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00:00:00 Jesus called his disciples to him and said I have compassion for these people they have already been with me 3 days and have nothing to eat I do not want to send them away hungry or they may collapse on the way his disciples answered where could we get enough bread in this remote place to feed such a crowd how many loaves do you have Jesus asked seven they replied and a few small fish he told the crowd to sit down on the ground then he took the seven Loaves and the fish and when he had given thanks he
00:00:45 broke them and gave them to the disciples and they in turn to the people they all add and were satisfied afterward disciple picks seven basket full of broken pieces and that were left over the number of those who add was 4,000 men beside women and children after Jesus had sent the crowd away he got up into the board and went to the wind city of magdan chapter 16 verse 1 the Pharisees and seduces came to Jesus and tested him by asking him to show them a sign from the heaven he replied replied that when evening
00:01:32 comes you say it will be fair weather for the sky is red and in the morning today it will be stormy for the sky is red and overcast you know how to interpret the appearance of the sky but you cannot interpret the signs of times a wicked and adulterous generation looks for a sign but none will be given it except the sign of Jonah Jesus then left them and went away when they went across the lake the disciples for good to take bread be careful Jesus said to them be on your guard against the yeast of the phes and
00:02:17 seduces they discussed this among themselves and said it is because we didn't bring any bread aware of their discussion Jesus asked you little of Faith why are you talking among yourself about having no bread do you still not understand don't you remember the Five Loaves for the 5,000 and how about basket fulls you gathered or the seven loaves for the 4,000 and how many basket FS you gather how is it you don't understand that I was not talking to you about bread but be on your guard against the
00:02:59 yeast of the Pharisees and seduces then they understood that he was not telling them to God against the ye used in the bread but against the teaching of the Pharisees and seduces this is the word of the god thank you Arab for uh reading the text for the sermon once again it's my great joy and privilege to be standing here sharing with you from the word of God it's heartening to see uh more and more people coming uh to attend our Sunday service physically to be found in the house of God on the first day of the
00:03:56 week is indeed very refreshing for the Soul we are still in the midst of our long running series on the um Book of Matthew and this morning we have come to the um ending of uh chapter 15 uh: 32-39 and the beginning of uh chapter 16: 1-2 the sermon title is the influence of false teachers which may Le you lead you to think that today's message is mostly about false teachings the text actually goes much much deeper than that which means that uh we have a lot of uh unpacking to do the challenge posed by the verses is that they are
00:04:44 divided into three parts that are seemingly unconnected and from a plain reading of the text uh you might think that it's first about the the the miracle of the feeding of the 4,000 then and en Jesus had with the Pharisees and and Sadducees and then a conversation he had with his disciples in fact most of your Bibles would have a separate unrelated headings for these three parts of the text yet despite these demarcations within the text I can assure you that we have uh a rather seamless passage and
00:05:26 that every part is connected to every other part all three parts are linked and they point to a to a central theme the discovery of which is the object of our sermon what we want to do is to is to piece together what Matthew is really trying to say in this portion of his gospel in the departure from what I usually do I will not offer manyi lessons along the way we will examine the verses and see what's going on in order to to trace the path that will lead us to the main lesson equally important at the end of
00:06:04 the sermon we will extract an application point from the text they will help to shape the conduct of our faith but let's first uh Commit This Time to the Lord in prayer Our Father in heaven we beseech you this morning to unveil your truth to us from this portion of scripture CA us to all always seek your truth and to live by your truth as your spirit continues to transform us so that we may become living reflections of your Truth for we ask this in the name of your son amen besides uh traveling the one other
00:06:53 thing I love to do is reading to me reading is like taking a mental Journey although I read a lot uh on the internet I'm really a book person I I I love the feel of a book I even love the smell of a book to the consternation of my wife thousands of books lie all around the house so whenever there's a there's a book sale or a or a book fair in town you'll find me there and about a month ago there was one such book sale in kot D Man s and I was there for hours uh picking up books that I liked at bargain
00:07:36 prizes and some of you uh saw me there and came to say hello to me the wonderful thing about books is that they are repositories of ideas knowledge and even wisdom that you can hold in your hand never before has there been so much knowledge available at so cheap a price in so convenient a format by definition all books have something to teach us we can always learn something from any book depending on what you want to learn but not all books are beneficial some are even dangerous from a spiritual
