Follow the Teaching (not the money)

Matthew 16:1-20

April 18, 2010

 We have teachers who probably know [*] the three good reasons to be a teacher: *June, July and August.

[*] Henry Adams, American journalist and, historian said, “Teacher affect eternity; they can never tell where their influence stops.”

 *William Golden who wrote the screenplay for All the President’s Men coined a phrase that will guide us today. The Washington Post’s secret informant gave Bob Woodward this advice to help him get to the bottom of Watergate break-in: Follow the money.

  We’re going to alter that idea slightly to: Follow the teaching. *Behind every great idea is a great teacher. It follows that whether the idea is good or bad, true or false there will be a teacher. And behind evil ideas will be an evil teacher.

Let’s start with the first four verses.

Matthew 16:1-4. Page 1155.

1 Some Pharisees and Sadducees who came to Jesus wanted to trap him, so they asked him to perform a miracle for them, to show that God approved of him. 

  2 But Jesus answered, “When the sun is setting, you say, ‘We are going to have fine weather, because the sky is red.’ 3 And early in the morning you say, ‘It is going to rain, because the sky is red and dark.’ You can predict the weather by looking at the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs concerning these times! 4 How evil and godless (adulterous) are the people of this day! You ask me for a miracle? No! The only miracle you will be given is the miracle of Jonah.” So he left them and went away.  

  This is the second time Jesus said an evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign (12:39).  You can imagine an evil and adulterous generation doing a lot of things but why would they ask for a sign. [*] Let’s look at a section in Ezekiel that may be a backdrop to this passage. I say may be because I may be the only one who thinks so.

 Ezekiel 6:9 refers to a former generation of Israelites known to God for their *adulterous hearts and for the evil they had done. The affect it had on God was stunning. *He said, “I have been broken over their whoring heart that has departed from me (ESV).”  Because of their evil God said:

 *I will vent my fury upon them. I will make you a desolation and *an object of reproach among the nations all around you and in the sight of all who pass by. You shall be a reproach and a taunt, a warning and a horror, to the nations all around you, when I execute judgments on you in anger and fury (from 5:13-15). *And though they cry with a loud voice I will not hear them. (8:18)

 There is something else. When God spoke about this former generation he said there would be greater abominations to come. Jesus knew they were about to happen. The evil and adulterous generation of his own day was so evil and so adulterous they were poised to kill the Son of God.

 Let’s look at parallels that show the same anger God felt for the evil and adulterous generation was [*] inflicted on Jesus when he died for us. What happened in Ezekiel’s day is in yellow. Jesus white.

 *God said because their evil deeds had taken their hearts away from him, his heart was broken. Jesus looking ahead to the cross, “This is my body which is broken for you (1Corinthians 11:24).

*God vented that same fury on Jesus.

· He was smitten by God, and afflicted.

He was crushed for our iniquities.

 (from Isaiah 53)

·  *Those who passed by hurled insults at him. (Mark 15:29)!” Jesus became a curse for us (Galatians 3:13)

· *Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me (MT 27:46)?

As God addressed the evil generation in Ezekiel was that the purpose the punishment was so that they might know that he was the Lord (6&7). Since they didn’t, the logical conclusion is they had bad teaching. Ezekiel confirms this. If he followed the teaching, he found the law had perished from the priest and counsel from the elders (7:26).  They were teaching but not the word or counsel of God.

Evil is a never-ending cycle of craving and gratification. An evil generation claims to know God but does not. It asks for a sign because it only knows man’s wisdom. The sign of their own wisdom is their own power and pleasure. They love themselves, their intellectual abilities and their pet sins more than God. If there is something better than what they treasure, they arrogantly demand tangible proof that it would feel just as good as their addiction.

  [*] 5 When the disciples crossed over to the other side of the lake, they forgot to take any bread. 6 Jesus said to them, “Take care; be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” 

  7 They started discussing among themselves, “He says this because we didn’t bring any bread.” 

8 Jesus knew what they were saying, so he asked them, “Why are you discussing among yourselves about not having any bread? What little faith you have!  9 Don’t you understand yet? Don’t you remember when I broke the five loaves for the five thousand men? How many baskets did you fill? 10 And what about the seven loaves for the four thousand men? How many baskets did you fill? 11 How is it that you don’t understand that I was not talking to you about bread? Guard yourselves from the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees!” 12 Then the disciples understood that he was not warning them to guard themselves from the yeast used in bread but from the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees. 

