Enemies Unite
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Recap
Recap
As we’ve seen in chapter 15 Jesus’ efforts to bring the Kingdom near has continued to bump up against more and more opposition from the religious leaders of the day. Jesus confronted them with the problem with their own hearts as they attempted to confront him in breaking with tradition. It was their traditions that they were holding to tighter than GOd’s laws that revealed their true motives.
Jesus pointed out that it’s what’s on the inside of someone that corrupts a person.
We then looked at the remarkable faith of the Canaanite woman who told Jesus, “Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.”
This is a remarkable turn of events, especially in light of what we are going to look at tonight.
Seeming Repeat of Events
Seeming Repeat of Events
What we are going to look at next is going to sound very familiar at first. Even when read, if we don’t understand the geographical context here, we will miss why this account is so important and significant.
In verse 21 Jesus leaves where he was and goes into the land of Tyre and Sidon where he meets the Canaanite woman. This area of Galilee is known to be predominantly gentile, or as the considered it heathen.
Jesus has spent the time to go and take the kingdom of Heaven to Israelites and many have been healed and some have believed. The religious leaders of the day rejected Jesus and His message and claims. Here, Jesus turns a page in God’s plan and brings the gospel and teachings to the Gentiles. Not just teachings but healings and miracles as well.
29 Jesus went on from there and walked beside the Sea of Galilee. And he went up on the mountain and sat down there. 30 And great crowds came to him, bringing with them the lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute, and many others, and they put them at his feet, and he healed them, 31 so that the crowd wondered, when they saw the mute speaking, the crippled healthy, the lame walking, and the blind seeing. And they glorified the God of Israel.
Lame, blind, crippled, mute, and many others. There is a word here that I don’t think is translated clearly enough in the ESV. The word for crippled is Kyllos, which actually means something closer to this. Biblical usage: crooked of the members of the body; injured, disabled; maimed, mutilated. Strongs Definition: Crippled or Maimed
The Result: the mute spoke, the maimed unmangled, the lame walked, and the blind had sight. all this as a continued fulfillment of prophecy from Isaiah.
5 Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened,
and the ears of the deaf unstopped;
6 then shall the lame man leap like a deer,
and the tongue of the mute sing for joy.
For waters break forth in the wilderness,
and streams in the desert;
The other telling clue in this text is the last sentence. “And they glorified the God of Israel”
Matthew (G. Many Gentiles Place Healing Faith in the King (15:29–31))
The crowd marveled at Jesus’ healings and “praised the God of Israel”. These people, like most pagans of that day, believed there were many gods—a worldview held by both Greek and Roman cultures as well as the ancient cultures that inhabited the land before Joshua. These people never doubted that the God of Israel existed, but now they had seen such a display that they praised him as superior to all other gods.
32 Then Jesus called his disciples to him and said, “I have compassion on the crowd because they have been with me now three days and have nothing to eat. And I am unwilling to send them away hungry, lest they faint on the way.” 33 And the disciples said to him, “Where are we to get enough bread in such a desolate place to feed so great a crowd?” 34 And Jesus said to them, “How many loaves do you have?” They said, “Seven, and a few small fish.” 35 And directing the crowd to sit down on the ground, 36 he took the seven loaves and the fish, and having given thanks he broke them and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. 37 And they all ate and were satisfied. And they took up seven baskets full of the broken pieces left over. 38 Those who ate were four thousand men, besides women and children. 39 And after sending away the crowds, he got into the boat and went to the region of Magadan.
Jesus had compassion even for the “dogs” the gentiles. They had stuck with him for 3 whole days, so intent on listening to his teachings and seeing the infirm healed that they were willing to endure 3 days, even without food.
How quickly did the disciples forget what Jesus is capable of! Is it that or are they surprised by the fact that Jesus wants to bless through is compassion, even these gentile pagans. One way or the other, Jesus took this moment to remind the disciples and reveal to these gentiles who He was. The result is the same as him feeding 5000 or 20,000 Israelites, Jesus fulfills us to satisfaction. We are full, cravings satisfied.
