Remember that Matthew was written for the Jews. He was a tax collector. He portrays Jesus as King. He used more Old Testament references than any of the other Gospel writers. I want you to get the perspective that what Matthew is writing here is to the Jew. He’s saying, "Here is the Messiah, Jesus Christ." Mark wrote primarily to the Roman, the Gentile. There is a different audience and frame of reference for each of the Gospel writers.

We skipped it, but this is not the first time they’ve asked. They’ve asked for a sign from heaven before. You all know this—they really weren’t asking for a sign. They were trying to trick Him. We’ve read where they’re already plotting to kill Him. They had an ulterior motive behind this question.

You’ve heard this before. "Red skies at night, sailor’s delight. Red skies in morning, sailors take warning." Has anybody heard that? It’s old. It’s not something new. That’s basically what Jesus said.

Jesus basically says, "You can read signs in your normal life. You’re sailors." They are in Capernaum, next to the Sea of Galilee. "But you cannot interpret the signs of the times." He’s talking about the Spirit versus the World. He’s saying, "God is showing you spiritual signs but you can’t interpret them." We’ll see this all throughout Matthew 16. God is showing you signs but you don’t get it.

We are six months away from the cross at this point in Matthew. Would you think that after all the healings, teachings, and other works of Christ that people would accept Him as the Son of God on earth, Jesus, the Messiah, and Christ? You would think that, wouldn’t you? But they haven’t. They’ve had their own minds made up and couldn’t see what God was trying to tell them. God was revealing signs to them but they couldn’t see it.

Jesus is saying that He must be like Jonah—in the belly of the fish for three days. He was crucified on the cross, buried on Friday, and raised on Sunday. That’s three days. He’s talking about Himself. He says, "You already have a sign from Jonah."

If you recall, God told Jonah, the prophet, to go to Nineveh, a wicked and adulterous people. <Has anyone seen the VeggieTales’ "Jonah"? Isn’t it cute? The Ninevites were slapping each other with fish. I love that.> Jonah was told to go and preach to these people. He said, "No. I don’t want to. I’m going to run away from God." And that’s why he was swallowed by the fish. Finally, he goes and preaches God’s Word. All he had was God’s Word. This is the reference Jesus was making, "You have God’s Word. What else do you want? I don’t care how many physical, miraculous signs I make. You don’t even believe God’s Word." The Ninevites believed God’s Word and repented. Jonah got upset and mad. God got upset with Jonah and said, "You’re not going to find shade under a fig tree." It’s a wonderful book. Go read Jonah.

You understand what’s going on here. The Pharisees and Sadducees came and said, "Give us a sign." Jesus replied, "You’re a wicked and adulterous generation. Even if I did it, you wouldn’t believe it. You can’t even see God’s Word. Understand that. We have to put this whole chapter into context. That’s what we’re trying to do here.

That’s great, isn’t it? They forgot the bread.

Remember when I told you about tripping over verses? I would trip all over verses 5 and 6. Do you know why? They don’t make sense. They’re not connected.

When they went across the lake, the disciples forgot to take bread. OK. Then Jesus says, "Hey. Listen. Be on guard against the yeast of the Pharisees."

Do you see a connection here? Do you see what I mean? It’s like two disjointed statements. What is Jesus thinking of? "Don’t worry about the bread. I’ve always taken care of bread (like the feeding of the 5,000)." Do you see that? When you think about it, you say, "Well, ok. Maybe it does make sense because he’s saying, "Worry about something important, like the yeast (evil) of the Pharisees." Whenever you see the word "yeast," it’s a reference to evil. Yeast is something you put in bread to make it "puff up." That’s basically what He’s talking about with yeast in a person—it makes them swell up and think they know more than they do. That’s what He’s saying. We’ll see what He means in just a moment.

They did a lot of that. Jesus would say something and they’d go off in a corner to try to figure Him out.

