Matthew 16:5-12
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.
As we grow in faith, there are wonderful blessings awaiting us in the spiritual world. One of the glorious blessings is spiritual perception or spiritual illumination. That is a marvelous doctrine of illumination. Our spiritual eyes are opened to see the glorious riches of God’s kingdom. It is a great blessing. Christ’s great desire is that we be enlightened. John 1:9 says, “There was the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man.” One of the great reasons for His coming is that we reach spiritual illumination. The great reason for sending the Holy Spirit is the same. The Spirit enables those who are blind to see. It is He who, beyond the wisdom of the world, searches all things and reveals the deep things of God. Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, showed this great desire for believers: Ephesians 1:18 says, “I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints.” Remember, spiritual illumination is a great blessing; we need to pray for this often, pleading God’s promises.
The passage we will study today is a good picture of how the Lord opens our blind spiritual eyes. The Lord is dealing with disciples who are very blind, very dull, and very imperceptive. Their thoughts and eyes are only at a very worldly level. He kind of does a spiritual operation on them and makes them gradually see spiritual things. Our prayer as we study this is, “Lord, do this operation on me, so I can discern spiritual things and not continue at a worldly level.” He alone can do that.
Last time, we saw that people who continue in unbelief seek dark, worldly fellowship, and to justify themselves, they even go to the extent of attacking the truth. When they do that, their disease has advanced to a terrible stage. They cause God to lose His patience, and you know what He does: He permanently blinds them so they never see, and abandons them to their blindness. That is the danger of continuing blindness.
But exactly the opposite happens with people who grow in faith. Instead of attacking, they love the truth more and more and change according to it. Such people, God opens their spiritual eyes and blesses them with the close manifestations of His presence. That is what we see in this chapter, how the Lord does this for the disciples.
Let us understand the chapter with five headings:
- Disciples Persevering in Love of Truth (vs 5)
- A Solemn, Serious Warning by Our Lord for Our Spiritual Life (vs 6)
- Blindness of the Disciples (vs 7)
- Spiritual Operation of the Lord (vs 8-11)
- As a Result of the Operation, Disciples Receiving Spiritual Discernment (vs 12)
All these flow one by one in this passage.
Disciples Persevering in Love of Truth
Verse 5: And the disciples came to the other side of the sea, but they had forgotten to bring any bread.
We saw in the last section (verses 1-4) that the Pharisees and Sadducees were testing and asking for a sign. Our Lord left and departed from them in repulsive anger at their unbelief. He left the western shore of Galilee and went again to the eastern shore. The ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ at this time has been around the Sea of Galilee. As we have been seeing for many weeks, He keeps going back and forth across the lake. In verse 5, His disciples follow Him there.
You have to understand the disciples’ state. They were kind of standing at the deciding crossroads in life, because they had been raised in a Jewish society. Having been raised there, they had learned to respect basically two groups of people: the Pharisees and the Sadducees.
It was out of the family of the Sadducees that the high priest came and many temple leaders; they were the aristocracy, the upper class. They were the leadership of the nation and were to be respected. In addition, there was the Pharisee group, and they were the ones who were the interpreters of the law. They made sure the Old Testament was taught everywhere along with traditions, and they also strictly followed it and punished people who broke it. They had great respect from Jews, who even called them with big titles like Rabbi. All Jews wanted to follow them, as they were models of devotion.
And so these disciples had been reared in an environment where they respected them greatly from childhood. But now, following Jesus, He is completely opposite to them; He exposes them and is against them. In the last verses, the Lord decisively leaves them with a sigh and a rebuke. This situation has led to a complete break from them. What will they do? Do you see the disciples at a real crossroads? They stood at a point where they either had to decide to hang onto the religious system in which they were reared, or they were going to follow the truth taught by Jesus. Would they follow their religious tradition and way of life from childhood, or the truth coming from Jesus? What did they do?
