Have you ever been confronted by an individual who is displeased about something you have done, something you have said, or some way you have behaved? It can be a jarring and upsetting encounter, regardless of the purity of the intentions, the veracity of the claims, and the closeness of the relationship. Having to face the reality that there are those who are upset with us, disapproving of us, or even disliking of us is an unpleasant experience.

As we come to Matthew 16, we find this is exactly what happens to the Lord Jesus Christ. A group of high-power, high-brow, high-influence people seek him out for the express purpose of publicly exposing him as the fraud they think he is. How will Jesus respond? What can we learn from this malicious attack? What warning does God have for us who live two-thousand years later?

SERMON MANUSCRIPT

The final eruption of Mount St. Helens in May of 1980 didn’t come out of nowhere. For two months prior to the blast, earthquakes and volcanic activity signalled a major event was coming. Authorities had plenty of time to sound the alarm and warn those living nearby of the looming danger. Yet despite the seriousness of the threat, some chose to disregard the warnings.

Probably the best known of those was Harry Randall Truman. The eighty-three year old was the owner and caretaker at the Mount St. Helens Lodge at Spirit Lake. He had survived the sinking of his troop ship by a German submarine during World War I, and he was not about to leave just because experts thought there was danger. Truman told reporters, “I don’t have any idea whether it will blow. But I don’t believe it to the point that I’m going to pack up.” On May 18, 1980, Truman and his lodge were buried beneath 150 feet of mud and debris. His body was never found.

It’s foolish to recognize danger and think we’ll somehow be exempt from the consequences if we linger.

Today, in Matthew 16, Jesus sounds the alarm and gives us a stern warning about a danger more perennial than a volcanic eruption and just as life-stealing. The question is, will we heed it or will we linger?

TESTING

As we work through the passage I want to give you three handles to grab on to: Testing, leaving, and warning. The chapter opens with an aggressive confrontation as people came up testing Jesus.

The Pharisees and Sadducees came up, and testing Jesus, they asked Him to show them a sign from heaven.

Matthew 16:1

This isn’t a casual interaction that turns tense or a chance encounter that leads to mild disagreement. Jesus is sought out for the purpose of public confrontation—for testing.

And who’s doing the testing? Pharisees and Sadducees … together. That’s odd. Often we lump together Jesus’s opponents into one group but, in reality, these two sects were rivals (see Acts 23:6–10). It was well known that Pharisees and Sadducees were at odds. They believed and taught dramatically different things.

Yet, in Matthew 16, they show up arm-in-arm. This seems to be a classic “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” situation. They may dislike each other, but they both dislike Jesus more.

This unlikely alliance find Jesus and demand supernatural evidence. [1b] The Jews were notorious sign-seekers. [1 Cor 1:22] Israel’s leaders weren’t impressed with Jesus’s ministry so far. It hadn’t yet convinced them of the veracity of his claims. They needed something else, something new, something divine. They needed a sign from heaven.

But do you think it would’ve help? Even if Jesus had, at that moment, called down manna from heaven like Moses, stopped the sun like Joshua, brought the thunder like Samuel, or dropped fire like Elijah, would they have been satisfied?

No! They didn’t track down Jesus to learn anything. Matthew is littered with interactions like this one. [9:3, 11, 34; 12:2, 14, 24, 38; 15:1–2] 

When my kids ask for the twentieth time if they can have candy I know it’s not because they didn’t hear the first nineteen “no’s” or because they’re confused. It’s that they didn’t like the answer and are testing parental consistency and endurance, looking for slip-ups to exploit. These Pharisees and Sadducees are relentless in their efforts to discredit Jesus and expose him as the fraud they know he is.

They’re not interested in evidential signs. [2–3] “You think you’re clever but you’re missing the obviousness of my messiahship. Look at John the Baptist. Look at what I’m teaching. Look at my miracles. Look at the prophecies I’m fulfilling. Look at what the OT anticipated. You don’t want signs! If you did, you’d realize you’re standing at a buffet!”

Then Jesus calls them what they are. [4a] Remember, that generation of Israel was unique in that it was being offered the davidic kingdom and that same generation, headed up by leaders like these, had rejected it. Evil. Adulterous. 

[4a–b] This is the sign of the death and resurrection of Jesus and, when it arrived, it would be a sign of condemnation on that generation for their hardness of heart. When the tomb is empty, then they might see how foolish they were to reject the King and his kingdom.

”A skeptic is a person who, when he [or she] sees the handwriting on the wall, claims it is a forgery.” That describes these Pharisees and Sadducees pretty well, doesn’t it? 

Have you ever encountered someone who reacts to Jesus this way? Hard-hearted, unsatisfiable, and aggressively skeptical—staring at the writing on the wall and screaming “it’s a fake”? Have you ever been someone like this—testing, testing, testing without ever actually wanting to hear or see something convincing?

That’s what faced Jesus when this unlikely team arrives testing him. What we see next, is our Lord’s response. I’ve titled it, leaving. [4b]

At this point in Matthew’s gospel we’ve read of Jesus withdrawing from his opposition. [4:12a; 12:14–15a; 14:13a; 15:21] Jesus had been confronted many times with resistance from Israel and his response has been to pull-back for a respite, to re-group, and to re-aim his efforts.

But our text today doesn’t say Jesus withdrew. Instead, Matthew reports that he left. If you look that word up in a Greek dictionary you’ll read this: “to depart from a place, with implication of finality,” i.e., to forsake or abandon. [Eph 5:31]

Do you get the picture? As opposition increases, Jesus pulls back, pulls back, pulls back, until finally, he just leaves. 