00:08:17 perspective as an in introduction to the sermon let me show you two examples two such examples that caught my eyes as I was fingering through the rows and rows of titles the first one was is a real shocker with the title everyone dies everybody dies is written as a children's book but targeted at adults granted the title States the obvious that everyone dies eventually fine but the subtitle says not to feel bad about it it's okay to die what the author is trying to do is to remove the sting of death
00:09:00 most people have a deep fear of death so the book tries to assure you there is nothing to worry about if no one dies the the author asserts then this world would be awfully crowded I was stunned as I as I was flip flipping through the pages to me yes I do agree everyone has everyone has to die but before you die you better be afraid be very afraid if you are heading for Eternal condemnation before you die you better find out what faith awaits you after you die no it's not okay to die if you don't
00:09:44 have the Assurance of Salvation that only Jesus can offer so this book is a great disservice to its readers it draws them away from the saving grace of God it teaches people there is nothing beyond the grave and so there's nothing to worry about the second one is uh is a bit more subtle peaceful patterns ultimate calm coloring what you do is you apply colors to the black and white uh illustrations in the book and you can enjoy this feeling of peace and Tranquility in your heart amidst the the turmoil of
00:10:25 life if you think that you can relax your mind by doing coloring go ahead if you think that coloring can reduce your level of stress go ahead and buy the book I'm not against it I did a lot of coloring when I was a little boy but let me tell you this if you really want peace you go to the Prince of Peace Jesus says in John 14:27 I'm leaving you with a gift peace of mind and heart and the peace I give is the peace that the world cannot give so don't be troubled or afraid so in a way this book draws
00:11:08 people away from Jesus by trying to offer an alternative path to peace if you are into coloring please don't stop just because I say all this if you want to express yourself artistically by coloring please continue your hobby don't go and tell people that this edian said you know Christian cannot do coloring what I mean is that if you want ultimate peace go to Jesus this kind of books is not the answer to the lack of peace in your life if you are seeking peace the point I'm making is with this introduction is to point out that just
00:11:46 like in the days of Jesus there is no shortage today of people with all kinds of ideas and formula and teachings that turn people away from God there is no big difference between now and 2,000 years ago in terms of the subversion or the Distortion of God's truth and hence our text today is very instructive to help us deal with the many untruth or Twisted truths we see around us we seek the truth and we find it in the word of God and with that note we are ready to dive into the text as mentioned earlier the 20 verses
00:12:28 in our text are clear divided into into three parts number one Jesus in the decapolis from the last eight verses of chapter 15 this is the part that documents the miracle of the of the feeding of the 4,000 there is a parallel account to this in Mark chapter 8 which we'll also look at next number two Jesus and his detractors his opponents namely the Pharisees and Sadducees from the first four verses of chapter 16 and lastly Jesus with his disciples from chapter 16: 5 to2 as pointed out earlier all three parts are
00:13:08 connected for reasons that will be apparent later I will start with part one and then jump to part three and back to part two so part one Jesus in the decapolis this is the account of Jesus miraculously feeding the multitude the text opens with Jesus telling his disciples that the crowd had been with them for 3 days and they had nothing to eat they had run out of their of Their Food Supplies all the L the the M Goring and sandwiches are all gone this narrative comes on the heel of the healing of the Canaanite woman's
00:13:50 daughter from verses 21 to 28 earlier in the chapter which brother Alex preached on last Sunday during my sermon last month on Jesus walking on water I suggested that a look at the geography of a text can often help to make the word of God come alive and this is the map which Alex showed in his sermon last Sunday verse 21 earlier in our text says that Jesus withdrew to the region of tha and sidon where the healing of the woman's the daughter took place in this map this is the land of Phoenicia which
00:14:26 I have marked as we learned last week the this is a gentle territory in the in the northwest of Galilee Jesus and his disciples then traveled to the southeast of Galilee to a region known as the decapolis which I've also marked and which is where they were at the start of our text the decapolis like phenicia was also gentle territory so Jesus moved from one major Gentile territory to another from Northwest West to Southeast I find this fascinating as it seems like a faint foreshadow of how the gospel will later
