, and we're going to devote all our time to sports to make that. Do you know the fraction, the percents of people who actually make it? Jesus is deeply concerned, isn't he so wonderful, about anything and ideas that would carry you and your children away to hell, and you're not. and you're not, but he is, and he loves you that much, and he loves your children that much. Isn't he wonderful? We need this. Your involvement in the kingdom comes with a serious warfare over truth. Notice, watch and beware, it's just like watch and pray, but we don't really get this one quoted that much. Watch and beware means that requires from us to be a people seriously committed to the scriptures, to the book. To know the truth, to advance in the truth, to study the truth, and understand what's pulling you and your children away from it. I get it, most of us are concerned about good things for our families. Ironically, it's often that we have good food and that we're clothed well for the weather and how much time for that, but we forget that we are involved in a divine mission here, a divine purpose here that drove Christ to the cross to keep people from error and to call people to come to him for eternal life. That's the mission. Much of the mission of the church, as we witness this, has been somewhat weak on this point because of the challenge of the self-interest. So Christianity, beloved, is one of truth claim. People who are called to be thinkers, studiers, commitment to doctrine, which isn't it sad that that's a bad word in our day? If our lives are filled with worries of the things of this life and we cruise in and out on Sunday with no commitment to that truth, how would we be any different from the Pharisees who were only really concerned about the weather. But there's a direct tie here to faith. And I want you to see here in this that as convicting as this is, trust me, it's convicting, Jesus's intention is to relieve the burden in your life. That's how good he is. That's why this is so saturated with the gospel. They finally get it in verse 12. Then, click, after this long chapter, they understood that he did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the teaching, the doctrine of the Sadducees and the Pharisees. And boom, it ends. The section ends. The light went on. That's how much discipleship took with Jesus to train them in priorities. As convicting as this is today to close, aren't you thankful for Christ's commitment this way? What a good shepherd. What a good shepherd. You know, Calvin once said, the pastor ought to have two voices. One for gathering the sheep and another for driving away wolves. He would let nothing stand in the way of delivering you and your children and taking this gospel to the ends of the earth. Beware, says Jesus, of false prophets who come in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they're ravenous wolves. You'll know them by their fruits. Where are you being led? And so the great application to the sermon today is to see what matters most to your good shepherd. Join that program. Be a people committed to his truth. It is warfare. But it's about this. What would have happened to that Canaanite woman if Jesus let the doctrine of the Sadducees and the Pharisees prevail in Israel? She would have been lost forever. Jesus saved her, and he would not let them get in the way. You know, they learned something that day. They learned something good that day. As the Pharisees' leaven could corrupt the whole batch, little leaven leavens the whole lump, the bread he gave, the body he delivered up, was life for the world. He would never let that leaven stand in the way of our deliverance. So I say today, join with him in the great cause. and when you're worried, and when you're burdened, he's told you what to do. Give it to him. Cast your cares upon me, because I care for you. I'll carry it. You don't have to carry that. Why are you trying to carry that? Don't do that. It's really hard on you. I'll take that, but remember what this is about. I've come to save. I've come to help. I've come to deliver. Look at my life, says Jesus. Lay down my life in death and rise again so that I would save every last one of my people from their sins. That's what he came to do. That's what Christianity is involved in. Praise God for a shepherd like this. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for your goodness to us. Thank you for your faithfulness. We ask, oh Lord, that you would help us in priorities to keep our eyes focused on Christ. Bless your congregation, bless these people today and help us, Lord, to be a people of strong faith, trusting in you, committed to what you have determined to do in sending your son to this earth to deliver us from our sins. In Jesus' name, amen.