You can’t hide anything from Jesus. God knows our every thought.

Does that hit home? Faith is of the spirit. The disciples’ thinking was in the world, "We have to figure it out ourselves."

When you are reading and studying the Bible and you trip over something, meditate and dwell on it. Pray, "Holy Spirit, show me what this means."

One of the problems many Christians have in Church, Sunday School, or even home Bible reading is distraction. I’ll say, "Well, I’ll just turn the ballgame on and watch every other pitch while I study God’s Word." None of you do that, right? I’ll put on some music (even Christian music) and I’ll study God’s Word. I’ll open the windows and listen to the wind and the trees. I’ll adjust the lights just right and I have to get my chair just right. And I have to have an ottoman for my feet while I study the Bible. What am I doing? What is the emphasis here? I have to take care of myself before I can read God’s Word. All God says is, "Forget everything. Drop it. Don’t worry about it. Don’t get stressed out about it. Don’t do anything. Just read my Word." Don’t think. We think too much.

I need to build a wall in my basement. Already I’m thinking about that wall, "Let’s see…this 2-by-4 here…16-inch on center…I need these tools…" This is going through my mind. Do you know how much genuine Bible study I can do when all that’s on my mind? Don’t we all do that? It may not be a wall or music or a TV but it’s something. God say, "Remove that. Get rid of the world for two minutes and spend time with me. Otherwise you’re going to miss it. You’re not going to hear me." This is where the disciples are. Their minds were on the bread, "We forgot the bread. He’s upset with us."

Jesus is reminding them.

We can change the word "bread" to anything you want. How is it you don't understand that I was not talking to you about your job? How is it you don't understand that I was not talking to you about your financial situation? Whatever has you tied up in knots in this world, put it in there. Jesus said, "I don’t care about this or that. I’m talking about your eternal life and how you’re going to live for me."

This is the key. This is the second time He’s said it. Now they understand.

Duh! We do the "Duh!" too. We get to a realization and say, "Well, God didn’t really care about that." But we thought it mattered.

If Christ had a 3½ year ministry, the disciples have been with Him at least two years. They’ve listened to Him. They’ve seen Him perform miracles. Do you think they know who He is? They think they do. This is key for all of us—an understanding of who Jesus is and what He did. Do the disciples suspect they know who Jesus is? If someone asked them, "Who is Jesus?," how would they have responded? We’ll see that Peter said (and the others agreed), "You are Christ, the Son of the Living God." Peter says it, the disciples agreed with it, but do they really believe it? If they believed it, what would have happened differently when he was arrested, crucified, buried, and resurrected? Mary came running back and said, "He is risen!" They said, "Oh, no He’s not." What would have been different? They would have partied and celebrated. There is a reality of the world and death in stark contrast to the eternity of what Christ is all about. They couldn’t see it. They could say it, but did they believe it?

We can say it, but do we really believe it? Do you really believe God’s Word when He says, "Cast all your cares, anxieties, and worries upon me and I will give you rest."? We can say it all day long. A little incident comes up and we say, "Well, I just gave it to God and He took care of it." But watch what happens when something big comes along. We feel we have to hold onto it. That’s worldly thinking. God said, "Cast it upon me and I’ll give you rest. I will take care of everything. I have given you everything you need." This is the thinking that will challenge you in Matthew 16. That’s where the disciples are. They’ve seen it all, been there, and done that with Jesus and yet they still didn’t understand.

We won’t have a crystal clear understanding of Christ while we’re here on earth. But it will get clearer and clearer as you grow more and more like Him. Take a look at 2^nd Corinthians 3:18 again.

We are being transformed into His likeness here on this earth. Does everybody understand that? You are becoming more and more Christlike in everything that you do. We are growing in Christ. Did the disciples grow in Christ? You’d better believe it. They kept growing in Christ. That’s what we’re to do. That’s what we’re to be about with each other: encouraging each other, building each other up, edifying each other, etc.

