mat17

Matthew 16:1 In this verse we find again the Pharisees attempting to make Jesus fall. The Greek word used here means to tempt and it is testing someone in the hopes of making them fall. This is the way that satan tempts us. He places before us something very enticing hoping we will give in to it and then he wins and God loses. Every time we fall prey to temptation it takes the victory away from God and gives it to satan. Satan's greatest desire is to see every Christian drawn into sin. The Pharisees were hoping to draw Jesus into sin so He would fall. They had the Messiah, the Son of God before them but instead of opening their eyes to His truth they did all they could to make Him fall. They wanted Him to fail in front of the ones that believed in Him. They asked Him to show them a sign from the heavens.

Matthew 16:2-3 In answer to their asking for a sign from the heavens Jesus responded to them in reference of the weather saying everyone can read the skies. An old weather saying is “red sky at night, sailors delight,” basically meaning that if the evening sky as the sun goes down has a pinkish or reddish cast to it the next day's weather will be good. And then Jesus says if the sky is red and threatening in the morning it will be a stormy day. “Red sky in the morning, sailors take warning.” Jesus says they know how to interpret the sky but have no idea how to interpret the signs of the times. These are spiritual leaders unable to recognize the coming of the Messiah! Jesus is saying they would rather spend time discussing the weather than the things of God. Is this not true of times today? People would rather spend time discussing politics, radio talk shows, television shows, etc., than to talk about the things of God unless it is on how to remove the things of God! When the Pharisees should have been embracing Jesus with love and honor they were trying to find a way to accuse Him and kill Him. What are we doing today to the things of God?

Matthew 16:4 Jesus is not referring necessarily to literal adultery but instead I believe to spiritual adultery. The people were wicked and unfaithful to God. Even though time after time Jesus performed great miracles and signs before them they remained unfaithful to God wanting more and more and more never believing. Jesus is trying to warn them that they would be destined to death eternal if they did not recognize Him as the Messiah. Again Jesus refers to Jonah as He did in chapter 12:40, which referred to the Son of Man spending three days and three nights in the ground. Jonah basically died in the belly of the fish and was resurrected just as Jesus would soon die at the hands of the people He came to save and soon thereafter be resurrected. Jonah died symbolically and Jesus died literally. Jesus was also letting the Pharisees, if they had minds to discern, know that He knew they were plotting to kill Him. Jonah, sent by God, came to warn wicked people to repent and Christ, sent from God, came also to warn wicked people to repent. And with that He then left them having said all He could.

Matthew 16:5 With this verse begins the teaching of yeast of the Pharisees. As we have seen at the beginning of chapter 15 Matthew's directive has been about eating. Eating unclean things that might harm us, eating is the way to partake of the body of Christ, eating the Word of Christ sustains us, and to beware of the leaven.

Matthew 16:6 Jesus says beware of the leaven of Pharisees and Sadducees. The word used here “watch out and beware” means to stare at, and to clearly discern! In other words be on your guard paying close attention to all things. Jesus is reminding the disciples that just as they would remove yeast from their homes for Passover (Exodus 12:15) they must also now diligently and cautiously search for and remove any leaven found in the words of the Pharisees and Sadducees, in other words false teachings!

Matthew 16:7 The disciples went amongst themselves and began to discuss the words of Jesus. We often do that don't we? Get off together with others and discuss things without really knowing what we are discussing. The disciples as we well know had a habit of only looking at the surface. Does that sound familiar to any one? I know it does to me! But you see to understand the sayings of Jesus one must know Jesus and look beyond the surface. Christ was surrounded by enemies and to keep the unbelievers from knowing what He was saying He would use parables. Jesus needed to choose His words carefully lest the enemy would use it against Him. If you truly know Jesus though the meaning of His Words will be as plain as the nose on your face. Many Christians though go to extremes searching for hidden meanings and codes in the passages of Christ. His Words are simple and they are truth to those that truly believe!

Matthew 16:8-12 Jesus knowing what they were talking about asks them where their faith is! He says unto them, “You of little faith,” not necessarily meaning the disciples lacked spiritual faith, but instead they lacked confidence in Christ’s divine character. Why are you talking about bread asks Jesus are you simply remembering how I fed the 4,000 and the 5,000, or are you beginning to see the light of what I say and if you are not seeing it then how is it you don't understand? Christ laid a true and solid foundation and it is only because of the disciples lack of understanding, lack of faith in who Christ is that they do not always comprehend the teachings just as it is with us many times. Not all teaching that comes to you in the name of religion will be true teaching much of it will be false so be aware of where your teaching comes from. And it was at this point that the disciples finally understood that Jesus was not telling them about the yeast used in bread but instead to be cautious of false teaching.

Matthew 16:13-14 Caesarea Philippi is a town located roughly 30 miles northwest of the Sea of Galilee and when Jesus had came into this area He asked the disciples, “who do the people say the Son of Man is?” And they answered Him saying, some say, John, others say Elijah, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets. Some believed that Jesus actually was one of these men raised from the dead, which would mean they believed in resurrection, which the Sadducees did not believe in.

Matthew 16:15-16 Then Jesus looked at the disciples and said but how about you? Who do you think I am? This is the question asked of us also; who do we think Jesus is? And we do not even have to give a response openly because He can tell by the way we go about our daily life. Peter responds though by saying, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” No where in the Gospels up till this point had anyone actually confessed Jesus to be the Christ, the Messiah, but now Peter affirms openly that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God both Divine and human in nature.

