MATTHEW 16 The message of Matthew’s Gospel from the time of His start in public preaching and teaching, and the many miracles he did, as well as the parables; all focused on the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ. It included reaching out to sinners and seekers; to Jews and Gentiles; to the sick and the healthy. Everyone who came to Him was affected in some way and responded in some way to Him who was the King of the Jews. Some people entered the kingdom of heaven by putting their faith in Him. Some rejected Him and sought to kill Him because He had exposed them for who they were in the sight of God.
The unbelief of the Jewish leaders and even the people of His hometown, Nazareth, left them outside of the blessings they could have had. The little faith and lack of understanding by the disciples give us a sense of why this book would have been so important to the believers in assemblies when they first began to gather in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Written words give us the opportunity to go over and over again important truths until we can grasp them and apply them to ourselves. Hearing audible words is important too, but they are never repeated in exactly the same way and are given through only one of our senses. When we can hear and see the truth, we get understanding both from the emotional expressions and intellectual responses of faith.
All of the teaching, miracles, and parables that happened in those first years of His ministry, make us realize the importance of the place we have in the kingdom of which our Lord is the King. The climax to this part of Matthew’s account is the confession of Peter as to who the Lord is, and the introduction of those who read this book, to the church. This would have been to those people an enlightening understanding of the difference between Judaism and Christianity. The remaining part of the Gospel of Matthew takes readers forward to Jerusalem. In these next chapters, we are made to understand how the death, burial, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ were necessary, in order for us to enter the kingdom of God.
Challenged by deceivers, v.1-12 In Magdala where Mary Magdalene had seven devils cast out of her, the Lord Jesus was opposed and challenged by religious leaders. They made their demands and expected the Lord to respond to them the way most people did in those days. They wanted Him to give them a visible sign in the heavens or at least something they could see without faith. They had seen evidence of His power and authority all around them in people being healed and then heard His teaching as He explained the doctrines of the kingdom of heaven. His true teaching and the fact that the law was able to be understood as to its purpose more than merely in practice, had opened the minds and hearts of some to what was true and real, even though it had to be accepted by faith.
Pharisees and Sadducees had previously been opposition religious parties, with very different teaching. At this time, they had united for the purpose of getting rid of the Lord Jesus Christ and His obvious authority. His authority was obviously far greater than anything they claimed they had. The question they asked was an insulting question that minimized all the miracles He had done, all the people He had blessed, and all the teaching He had given. In their evil unregenerate minds, they wanted a visible sign in the sky they could see without faith, and they would then be able to tell the people He was under their authority.
Strangely, that same attitude is prevalent today among people who claim to be Christians, but will only believe signs and wonders. Therefore, they reject the claims of Christ on them personally even though they claim to be followers of Him. The Lord directed their attention to the sky as they wanted. “You can tell the weather by looking at the sky, but you can’t see all the evil that is happening all around you.” Wicked people overlook sin and even don’t consider sin and evil to be all that bad, because everybody they know does evil. Sin has become open and commonplace. Adulterous people are not only morally corrupt but to adulterate the teaching of the word of God is to be spiritual adulterers. To add to the word of God, the opinions and practices of men are spiritually adulterating the seed of the word of God. To not accept the word of God as it is written as relevant to our day and age, is spiritual adultery.
In these changing times when something new arises every few months; we have to be careful to take our spiritual food from the scriptures. The internet, books that claim new light, or charismatic speakers who hold forth a new view of what is tried and proven biblical doctrine; can quickly deceive those who don’t read the Bible for themselves. The truth that has been practiced for generations, and the results seen in many souls who have been saved growing in the Lord; is being discounted by “revisionist history and new theology.” The sign of the prophet Jonah is easily understood: anything that demeans or in any way discounts the Gospel message of the death, burial, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ; is not to be paid attention to. It is a sinful disregard for the truth of God.
Confessed by believers, v.5-20 In the scripture, leaven is a common symbol of evil, because even though it is unseen, its effects are far greater than the size of the leaven itself. In this chapter, leaven is used to represent the legalistic doctrine of the Pharisees and Sadducees. Instead of obedience to God’s word from the heart, their teaching was to maintain the ritual practices of “law-keepers.” As religious leaders, they demanded that of the Jews.
The Pharisees were legalists who were committed to the traditions of men. The rituals they performed and demanded of others were spiritually deadening. Rampant hypocrisy was evident in those who said a lot, but practiced a mere form. They had a fashion of making sure everyone knew they prayed a lot by putting phylactery on their foreheads and tying them on their hands. Inside those little leather boxes were prayers they wrote out. They made sure people heard them pray out loud. They also made sure people knew they were giving some money to the poor and to the temple. In other words; they advertised their religious practices to impress and intimidate people.
The doctrine of the Sadducees was to deny anything that could not be explained naturally from the human perspective. They denied the existence of spiritual things, including the fact of the resurrection of the dead. Most of the priests at that time were Sadducees. The warning the Lord Jesus gave to His disciples on the way to Caesarea Philippi, needs to be paid attention to by us because of its relevance to our times. People today have a tendency to say, “There’s not much to that. What’s the big deal? What difference does a little bit of wrong make to the whole, if it makes people feel good? We have got to learn to be tolerant of those little ‘mistakes!’”