Do you see how difficult this was for them? When Jesus decisively and permanently left these leaders and went to the other side of the shore, what did they do? Verse 5: You see them going with Jesus. That is a sign of someone growing in faith and one who loves the truth, even willing to leave all his religion, traditions, upbringing, and all wrong beliefs because of their love for truth. This is not easy. You remember in John 6, many of the disciples who were following Him no longer followed and left, saying, “This is a hard saying.” Then He turned to the disciples and asked, “Are you also willing to go away?” What was their answer? Peter replied for them all, “To whom shall we go? You and You alone have the words of eternal life.” You see, these were the ones who followed Christ because they persevered in love of God and turned their back on all their upbringing, religion, tradition, and leaders to learn the truth. How many of you are like that? For some of you, it’s a big problem: you continue to carry your upbringing ideas and tradition even now. That is why you do not grow in truth. That is why spiritual sight is not given.
The meaning of “disciples” is learners. They constantly follow Christ and learn, learn, learn the truth in a persevering manner, even in difficult times, ready to leave old traditions, upbringing, and own ideas. “I have decided to follow Jesus; no turning back.” Are you a disciple like this? You want spiritual illumination in life? This is the path: you continue to grow in faith and learn more and more truth, even in difficult times. These are the people to whom God blesses the great gift of spiritual illumination. Are you like that? Praying with the Psalmist: “Lord, turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity. Open thou mine eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law.” How are we? The Lord doesn’t even have to ask. When things are difficult, we go away to the world. A truly determined disciple says, “No, there’s nowhere to go. You have the words that we must hear.” Continue learning the truth in a persevering manner. These are men and women whom God blesses with spiritual light. Disciple means eager to learn. They are the hungering and thirsting after God’s Word. They are the eager learners. Examine your hearts. How eager are you in learning the truth? It shows in your daily Bible reading and in the efforts you put forth to understand God’s Word. When you have time, what does your heart hunger for more and more?
There was a little girl in France, and she was blind. She was given the Gospel of Mark in Braille, and she, with her fingers, began to read that gospel and came to know Christ and embraced Him as her Savior. Then that gospel became infinitely more precious to her, and she read it and read it and read it until she had developed such calluses on her fingers that they no longer could sense the letters. Oh, what sadness filled her heart! She couldn’t keep quiet. In a desire to have the hunger of her heart fulfilled, to read it again, she peeled the skin back off her fingertips that she might unbare a more sensitive tissue to begin again to feel. In so doing, the doctor said she damaged the nerves and would never feel again with her fingers. And so, brokenhearted with tears in her eyes, one day she picked up that Braille Bible and put it to her lips as if to kiss it farewell, only to discover that her lips were far more sensitive than her fingers had ever been. She spent the rest of her days reading it with her lips.
How hungry is your heart for God’s Word? To be in that Word, illumined by the resident Spirit of God? Oh, be ashamed of your lack of eagerness! So much eagerness in worldly things, doing this and that, but no interest in Bible reading, in knowing the truth. How can we attain spiritual illumination? May God give us all hunger and thirst after His Word. That is how He gives spiritual illumination.
It is not smartness or intelligence or great education that brings spiritual illumination. It is again the heart. When we guard our heart and have always hungry and eager hearts, whatever dullness, most stupid head we have, uneducated, the worst fool maybe, the Lord always patiently teaches us and opens our eyes. That is His prophetic ministry. He keeps teaching the disciples and asks, “Do you understand?” He does this all three years, and He wanted to teach them so much, and so He taught them and taught them, and even when He died and rose, and then He was here for forty days, Acts 1 says, “All those forty days, whenever He was with them, He taught them things pertaining to the Kingdom.” He just kept opening their eyes, letting them see, opening their ears, letting them hear, and opening their heart and letting them understand, because it was so important that they have all this truth.
And even when He left, you remember, John 14, verse 26, He said this: “Now, I’m going to go away, but the Comforter, who is the Holy Spirit, who is sent from the Father in my name, He shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance.” He says, “Even when I go to the Father, the teaching process will continue unbroken,” right? Because, you see, we’re dependent on that; that is how He opens our spiritual eyes. Oh, when we realize how blind and ignorant we are, we will realize how much we need to learn from the Lord so our eyes are opened. That is His prophetic ministry.