This may sound strange but none of us should have in our minds that our goal is to be more Christlike than someone else. That’s not a good statement. What are we doing? We’re looking at ourselves again—boasting about ourselves. We’re comparing ourselves with others. What Jesus says is, "Keep serving others. Acknowledge sin when I tell you about it. As you’re living here, grow to become more like me." That’s what we’re to be about every day of our lives.

Obviously He’s talking about this kind of thinking here.

How would you describe the Pharisees? Holier-than-thou. Self-righteous. Legalistic. Hypocritical. They thought they were "there." Would you call them "religious?" Yes. Very much so. They went to church every time the doors were open. They were dressed "properly." They spoke "properly." They were really religious.

What about the Sadducees? We don’t talk about them a lot. How would you describe them? Politics. Power. Money. Materialistic…the rich, ruling group. Were they religious? Yes, definitely. Don’t ever think they weren’t. They were religious because they followed the first five books of the Bible alone (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, & Deuteronomy).

So Jesus said, "Guard against the teaching of the religious, self-righteous legalists and the religious, rich, materialistic politicians." Can you see that? This is the world. He was putting these two groups forward and asking, "Is that you’re thinking?" In other words, You can be as religious as you want to, but if you’re a legalist, where are you? You can be as religious as you want to, but if you’re after the almighty dollar with materialistic thinking and you think that’s where your value and self-worth is, Jesus was saying, "Beware." "Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees. Don’t take it. Don’t get it. Don’t let it become part of you."

We’re looking at this from God’s point of view. Some of you could be sitting here right now saying, "But aren’t we supposed to make money and aren’t we supposed to be involved in politics and so forth?" Remember that Jesus is referring to the yeast—what gets into your lifeblood and becomes the whole essence of your existence, rather than Christ. That’s what He means. We have to look at it from God’s point of view.

We’re not through with Matthew 16 yet. Take a look at verse 13. Here’s where Jesus finally says who He is. We’re at a point six months before He is to be crucified. If you read the Gospels very closely, Jesus makes a big deal about turning toward Jerusalem. He’s up in Capernaum on the Sea of Galilee. He’s going to spend the next six months heading toward Jerusalem for the next Passover. If you track the Gospels, that’s what you’ll find.

This is what the people are saying. The people have heard about Jesus and they’re saying, "Oh, He’s John the Baptist returned from the grave," or, "Oh, He’s Elijah."

Sometimes people want to ask hypothetical questions about what other people do or what other people think. I always want to ask, "What about you?" That’s what I hear Jesus asking. Jesus never asked Peter, "Peter, what do you think James thinks? Or Phillip thinks? Or Andrew?" What did He ask? "What about you? What do you think?" That’s what I’ll always ask and try to get you to think about—What do you think? Where are you on this or that?

If you don’t trip over all those verses, you’re not reading. What did you trip over? Bind. Loose. The rock. "Don’t tell anyone." These verses are full of things that Jesus (the Son of God, the Messiah) said such that there’s no way on earth we can figure this out. As a matter of fact, He says that. When Peter said, "You are the Christ, the Son of God," Jesus said, "Man didn’t tell you that. God through the Holy Spirit told you."

In other words, Jesus was saying, "the only way you’re going to understand anything is through God and the Holy Spirit." That is the only way you’ll understand this. You will not figure this out with your manly, womanly, mental, human, worldly thinking. You can’t do it. You can try all you want but you’re going to come up short. You’ll find something that says, "Wait a minute. This doesn’t fit." Only the Holy Spirit can show you. We’ll discuss all of these things but only God can show you. Man has created so many interpretations for the things in these verses.