00:15:08 be propagated all across the world from north to south west to east the decapolis was actually a collection of 10 gentle cities Deca is Greek for 10 poish means city as in Metropolis and here is a more detailed map showing the 10 gentle cities of the the capis you might have noticed nowhere in our text is stated that Jesus and his disciples were now in the decapolis but it's mentioned in the mark 7:31 and hence the title of part one Jesus in the decapolis we do not know exactly where in the decapolis they were in verse 33
00:15:53 uh the disciples described their location as a remote place and so they were likely away from many of any of these cities also verse 31 says that they were at the at the mountain side and back to our text just how big was the crowd that had been with Jesus for 3 Days in it says in verse 38 that the number was 4,000 men not counting the women and children so if each man came with his wife and two kids we are talking 16,000 people but why so many of them sticking with Jesus for 3 days now from verses uh 30 and 31 just
00:16:32 outside our text we learned that since arriving at the V vicinity of the decapolis Jesus had been busy with his Healing Ministry the lame the blind the the mute people with all sorts of uh illnesses were brought to Jesus and He restored them all they were all made well and he says here that the people were amazed but why hang around for 3 days after you have been healed you go home and celebrate the lame who can now walk can take up dancing lessons the mute who can now talk can sign up for singing lessons
00:17:15 but no the crowd didn't leave they stayed on with Jesus for three entire days out in this remote place now although not stated here is because Jesus had been teaching them as well and the crowd was so entralled by Jesus and his message they were so focused on him and what he had to say because you see spiritual health is after all more important than physical health our spiritual well-being is far more consequential than our physical well-being we expect spend so much effort to ensure that our body is okay
00:18:03 when we should be more concerned if our relationship with God is okay so far we have been like orbiting around the main event in part one which is the feeding of the 4,000 we have been uh uh discussing the buildup to the miracle the crowd didn't bring enough food to last 3 days they had consumed whatever they had Jesus knew they were very hungry and he didn't want them to faint on their way home and hence the miracle which is described in verses 34 to 37 now when reading this portion of chapter 15 some of you may think hey
00:18:42 haven't I I read this before sounds very familiar you are right in Matthew chapter 14 there is another similar Miracle the feeding of the 5,000 but hey surely these two miracles one and the same did did Matthew forget that he already had already told the story of course not Jesus miraculously multiplied the bread and the fish twice this is the second time and some Christians are surprised to find this out this is a 19th century painting of what it might have been of what it might have looked like in verses 34 to 37 of
00:19:27 our text and a depiction is rather accurate as this was supposed to have taken place on the mountain side now we will not dwell on this feeding of the 4,000 per se as it's very very similar to the earlier feeding of the 5,000 in Matthew 14 which was well covered uh in in an earlier sermon I think was by Pastor Joes so we'll skip verses 34 to 37 but I would like to compare the second feeding Miracle with the first one and this will be the first of several comparisons that we will do this chart this chart shows you uh uh uh the
00:20:08 differences between the feeding of the 5,000 and the 4,000 and this clearly shows you that the two Miracles are not one and the same the most distinct difference is that in Matthew 14 the first feeding Miracle it was mainly a Jewish crowd while here in our text it was exclusively Gentile some Bible scholars point out that these two feasts combined constitute a kind of a foreshadow of a future heavenly banquet that Jesus will host and which will be attended by both Jewish and Gentile Believers is commonly
00:20:51 known as the marriage supper of the Lamb mentioned in Revelation chapter 19 which means that they were will be a third occasion when Jesus will feed the multitude and guess what you and I will be there if you have not received an invitation to this Feast please see me after the service not that I can issue the invitation okay before I proceed to the next part now I wish to just zoom in on what the disciples said when Jesus remarked that the crowd was hungry verse 33 his disciples answered where
00:21:32 could we get enough bread in this remote place to feed such a crowd in other words hey this is such an ULU place where to find Tesco or or 99 speed M I don't see anyone anyone nearby how to feed all these people on its own it is it's really a a reasonable statement but in in the light of the first feeding just one chapter earlier we can't help but feel incredulous at what the disciples had just said I mean not too long ago Jesus fed a crowd that is even bigger than this hello have you already forgotten that Jesus is not asking you
00:22:17 how to feed these people he's not asking you for ideas your only response is oh Lord you have done it before you can always do it again what is 4,000 to you or 40,000 or even 400,000 you see the problem is no matter how many times God saw us through all the past storms in our lives but when a new storm is brewing some doubts still linger in our hearts we are aware of what God has done before but we remain uncertain if he will do it again the problem is our level of faith or the our stunted level of