 Twelve men! And they all forgot the bread. How many men does it take to screw in a light bulb?
 One-He just holds it up there and waits for the world to revolve around him. 

 But their blunder was to our benefit. Jesus told them something that we constantly need to remember ourselves: Beware of the teaching of those who have not been taught by the word of God. 

 [*] Follow the teaching, if it doesn’t go back to the Bible, be very careful.

  Page 1156 [*]13 Jesus went to the territory near the town of Caesarea Philippi, where he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” 

14 “Some say John the Baptist,” they answered. “Others say Elijah, while others say Jeremiah or some other prophet.” 

15 “What about you?” he asked them. “Who do you say I am?” 

16 Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” 

17 “Good for you, Simon son of John!” answered Jesus. “For this truth did not come to you from any human being, but it was given to you directly by my Father in heaven.

  The first thing to know here is the difference between the evil and adulterous generation and the disciples. One of the things we learned about that generation was that they didn’t know God. And we have three wrong guesses about who Jesus is: John the Baptist, Elijah and Jeremiah. 

Then we get a correct answer. Peter affirmed that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of the Living God. And Jesus said the Father in heaven had revealed it to him. One of the things that we know about Jesus comes from his opponents flattery: We know that you are true and teach the way of God truthfully (Matthew 22:16).

[*] So we take what Peter said and if we follow it, it takes us straight back to God. That’s what you have to do with what I say or with what anyone says. Well-meaning and sincere people can be 180 degrees away from God.

Because God had revealed this revelation to Peter, Jesus said:

18 And so I tell you, Peter: you are a rock, and on this rock foundation I will build my church, and not even death will ever be able to overcome it. 19 I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of heaven; what you prohibit on earth will be prohibited in heaven, and what you permit on earth will be permitted in heaven.” 

20 Then Jesus ordered his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.

Most of the following is taken word for word from author and Pastor Bob Bell.[1]

[*] Jesus was a Jewish Rabbi, one of many. Their job was to help people understand what God was saying to them.

* Different rabbis had different sets of rules - lists of what they forbade and what they permitted. A rabbi’s set of rules was called his yoke. * In Matthew 11:30 Jesus said, “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your soul. For my yoke is easy, and my burden I light.”

Rabbis would spend hours discussing with their students what it meant to live out certain text. *If a student made a suggestion about what a certain text meant and the rabbi thought the student had totally missed the point, the rabbi would say, “You have abolished the Torah,” which meant the student wasn’t anywhere near what God wanted. But if the rabbi thought the student had grasped God’s intention in the text, the rabbi would say, “You have fulfilled Torah.”

*In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus said, ”I have not come to abolish [the Torah] but to fulfill [it] (Matthew 5:17”). He was essentially saying, “I came to show people what it looks like when the Torah is lived out perfectly.”

* A rabbi who taught a new perspective would say things like, “You have heart it said . . . but I tell you . . .” What he was saying was, “You have heard people interpret that verse this way, but I tell you that this is what God really means in that verse.” * Jesus said the same thing. (cf Matthew 5:21-22).”

* The rabbis had technical terms for this process of forbidding and permitting. They called it “binding and loosing.” To bind something was to forbid it. To loose something was to allow it. *Jesus used the same language with Peter.

* When a rabbi gave his disciples the authority to bind and loose, it was called giving the keys of the kingdom.” *Jesus said the same thing to Peter.

All of that was in the way of background. Jesus was setting the stage for what would happen after he was gone. [*] He told the disciples, The Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you (John 14:26).

 [*] An important part of the Great Commission was teaching. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age (Matthew 28:19-20).”

[*] Jesus wanted to make sure for the sake of the church that the teaching was done right. He didn’t want teachers like the Pharisees. Following their teaching did not lead back to God. He wanted teaching like what had just happened. God had revealed something to Peter. That would continue through the Holy Spirit.

[*] Jesus was telling his disciples that they would be the new rabbis, the new teachers. But they would not rely on tradition. They would rely on God’s revealed word and the work of the Holy Spirit.

[*] Lily Tomlin said, “I like a teacher who gives you something to take home to think about besides homework. “Who has the keys to the kingdom.” You do. So be careful what you teach and advocate.

Youth Message

Teachers

 You don’t have to go to school to find teachers. They are everywhere. Let’s make a list of people and things that teach us stuff:

· Parents

· Grandparents

· Friends, Siblings

· TV

· Internet

· Cartoons

· Books

· Video Games

· Advertising

· Bad people