That is what we see in the next passage. We see how dull the disciples are, but He teaches them and opens their eyes. Verse 5 says that in the hasty departure, the disciples forgot to bring the bread for themselves. While crossing the lake, they realized they forgot bread because they were again going to a desolate place where you will not get food. Mark says they just had one bread left over, maybe left over from the previous miracle, not enough for 13 men. In this setting, the Lord gives them a warning.
A Solemn, Serious Warning by Our Lord
Verse 6: And Jesus said to them, “Watch out and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”
Imagine the Lord Jesus silent and in deep thought as they crossed the lake. His spirit was feeling the sigh and the frustration caused by the power of unbelief and the arrogance of the Pharisees and Sadducees (PS men), feeling the deep trauma that made Him sigh in their presence. They came ashore and began to walk. Jesus was wrapped up in those thoughts about the incident, pondering how continuing, willful unbelief had terribly hardened these PS men, made them unsavable, and destined them never to enter the kingdom, even going to the extent of attacking the truth. He was thinking of what happens to eternal souls when they are caught in blind religion. In that profound thought, while He was thinking deeply like this, the disciples were worried and focused on a practical concern: they didn’t have bread.
In this situation, He gives a serious warning to them. Matthew says He said to them. Mark 8:15 states He was giving orders to them; He was charging them. He didn’t simply say to them or command them; the word used is for strict orders or a continuous, repeated charge. The seriousness is immediately established by this word: strict orders or charge.
The warning is further underscored by two words: Watch out and beware (or Be careful/guard yourself). This is an utterance of present danger. We don’t use this phrase unless there is a big danger—something like a big hole in front of you that will break all your bones, or a big poisonous snake whose little bite means you’re gone. The warning is to Take heed or watch out and beware. The first word, beware, calls for mental alertness, while the second causes one to look upon the object keenly in order to avoid the danger it presents. These are present tense imperatives: this attitude and spiritual alertness must always continue, not just once.
For example, sometimes in school, after lunch class was difficult. I remember those days taking classes at home; I don’t know why, but just after lunch, when teaching social studies, everyone was sleepy. I will not believe one fat teacher; she would actually fall asleep while reading—it was too much! She would make someone read and then sleep. But college days were different. After lunch, we had lab classes. When the teacher takes you to the lab for a terrible chemical acid experiment where even a drop will burn your flesh, the teacher says, “Students, watch out/beware and pay close attention! Wake up and concentrate all your faculties upon what I set before you. No one should do this absent-mindedly, otherwise there is great danger.”
That is precisely what the Lord is doing with the disciples. The Son of God had been thinking deeply on this as they crossed the lake, and with a deep concern of soul, He turns to the disciples while they are discussing food. Jesus turns and speaks in a manner that they immediately knew was conveying something very serious, because He strictly orders/charges them. The tone of His voice and the look in His eye made it evident that something of grave importance was coming. He says, “Watch out and beware.” This is not something you can take lightly or listen to lightly. If you fail to listen and understand, you will fall into great danger. Put all your mental strength together and concentrate upon that which is about to come from My lips, and think deeply about that. By so doing, our Lord underscored the seriousness of the warning.
The warning is: “Watch out and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” They are to be constantly alert and be on their guard against being infected by the leaven-like influence of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees. Mark includes the Herodians.
Now, what is the leaven? It is a figure of speech. He used this imagery earlier; you remember He used it in one of the parables: the Kingdom of Heaven is like a woman who took a little leaven and put it in a large dough, and the whole lump became leavened. The imagery of yeast highlights two basic things: 1. A secret and silent influence, but also 2. An extensive and powerful influence. 1 Corinthians 5 states: “A little leaven leavens the whole lump.”
