Lessons from Matthew 16: Fulfillment

In our previous lesson, we discussed how certain people (especially the religious leaders) were more interested in a sign or miracle from Jesus than they were in acknowledging Him as the Messiah.

Similarly, in our world today, the Jesus people are looking for is the one who can fulfill all their needs and meet all their desires. Yet they refuse to come to Him on His terms. There is no humility, seeking forgiveness of sin, repentance, or confession of faith.

Instead, they want the Jesus of their own understanding.

They try to make Him be whatever their limited, egocentric minds desire Him to be! These people look no further than their own wills and desires and if Jesus doesn’t fulfill these things then they have no use for Him.

They prefer to remain in their sin, seeking after their own evil desires. They abandon the God who created them, loves them, and remains faithful to them when they are unfaithful to Him.

Wicked? Yes! Adulterous? Yes!

And this must have grieved the Lord’s heart for Mark tells us that Jesus let out a deep sigh. A sigh of grief and probably disgust at their unbelief, their lack of spiritual discernment.

Jesus then stated simply that no other sign would be given except that which they had already received.

He spoke of the sign of Jonah, which He had already referred in Matthew 12:39-41. Had they stopped then and reflected back on the truth of this event, they would have truly wanted to understand. They would have gone back to the scriptures and studied and learned that Jonah’s message was one of warning.

The people of Nineveh took the warning to heart and were saved. And if, in fact, the religious leaders had taken the time to go back and study and seek God maybe they too would have heeded Jesus’s warning.

But they cared not and they sought not and so they failed to see the truths of God that Jesus was already revealing to them.

They missed the spiritual insight, God’s revelation that Jesus would face death on a cross. He would be laid in a tomb and on the third day, He would be miraculously raised from the dead. God’s judgment of sin, the wrath of God, would be laid upon the sinless Savior who would bear it all.

And for all who believe in Him, they shall be saved!

This is the only sign we have need of today!

Because Jesus knew the true intent of the religious leaders’ hearts and minds, He turned and walked away. These men had crossed the point of no return. They had sealed their fate and because of it Jesus and His ministry in the territory of Jewish Galilee was over.

Instead, He turned inward in order to focus His attention on His disciples who were going to soon be left behind to continue Jesus’s ministry even after He left.

Belief in Jesus’s Word and work on the cross is all anyone needs to escape His judgment.

What more are you looking for?

God’s Word is sufficient and His work is complete. All you need to do is place your faith and your trust in His hands. Let Him lead you not only into salvation, but also into His sanctification. It’s the process of changing the life of a sinner into a life led by His holiness. It is following in His steps of righteousness, living in the freedom He delivers.

Next, Jesus turned, along with His disciples, and got back into the boat they had arrived in. They set out for the other side of the lake.

I’m sure they were all weary. Not only physically spent, but also emotionally and mentally exhausted.

Spiritual opposition can take its toll on us. We need to be mindful of whose battle it really is and return to Him continually for renewed strength, courage and fervor.

This is something the disciples learned later on down the road.

For now, they had the “Source” with them. I can only imagine the quietness that there must have been on that boat. Oh, maybe a few words were spoken here and there. But overall you could probably sense the heaviness that was weighing on their friend and teacher Jesus.

I’m sure Jesus was silently taking it all in. Reflecting on the unbelief of the religious leaders and their false teaching and those they were leading astray.

Thinking about the urgency of the time He had left.

Feeling the pressure of the work He still needed to accomplish.

And looking at His disciples with the care and concern as only He could as their good and faithful Shepherd and Teacher and thinking about all they would have to face when He was gone.

Out of these thoughts and into the silence, Jesus warned them to, “Be careful, “and “Be on guard against the yeast of the Pharisees.”

Probably a little startled and obviously quite perplexed, the disciples begin to talk amongst themselves.

They thought it was physical bread they had not remembered to bring with them that Jesus was talking about. In reality it was not the physical for which Jesus was concerned. Rather, it was the spiritual implication of the religious leaders’ false teaching/yeast which was permeating the people. It was their leading of the people into unrighteous and unholy living.

And as Jesus became aware of their conversation, He again gently rebuked the disciples and accused them of having little faith. He asked them, but they still do not get it!

He asked them if they didn’t remember the feedings of both the 5,000 and the 4,000. How Jesus had taken the little they had and turned it into more than enough. No, food, physical food, was not the issue here.

It was a matter of spiritual bread, the bread the religious leaders were handing out. It was the spiritual bread needed for spiritual living but void of nutrients. In fact, it was not bread at all. It was a fake, a substitute for the real thing and therefore all their bread/religion could reproduce was false.

It was a counterfeit and good for nothing except leading people down a deep and dark spiral into sin and self.

But the bread Jesus gave was based on the truth of God’s Word. He Himself was and is the living Word of God, the living spiritual bread. Therefore Jesus and His teachings fill the hungering soul and offer sustenance when nothing else does.

Jesus had already stated back in Matthew 4:4:

It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.

In John 6:33 Jesus said:

For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world,”

And in John 6:35 Jesus stated very clearly that,

I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.

Could it be that you still have not partaken of the real bread of life? Maybe you have been feeding on the yeast of false teaching and yet you are wanting to find the truth.

Let me ask you:

Are you willing to give up what you thought to be real, only to be fooled by the devil and exchange it for the truth of God through His Word and His precious Son Jesus Christ?

Make today the day of your salvation!

And we and all of heaven will rejoice with you as you make this commitment of faith!

Terri Hamman

Faith & Fitness Coach