00:23:03 Faith that's why in uh chapter 16:8 in party of our text Jesus admonished the disciples you of little faith we will look into the context of this shortly these are the same words that Jesus used back in chapter 14:31 when he rebuked Peter who was uh who was sinking in the sea because of his doubt Jesus rebuked came you of little faith part one of our text ends with Jesus and his disciples leaving the decapolis they took a boat from the uh Southeastern corner of the Sea of Galilee to its to its western shore to a
00:23:46 place named Madan the KJV translate this as magdala in Mark 8:10 it says they went to a region of damua it sounds all sounds rather confusing but they all refer to the same area on the western shore of the lake now from here I I jump to part three in the next chapter Jesus and his disciples and then we backtrack to Part Two for the main lesson of the text here in part three Jesus was done with his detractors in Magadan and he and the 12 were in a boat again at this time sailing for the northern shore of
00:24:27 the Sea of Galilee on their way way to a town known as ceria Philippi and we know this from verse 13 just outside our text and immediately there was a problem in the boat during the journey from verse five the disciples had forgotten to bring along anything to eat Aya where is the food what a forgetful Bunch well what to expect earlier in the decapolis they had forgotten about the feeding of the 5,000 as we saw just now it happens often when my wife and I go traveling after the plane had taken off a yeah forgot to bring this forgot
00:25:12 to bring that and that's why we have this phrase don't forget to remember but is this a case of a laps of memory you know I imagine it differently I think it's more likely a case of everyone thought that someone would do it anyone could have done it no one thought of doing it in the end no one did it you heard of that before if this is the case you can picture the disciples bickering uh in one corner of the boat but Jesus overhead overheard their conversation nothing is hidden from the Lord and he then LED them a cryptic
00:25:58 remark in verse 6 be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees what what did he just said be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees now of course Jesus meant this to be a to be a metaphor the the yeast here was supposed to symbolize something else the disciples thought that Jesus was talking about literal yeast and by extension literal bread did they completely misunderstood him it's like a friend telling you you know my neighbor is the pain in the neck and then you advise him oh you got
00:26:43 neck pain now you better see a doctor law so confused at what Jesus had just said the disciples went back to the corner and continued their discussion and concluded in verse 7 that Jesus Jesus was was commenting on the absence of bread due to their negligence the rest of uh part three of our text from verse 8 is Jesus respond which consists of two points one on their lack of faith over having nothing to eat and two on their lack of understanding on the meaning of the yeast now we first look at the second
00:27:23 point the meaning of the yeast which turned out to be a reference to the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees which became clear in the last verse now we might be inclined to be sympathetic to the disciples on this point because sometimes metaphors can be hard to to detect let alone decipher if you were with them at that time you also might be scratching your head but the disciples were really without excuse because this was not the first time they yeast used symbolically back in Matthew verse uh
00:28:04 Matthew Chapter 13 Jesus used yeast already used yeast as a metaphor for the kingdom of God the disciples heard it before the Kingdom of Heaven is like yeast that woman took and mixed into about 60 lbs of flour until it work all through the D it's a positive use of the yeast metaphor it points to the The Humble beginning of the Gospel and how it was spread across the world which I alluded to earlier when I showed you the map of the of Phoenicia and the decapolis now even if the disciples had forgotten this parable of the yeast
00:28:42 surely they they knew the use of yeast in the Old Testament as a metaphor for sin yeast is often used negatively in the Bible as a metaphor for sin and that's why that's why in Deuteronomy 16 God commanded the Israelites to remove all traces of yeast in the houses throughout the Passover week because yeast symbolized sin surely the the disciples remembered that anyway it all ended well as the disciples finally understood the meaning of the yeast metaphor in verse 12 in a short wall we we will examine closely
00:29:22 this yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees namely their their false teachings but I must first point out that there is a subtle reason why the disciples missed the meaning of the yeast metaphor I think it's not because they had forgotten about the yeast Parable in Matthew 13 nor the Commandment about yeast in Deuteronomy uh uh 16 I think the reason is because they were too preoccupied with the with the physical rather than the spiritual they were too engross in physical brein great to be able to
