Everyone Wants Proof

Matthew 16:1-12

Pharisees: were religious peoples who were more in touch with the common people. The took scriptures a little liberally. We see Jesus having more encounters with these men because they were in more of an abundance, and they dealt with regular affairs. The Pharisees also believe in the resurrection of the dead.

Sadducees: Religious elites. These were the wealthy men who held strictly to traditions. They were described as being unfriendly and mean, even to one another. They did not believe in the general resurrection of the dead. The Sadducees included people like Caiaphas, who is the one that had Jesus murdered.

The Pharisees and the Sadducees did not get along, but they say that the enemy of your enemy is your friend. They both saw Jesus as a threat to their way of life, so they began to put their differences aside so that they might take Jesus down.

Teaming up they came to Jesus and demanded that He give them a sign to prove He was who He said He was. These groups did not believe the claims that Jesus was making. They did not believe that He was the Son of God. They did not believe that He was God, they did not believe that He was healing people under His own power. When they got word of these teachings they would send little spies to hear and watch Jesus. Jesus would give them exactly what they were looking for, and they would seek to call Jesus out. Which is what they are doing here. They wanted a sign.

This sign was not a desire to see if He was the real deal. They were not seeking for assurance so that they may worship Him, they were looking for a way to twist His actions and make Him look bad. Just like when they said He was using the power of the devil to free people who were demon possessed. To which Jesus calmly explained that how can the devil cast our the devil. There is no way that the devil would go against himself and do something kind. Therefore, Jesus must be working under the power of God.

They ask for a sign and Jesus tells them that they know how to look at the sky and know whether it was going to rain, or whether it was going to be a nice day out, but they had no idea how to understand that God Himself was standing before them, and He wished nothing more than to bring people to Himself. Jesus said the only sign I am going to give you is the sign of Jonah. Which means that just as Jonah spent 3 days in the belly of the fish, Jesus will die and spend 3 days in the grave, then on the 3rd day He will resurrect Himself in His own power. Effectively defeating death, and sealing salvation for all those who believe. Which will clearly not be these religious elites here.

The disciples and Jesus left the area. They were in Tyre and Sidon, which is a gentile area (Gentiles being those who are not Jews by birth). They had forgotten to bring bread along for the journey, so naturally they would be getting hungry. Knowing this Jesus took the opportunity to slip in an educational warning using bread terminology. Jesus told them to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees. Leaven is a substance that causes bread to rise. It is usually a form of bacteria, yeast. What Jesus was saying is that a little piece of something bad can ruin all that is good. The religious men had everything they needed to follow God if the most proper way imaginable, but they allowed greed, pride, and unbelief reign in their lives. Which ruined everything right that could have gone well for them. Jesus warned the disciples that they too could allow themselves to be corrupted if they did not watch out.

*BTW every single disciple besides Judas Iscariot was faithful to the end of their lives. Most even lost their lives because of their faithfulness.*

I hope that you have faith in Jesus Christ. If you don’t, and you want to, you are welcome to talk to me at any time. But if you do have faith in Him I want you to know that that faith will be tested. You are going to go to college and they are going to try to convince you that we generated from monkeys, and that the earth was created in the “Big Bang” rather than being formed by the hands of God.

They are going to try to get you to believe that Jesus was just a good man, but He certainly was not the Son of God and that He was not God at all.

They will try to tell you that God does not exist. That we offer blind faith to a being that we created in our own mind (But who created this intricate mind with which we come up with these thoughts? If it evolved then why is it not continuing to evolve?)

They are going to do their best to get you to turn your back on God. They are going to sew that filth into your life and hope that if grows and festers, and ruins everything that is good.

Listen to Jesus’s words, beware of the world and what it tries to put into your faith. And always remember what Jesus said in John 20:29 “Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.””

It takes good faith to believe without seeing, but that is all we as Christians do, and we love to do it. If you struggle with faith, come talk to me. If you lack faith, come talk to me. If you do have no idea what faith is at all, come talk to me.