36 16.01

INTRODUCTION

Have you ever not been able to find something that right in front of you?

I heard a preacher talking about looking for his favorite pen one day and could not find it. He looked all over his desk, under the desk, and in the drawers before he finally found it – in his hand. He thought he’d been holding his pencil.

I’m sure you’ve seen people (and maybe you’ve been this person) looking for their glasses that are their head.

That’s pretty bad, but it’s not as bad as the woman I heard about talking to her daughter on the phone while looking for her phone. There are times something is right in front of us and we can’t even see it.

I saw a YouTube video of a Christian humorist talking about the differences between men and women. I know that just saying there are differences would be a shock to many of the cultural elites today, but there are scientifically proven differences. One of those differences is eye sight.

Women have 180 degree peripheral vision while men have greater long distance vision. Four times as many men are broadsided in an accident than women. That’s because they don’t see a car coming from the side. But men are better drivers at night. Women have stayed at home with the kids and needed greater peripheral vision to see what the kids are up to. You thought your mother had eyes in the back of her head but it was just her peripheral vision. Men have been hunters and need long range vision. The problem is men don’t see well up close so they can’t see their keys right in front of them. So the advice for men is if your wife insists something is there and you aren’t seeing it, just take a couple of steps back and then you’ll see it.

A study took fifty couples and placed them in a mock-up home. They took each couple one at a time and sat them down at a table for dinner. Once seated the wives were instructed to ask their husbands to go get the butter from the refrigerator. The wives had also been told to make sure the butter was on the second shelf right in front. Forty-eight men couldn’t find the butter. Men, when looking in the fridge bend down like an umpire behind home plate. They say a woman can see the entire contents of a refrigerator without moving her head because she has great peripheral vision. But when a man stands looking in the fridge he looks like a bobble head doll. If they know where it is they’ll go right to it, but if you move it they’ll never find it.

So men have an excuse for not seeing something right in front of them.

We do it all the time – men and women. It can cause problems, but the bigger problem is when we fail to see God when he’s right in front of us. We fail to recognize how he’s provided for us. We fail to see his love and grace. Do you do that? Do you ever miss seeing how God is at work in your life? It’s right there and somehow we just overlook it. Just as we need to open our eyes so we can find the pen in our hand, we need to open our spiritual eyes in order to see God in our lives. He’s there, we just manage to miss him.

SERMON

We are in Matthew 16 this evening. After feeding the four thousand on the west side of the Sea of Galilee in a predominantly Gentile area, Jesus and the disciple sail back across the sea to the west side. In our passage today the religious leaders have the truth right in front of them and can’t see it.

Video

It looks like Jesus has barely gotten off the boat when he is surrounded by Pharisees and Sadducees who have come to test Jesus. What is interesting is that these two groups didn’t get along with each other. The Pharisees were a conservative religious group who followed the law of God as well as the teachings about the law known as the traditions. The Sadducees were a liberal Political group that rejected the traditions and claimed to recognize only the law of God, though they didn’t work very hard at keeping them. The Pharisees were not a political group and were willing to live under the Roman government as long the Romans allowed them to practice their religious beliefs. The Sadducees were small in number and made up of wealthy aristocracy and would do whatever it took to get along with the Roman government so as to retain their wealth and power. The Sadducees also did not believe in angels, the resurrection of life after death, and weren’t looking for a Messiah to come in and save the day as opposed to the Pharisees who did believe those things. These two groups were diametrically opposed to each other, but they come together in their opposition of Jesus.

This wasn’t the first time the Pharisees and Sadducees test Jesus and it won’t be the last. To say they are testing Jesus is being nice. It’s not like they’re just making sure he’s qualified to be a Rabbi like some places make you take a test before you can be a tour guide. They have come to find something they can use against Jesus. And how will they test him? They ask for a sign.

The request is crazy when you consider all the signs Jesus had already given them. Was it not enough to cast out demons and give sight to a man born blind? Was it not enough to feed two crowds with only a couple of lunch bags of food? Was it not enough to raise a dead child back to his mother’s arms? Jesus had given them many signs already, but the Pharisees and Sadducees refused to open their eyes and see them.

