Read and Believe in Jesus.

“O you of little faith…” “How is it that you fail to understand…?” Matthew 16:8 and 11.

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REVIEW – Jesus, returning from Tire & Sidon, taught, healed, and miraculously fed a crowd of 4,000+ Greek speakers in Decapolis. His compassion for these needy people was evident. Then He and the disciples sailed across the southern Sea of Galilee to Magdala.

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Matthew 16:1-4.

Almost immediately, a group of religious leaders approached Jesus in order to test Him. They were Pharisees and Sadducees from Jerusalem, an unlikely pairing because these two religious sects were fierce opponents.

The Pharisees were uber-strict keepers of the law and also the traditions of the elders. They held that all the Old Testament books were God’s word. They believed in angels and the resurrection of the body.

The Sadducees were an elite, wealthy group of leaders, including many priests, who accepted only the five books of the Torah as God’s word. They did not believe in angels or bodily resurrection. They ran the Temple’s finances (greedily) and held most seats on the Sanhedrin (the governing body of the Jews). They were “pals” with Rome.

And yet, they came together with one purpose. They demanded that Jesus perform a grand, miraculous sign “from heaven” (something like jumping off the pinnacle of the Temple and angels keeping Him from falling) to prove He was who He claimed to be: Israel’s Messiah.

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You can almost feel Jesus’ impatience and exasperation with these men.

He basically said, “You know the signs of the weather, whether it will be a nice day or a stormy one, by looking at the sky. And yet, you can’t discern the spiritual signs of the times!” (What kinds of religious leaders are you??)

In judgment upon their unbelief, Jesus proclaims, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but NO sign will be given to it, except the sign of Jonah.”

Then He and the disciples get into the boat and head back to the eastern side of Galilee.

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Matthew 16:5-12.

Jesus, still thinking about His confrontation with the religious leaders (who should have been the first ones to recognize their Messiah), suddenly declared to the disciples, “Watch and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”

The disciples must have looked at each other and wondered what Jesus meant. Ah-oh! Then they realized that they had forgotten to bring the bread. Leaven = bread. That must be what He meant!

Jesus: “O you of little faith, why are you discussing among yourselves the fact that you have no bread?!”

“Don’t you yet perceive?? Don’t you remember the five loaves for the five thousand, and how many baskets you gathered? Or… the seven loaves for the four thousand, and how many baskets you gathered? How is it that you fail to understand that I did not speak about ‘bread’?”

“Beware of THE LEAVEN of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”

Finally, it dawned on them. Leaven didn’t mean bread, but as in Passover, it stood for defilement.

“Ohhhh… He was talking about the “teachings” of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”

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Reaching the other side, Jesus will then take the Disciples about 30 miles north to the area of Caesarea Philippi, at the foot of the Mount Hermon mountain range.