Yeast, as I told you at that time, is what bakery guys add to the bread that gives it softness, swelling, and a fluffy quality. The influence of yeast on any flour is amazing. It is a symbol of that which is small and operates and spreads in a hidden way, but once allowed into a thing, it spreads its influence and ends up permeating the whole thing. Just as a little leaven leavens the whole lump, a little of the “leaven” of the Pharisees and Sadducees can work its way in, spread its influence, and end up permeating the whole of a person’s soul. In the teaching of the Lord, leaven has a tremendous power in religious thinking to insinuate itself into the minds and hearts of people and will influence their entire being.
Here He is talking about the leaven of the Pharisees, Sadducees, and Herodians (PSH). What is it? Verse 12 clarifies that the disciples understood this is the influence of the teaching of the PSH, which Jesus likens to yeast or leaven. Luke 12:1 tells us: “The leaven of the Pharisees is hypocrisy.”
Leaven of the Pharisees: Externalism and Hypocrisy
The Pharisees’ religion was dominated by traditionalism and externalism. Outwardly, they looked very religious and devoted to men, but inwardly they were hypocrites. It’s phony religion, externalism without the heart. Everything is an outside show, nothing in the heart. Their hearts are not guarded; no examining heart, no preparation of heart, no holiness in the heart. They were a whitewashed tomb: clean outside, but inside the heart, all kinds of adultery, murder, anger, robbery, and evil thoughts, yet outside, pretending to seek the truth. Oh, what a show of worship and prayerful devotion!
He says beware. That is the leaven of the Pharisees: the hypocrisy. Be very careful that you are not putting on a hypocritical outside show with nothing in your heart. Be on your guard against hypocritical pretense in the things of God. Why? Such kind of pretense will permanently blind you to the truth.
“Oh Pastor, I don’t pretend so much.” Oh, maybe a little here and there, but no great influence could get them off track? That is just the point Christ makes by the use of “leaven” as a metaphor. It only takes a slight movement away from the centrality of Jesus Christ and the cross to veer far off course. If you allow a little of this leaven, it will soon spread through your whole being and make you a complete hypocrite.
This is the attitude of being more worried about the external than the internal heart condition in the things of God. All outward rituals, ceremony, and tradition are just as parents taught or habits, but they have no effect on the heart. You know you can do that; millions do that today. Beware! Such people will never receive spiritual illumination but will be permanently blinded.
Maybe the greatest danger found in “the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees” is the tendency in our own hearts to move away from the purity of devotion of heart to Christ. Our sinful hearts have a great liking for the PS leaven. Beware, He says.
It is a great danger in spiritual life we need to guard daily in our life. Oh, much of today’s preaching is this. The Pharisees used all the right words that appealed to the flesh. The flesh welcomes externalism and legalism because it can trust self instead of denying self and relying on Christ alone. The Pharisees would never deny anything in the Scriptures! But they did in fact add to what the Scriptures taught and put traditions on par with the Word of God. Our flesh will gladly substitute a parade of activities and efforts as a substitute for completely relying on Christ’s work. If you do not believe this, then think for a moment how in the name of Christianity a big religion stands before us. A billion or more people in the world trust in their baptism as an infant for their salvation or trust their attendance at mass or at a worship service or at a communion service to suffice before God. As long as they can put confidence in what they have done rather than in what Christ has done, they are satisfied and comfortable. This is the very attractive leaven of the Pharisees.
Leaven of the Sadducees: Rationalism and Liberalism
Next, He warns of the leaven of the Sadducees, marked by rationalism and liberalism—no stance for truth, no love for truth. They say they believe the Bible but deny all its truth. All religions are good. Sadducees, claiming biblical fidelity, were actually freethinking, skeptics, and rationalists with God’s Word, mocking and disbelieving what doesn’t make sense. They didn’t accept the entire Old Testament. Their mind and thinking were the standard for any truth; if it didn’t seem right and logical, then they didn’t believe it. Some of you may have this leaven. “God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility. I don’t understand. How can God choose the elect and send others to hell? Doesn’t seem right, so I will not believe in election, even if the Bible says so. I will not believe that and this.” You pick and choose what you believe according to your own thought.