In his letter to the Corinthians Paul makes a statement about the state of those who do not believe.

The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. (2 Corinthians 4:4)

It’s a little hard to see when you’re blind. That was true for the Pharisees and Sadducees in Jesus’ day and it’s true of unbelievers today. We wonder why they can’t see the truth. It’s because they have been blinded by the devil.

I read about a French woman who lived a century ago who had been born blind. One day, someone gave her the Gospel of Mark in braille. She was so blessed by the story of Jesus that she read it over and over. In fact, she read it so much that her fingertips became callused and lost their sensitivity. To regain feeling in her fingers, she cut off the calluses and continued to read Mark’s gospel. However, as she continued to cut away the skin and the calluses she damaged her nerve endings so badly that soon she permanently lost all feeling in her fingertips. Devastated, she held her copy of the Gospel of Mark in her hands one last time and literally kissed it goodbye. It was then she discovered that her lips were more sensitive than her fingertips had ever been. She continued to study the scriptures with her lips.

Those who are blind but want to see will see, regardless of the obstacles. Those who don’t wish to see – Pharisees, scribes, and Sadducees, even though miracles are happening round about them – will not see because they don’t want to see.

In Jesus’ day, the rabbis taught that even a demon could perform earthly miracles, but only God could work miracles that related to the sky. Therefore, when these Pharisees said, “Show us a sign from heaven,” they were actually saying, “Okay, so you fed five thousand, walked on water, and healed a leper. You might be a demon. Show us a sign from heaven to prove you’re not.”

Continuing with their line of reasoning, Jesus said, “Speaking of the heavens, you can predict the heavenly signs.” Their weather generally came from the west over the Mediterranean Sea. At dawn, the rain clouds from west would reflect a reddish hue as the sun rose in the east. In the evening when the sun went down in the west the same reddish hue indicated clear skies. These political and religious leaders could read those signs, but they were unable to read the signs of the times. What were those signs? We’re not told. We know there was civil unrest. People were growing tired of Roman rule. Even if the Sadducees didn’t place much stock in it, the masses were eagerly awaiting the Messiah who would rescue them and reestablish the kingdom of David. Those were certainly signs they should have seen but missed.

The only sign Jesus offers them though, is the sign of Jonah. In chapter 12, the last time the Pharisees had asked for a sign, Jesus offered more.

38Then some of the Pharisees and teachers of the law said to him, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from you.” 39He answered, “A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. 40For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. (Matthew 12:38-40)

But this time Jesus only offers the sign of Jonah. What was the sign of Jonah? We know that Jonah was in the belly of a fish for three days and lived to tell about it. Jesus pointed to that and said he would die and three days later rise from the dead. But what was the sign of Jonah to the Ninevites? Jonah didn’t give them any sign to prove he was from God or that what he said would happen. Jonah just showed up and preached. He was the sign. And Jesus should have been enough of a sign for the Pharisees and Sadducees, but he wasn’t. They wanted more. Jesus says that only a wicked and adulterous generation asks for a sign.

Why is it wicked and adulterous to ask for a miraculous sign? Mark Moore offers the following reasons.

It ignores what Jesus has already done. It says, “Jesus, we don’t believe you. You must prove yourself again, and again, and again.”

It places us as judge over Jesus. It basically says, “Jesus, you perform for me and I will decide whether or not what you say is true.”

It places miracles over testimony. What Jesus said obviously wasn’t enough for them.

What we know though, it that miracles never convert a person. Miracles might satisfy a person’s curiosity, but they will never bring him to a saving faith in Jesus.

The world says, “If I can see it, then I’ll believe it.”

The Bible says, “If you believe it, then you’ll see it.”

Signs and wonders can confirm the scripture, but only faith can convert the sinner.

Voltaire was a famous French philosopher who was bitter towards Christianity. It was claimed that he said,

Even if a miracle should be wrought in the open marketplace before one thousand sober witnesses, I would rather mistrust my senses than admit a miracle took place.

Such is the mentality of the skeptic, of the sinner, of the non-believer. Interestingly, Voltaire also said,

In one hundred years from now, Christianity will be a thing of the past and the only Bibles will be in museums!