I wonder if the Lord wanted His disciples to go with Him to an isolated place, where He could privately discuss with them His identity and their understanding of how God reveals Himself to people. It seems to be that by being in that private place; He had designed a “teaching moment,” that they would not soon forget. Up until this time in the Gospel of Matthew, the Lord had ministered to the needs of people and taught the principles of the kingdom of heaven. That included kingdom living which is to be to live righteously before God and man. From verse twenty-one on through the book of Matthew, the Lord Jesus directed the attention of the disciples to His death and resurrection. He focused on the future and the main purpose of His coming to earth the first time, which was to save His people from their sins.
The variety of opinions the Jews had concerning who Jesus was, reveals that many connected Him with the Messiah, but none, or very few regarded Him as the Messiah. Those who thought Him to be John the Baptist, considered the Lord to be just the forerunner of the Messiah. Others who considered Him to be Elijah thought of Him as the warning prophet telling of judgments to come because of national sin. Jeremiah was a prophet who explained the scriptures and that was what the Lord was doing.
After Jesus let them express the wrong opinions of the people, He then asked them for their personal opinion. Whether Peter was the spokesman of all of them, or whether he was just the first to speak up, is not the real point. His confession, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God!” was not merely a burst of enthusiasm as a result of all he had seen heard, and experienced. It was a carefully worded response of his solemn faith and soul-searching reflection, that was put into one powerful confession of faith.
The response of Peter was the result of God the Father working in the heart and soul of a true believer in Christ. God Himself enlightens the minds of people and moves their hearts to seek after God, as the “hart pants after the water brooks.” By acknowledging Jesus as “the Christ;” Peter stated his assurance that He knew Jesus to be the promised Savior. When he said, “The Son of the living God;” he was acknowledging divine power and authority were inherent in the Lord Jesus Christ.
When one confesses with their mouth, Jesus as Lord; that first demonstrates the right understanding of who Jesus is. In this day, that particular confession has been watered down to where people think and say they are saved, without owning Jesus as their personal Lord and Master. They want Him as Savior but not as Lord, because they do not want to do what He says in His word. It is as important now as it was when Peter stated his confession of faith, that we make sure people do not forget the fact that “If Jesus is not Lord of all, He is not Lord at all.”
In the time when Matthew’s Gospel was first being read by believers in the early local churches, the teaching of Jesus as the Messiah would have been important to the functioning of the assembly. The uniting of Jewish and Gentile believers into “one new man,” would have been hard to accept simply by word of mouth. Jesus as the Messiah would be important for those early believers because in the Roman empire, “Caesar is lord,” was a common affirmation that was made by most people. Many Christians died because they would not acknowledge Caesar as Lord, but publicly testified that Jesus only is Lord.
When we affirm that truth in our lives, we are stating that all other powers, institutions, governments, nations, and people; have less authority over us than our Lord Jesus Christ. This is not well-liked by employers who think they control your lives in the interest of making profits. Government representatives and religious leaders both demand authority over those they lead, by insisting they owe their allegiance to their world systems, rather than to our unseen Savior and Lord.
Like Peter and the other disciples, our confession as to who Jesus is, and our testimony of Him as our personal Savior and Lord; does not automatically make us exemplary disciples. Words are one thing. Actions are another. We look at some of the people we read about in the Bible as great examples, but not all are good examples of morality, spirituality, and fidelity to the Lord. They were failing people even as we are. It is important that the Holy Spirit lets us know of some of the faults and failures of those early apostles so that we don’t get discouraged and lose our commitment to the Lord when we fail.
The introduction of the church in the Bible begins here, with the first mention of the church. Christ is the foundation, the “bedrock” on which the church is built. That confession of faith as to who our Lord Jesus is, and the teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ; forms the body of truth that is gladly accepted by those who believe in Him. He is the indestructible and unsurpassed power of God upon which we are built as a habitation of God. Satan’s attempts to overcome and destroy the church will never succeed. The Mighty God, the Creator; is the Owner and Master of the church. Everything in the dispensational church comes from and is dependent upon Him.
In the Old Testament, the church was an unknown mystery. Typical teaching from the Old Testament that we can learn from, was not for their time but is useful to us. Peter was not the rock on which the church is built, but he was an important part of the early church. We are built upon the “foundation of the apostles and prophets,” Jesus Christ is the “Chief Cornerstone.” The keys of the truths of the Gospel were preached by Peter and those early brethren, and they are still being preached today by those the Spirit of God uses to proclaim the Gospel.
When people preach the Gospel, the door is wide open to those who are willing to enter by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. The religious leaders couldn’t keep people out even though they tried. We can’t keep people out, but it is far more important that we can help others to come in. Like the disciples of the Lord Jesus who followed Him day after day, learning from Him the message of the Gospel, and learning how to present it; we too need to know the truths of who Christ is, and how to explain them. We need to know the Gospel well enough to be able to define it, present it clearly and faithfully, and discern those who respond out of true hearts to it.
