Matthew 16:1-5
The King and religious rulers PHARISEES: the ritualists and traditionalists who believed in God; in the work of the Holy Spirit; in angels; in the resurrection – the fundamentalists, but they hid all of this under rituals and traditions making them burdens. The Lord’s last reply to these people was a rebuke for hypocrisy. SADDUCEES: they did not believe in spirits, angels, the resurrection or the supernatural. Religion was simply an ethical code. They were the cultured and wealthy people – the “correct” people of that day. Strangely the high priest was a Sadducee.
These two groups were united against Jesus: The Lord did away the Pharisees’ traditions and insisted on the spiritual things which the Sadducees denied. They wanted a sign from heaven, ignoring the signs which He did on earth. He told them of the colors of the sky and criticized them for asking a sign from Him and ignoring the ones all around them. He describes them as evil (wicked) and adulterous (spiritual adultery) in the way the prophets used the words. They would have to wait for a sign of Jonah. This condemned the Pharisees, the sign of Jonah was to Nineveh not to the Jews, and condemned the Sadducees who did not believe in the supernatural.
Lesson: Some people are in a hopeless condition because they rejected the King.