However, twenty years after his death, the Geneva Bible Society purchased his house to be used to print the Bible. Later it became the Paris headquarters for the British and Foreign Bible society.

Jesus was eager to get away from the Pharisees and Sadducees so he gets back in the boat with his disciples. They may have been away from these leaders, but Jesus wasn’t finished talking about them. Jesus wanted to warn the disciples about them and tell them to be on guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

There were two ways yeast was used in Jewish symbolism. First, it was used to illustrate the effects of sin. A small amount of yeast worked into some dough could have dramatic effects. In this way yeast was often used as a way to illustrate the pervasive effect of sin in the life of an individual or community. It only took a little, but it would grow and affect the whole. Second, yeast was used to illustrate someone’s teaching.

When Jesus talked about the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees they didn’t have either of these in mind. They were thinking about literal yeast and literal bread. They were fishermen out on the sea, it would have been easy for them to come up with some fish. However, they were headed away from a Jewish area and towards a Gentile area without bread. Gentile bread would not have been kosher. They would have become unclean if they ate it. They were so focused on the physical that they missed the spiritual.

This happened throughout the gospels. Whenever Jesus spoke of a spiritual realm, people always confused it with the material world. In John 3 when Jesus was talking to Nicodemus.

3Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.” 4“How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!” (John 3:3-4)

Jesus was speaking spiritually, but Nicodemus was trying to figure it out materially.

In John 4, Jesus talked to the woman at the well about water.

13Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” 15The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.” (John 4:13-15)

She was thinking materially, but Jesus was speaking of the water of the Spirit.

In John 6 Jesus told the crowd that they would need to eat his flesh.

51I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.” 52 Then the Jews began to argue sharply among themselves, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” (John 6:51-52)

The crowds, thinking Jesus was talking about cannibalism, began to turn away from him. Yet again, Jesus was speaking of a spiritual realm, but the people couldn’t see past the material world.

The disciples were focusing on the physical, but that’s not what Jesus was talking about. He wasn’t concerned about the amount of bread they had. Hadn’t he already proved twice that he could provide more than enough bread. What Was talking about was the teachings of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

Jesus’ desire is to free us from this material, physical world in which we’re so caught up. He longs for us to gain an eternal, spiritual perspective. But, like the disciples, we so often get hung up in the material realm. Even in our spiritual walk, we often count our blessings only in physical terms, and recognize only those miracles we see physically. Only the spiritual realm is eternal. That’s why church is so important to me. As I come here to meet with you, to sing songs of praise to the Lord, to study the Word, my focus shifts from the material to the spiritual, from the temporal to the eternal.

Jesus warns against the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

What was the leaven of the Pharisees. The leaven of the Pharisees was legalism. The Pharisees kept scores of rules and regulations, but their hearts were not right with God. Their focus was on outward observance of their own traditions. So Jesus warns them not to turn their faith in him into a series of “thou shalt nots.” What matters most are not the outward actions, but the condition of the heart. Religion gets wraps up in legalism. Jesus isn’t calling us to another religion, he’s calling us to a relationship with him.

What was the leaven of the Sadducees? The leaven of the Sadducees was liberalism. The Sadducees said, “There are no miracles. There are no angels. There is no resurrection. Religion isn’t about the afterlife or anything spiritual, it’s really about helping you to become a better person.” The Sadducees had two characteristics that were closely connected: they were wealthy and they were deeply involved in politics. Their main concern was in keeping both – their wealth and power. Jesus warns about becoming so concerned with the physical world that you lose faith in the spiritual or that we place so much emphasis on the stuff we have now that we become disinterested in what is to come.

Both groups were so obsessed with what was before them that they couldn’t see the truth of God standing before them.

A friend of mine said that his car had broken down on the side of the road so he called his wife to come pick him up. So he stood along the side of the road beside his car looking for her. When he saw her car he started waving to her and she drove right past him. She didn’t see him.

It would be a shame if we did that spiritually. We’re looking for Jesus. We’re waiting for his return. But it’s possible to still miss him in our everyday lives. Don’t miss him.