A change: Journey of suffering to the cross, v.21-28 The first time the phrase, “From that time on…,” was used in Matthew chapter four verse seventeen; it was an announcement of the kingdom of heaven. This time when it is used in verse twenty-one; it is pointing forward to the emphasis of the Lord Jesus on His coming death and resurrection. The disciples couldn’t grasp that because of their conception of the kingdom. They were thinking of a military victory and the Lord Jesus Christ taking the throne of David as the mighty King of the Jews. The disciples knew Jesus was the Messiah, but the idea of a suffering Messiah had not entered their minds. The lack of understanding by the disciples was one of the reasons defining discipleship and what it meant in practical ways had to be taught to them. Then they would be ready to carry on the work of the kingdom after His resurrection and ascension. For their Lord to “go… suffer… be killed… and be raised again,” was foreign to their thinking or imagining.
Jesus is the Messiah, but as the Suffering Messiah; He must die and be raised again to inaugurate His reign on earth. The disciples confessed Him as their Messiah but did not yet understand the nature of the kingdom of heaven completely, nor of the mission that would lead the Lord Jesus to death on the cross. In Judaism there is not much taught that would include the suffering and death of the Messiah.
Many, and perhaps most who practice Judaism today, would believe Isaiah 53 and similar passages relating to the suffering Messiah, are referring to suffering Israelis and the suffering nation of Israel. The message of the Gospel that the disciples had to grasp fully, makes plain the fact that “The Christ, the Son of the living God,” had to suffer and die for our sins. He then had to rise from among the dead for our justification – a completed work that has no additions to it. “The preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.”
The Lord in speaking of what would happen to Him, said those who follow Him would endure the same sufferings, but at the end would be rewarded for what they passed through. He Himself, “Who for the joy that was set before Him, endured the cross, despising the shame…” Peter attempted to do what a friend would do who only thinks as a natural man. Even though he had just had a revelation from the Father as to who Jesus was, and knew Him to be the true Messiah; he looked at people and events still from the human perspective instead of the divine perspective. That is a tactic of Satan. He wants us to forget how God sees people and things and seeks to make sure we leave God out.
Jesus recognized an attempt by Satan to tempt Him to not go to the cross. He had sought to stop Him in the work of the kingdom of God for forty days in the wilderness. The devil had moved people in Nazareth to try to kill the Savior by pushing Him over a cliff. Now the enemy was trying again to keep Him from being the sacrifice for our sins in order to bring us to God. By using a disciple who was moved by the emotions of his nature instead of spiritual understanding, the implacable foe made another attack on the humanity of our Lord, who rebuked Satan through Peter.
When we look at the things that happen to us and around us, it is important for us to be “mindful of the things of God.” Let us never leave God out of our understanding of the big picture of life now and in the future. We can learn the value of careful and thoughtful consideration by reading the scriptures and learning from lessons taught to others who lived in past times. Spiritual discernment and carnal thinking can happen in the same person. The commitment to true discipleship makes it possible to go beyond normal living. A conviction of the value of others will make self-denial and identification with Christ, much more important to us than the temporal things of life. Worldly attractions rob us of what we really are and can be for our Lord Jesus Christ.
Carrying a cross is a personal action. The disciples knew what he meant. They had already seen and experienced the animosity of those who opposed the truth of God against the Lord, and now they understood it would be against them too. Anyone carrying a cross was cut off from their past. They were on a one-way street and there was no turning back. Worldly ambitions and success are all gone to the cross-bearer. The cost of cross-bearing discipleship is a real and personal commitment. All we are and have is pledged to the One we follow. Our existence has a new objective. Instead of our lives being focused inward and self-ward; it is outward and upward.
The purpose of life becomes real to us when we commit ourselves to the service of our Lord. Our spiritual and emotional life becomes brightly alive, and we see beyond what is natural and normal, to that which is spiritual and eternal. Our life becomes a real part of our eternity, instead of a span of only a few years. Eternal life is what we actually live now when we take up our cross and follow our Lord. All we do has an eternal perspective. Our values, our decisions, and our choices all have a different emphasis. Rather than a life lived for what we can get now, it becomes a part of our eternal consciousness and God-given commission.
Life for a person carrying a cross daily is important for what and who it is focused on. We think in terms of what pleases our Lord and what can help others. It is not loathing ourselves or eliminating ourselves from all that is going on around us. Rather, it focuses on following the Lord Jesus: doing His will, being committed to Him and His work, and serving Him wherever and in whatever way He opens up before us.
Our Lord Jesus Christ is the One who is the Universal Judge. He will determine the value of all that is done in our lives. The gifts that divine Persons have given to God’s people, and how they have been used in His service, will be evaluated by Him who is omniscient. Believers will give an account of things done in the body. Unbelievers will face the Holy Judge they have rejected in that future day of reckoning.
Those who were eyewitnesses of the His glory and majesty never forgot what they saw. There was majesty and glory seen by three people on the Mount of Transfiguration. There was majesty and glory seen by hundreds of believers in Christ after His resurrection. There will be majesty and glory revealed to the whole world when the King comes back to rule and reign in righteousness. Then every eye will see Him, and they also which pierced Him, and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of Him.