Matthew 16:17 Now Jesus speaks directly to Peter just as He speaks directly to you and me when we confess Him as Lord through our faith in His divine nature. Jesus said blessed are you Simon Peter, meaning supremely blessed, very very fortunate that you listened to God and discerned My divine nature through revelation from the Father not from man's influence. Flesh and blood did not reveal who Christ was to Peter, God the Father revealed this knowledge.

Matthew 16:18-20 Jesus says to Peter that he is ‘petros’ meaning a large stone or rock, and upon this rock, ‘petra’ (Christ) meaning a rocky point or cliff will He, Christ, build His church. We know from the Word that the church is built upon the foundation of Peter and the Apostles with Jesus as the cornerstone or foundational stone and Jesus says here “my church” meaning just that Christ’s church, not a denominational church or building or human, but Christ’s church built upon His doctrine only! And He goes on to say that nothing can stand against this church built upon Him. Not even the gates of hell can overcome the church built upon the foundation of Christ the solid rock. Jesus then goes on to say that He will give them the keys to the kingdom of heaven and anything they bind on earth will be bound in heaven and anything they loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Even though the word ‘you’ is singular it is used to denote the whole church as being a single unit, one in unity with Christ. Christ has given us the authority to bind and loose only those things that have already been bound and loosed in heaven and not to tell anyone that He was the Christ, the anointed one, the Messiah. And He then again as before says do not tell anyone. The true reality of Christ is always hidden from ‘so-called religious people.’ Only those knowing Christ in a truly personal way know of His anointing as the Messiah.

Matthew 16:21 Jesus says that He must go to Jerusalem because this is the place prophesied as the death place of the Messiah and the place of resurrection. Here Jesus would suffer at the hands of religious people, be killed by them, and then raised to life by HIS FATHER on the third day! The scribes, Pharisees, and priests were all considered to be very religious people yet it is these very same religious people that will see to the conviction, abuse, and death of Christ.

Matthew 16:22-23 Jesus calls Peter satan in this passage because Peter is saying to Him basically the same things that satan said to Jesus in Matthew 4:8-10. Peter tries to tell Jesus this will not happen to Him. He is not looking at the things Christ speaks of with spiritual eyes but instead is thinking in human ways. God’s plan is for Jesus to die for the sins of man, man's desires would be for Christ to remain alive and establish His kingdom right then and there on earth destroying the evils before them but God’s plan must be fulfilled for the salvation of man. Jesus refers to Peter as a stumbling block with eyes on things of man not God. The disciples seemed to be of more interest in gaining worldly position and power than standing behind Jesus as He approached His impending death on the cross for their very lives!

Matthew 16:24 Jesus now addresses the character of discipleship! When we look at this passage we see that it is not enough to just desire to be a disciple or for people to think you are a disciple, you must truly possess the character of a disciple. In other words you must walk and talk the Gospel. Your life at home, work, or play should be the same as it is in church! To truly be a disciple of Christ and this means a Believer, a Christian, you must deny your self! In other words you must give everything over to Christ your time, your family, your job, your finances, everything needs to be given over to Christ and do the work of the Word. The cross of Christ is symbolic to us as our crucifixion of our own life sharing in Christ’s crucifixion, death, burial, and resurrection. Following Christ is not always going to be fun and easy, the cross was not enjoyment, it was torture and sometimes the work of the Lord will be less than enjoyable to us but we must do it to follow Him truly. And to “follow Me” means to continually follow Christ in all we do.

Matthew 16:25 To be a true Believer, true disciple of Christ one must lose his life for Christ. In other words you must give up the life you knew before you meant the Lord and take on the Life given you through Him. True discipleship has nothing to do with ME! It is all about Christ and I must remove me from the center of it and place Christ there. So often we think of self and leave Christ out but we must think of Christ before self.

Matthew 16:26 There is nothing more important than having Christ in the center of your life. Only that which we do for the good of the kingdom of God will benefit us in life. Anything else that we do in this life has no merit if it was not done for Christ.

Matthew 16:27 Jesus refers in this verse to His second coming. And He says that it is during this time that all men will receive their due rewards (Revelation 22:12). Each person shall receive a reward on the basis of what they have done! We so often preach that works does not mean a lot, but what we should preach is that works will not get you to heaven but works will get you rewards. There is a difference and there is an importance in knowing the difference because without knowledge of the difference you could be full of works and still go to hell! Those that truly love the Lord will truly give up self for the Lord and just naturally do that which is good without concern of reward.

Matthew 16:28 In this last verse of chapter 16 Jesus says that some will not see death or taste death. This means that some of them listening to Him would not die before seeing the next event which would be the Transfiguration SOME ... WILL NOT TASTE DEATH = In other words, some listening to Him would not die before seeing the next event (the Transfiguration). The Greek word used here is “erchomai” which means “to come, to go.” So if we look at it to mean coming, to come it would refer then to the Christ’s Transfiguration, but if it means going, to go, it could refer to either the Transfiguration or the His Ascension, and this would be when 11 of the 12 saw Him ascend to heaven. Either way His words came true, because some did see the next event, while Judas did not see either event.

Father, help me to give my all to You and to make it my daily joy to walk and talk the Gospel of Your dear Son in Jesus name amen.
Where Jesus is Lord!
Living Vine Ministries
Pastor Thomas Miles

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