Sermon Tone Analysis

Lord, We Need Your Help!

The Gospel of Matthew

Matthew 16:1-12

Sermon by Rick Crandall

(Prepared August 23, 2022)

BACKGROUND:

*Please open your Bibles to Matthew 16.

This chapter begins with Jesus in the region of Magdala, and there the Pharisees and Sadducees showed up to harass our Savior.

*Up to this point Matthew had mentioned the Pharisees 11 times, but he only mentioned the Sadducees once.

That was in Matthew 3:7 where John the Baptist "saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism," and he rightly called them out by saying, "Brood of vipers!

Who has warned you to flee from the wrath to come?"

*For the most part, both groups were a horrible brood of vipers.

And it's important for us to understand how evil these Pharisees and Sadducees were.

Jesus was now in the third year of His ministry.

And though the Lord had already worked countless miracles to prove that He was the promised Messiah, these Pharisees and Sadducees had totally rejected Him with murderous hatred.

*In Jesus' day there were only a few thousand Pharisees, but they held power far greater than their numbers.

For over a hundred years they had basically been in charge of telling all of the other Jews what was right and wrong.

By Matthew 12, the Pharisees were stalking Jesus, looking for any opportunity to accuse Him of breaking their man-made laws.

In that chapter Jesus went into a synagogue and healed a man with a withered hand.

But it was on the Sabbath day, and that was against their man-made laws.

*Luke 6:11 tells us that on that day, the Pharisees were filled with rage to the point of madness.

And Mark 3:6 says they "went out and immediately plotted with the Herodians against Him, how they might destroy Him."

The Herodians were followers of Herod the Tetrarch, and normally they were the Pharisees' arch enemies.

But the Pharisees hated Jesus so much, they were working with their enemies to plot His death.

*You see, Jesus rejected all of the petty rules the Pharisees had added to God's Law.

There were thousands of these regulations, like their ungodly law against healing on the Sabbath Day.

*About fourteen hundred years earlier, just before the Children of Israel entered the Promised Land, Moses spoke to them, and in Deuteronomy 10:12-13 Moses asked them: "What does the LORD your God require of you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all His ways and to love Him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments of the LORD and His statutes which I command you today for your good?"

*God gave His Law to the Children of Israel FOR THEIR GOOD.

But the Pharisees had corrupted God's Law by turning it into a terrible burden on His people.

William Barclay gave this example: In Jeremiah 17:21, "Thus says the Lord: 'Take heed to yourselves, and bear no burden on the Sabbath day.'"

But a "burden" had to be defined, so the scribes and Pharisees defined it as "food equal in weight to a dried fig, enough wine for mixing in a goblet, milk enough for one swallow, honey enough to put upon a wound, water enough to moisten an eye-salve," and so on.

*Then they had to settle questions like this: "Could a chair or even a child be lifted on the Sabbath Day?" Or would it be carrying a burden to do so?

On and on the regulations went.

Then this random, unschooled carpenter from Nazareth showed up and rejected all of their ridiculous rules.

Jesus also publicly criticized them for those laying heavy legal burdens on God's people.

(1)

*Now here in Matthew 16, the Sadducees came back into view.

And Barclay explained how strange it was for them to join ranks with the Pharisees.

The two groups were normally bitter enemies.

The Sadducees were a small group of wealthy aristocrats, who were happy to cooperate with their Roman conquerors, -- if that allowed them to keep their wealth and privilege.

*The Sadducees rejected the legal burdens the Pharisees had added to God's Law.

But they also rejected basically everything miraculous in God's Word.

GotQuestions.org

gave this list of their beliefs that radically contradicted Scripture:

-The Sadducees denied God’s involvement in everyday life.

-They denied any resurrection of the dead (Matthew 22:23; Mark 12:18–27; Acts 23:8).

-They denied the afterlife, holding that the soul perished at death and therefore denying any penalty or reward after the earthly life.

-They denied the existence of angels and demons (Acts 23:8).

*Barclay said it would be almost impossible to find two more opposite groups, but they came together for one reason: their hate-filled desire to eliminate Jesus.

(2)

*The biggest reason why these elite Jews hated Jesus was because He rightly claimed to be God.

We can find the Lord's claim many times in the New Testament.

For example, in John 6:37-40, Jesus said:

37. "All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out.

38.

For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.

39.

This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day.

40.

And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day.''

*There Jesus said, "I have come down from Heaven."

Who could say that?

-- No one but the eternal Son of God, who humbled Himself to become a man and die on the cross for our sins.

Our crucified and risen Savior is the King of all Kings, and our only hope of salvation!

Jesus had already backed up this truth by working thousands of miracles.

But instead of falling down before the Lord with humble faith and worship, the Pharisees and Sadducees went to Him with arrogant self-righteousness and murderous hatred.

*Let's see what happened next, as we read Matthew 16:1-12, and as we read please think about the spiritual help we all need in life.

MESSAGE:

*In 1993, the famous country singer, Willie Nelson, was 60 years old, and he had some unusual advice for his 23-year-old daughter.

Willie said, "Paula, look at everything I do closely, -- and do exactly the opposite."

(3)

*That was probably the best advice Willie ever gave anybody.

And it's the same kind of thing we need to do as we go through today's Scripture.

The Pharisees, Sadducees, and even the Lord's own disciples will show us what not to do, as we seek to follow Jesus Christ.

And God's Word will help us see how to get the spiritual help we need in life.

*Do you ever feel like you need spiritual help?

I surely do, -- especially when I am struggling, or see people I love struggling with faults, failures, and weaknesses.

I also need spiritual help when I see people I love trying to cope with the unfair things that can happen in life.

*If you have never felt like you need spiritual help, let me tell you: You need a lot of spiritual help!

You may even be lost.

But all of us can cry out to the Lord for the help we need.

And in this sermon, you will hear four prayer requests, four cries to God for the spiritual help we need.

1. THE FIRST PRAYER REQUEST IS: LORD, HELP US TO SEE YOUR SIGNS.

*In vs. 1-4 the hard-hearted Jewish elites could not see the Lord's signs:

1.

Then the Pharisees and Sadducees came, and testing Him asked that He would show them a sign from heaven.

2.

He answered and said to 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 foul weather today, for the sky is red and threatening.'

Hypocrites!

You know how to discern the face of the sky, but you cannot discern the signs of the times.

4. A wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign shall be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.''

And He left them and departed.

*Some of the scribes and Pharisees had already asked Jesus for a sign like this.

In Matthew 12:38 they said, "Teacher, we want to see a sign from You.''

And in Matthew 12:39-40 Jesus:

39. . .

answered and said, "An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.

40.

For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth."

*God surely gives signs.

He still leads and guides His people.

He still speaks to all who will listen.

God speaks through the quiet, calm voice of His Holy Spirit, urging us to do the right thing at the right time.

God speaks through our circumstances.

Sometimes He speaks to people through their dreams, but most of all, God speaks to us through His Word.

*God gives signs.

But here in vs. 4, Jesus said, "A wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign shall be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah."

*Why did the Lord say that?

If God gives signs, then why did Jesus say that?