"5 And the disciples came to the other side of the sea, but they had forgotten to bring any bread. 6 And Jesus said to them, “Watch out and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” 7 They began to discuss this among themselves, saying, “He said that because we did not bring any bread.” 8 But Jesus, aware of this, said, “You men of little faith, why do you discuss among yourselves that you have no bread? 9 Do you not yet understand or remember the five loaves of the five thousand, and how many baskets full you picked up? 10 Or the seven loaves of the four thousand, and how many large baskets full you picked up? 11 How is it that you do not understand that I did not speak to you concerning bread? But beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” 12 Then they understood that He did not say to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees."
It's interesting to mention that the church is the only institution that Jesus specifically promised to build and to bless. Throughout Christian history, it has been the institution most attacked by the enemy. Many in the church today have been spiritually blinded, imperceptive disciples who desperately need someone to come alongside them to help them see what they otherwise could never see. It is through the magnificent work of Jesus Christ, that He enables those who are spiritually blind to see, through the power of His Holy Spirit. This is true of all people, whether you’re a Christian or a non-Christian. It is our humanness that causes us to be blind to spiritual reality. Only those who truly embrace Jesus Christ, who will be made to see. Only the truth teacher, the Lord Jesus Christ, can give us spiritual sight. This is the supernatural work of God in our lives.
In our last message, we met those who were blind who will never see, the Pharisees and the Sadducees. They weren't seeking Truth, but wanted to publicly discredit Jesus by asking Him to do a sign in the heavens, believing that He is unable to. In verse 4, He called them "A wicked and adulterous generation," who "seeks after a sign," and said "there shall no sign be given but the sign of the prophet Jonah." The resurrection was the only sign they would receive. Because their deeds are evil, the spiritually blind love the darkness. They despise the Light, because coming to the Light would expose the evil of their deeds. This is the first mark of those who are permanently spiritually blind, they continue to pursue the darkness.
The second mark is they curse the Light. They seek no genuine evidence of the Truth, in fellowship with the darkness, they only seek to shame and discredit anyone who poses a threat to their sinful security.
The third mark is, they continue to plunge deeper and deeper into their darkness. We see an vivid illustration of this with the religious leaders as they plot to kill Jesus. The fourth mark of the one who is blind and will never see, is he is eventually abandoned by God, they will never see are so because they run from the only hope, and are left to their own darkness. This is a tragic reality.
Let us pray
In Christ's name we ask and pray
Amen
Today's Message: Discerning the Times and Spiritual Blindness
In our last message, we saw those who will never see spiritual reality because they never embraces the Light. Those who are abandoned by God. Today, we see those who are equally blind because of their humanness, who will be made to see by One who comes alongside to help them. We, who are taught by the Lord, are made to see, seek the light, curse the darkness. We are dependent on the sight that has given to us. God surely gives us greater Light.
Even the small choices we make have great consequences. People determine for themselves where they will attend church, how often they will attend that particular church, how much attention they are willing to give to the preacher. The choices we make are essential and have an impact on the future of our children, and on our own destiny. In our text today, Jesus warns disciples against following the teaching of the religious leaders, "Watch out and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees," His warning precipitated rather vigorous questioning among the disciples. Like us, those first disciples were bounded by physical parameters, they were totally unconscious about what they had just witnessed! We must take great care that we don’t make the same mistake these first disciples made.
"And the disciples came to the other side of the sea, but they had forgotten to bring any bread. And Jesus said to them, "Watch out and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees." They began to discuss this among themselves, saying, “He said that because we did not bring any bread.” But Jesus, aware of this, said, "You men of little faith, why do you discuss among yourselves that you have no bread? Do you not yet understand or remember the five loaves of the five thousand, and how many baskets full you picked up? Or the seven loaves of the four thousand, and how many large baskets full you picked up? How is it that you do not understand that I did not speak to you concerning bread? But beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees." Then they understood that He did not say to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees."
Let's look at verse 5, "And the disciples came to the other side of the sea, but they had forgotten to bring any bread."
Jesus' ministry has been all around the Sea of Galilee, and as we've seen in our study of Matthew, He keeps going back and forth across the lake. In the first four verses, as soon as Jesus arrived at Magadan, He was confronted immediately by the Pharisees and the Sadducees, who came together for the common cause of publicly shaming and discrediting Jesus. Then He gets right back in the boat and now He's back on the eastern shore again. As usual, He is followed by His disciples, the disciples pursued the Light.
You've probably noticed at the end of the verse, Matthew says "but they had forgotten to bring any bread." There’s a lot of stuff involving bread, yet the disciples are always forgetting to bring any. I'm sure Jesus knew that their minds were always on food. Remember, He had just fed the four thousand men plus women and children in Decapolis, having only seven loaves, and a few small fish.
Verse 6, "And Jesus said to them, "Watch out and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees."
Here’s the thing about leaven, a little can go a long way! The disciples having been raised in a Jewish society, grew up learning to respect the Pharisees and the Sadducees. They were the religious leadership, who brought to bear upon the people a heavy yoke of bondage of laws and rules and traditions. They demanded the respect of people. All the things the Pharisees and Sadducees denied, Jesus affirmed, they were threatened by Him because everything Jesus taught, was the total opposite of them. So, the disciples were at a crossroads, they had to decide if they were going to follow the religious system in which they were reared, or they were going to follow the teaching of Jesus, which was the very opposite. In other words, were they going to identify with the darkness, or they were going to identify with the Light.