They don’t believe in miracles, resurrection, or spirits. They don’t believe in resurrection or after-life, heaven or hell. Instead, they say, “Eat, drink, be merry, tomorrow we die.” They truly have no trust in heaven or hell, just living for this world. Beware of this leaven! Beware of liberalism! You declare you believe the truth but deny all the essentials of truth, such as the immortality of the soul, resurrection, heaven, and hell, and live for this world and body, with no care for the soul. Oh, how attractive this leaven is to many!
Leaven of the Herodians: Secularism and Materialism
The leaven of the Herodians is secularism. It’s marked by political ambition, materialism, and secularism. The Herodians represent religion filled with secularism—just enough religion to keep them comfortable politically and maintain a public face: “Oh, he’s a good man; he goes to church and prays,” but never enough to change your sins and life, not enough to upset your moral life. You remember how Herod lived, but was interested in the sermons of John the Baptist, very much enjoying them, yet never turned from adultery. When it affected his political situation, he was ready to even cut off John’s head. They will just use religion to be comfortable in their political position and worldly life, not enough to make them uncomfortable in their sins.
These are the three leavens: Externalism, Liberalism, and Secularism. These are very, very dangerous teachings. If you allow even a little of them into your life, they will affect your entire being. You will never love the truth, never be eager to learn God’s Word, never be illuminated by the truth, but can be permanently blinded. So the Lord, in all seriousness, warns us against them. This is a central concern. Pay attention; be on guard against the teaching of the PSH, because wherever it influences, it influences in secret and silently, but it will spread and pervade the entire being and life. Could it be some of us have already allowed this leaven, and it’s spreading? That is why there is so little love for truth and illumination in our midst.
It is a warning that has a broad application against all the wrong teaching of the PSH. These three men have not died but live in every generation and send millions of people to hell even today.
Our Lord warns us not to be influenced by them. After His death and resurrection, the disciples have to carry the message and teach the true religion to the world. He warns them about the dangerous influence of the PSH. If you allow this leaven, it will corrupt your faith. He is training His disciples as new leaders, and He is very concerned because only through them is He going to spread pure religion to the ends of the earth. He is concerned that they in no way imbibe even a little bit of the leaven of the false religion of the PSH, but that they themselves experience and spread the pure heavenly religion of Jesus. This is important because these men were under the influence of the PSH from their childhood, right? So, beware!
Blindness of the Disciples
Verse 7: They began to discuss this among themselves, saying, “He said that because we did not bring any bread.”
See their blindness! They had a little meeting, got all their brains together. “What does He mean? What is He saying?” Thinking purely at a worldly level, they came to the conclusion that He was saying this because they didn’t bring bread. Although they had seen such big miracles, they totally missed the point. They put two and two together and came up with seventeen.
Could it be an argument? They were all blaming each other: “John, it was your turn to bring bread.” “Oh no, it was the tax collector Matthew’s turn to bring the bread.” “Oh no, I thought it was Andrew’s turn.” They were kind of fighting like children. They were worried they had only one bread with them, arguing over who was at fault.
“We forgot bread, so He is talking about leaven.” They interpreted Jesus’ words in a literal, physical way. The minute they heard “leaven,” they thought of bread. They thought “earthly bread.” Leaven equals bread. They never thought beyond that. “See, He is also worried we don’t have bread, and when we don’t have bread, He is saying never buy bread from Pharisees or Sadducees.” So, “Be careful from whom you buy, not to buy from the PSH.”
Now we don’t have bread, and maybe no money either. “If you must take alms, take from anyone but the Pharisees and Sadducees,” nor to receive of their alms, because He left and departed in anger and a sigh and doesn’t even want them to see their faces. Or, they took it for a caution not to be familiar with the Pharisees and Sadducees, not to eat with them (Proverbs 23:6).
