Matthew 16:1……..Ready

Matthew 16:1……..Ready

16:1 The Pharisees and Sadducees came to Jesus (It would be like the Republicans & Democrats joining up together to pass a bill in Congress-(New) and tested him by asking him to show them a sign from heaven. (Essentially, they’re hoping Jesus would fail, thereby removing the need for faith and belief in Him. It’s like raising the hoop higher and higher to the point your unable able to jump through it.-(New)

Extended Sermon Notes

“Warns against thinking that God operates on our terms and expectations, or by what we will believe and accept.” ⇒  If something doesn’t measure up with our picture of God. It’s not God’s fault its ours. We need to change.

“Teaches those who have their minds already made up are only looking to pick a fight or argument and not for truth.” ⇒ People who reject the Bible often claim to be open-minded seekers of truth, but they are hypocrites; they’re interested only in the truths that suit them, and they discredit the rest. The reason people refuse to believe in Jesus Christ is that they want to hold on to their sin; they don’t want to think about their accountability to God. The more they can disprove the bible the more they can carry on in the justification for unbelief.

“Even today, many want absolute and irrefutable proof before they believe. They’ll say, “Lord, give me a sign so that I may know your real”. Or they want a God who will transform their situation and the world around them. Rather than the greater need of someone who will rescue them from the devil, the world, and their own sin.  ⇒  Asking God for a sign so you can believe is akin to making a deal with God. “Okay Lord, if you fulfill these parameters that I have set out, I’ll believe in you” – If you heal my daughter, I’ll give my life over to you – If you step in and fix this relationship, I’ll know your for real – If you give me good results on this test from the doctor, I’ll open my heart to you”. If you take care of these debts I’ll know you really love me, etc. Even if God did something miraculous right then they still wouldn’t be convinced, because they’d try to explain it away to natural causes. And if God spoke to them do you think they’d believe He exists? No! They’d believe they were going crazy! No amount of evidence would convince them because their unbelief isn’t really about a lack of evidence. They don’t believe because they don’t want to. What we don’t realize is that God gives us the freedom to believe or disbelieve. If God eliminated all need for faith in our response to Him, our response wouldn’t be free, but it would be intellectually coerced by the overwhelming weight of evidence. God provides enough evidence four our faith to be reasonable and not irrational, but He keeps his presence somewhat hidden, so not to coerce us to come to Him. God has placed His calling cards throughout life, and if we look for those calling cards we’ll find them and see them. But if we don’t want to see them, we’ll miss them. I’m sure the Pharisees who demanded a sign believed that their rejection of Jesus was completely reasonable. But the reality was that their rejection of Jesus wasn’t just a matter of the intellect; it never is. Jesus represented a threat to them, a threat to their beliefs, a threat to their way of life, a threat to their influence. To believe in Jesus would’ve been to lose all those things, so they rejected Jesus, just as many people do today. That’s the blindness of unbelief.

Additional Note & Applications

The Pharisees

The Pharisees lived during the Second Temple period (between 516 BCE and 70 CE)¹. )¹. They were the blue-collar who came from the working class who associated with the common people. Along with the Sadducees they made up part of the Sanhedrin. Theologically, they were the conservatives. Unlike the Sadducees they believed in the resurrection, afterlife, angels, and a final judgment. They were all about keeping the Law as found in the Torah. They believed that alongside the written Law, Moses also received a commentary on the “Law.” The Pharisees claimed their interpretations of the Law was just as authoritative and binding as the Law of Moses. This commentary was later called the Mishna. The Pharisees are the spiritual fathers of modern-day Judaism. Their traditions and influence continued well after the 70 A.D. destruction of the temple. Their oral traditions and commentaries were eventually compiled into what the Jewish people call the Talmud. In Jesus’ day, the Pharisees focused on the law of Moses and the traditions. Out of their zeal, they added their traditions to Scripture, loading more requirements on people than those in the written Law. In some cases, these loads were unbearable (Matthew 23:4). Their insistence of not doing anything that even resembled work on the Sabbath is noted many times in the Gospels. They were legalists, focusing on the letter of the Law and leaving little room for God’s grace. They condemned the innocent for not complying to the minor points in their laws and traditions. The word Pharisee has now come to be known as another word for an intolerant self-righteous religious person. Jesus had regular confrontations with the Pharisees and their close associates, the teachers of the law.

The Sadducees

The Sadducees were a Jewish sect from the second century BC to about 70 AD¹. They typically belonged to the upper ruling class of the aristocracy—the elites. Most were wealthy. They were Roman sympathizers willing to do anything to stay in power. Many were priests, responsible for performing sacrifices and caring for the temple. Like the Pharisees they made up part of the Sanhedrin. They rejected the Pharisees’ traditions and Oral Torah and adhered only to the written law (Torah). However, they used the Torah, usually not to know the heart of God but for political power. The Jerusalem temple was the center for the political and governmental leadership of Israel as well as much of Jewish life. The Sadducees worked hard to maintain political power. Their focus on the written law was in part to maintain control of the temple and the sacrifices. The Sadducees as a sect did not survive after the destruction of the Jerusalem temple in 70 A.D. The Sadducees didn’t accept major portions of the Scripture, rejecting the prophets and denying the resurrection of the dead, the existence of spirits and angels, and any miracles of God.  They believed God gave humans free will. But they didn’t believe in a final judgment with rewards and penalties after death, since these are not clearly explained in the Torah. The took a liberal  view to Scripture and the Law.

DANGERS IN SEEKING SIGNS….

• Seeking Signs can display a lack of faith by putting God to the test

• Seeking Signs can lead to spiritual pride & self-righteousness

• Seeking Signs can come from our own imagination or from Satan himself

• Seeking Signs can open us up to deception

• Seeking signs can lead to misinterpreting coincidences as divine messages

• Seeking Signs can be all about feelings and outward things, rather than faith

• Seeking Sings can give us more faith than we had before

• Seeking Signs can make it seem that God owes, as in what have you done for me lately

• Seeking Signs is trying to make a deal with God, If He does this, will do that

• Seeking Signs is trying to get God to prove His love & care for us

• Seeking sign can diminish the love God has given us in His Son in dying for our sins

• Seeking signs can cause us to bail when they don’t come through

• Seeking signs can make it seem that Jesus’ work on the cross wasn’t enough

• Seeking signs can divert attention away from developing a deeper relationship with God through prayer, scripture study

WHEN SEEKING SIGNS IS ACCEPTABLE

• Seeking Signs can used for guidance in making a difficult situation

• Seeking Signs can be used as a form of confirmation & reassurance of what to do.