Today, it is common for people to outwardly identify with Christ, thinking that they're going to heaven who are still be dead in trespasses and sins, not having the inner reality of the new birth in their heart, they're living a very sinful life. As I've stated many times, I believe the church must accept responsibility for not teaching what it means to be a Christian. You cannot claim to be a Christian without having a real change in your life, the evidence of the new birth. That is what always marks out someone who has been regenerated, someone who seeks the Light. It doesn't matter if you claim to have fellowship with Christ, if you don't live in the Truth, you're deceived. This is a very real danger.
Jeremiah 29:13 says " You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart." You must seek Him to know the truth.
The disciples sought to know the truth, they had a seeking heart and followed Him to be taught. They knew what the Old Testament prophets said, that the Messiah will come and bring light to the nations. Jesus is the Light in the darkness, they saw that in Him and they followed the Light. This was not necessarily true of all of them. If you will remember in John chapter 6, when Jesus began to speak of the real commitment which He required to be His disciple, many left. In verses 66-67 "As a result of this many of His disciples withdrew and were not walking with Him anymore. So Jesus said to the twelve,, "You do not want to go away also, do you?" I love Peter's response in verses 68 and 69, " Simon Peter answered Him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life. We have believed and have come to know that You are the Holy One of God." In other words, the disciples knew they couldn’t know on their own, so they turned away from the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees, and sought the Light.
That’s the way it is with the people who are made to see the Light, they abandon everything to pursue the light and they curse the darkness.
Verses 7-8, "They began to discuss this among themselves, saying, “He said that because we did not bring any bread. But Jesus, aware of this, said, "You men of little faith, why do you discuss among yourselves that you have no bread?"
All bread comes from the Lord, so why are they debating about bread? The disciples are you so focused on something they ought to know He can provide, they should have known He could just create more bread. They should have known that He could take care of that.
How often today do we fail to remember His greatness, His compassion? If there is confusion among followers of the Christ today, I believe that
it arises from confusion among those who profess to lead the churches, there's too much timidity in the pulpit. I'm certainly not implying that pastors should enjoy saying things that hurt those they pastor, to make those we love and care uncomfortable. But we certainly cannot neglect our duty in teaching on certain topics, instructing them how to live as those who are born from above, or when necessary, administering discipline to wayward saints.
So, in verses 9-11, He gives them basically the same lesson He taught in Matthew chapter 6 when He said "Do not worry then, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear for clothing?" How patient He is that He took the time to teach them where they were, and He repeats the same principle again. "Do you not yet understand or remember the five loaves of the five thousand, and how many baskets full you picked up? Or the seven loaves of the four thousand, and how many large baskets full you picked up? How is it that
you do not understand that I did not speak to you concerning bread? But
beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees." In other words, have you forgotten those two occasions, was I not able to provide bread for your food? Stop worrying about your physical needs, God can provide that. Jesus isn’t talking about physical bread, He's trying to get them to focus on the spiritual.
That brings us to verse 12, "Then they understood that He did not say to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees." Scripture is replete with warnings stay away from false doctrine. If you've been with us any length of time, you know well I am a firm believer that it is imperative to avoid false teaching, is very powerful and it can effect everything around it. It has the power to be led an otherwise healthy Christian astray, far from a genuine relationship with Jesus! Tragically, it often comes from those who claim to be devoted to God. In order to avoid these false teachers, you must be spiritually focused, or else you could easily miss something that may sound biblical that is not. That's why false teaching is so dangerous. That's Jude 1 says when you snatch somebody from the burning fire, don’t stand around or you're in danger of singing your own garments. If you read the book of Revelation, you'll see some of the churches were literally put out of existence. You must be looking for the signs. It all comes down to discernment and spiritual awareness.
I believe the reason so many fall prey to false teachers, is the Truth of the Word is a bit too much for them to stomach, it makes them more than a little uncomfortable. That's why Satan has worked through his agents to subtly change the biblical message, designed to make the message more palpable, to accommodate the sinner. Evidence that many pastors are "hired" and not called, seeking the approval of men rather than God. Our Lord Jesus Christ greatly disturbed the religious leaders who identified with Satan and the world. The reason why they did not know Christ, is that they did not know God. That's why they killed Him.
Paul says in 1 Corinthians 2:14-16, "But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised. But he who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no one. For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he will instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ."
In John 16, Jesus promises "But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth."
In Closing..
If you know Christ, you have in your hand tremendous treasure, His Word. You will have a hunger to know the Truth that is taught by the resident truth Teacher, His Spirit. Because we have allowed the culture to infiltrate the church, many pastors have confused culture with Christ. They have transformed the
Gospel from a message glorifying the One True Living God into a message that
places man at the center of the message that has not the capacity to transform lives. By tolerating poor teaching, you are inviting destruction into your life! For the sake of your own salvation and your family, I strongly encourage you to carefully examine what your church believes and what your pastors are teaching. Failure to do so could result in exclusion from God’s plan of salvation. What we believe has immense consequences.
When we feed on the Word of God, the things that are freely given to us by God, the Holy Spirit illuminates the Truth, elevating you out of the physical dimension into the spiritual. That's the illuminating work of the Spirit of God!
May the Word of God be declared to all who will receive it.
May it be so..
And now may the Lord bless you and keep you;
the Lord make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.
Now and forever, in Jesus' name
Amen