They were fully at a superficial, physical level. What a sad misunderstanding of the warning of Jesus, which misses the major point, right? Because the major point in all of Jesus’ teaching is that it isn’t what is on the outside that defiles you, but what is inside, not what goes inside the mouth. After seeing such miracles, how could they still worry about having no bread, even to the extent of begging bread from the PSH?See, the Bible is very honest about their stupid state.
Spiritual Operation of the Lord
Verse 8: But Jesus, aware of this, said, “You men of little faith, why do you discuss among yourselves that you have no bread?”
Jesus was perceiving and knowing. The Lord saw their spiritual blindness that made them think only at the physical level and cling to a literal understanding. Like an expert surgeon, He knew the problem was their current state of crippling unbelief.
He was essentially asking, “Have you forgotten that if it was a physical bread problem, I could take care of that? Why are you still on that?” This is exactly the same principle as Matthew 6:33, when the Lord says to them, “Why are you worrying about what you eat? Why are you worrying about what you wear?” Why are you stuck at that physical level? If you don’t move above that, you will never get spiritual illumination. That is why He said in Matthew 6, don’t be at the physical level, but “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.” If you just get up on the spiritual level, God will take care of the physical dimension. Don’t you remember that God provides physical needs? Just leave that and get on that spiritual level.
Then, as an expert soul doctor, He knew that they continued at the physical level because of unbelief. That is why He rebukes them: “You of little faith.” Knowing their problem with that perfect knowledge, He began to correct it, give them understanding, and open their eyes through an operation. He began to ask some probing questions to their minds and consciences.
This is the most concentrated, pointed dealing with the disciples anywhere in the Gospels. Nowhere do we find Him so intensely and relentlessly probing their conscience. He asks five questions: first a general one, and then four rebuking questions. (Mark 8:17, the parallel passage, also outlines this.)
Probing Questions to the Disciples’ Hearts
General Question (Verse 8/Mark 8:17):
“Why do you discuss the fact that you have no bread?” Why are you at this physical level? “O ye of little faith, why are ye in such perplexity because ye have taken no bread?” In your unbelief, you reflect that on your all-powerful Master also, thinking that your Master is as full of worry as you, and apply everything He says to that? Little faith! “I did such miracles, cannot you depend upon My supply, though it were in a wilderness, and not disquiet yourselves with anxious thoughts about it?”
To distrust Christ and to disturb ourselves when we are in straits and difficulties is an evidence of the weakness of our faith, which, if it were in exercise as it should be, would ease us of the burden of care by casting it on the Lord, who cares for us. They were completely at the physical level. Why?
Rebuking Questions (Mark 8:17-18):
- “Do you not yet understand or perceive?” Have you had no deep meditation of My truths, no realization that the physical is not important?
- “Do you have a hardened heart?” Do you not have spiritual insight? Has your collected heart been hardened?
- “Having eyes, do you not see? And having ears, do you not hear? And do you not remember?” Have your spiritual faculties been negated? Have your eyes and ears failed to work? Has your memory failed you?
Put yourself on that shore. You are fully taken up discussing that you don’t have bread, and in that, He is saying we should be careful about buying bread from the PSH.
Jesus begins by shattering their whole concern at the physical level by asking the first general question: “Why are you thinking of bread? What does this have to do with bread, bread, bread?” He shocks them with the question. Like a skillful surgeon of the soul, cutting down skin, muscle, and avoiding nerves and arteries, cutting the right vessels, He operates on their spiritual heart.
He reminds them of their memory (Matthew 16:9-10):
- “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?”
When we broke five bread for 5,000, how many leftovers? They remembered twelve. Then seven bread for 4,000, how many leftovers? Seven large baskets. “Okay, your memory is working; you don’t have amnesia.” Both incidents are still in your mind. By those probing questions, reminding them of those two miracles, He then leads to the climatic question.
Climatic Question (Matthew 16:11):
“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.” In other words, “As I have cut deeply into your heart, I have identified your problem—little faith—and with My questions and reminders of the recent miracles, do you still miss the spiritual point of My warning?”
“Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees! Open your eyes and beware!” I didn’t mean physical bread; don’t be stuck there. “Get up on a spiritual level. There is great spiritual danger, a tremendous crisis. Understand, I will not be with you long. Don’t always be on the physical level.”
But isn’t it wonderful how patient the Lord was? Isn’t it wonderful that He teaches so patiently until they finally understood?
Spiritual Discernment Comes to the Disciples
Result of the Operation (Matthew 16:12):
Then they understood that He did not say to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.
Then, at that time, they understood. Jesus’ operation was a success. After so much probing and cutting, now they understood. They were apparently ashamed and didn’t give any verbal response. They now came to the understanding that His warning had nothing to do with literal bread, because He already taught that defilement doesn’t come from eating, but from the heart. It was the false religious teaching of these PSH men.
He did not tell them expressly what He meant, but repeated what He had said, that they should beware of the leaven, and so obliged them, by comparing this with His other discourses, to arrive at the sense of it in their own thoughts. Thus Christ teaches by the Spirit of wisdom in the heart, opening the understanding to the Spirit of revelation in the Word. And those truths are most precious, which we have thus dug for, deeply asked questions about, meditated on, and have found out after some mistakes.
By searing and searching questions, Jesus brought the disciples to understand His warning. Now they understood that their great danger was not physical bread, though they didn’t bring bread now, because He could provide for them; He already showed that. But their greatest danger was spiritual: the leaven of the PSH—infection spiritually. He warns them to be alert and aware of the teaching of the PSH.
Applications for Our Lives
What does this passage say to you, to me, and to our church in every generation? Many lessons. I want to continue next week, taking you through many applications from this. Let me remind you of a few we already read.
1 . Spiritual illumination is a greatly desirable blessing. It comes to any man when he perseveres in the love for truth, like the blind girl I told you about. Examine your heart, and if you find your desire for reading and growing in truth is less, there is definitely a spiritual disease. Peter writes that, as newborn babies, we should crave the spiritual milk of the Word, so you may grow. If you are born again, you will have a craving for milk. If it is not there, examine your heart and pray to God for that craving to be re-kindled. That is the means God uses for spiritual enlightenment.
2 . Living continuously at the physical level is a sign of little faith, and see how much it irritates the Lord. Most of us live on the physical level all the time. Some of you, I’m not even done with my sermon, and you’re already thinking about what you will have for lunch, what time church will finish, where to go, what to buy, what to cook and eat, where to eat—planning those things more than grasping the truth. We need to plan those things; they have a place. But our mind’s capacity is 100% taken up by physical things like food, dress, home, holidays, loans, and work.
We are very physically oriented. We tend only to see the physical things, and we don’t have that spiritual sight, even though we’re redeemed people.Even when we talk about God’s blessings and promises, the mind tends to think at the physical level. It is the sin of weak faith. An old pastor, when they shouted a certain phrase, men always thought food was coming, not God.Being at that level is not only a sign of weak faith but a big hindrance for spiritual illumination. God can never show spiritual realities and sight as long as you continue at that level. Only worried about physical dangers, with no care for spiritual dangers.Oh, may the Lord, through His Spirit, speak and probe our own hearts like He did those disciples. “Oh, you of little faith!” Are you so preoccupied with the trivial that you have forgotten the power and might of the Lord? How long will you be at the physical level? Don’t you realize this is hindering spiritual discerning and spiritual illumination? This physical level is hardening your hearts, making it insensitive, making your spiritual eyes blind, ears deaf, and memory dull.