We’ve all experienced resistance to the point of resignation. You work hard with repeated attempts but, at some point you realize you’re knocking your head against a wall and it’s leaving time.

I picture Jesus in verse 4, his head hung low in grief and helplessness, turning from these so-called leaders and walking away, dusting his hands as he goes. There’s a sense of tragic finality in the air, a sorry conclusiveness in Jesus’s leaving.

And as he leaves Jesus issues a warning. Testing, leaving, warning. And in this last section we really find the spears’ tip of the text.

The Lord leaves his calloused opponents but he doesn’t leave alone, his disciples are with him. [5] Jesus, a master teacher, can find a segue to a lesson anywhere and, in this case, he uses forgetfulness and grumbling bellies. [6]

This is clearly important as Jesus doubles-up on his warning: “Watch out!” and “beware!” Whatever the leaven is, it’s clearly dangerous and can spread through the whole lump if not dealt with.

The disciples, no doubt, sense the urgency in their Rabbi’s voice but are having a tough time connecting the warning to the lack of bread. [7] Boy, Jesus is really ticked about the buns, isn’t he?

Jesus sees through their confusion. [8–11] “I’m not talking about food. I’m talking about that interaction I just had with your religious leaders, insatiable in their demands for proof of my identity. Look out!” [12]

The question becomes, what exactly is the teaching to guard against? As we’ve already mentioned, the Pharisees and Sadducees didn’t have a whole lot in common doctrinally. They didn’t agree on Scripture, resurrection, the supernatural, politics. I mean, it seems they agreed on hardly anything! So what is this shared teaching that is so concerning to Jesus that it calls for a double warning?

Well, what do they share? What they have in common—what brought them together—is their shared unbelief in Jesus as Messiah. Both groups oppose his claims, seek his downfall, and are united in unbelief. 

Jesus, after the testing and his leaving, issues this warning: Be careful with that unbelief—that rejection of my person and work. It’s contagious. Watch out for that skepticism. It spreads. Guard against that hard-heartedness. It’s tough to deal with once it finds roots. 

And, friends, unbelief is just as dangerous and contagious today as it was then. And not just for unbelievers but for us believers as well. Remember, Jesus is calling his disciples to watch out for the teaching, the unbelief. 

Sure, unsaved people are enslaved to unbelief and lost in that foolishness. But believers can have their joy stolen, their effectiveness squelched, their growth stunted, their rewards tarnished by unbelief—unbelief in God’s power, goodness, sovereignty, faithfulness; unbelief in the clarity of his word, the sufficiency of his word, the inspiration of his word; unbelief in the finality of the resurrection, the power of the Spirit, the security of the soul. Unbelief, the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees, is contagious and we need to watch out for it.

I want to close today by speaking as plainly and practically as I can and in terms with which we are all very familiar right now. Unbelief is a dangerous virus—far more so than any physical sickness—and Jesus is warning each of us and all of us to stop the spread!

Watch out! Beware! Guard yourself against the spreading sickness of unbelief, hard-heartedness, and skepticism. It’s as contagious and persistent as it is pernicious and perennial. And our world loves it. In fact, our culture celebrates skepticism as a virtue, applauds stubborn doubt as intelligence, and lifts unbelief up as maturity. “Thinking they were wise, they became fools.” We need to stop the spread.

There is no sure-fire vaccine, all are susceptible, and the only end to the pandemic of unbelief is glory. We long for it, pray for that day, but in the meantime, we must be diligent in our lives, homes, and church.

So, as we close, here are three practical and, at this point, very familiar recommendations for us as we seek to watch out and beware.

First, strive for general health. Just as a healthy body fights better against physical sicknesses, so healthy hearts stand a better chance of enduring the virus of unbelief with minimal damage. 

This is just normal Christian living, friends. Be with believers, be in the word, be in prayer, repent of sin, grow in faith, listen to thoughtful people. As Augustine once wrote: “Consider a tree: first it trends downward, that it may then grow upward. It fixes its root low in the ground, that it may extend its top toward heaven. Is it not from humility that it endeavours to rise? And would you then … extend toward heaven without a root? This is a ruin, not a growth.” To stop the spread of unbelief, strive for general health.

Second, avoid unnecessary exposure. Notice that I say, unnecessary exposure. Some exposure is inevitable and, as Christians who are sent into the world as ambassadors for Christ, it would be disobedient if we didn’t get exposed to some unbelief. 

But, are we voluntarily exposing ourselves to unbelief through the things we watch, read, and give our attention? Through our social life, thought life, online life? Puritan John Owen once said, “When the world fills our thoughts, it will entangle our affections.” To stop the spread of unbelief, avoid unnecessary exposure.

Finally, get help when sick. As we’ve seen, exposure is inevitable. The worst thing we can do when we feel the symptoms of unbelief starting to grip our minds and hearts is to stay quiet. If you struggle with this leaven, it’s going to spread; get help! Go to the Lord in prayer—“Lord, I believe, but help my unbelief!” Go to the word in desperation—“Lord, may your countenance shine upon me.” Go to God’s people for encouragement—“Lord, strengthen me in Christ’s body.” [Finger splint]

Jesus experienced testing by malicious, unbelieving opponents. And, after leaving them behind he issued a warning to those following him: Guard yourself against unbelief. Watch out! Be careful. We must do likewise.

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