00:30:00 appreciate the meaning of the metaphorical yeast now what do I mean and this brings me to the to the other point in Jesus response I said there are two points in Jesus response in part three and we have discussed the the the second point now we look at the first one Jesus first chastised them for their lack of faith in in verse 8 we glance at this briefly when we were going through part one and just now in verse 7 the disciples seems to be in the quandry because they have forgotten to bring bread and so in verses 9 and 10 Jesus
00:30:35 then reminded them of the feeding of the 5,000 and also the 4,000 and let me paraphrase what Jesus was saying I fed the 5,000 didn't I I fed I also fed the 4,000 didn't I so what are you thinking you think I cannot feed the 12 of you so it's like a play of what happened in the decapolis you get a sense of deja vu in the decapolis they were at a loss over how to feed the people and here they were stunned by the question of of how to feed themselves you see what is key here is that amidst all their bouts of Amnesia
00:31:20 they forgotten about the feeding of 5,000 they forgotten about the feeding of the 4,000 they forgot to bring bread the most crucial thing they had forgotten is this they had forgotten they had Jesus with them they had forgotten they had Jesus with them to drive home this point it is help is helpful for us to do another comparison this time uh I like to compare between uh the disciples here and the crowd in part one what's the difference between these two groups in the decapolis Jesus was healing and teaching and ministering to
00:31:58 the multitude who had traveled from their cities uh to to to this remote place to be with him they were so fixated on Jesus that they have forgotten about their physical needs namely bread because they knew Jesus would take care of them on the other hand the disciples were so fixated on their physical needs namely bread that they forgotten that they are Jesus who will take care of of them and they end up worrying about about what to eat that is the difference each group had the different Focus the disciples here were focusing
00:32:42 on the wrong thing the crowd was focusing on the right thing or rather the right person and this is what connects part one and part three which reminds us of this well- loved song Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus look full in his wonderful face and the things of Earth will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace what are you preoccupied with the things of Earth or Jesus the things of Earth or Jesus if your answer is things of Earth please see me after the service okay and this leads us finally to uh to
00:33:38 the to part two Jesus and his detractors the his opponents the Pharisees and the seduces from the first four verses of chapter 16 earlier we traced Jesus at his disciples route as they move from uh decapolis to Magadan which is where this encounter took place Magadan was a Jewish territory and Jesus was back in the Galilee area and and chapter 16 uh starts with uh the Pharisees along with the Sadducees approaching Jesus to test him they actually came to trap him but why is this a test or a trap they demanded that Jesus show them
00:34:22 a sign from Heaven to prove his credentials as the Messiah but the thing is up to this point Jesus had already performed many many signs or miracles in public at the onset of his ministry way back in Matthew chapter 4 Jesus was healing many who were sick and demon possessed and after The Sermon on the Mount there were many more miracles recorded in uh Matthew chapters 8 and 9 and 12 or surely they must have heard about the feeding of the 5,000 documented in the Matthew chapter 14 as a matter of fact in Matthew 12
00:35:05 there was an occasion when the Pharisees actually witnessed a miracle of Jesus up closed right before their eyes when he healed the man with the with the shriveled hand but what was their reaction then instead of marveling at Jesus they decided that they had to kill him and such was their level of contempt for Jesus that the pH es and seduces were vehemently opposed to Jesus is well known and so with hatred simmering in them they press Jesus for a sign from heaven but he will grant no such request as he knew what was in their
00:35:46 hearts besides another sign even a spectacular sign would not change anything because in their Hardness of Heart with their unbending attitude they would never believe in Jesus they came charging not to seek the truth but to discredit him and that's why Jesus said no so they demanded show us a sign from Heaven show us something really dramatic not the hrum healing and feeding do something really stunning like what the Prophet Elijah did in 1 Kings 18 when when when fire rained down from the sky isn't it
00:36:27 written in Scripture that The God Who Answers by fire he is God now I'm just imagining what's in the mind of the Pharisees and seduces now let me tell you something interesting here when they said a sign from Heaven what they really meant was a sign from God you see the the Jews they are very reluctant to say the word God because they they feel is too holy to be spoken and hence when I when I talk to my Jewish friends they will never use the word god instead uh they say Hashem to refer to God Hashem means the name