Get off that mundane level of the physical; only then can I open your spiritual eyes. How long will you be at this physical level? Open your eyes to the spiritual realities; there are spiritual dangers. You need to be careful; otherwise, they will cause great harm.See, the Lord is so concerned about our spiritual level. As a Pastor, I worry that so many people do not get spiritual illumination because their entire focus is physical and they are so paranoid about physical things and all the worries of the world. What does it do? It chokes the Word and continuously blinds them to spiritual realities. That is why we are not spiritual-minded people. The Lord clearly wants to lift us up to the spiritual level.Before we begin to apply this warning to our life, see that the first step of application—watch out and beware—depends on us getting to the spiritual level. Otherwise, I preach so many applications about watching and being aware, and you all hear, nod your head, and go, and your mind will never see any spiritual danger in this warning. This is so serious; this has to be a continuous attitude and mindset daily so we don’t become hypocritical, externally focused, liberalistic, or secularistic.So, the first thing called for us to be watchful and beware is to sharpen your spiritual sight. See Christ’s rebuke to them. How do we sharpen our sight? Notice the terms Christ uses: “Do you not yet understand and remember the five loaves…” Have you not pondered what Christ has done? Has the truth not been etched in your mind? There are many things that deserve our thought and remembrance to sharpen our spiritual sight. We need to deeply meditate and see what glorious things Christ has done for us in our redemption.
Discipline your mind to think upon Christ and His death and resurrection.The second application is similar: improve your spiritual senses: “beware of the leaven…” After thinking long, I would say this New Testament verse is for guarding your heart—above all else, guard your heart so you don’t have this leaven in your heart, if we allow externalism, liberalism, and secularism.We improve our spiritual senses by guarding against both internal and external influences. Internally first, by examining and noticing what thoughts and teachings affect our thinking and hearts more. Notice what we are allowing more and more into our minds. The leaven of the PSH can come from TV, mobile, friends, and relatives and can affect our whole being. Compare your thoughts with the Word of God. Is this thought or idea according to God’s Word? Or is there leaven of the PSH in this? Where will this lead?Also externally, notice what is going on about you, what is being said about spiritual issues, and how it relates to the complete revelation of God in Scripture. When someone is teaching or making inferences about the Bible, pay attention: does this teaching reflect the truth of Scripture? Is it in context or out of context? Does it promote the glory of Christ or of man? Does it make me more cross-centered or self-centered? Does it demonstrate the grace of God or the effort of man? Is it a substitute for the clear teaching of Scripture?The most dangerous person in this church today is the one that thinks he or she could never fall prey to false teaching or unchristian behavior or ungodly habits or skeptical doubts. That’s why Christ warns all of us to sharpen our sight and improve our spiritual senses by paying attention to the end result of all that we see and hear.
God grant us grace to discern the times.The whole sad story of church history and the decline of the church in the Middle Ages and even this century’s dead Christianity—if you can point out one main reason, it is that this warning of the Lord was neglected. He who spoke it saw with a prophetic eye the future history of Christianity. The Great Physician knew well that Pharisee-doctrines and Sadducee-doctrines would prove the two great wasting diseases of His Church until the end of the world. He would have us know that there will always be Pharisees and Sadducees in the ranks of Christians. Their succession shall never fail. Their generation shall never become extinct. Their name may change, but their spirit will always remain. Therefore, He cries to us, “take heed and beware.”We too, as a church, if we allow a little of any of these false teachings. Like yeast, they might seem a small thing compared to the whole body of truth. Like yeast, once admitted, they would work secretly and noiselessly. Like yeast, they would gradually change the whole character of the religion and the church itself.We are in the most danger from hypocrites than those that are openly vicious.
These Pharisees, who are great pretenders to devotion, and Sadducees, who pretend to a free and impartial search after truth—”We should freely think; not strictly believe what the Bible says; we also have a mind”—they come in sheep’s clothing, so be careful. The corrupt teaching, thoughts, and practices are very appealing to our flesh, like when you add leaven, how it makes things tasty, fluffy, swelling, and soft.This will make us blind, even to “the signs of the times,” blind like them at the eventful moment in which you are living. The Pharisees and Sadducees did not discern the signs of the times; they did not see what was happening at that eventful time in their lives—Jesus Christ was in their midst! And they were playing a spiritual game while eternity was at stake. Have you fallen into a similar trap? Then, my friend, while you have light pointing to the risen Christ, flee to Him!
Grace Reformed Baptist Church, Bangalore 