Scripture:
One
day the Pharisees and Sadducees came to test Jesus, demanding that he show them
a miraculous sign from heaven to prove his authority.
2 He
replied, “You know the saying, ‘Red sky at
night means fair weather tomorrow; 3 red sky in the morning
means foul weather all day.’ You know how to interpret the weather signs in the
sky, but you don’t know how to interpret the signs of the times! 4 Only an evil, adulterous
generation would demand a miraculous sign, but the only sign I will give them
is the sign of the prophet Jonah.” Then Jesus left them
and went away.
5 Later,
after they crossed to the other side of the lake, the disciples discovered they
had forgotten to bring any bread. 6 “Watch out!” Jesus warned them. “Beware of the yeast of
the Pharisees and Sadducees.”
7 At
this they began to argue with each other because they hadn’t brought any bread. 8 Jesus knew what they were saying, so he said, “You have so little faith! Why are you arguing with each other about
having no bread? 9 Don’t you understand even yet? Don’t you remember the 5,000 I fed
with five loaves, and the baskets of leftovers you picked up? 10 Or the 4,000 I fed with
seven loaves, and the large baskets of leftovers you picked up? 11 Why can’t you understand
that I’m not talking about bread? So again I say, ‘Beware of the yeast of the
Pharisees and Sadducees.’”
12 Then
at last they understood that he wasn’t speaking about the yeast in bread, but
about the deceptive teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.
Message:
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In our Scripture for today, Matthew gives us an episode in which a rare thing
happens. The Pharisees and Sadducees, two opposing forces who but heads and
disagree with each other, come together to oppose Jesus.
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There could not be two more opposite groups, yet they united previously to hear
John the Baptist and they united to test Jesus by attempting to cause his
failure and to discredit him.
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They asked for a miracle that would prove beyond the shadow of a doubt the
source of Jesus' authority and his identity. They demanded a sign from heaven.
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But their demands for a sign were not for their own faith because they had
already rejected Jesus, already they had talked about killing him, already they
had judged him.
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They were merely looking for ways to
turn the crowds against Jesus, the crowds on whom Jesus had compassion, the
crowds, whom Jesus saw as sheep without a shepherd.
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So Jesus said to them, "Can't you
read the signs?"
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To either one degree or another, everyone knows how to read signs.
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Like the old saying, "Red sky at night, sailor's delight; red sky at
morning, sailor's warning."
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That old saying reminds us that, as the clouds move off in the evening, the
light of the setting sun gives them their reddish glow and the weather will be
fair on the following day.
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It also reminds us that if clouds are moving in with the rising Sun, they will
have that similar red hue, but because the clouds are moving-in the weather
will be stormy.
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People the world over know how to read these signs and Jesus wants his
followers to be aware of and know how to read signs, but, of course, Jesus was
not merely talking about the weather.
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Let's not be shaped by human reasoning, let's be shaped by listening to Christ.
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Jesus rebuffed the united Pharisees and Sadducees by showing them their inability to read the signs of the times, the
time of God's visitation among his people in the person of Jesus of Nazareth.
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And what is the proof that they cannot discern the signs? They asked for a sign!
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As Jesus asked them, "How can you know how to read the face of the sky,
yet cannot read the signs of the times?"
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With the coming of Jesus Messiah into the world, the dawn of the kingdom of
heaven has arrived.
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Jesus told them that they would receive
no sign, but the sign of Jonah.
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The meaning of the sign of Jonah is simple and Jesus already explained its
meaning in Matthew 12.
- “Only an
evil, adulterous generation would demand a miraculous sign; but the only sign I
will give them is the sign of the prophet Jonah. 40 For as Jonah was in the
belly of the great fish for three days and three nights, so will the Son of Man
be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights.
41 “The
people of Nineveh will stand up against this generation on judgment day and
condemn it, for they repented of their sins at the preaching of Jonah. Now
someone greater than Jonah is here—but you refuse to repent. (Matthew 12:39-41, NLT)
- The sign Jesus pointed to
was the sign of his suffering, death and
resurrection. Because of that sign,
many will believe, repenting of their sins and turning back to God.
- But because the Pharisees
and Sadducees together rejected Jesus, He rejected them.
- Failure to repent results in judgment.
- After leaving the Pharisees
and Sadducees to stew in their own juices, Jesus used the simple mistake of the
disciples in forgetting bread as a teachable moment.
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To those with little faith, Jesus pointed out that the influence of the Pharisees and Sadducees was a faithless influence.
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Jesus compared the deceptive teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees with
yeast.
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The trouble with false teaching is that, like yeast, it spreads quickly and
Jesus warned his disciples to be alert and vigilant to the presence of false
teaching.
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But the disciples in that moment
were only thinking about their stomachs.
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So Jesus called them to get their minds off of their stomachs because they have
clearly failed to trust God to provide
for their needs.
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Did they not learn the lessons of the feeding of the 5000 or the 4000 and just
exactly who Jesus revealed himself to be and the source of his authority? How
could they have forgotten?
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How is it that they didn't understand
that he wasn't talking about bread?
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Having got their attention, Jesus was able to make his point and they were able
to hear and understand.
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Jesus warned his disciples again to "beware of the yeast of the Pharisees
and Sadducees" and they understood that Jesus meant their deceptive teaching.