Interesting detail, maybe nothing to this, but it is interesting that with Israel their were 12 baskets left over and with the Gentiles, there were 7 large baskets of left overs.
12 tribes
12 apostles
7 churches
7 the number of completion
Whatever the meaning, Jesus had now revealed the truth of the kingdom of heaven to both Israel and the gentile pagans and that was enough to anger two enemies to unite.
Enemies Unite
Enemies Unite
1 And the Pharisees and Sadducees came, and to test him they asked him to show them a sign from heaven. 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. 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.
Their working together showed a deep fear among the religious leaders. The Sadducees and Pharisees were long-standing enemies, and the fact that they came together against Jesus shows they regarded Him as a serious threat.
“It is an extraordinary phenomenon to find a combination of the Pharisees and Sadducees. They stood for both beliefs and policies which were diametrically opposed.” (Barclay)
The Pharisees lived according to the smallest points of the oral and scribal law; the Sadducees received only the written words of the Hebrew Scriptures.
The Pharisees believed in angels and the resurrection; the Sadducees did not (Paul used this division in Acts 23:6-10).
The Pharisees were not a political party and were prepared to live under any government that would leave them alone to practice their religion the way they wanted to; the Sadducees were aristocrats and collaborated with the Romans to keep their wealth and power.
The Pharisees looked for and longed for the Messiah; the Sadducees did not.
2. Yet for all these differences, Jesus brought them together. Not in a good way — they came together in opposition to Jesus, but they came together nonetheless.
Jesus had already been asked for a sign in Matthew 12:38, and in response He had already pointed them to the sign of Jonah. Tradition held that a sign done on earth could be a counterfeit from Satan, but signs done from heaven (coming in or from the sky) were assumed to be from God.
“The immediate demand of the Jewish leaders for a sign from heaven contrasts sharply with the Gentile crowd’s response to Jesus’ miracles (Matthew 15:31).” (France)
5 When the disciples reached the other side, they had forgotten to bring any bread. 6 Jesus said to them, “Watch and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” 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? 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? 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.” 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.
“It was the Jewish metaphorical expression for an evil influence. To the Jewish mind leaven was always symbolic of evil…leaven stood for an evil influence liable to spread through life and to corrupt it.” (Barclay) “False doctrine; which is fitly called leaven, because it soureth, swelleth, spreadeth, corrupteth the whole lump, and all this secretly.” (Trapp)
Jesus impressed the importance of being on guard against false teaching, especially that in the service of religious hypocrisy.
Today, we don’t have to beware of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees, but we do have to beware of the having the heart of the Pharisees and Sadducees. Some where along the line they either misinterpreted God’s word or allowed their own self-motivated biasses to influence what they believed was the truth about God and his plan and promises.
1 I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: 2 preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. 3 For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, 4 and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. 5 As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.
We must be in constant meditation of the Word of God in order to beware of the false teachings of the day. We can read something and understand it but not choose to apply it to our daily lives and it opens a door for a false teaching to slip in and take root.
False teachings takes hold in people’s lives when we don’t know the word to where we are able to recall it and apply it. Don’t ever just take someone’s word for gospel truth. Even my teaching. Examine what the WORD says, and make sure that what I’m saying is true.
The constant message from Jesus to His disciples and essentially to us, is “come to me” “follow me” do the work of the Father and be careful that you do this less you be lead astray or drift away.
1 Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.
As we head into this new year, 2024, I pray that, now more than ever before, we will built up in our holy faith and be focused on His most important and urgent task, reaching the lost with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Best and Most Glorious Good News!
17 But you must remember, beloved, the predictions of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. 18 They said to you, “In the last time there will be scoffers, following their own ungodly passions.” 19 It is these who cause divisions, worldly people, devoid of the Spirit. 20 But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, 21 keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. 22 And have mercy on those who doubt; 23 save others by snatching them out of the fire; to others show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh.
Communion
26 Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is my body.” 27 And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, “Drink of it, all of you, 28 for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. 29 I tell you I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.”