The Leaven of the Pharisees

Matthew 16:1-12

Verse 1:

The sought to test Jesus - Matt. 4:7.

They sought a sign, they want there own proof. They were unsatisfied with the biblical signs that proved that he was the Messiah.

Matthew Henry says,

Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary on the Bible Chapter 16

But they desired a sign of their own choosing: they despised those signs which relieved the necessity of the sick and sorrowful, and called for something else which would gratify the curiosity of the proud. It is great hypocrisy, when we slight the signs of God’s ordaining, to seek for signs of our own devising.

Are you desirous of a sign?

Are you ill satisfied with those proofs that God has given to who he is?

If you are you could be in great danger of slighting God and the mean by which he has ordained to reveal himself.

Verse 2-3:

Here Jesus is implying that these men like most can look at the sky and read the weather, the rudimentary functions of weather patterns that most can see and discern.

Yet, they cannot discern the readily available sign’s of his being the Messiah.

He chides them for being blind to the signs of the times. What is he talking about?

They were blind to the signs that the Messiah had indeed come and the kingdom with him.

Daniel 9:25–26 “Know and understand this: From the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until an Anointed One, the ruler, will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks. It will be rebuilt with a plaza and a moat, but in difficult times. After those sixty-two weeks the Anointed One will be cut off and will have nothing. The people of the coming ruler will destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end will come with a flood, and until the end there will be war; desolations are decreed.” Zechariah 9:9–10 “Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion! Shout in triumph, Daughter Jerusalem! Look, your King is coming to you; he is righteous and victorious, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the horse from Jerusalem. The bow of war will be removed, and he will proclaim peace to the nations. His dominion will extend from sea to sea, from the Euphrates River to the ends of the earth.” , Malachi 3:1 ““See, I am going to send my messenger, and he will clear the way before me. Then the Lord you seek will suddenly come to his temple, the Messenger of the covenant you delight in—see, he is coming,” says the Lord of Armies.” *Matthew 12:28 “If I drive out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.”

Verse 4:

Here Christ reveals the wickedness of this kind of attitude labeling it “evil” and “adulterous”.

Seeking these false signs, Christ said they would only be given one sign, they sign of Jonah.

Verses 5-11:

The disciples forget bread.

Jesus warns of the Leaven of the Pharisees.

The disciples think he is speaking of bread.

Jesus accounts this for a lack of faith.

verses 9-11

do you not understand?

I wasn’t talking about bread.

Verse 12:

What is the leaven of the Pharisees?

Here it is there teaching.

In Luke it is hypocrisy, Luke 12:1 “Meanwhile, a crowd of many thousands came together, so that they were trampling on one another. He began to say to his disciples first, “Be on your guard against the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.”

Matthew 23:3-7, 23:13-15, 23:23-39.

The warning is teaching one thing and doing another. Hypocrisy!

What this leaven is not.

It is not simply being religious, so long as you possess true religion. James 1:27.

It is not simply holding your brother and sisters accountable in their Christian walk. Gal. 6:1-2, James 5:16, Heb. 10:24-25, Matt. 18:15-17.

It is not simply having a zeal and passion for holiness and righteousness and godliness.

Application

Guard against hypocrisy in your own life.

Value genuine faith over external signs.

Discern the signs of the times.