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We've been talking about practicing discernment and a few weeks ago, we were
talking about how to spot false prophets.
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Today as we think about practicing discernment, it's important that we to learn
how to spot false teaching.
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It's not enough for us merely to recognize false prophets. We need to recognize false teaching for two reasons.
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First, because like the disciples, we fail
to pay attention to Jesus. We fail in our attempts at discipleship to
Jesus.
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As apprentices to Jesus, we are not the master and we need to learn to listen
to him. Often when we are not listening, we fail to understand. And when we're
not listening to Jesus, we may be listening to someone or something else, perhaps
even our own imaginings, and that's where false teaching can creep in on us.
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Second, we need to recognize false
teaching simply because it is dangerous. It is dangerous to
our faith. It can lead us astray and cause us to do things against the
expressed will of God, at odds with what God has already said in his Word.
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Let's not be shaped by human reasoning, let's be shaped by listening to Christ.
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So, how do we spot false teaching?
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The apostle John put it briefly, "Here’s how you test for
the genuine Spirit of God. Everyone who confesses openly his faith in Jesus
Christ—the Son of God, who came as an actual flesh-and-blood person—comes from
God and belongs to God. And everyone who refuses to confess faith in Jesus has
nothing in common with God." (1 John 4: 2&3, MSG )
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The root of false teaching is wrapped up in misunderstanding or misconstruing the
identity of Jesus of Nazareth.
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The overwhelming majority of false teaching has to do with one question: Who is Jesus?
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Most false teaching attempts to make Jesus less than who he is.
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1. One way to do that is by questioning
his authority.
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The Pharisees and Sadducees tried to test Jesus in order to turn the crowds
away from him and they did that primarily by demanding a sign.
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Through healings and exorcisms and other works of the Holy Spirit, Jesus gave
sign enough of his authority, but the leaders had a different agenda.
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They were really asking Jesus, "Who do you think you are? How dare you
place yourself above us, our traditions and above the Temple of the Lord?"
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Quasi-Christian movements today attempt to limit the authority of Jesus.
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The Word of Faith, health and wealth, prosperity movement teaches that Jesus
had to go behind God the Father's back to save us from our sins. That does not
describe the God of the Bible or his Son.
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Islam, while acknowledging Jesus was a great prophet, Islam has set up Muhammad
as the final greatest prophet, greater than Jesus.
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False teaching attempts to undermine or limit the authority of Jesus.
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2. Another way false teaching
attempts to makes Jesus less than who he is, is by tampering with his identity.
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Mormons believe that Jesus and his Father were separate physical people and
both men died, that Lucifer is Jesus' brother, and that they were each born of
a woman, and that all people are spirit babies eternally co-existing in heaven
before they are born. That tampers with the identity of Jesus, and much more,
and contradicts Scripture.
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Jehovah's Witnesses believe that Jesus is actually an incarnation of the
Archangel Michael, and thereby not the only begotten Son of God, and that when
he ascended to heaven he resumed that name and title.
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Again, we have here tampering with Jesus' identity as well as rather fast &
loose interpretations of Daniel 10:13, 21; 12:1 and 1 Thess. 4:16
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There are plenty of false teachings out there today that deny the incarnation, i.e.,
that Jesus was both fully human and fully divine, deny the bodily resurrection
of Jesus, or deny the atonement by suggesting that Jesus did not die on a
cross.
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Any such suggestion or variation also tampers with the identity of Jesus and
contradicts the clear teaching of Scripture.
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3. A third way false teaching
attempts to make Jesus less than who he is, is by suggesting that faith in Christ
is not sufficient for salvation, i.e., faith in his person and in his suffering,
death, and resurrection is not enough for salvation.
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The Judaizers of Acts, Galatians and Philippians taught that the Gentiles had
to be circumcised and follow the Jewish laws in order to be saved, which, of
course, Paul passionately argued against.
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Mormons believe that faith in Jesus Christ is not enough to dwell with God in
third heaven; at a minimum, one has to follow all the rules, tithe without
fail, and repent of every single sin.
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Jehovah's Witnesses also believe that the right to participate in God's future
kingdom must be earned while claiming to believe that Jesus’ death paid the
ransom for sin.
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Either Jesus’ death and bodily resurrection pays for sin or it doesn’t, which
is it?
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Such denials contradict the plain teaching of Scripture that: "if you
confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God
raised him from the dead, you will be saved" (Romans 10:9).
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According to the Scriptures, good works save no one because we are not good,
rather we are saved by grace through faith as a free gift of God, so that as
new creations in Christ Jesus we may do the good God has planned (Ephesians
2:8-10).
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Let's not be shaped by human reasoning, let's be shaped by listening to Christ.
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I think the apostle John sums it up best.
6 Love
means doing what God has commanded us, and he has commanded us to love one
another, just as you heard from the beginning.
7 I
say this because many deceivers have gone out into the world. They deny that
Jesus Christ came in a real body. Such a person is a deceiver and an
antichrist. 8 Watch out
that you do not lose what we have worked so hard to achieve. Be diligent so
that you receive your full reward. 9 Anyone
who wanders away from this teaching has no relationship with God. But anyone
who remains in the teaching of Christ has a relationship with both the Father
and the Son. (2 John 1:6-9, NLT)
- Let's not be shaped by human reasoning,
let's be shaped by listening to Christ.
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