00:37:07 they don't say they don't say God so they say the name and out of respect for them out of respect for my Jewish friend I also say hasham to refer to God when talking to them and this will help us understand Jesus replied to them in verses 2 and three in a play of word words the two related words heaven and Sky since they mentioned Heaven Jesus toore them off with a hint of sarcasm and let me paraphrase what Jesus is was saying you asking for a sign from Heaven yeah I thought you guys are all experts
00:37:47 in Reading signs uh in the sky when the sky is r in the evening you say the next day's weather will be good when the sky is r in the morning you say the today's weather will be bad you have reading signs in the sky all along why would you want from me a sign from Heaven because besides you can't even interpret the many signs they have given so forget about asking for a sign from Heaven end of paraphrase now I I I know next to nothing about meteorology I don't know how the meteorological Department forast
00:38:22 the weather but I believe they also rely on signs in the sky but in this case atmospheric pressure uh temperature wind direction Etc but in their days they didn't have all these instruments but they had their way of forecasting the weather but anyway with this R in versus 2 and three Jesus shut off his detractors but coming to the end of part two Jesus didn't leave them completely high and dry he didn't shut them off totally he didn't give them a sign of from heaven but he did offer them a clue
00:39:06 the sign of Jonah in verse four what is this sign of Jonah we will look at it in a bit now the reason why Jesus left the door slightly open for them could be because among the Pharisees there might be a few who were not IND disposed to the message of Jesus now we know of two Pharisees who appeared to be receptive to the gospel galel in Acts chapter 5 and also Nicodemus in John chapter 3 Paul himself was also a Pharisee and so perhaps with these few Pharisees in mind Jesus gave them the sign of Jonah which
00:39:47 brings us to the climax of the text again what is this sign of Jonah now surprisingly this is not the first time Jesus spoke about the sign of Jonah the beginning of chapter 16 here is almost a a repeat of another passage in Matthew chap 12 back in Matthew 12 there's a similar encounter between Jesus and some Pharisees and teachers of the law they also ask for a sign Jesus didn't entertain their request but he also left them with the sign of Jonah I'm cross referencing these few verses from Matthew 12 because there Jesus did
00:40:26 explain the meaning of the the sign of Jonah if you know your Bible Jonah is the fellow who got swallowed by a big fish in the Book of Jonah he was almost as good as dead and 3 days later God caused the fish to cough him out and he got back his life and as evident from this portion of uh of Matthew 12 the sign of Jonah is therefore a figure of speech pointing to the to Jesus crucifixion and Resurrection Jesus died died and then rose again 3 days later and so now we are clear about the the meaning of the
00:41:02 sign of Jonah it is actually a prophecy of the Cross and the empty grave but we need to ask why did Jesus leave them with a prophecy of his own crucifixion and Resurrection now this is the bottom line of the text the answer will help us uh uncover what Matthew is really trying to convey but before that I want to do yet another comparison in this time between the Pharisees and the Sadducees and through this comparison you will better understand what is this yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees now here is the 19th century
00:41:45 art uh by the same artist anyway showing them debating with Jesus notice how well-dressed they are that's because together the Pharisees and the the seduces comprise the ruling class but that's where the similarity ends the fact is they were diametrically opposed to each other in their belief system and political position they were fiercely opposed to each other but despite that because of the common threat they saw in Jesus they sometimes sput to try to bring Jesus down is what we see here in our
00:42:23 text now I don't have time to detail all the differences between the two groups but what is relevant to us is that the Pharisees were steep in their traditions and and rituals and ceremonies and rules as Dr Peter explained two Sundays ago they were very much into religion the sades on the other hand had no interest in spirituality they had a very materialistic Outlook with their wealth and high positions in society they didn't don't believe in in Resurrection or afterlife what's important is now enjoy your life
00:43:04 the book I show you at the beginning everybody dies it could have been written by a sedu so in short the Pharisees were typified by their self-righteousness the seduces by their self-indulgence now do you realize that as a whole they embody the thinking of much of humanity today people today are generally either very religious like the Pharisees or very materialistic like the sedes the common denominator is this someh this search for for security in the tangible either in material things or in Traditions and ceremonies and
00:43:46 rituals people tend to feel secure only when they have something or when they do something this is the yeast of the Pharisees and you sees so what Jesus was hinting to them and he's also saying to us today is that all the tangible things that you cling on so tightly they won't secure you anything your material things will not satisfy traditions and rituals and rules will not bring you any closer to God the only answer is the sign of Jonah true security can only be found in the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus
00:44:28 is the way the truth and the life in other words the things of Earth will do you no good in the long run and this is the hinge around which the whole text turns it's what Matthew was trying to put across in all these 20 verses and therefore it is no coincidence that uh further down outside our text in verse 21 Jesus started to reveal to his disciples that he was going to be killed and then be be raised again 3 days later in case they didn't fully understand the meaning of the sign of Jonah but on top of this explicit verse
00:45:10 that explains clearly the sign of Jonah you'll be surprised that Matthew also embedded a clue in part one of our text that points to the sign of Jonah I didn't highlight this earlier in verse 36 uh towards the end of chapter 15 is describe what Jesus did as he started to perform the miracle of the feeding of 4,000 he took the seven Loaves and the fish and when he had given thanks he broke them and gave them to the disciples now compare this with Matthew 26:26 from the passage on the Last Supper the night before Jesus was
00:45:51 crucified Jesus Took bread and when had given thanks he broke it and gave it to disciples saying Take and Eat This is my body notice the same four verbs in bold and there are similar sequence in both verses you cannot help but conclude that verse 36 in our text is an implicit verse embedded to point to the sign of Jonah what is also implicit in the text and which is now becoming explicit is that ultimately is a comparison between between the sign of Jonah and the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees we have
00:46:32 done several comparisons between the disciples and the crowd between the S Pharisees and Sadducees but this is the mother of all comparisons it is the ultimate comparison it is the ultimate choice you have to make between the sign of Jonah or the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees Jesus or the things of Earth eternal things or temporal things you choose it squares with what Jesus taught in The Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 6 seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these
00:47:11 things will be shall be added unto you in other words focus on what is really important and what is really important doesn't include material things with this we are finally able to understand why Jesus when Jesus overheard the disciples bickering about having no bread in party of our text why he made that strange remark Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees which utterly confused the disciples you see Jesus was telling them don't be so preoccupied with all these material things break in this case
00:47:53 otherwise you are no different from the Pharisees and Sadducees for this is what they do and what they teach don't be like them don't do as they do and with this we are done with examining the text for today and what it really means before I conclude I promis at the beginning that uh I will share with you an application Point uh at the end of the sermon so that you can bring home a a practical takea away from the text and I shall distill this uh point from part one and part two you will look at
00:48:33 one more comparison and this time between Jesus and his detractors this will be the last comparison in the very first verse in part one verse 32 we see Jesus having compassion for the crowd they were hungry it was going to be a long walk back to their homes Jesus felt sorry for them now if you live by the sign of Jonah if you have been crucified with Christ and are a new creation you'll be equally compassionate towards people who are in need because you realize that you are just a sinner saved by grace and in your
00:49:15 humility you show and practice compassion on the other hand in part two we see the contempt of the Pharisees and seduce they were so judgmental and critical of Jesus now when you are so full of yourself in your self-righteousness or self-indulgence you will likewise haror a superior attitude towards others if you think you're very moral or religious you tend to despise those who don't measure up to your standards if you live in the fluence you tend to look down on those below your social class in
00:50:04 short how compassionate you are or how judgmental you are towards others will say a lot about whether you are a fruit of the sign of Jonah or a product of the yeast of the Pharisees and the seduces and this is something on which we all need to do some soci teing we have covered a lot of ground today this there a lot of stuff in the text May the lessons of uh from this portion of scripture minister to us as we seek to be continually gu uh Guided by the by the truth in the word of God shall we close in
00:50:52 prayer Our Father in Heaven Help Us to be like the crowd fixated on Jesus listening to Jesus guards against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees a preoccupation with tangible things grant that we might that we be like the disciples although slow in learning but ever teachable the above all causes to be like Jesus empathetic and compassionate as the result of the impact of the sign of Jonah in our lives in Jesus name name we pray now here is a chance for you to response uh you see a QR code here now
00:51:33 if you uh want to respond you want to uh make a decision for Christ if you want to attend alpha or or or join a live group or you have any prayer needs uh please scan the code and we'll be glad to keep in get in touch with you