1. First of all, do we have any Catholics here? This is the foundation of the Catholic Church. This is where they get the office of the Pope. "Peter, on this rock I will build my church." That’s where "Popes" come from. Do not start to judge the Catholic Church on their Popes. If you study Church history, the first few Popes were outstanding men of God. But just like man does, man twists and contorts it, starts to add the legalism and politics, and they changed the office of the Pope.
2. "Peter" in the original Greek is "Petros," and "rock" in the original Greek is "Petra." It’s a play on words. "Petros" means "a small rock." "Petra" means "huge boulder," "stone mountain," "bedrock," etc. So there’s a little play on words.
3. What is the "rock" referring to? Is it Peter? It could be Peter because Jesus is addressing him.
4. Is it Peter’s faith? It could be Peter’s faith because Jesus says, "Oh, God has shown you this and you believed it so it’s your faith."
5. Or is it Christ? On Christ, the solid rock, I stand. If you look at other Scripture, Christ most fits the picture of the rock. In the Old Testament, we did a word study on "rock." What did we find? It was unbelievable how much "rock" referenced Christ, the Messiah.

You could take this one, lone verse and say, "It was Peter. That’s it."

You could take this one, lone verse and say, "No. It’s Peter’s faith."

But if you think "rock" might be Christ, you have 50 other verses to support that concept. Which one do you want to believe? NONE OF THEM!!!! You want to believe what the Holy Spirit tells you. Do you understand me? It’s not what I say. It’s not what I convince you of. It’s what the Holy Spirit convinces you of. When you walk out of here, read this, and ask, "What does the Holy Spirit tell me this is?" What the Holy Spirit tells you is what it is to you. That’s what you share with other people. That’s conviction. That’s thinking from the spiritual realm.

You don’t go out and say, "Well, Carlton said …" Don’t do that. That’s not what we’re here for. We’re here to study the Word together. The Holy Spirit shows me things and the Holy Spirit will show you things. The Holy Spirit will show you what this means. And, there will be unity because of the Holy Spirit. There will not be differences that will cause disunity.

That seems kind of complicated but it’s really very simple. Later on in Scripture, what does Jesus do with Hades? Hades is a sign of death. In the Old Testament it was "Sheol." We say, "Hell." One of these days we’ll get to Corinthians and talk about the compartments of Hades: Paradise and Place of Torment. Those are some Bible concepts we’ll study and diagram later. But Jesus is basically saying, "Death/Hades/Hell will not prevail against the ‘rock.’" What was Jesus talking about? He was saying (as in John 3:16), "I have come that you may have everlasting life." In other words, there will not be eternal death in your life. That’s why He says that the gates of Hades will not prevail against the church.

He has finished the administration of the Jews (in the Old Testament) and now we have the "Church," established through faith. It’s a new covenant—that’s why we call it the New Testament. God’s Law is written in our hearts. We are a new creation. There is a new covenant, a new way of doing things. He says, "You are members of the church and the gates of Hades will not overcome you. You will not have eternal death in your life." You will have physical death but not eternal death.

Whenever you see "keys of the kingdom of heaven" in the Bible, it’s usually a sign of authority. It doesn’t mean literal keys on a key chain. It means a sign of authority. For example, if you go to any school and see a person with a big, huge ring of keys, who is it? A custodian. How much power does he have? A lot. He can open any door anywhere. Right? Perhaps you’ve seen some motorcycle riders wearing chains with lots of keys on them. This is what’s meant by "keys" here: authority. It’s authority to unlock things.

God gives you His Word. He has given you the keys to Heaven. You sharing His Word with others will "loose" (allow) someone to be in Heaven. If you don’t speak to someone else (even though you have that authority) you "bind" (prohibit) that person from hearing the Word of God. Don’t say, "That’s not for me." God wants to use everybody and everything to reveal Himself to others. But you have a personal responsibility here. God says, "I have given you the keys to Heaven." The "keys of the kingdom of heaven" is the Word of God. How do you use it?

Whatever you don’t say, whatever you don’t reveal, whatever you don’t share will be bound in Heaven.

Whatever you loose or say through the power of God and His Holy Word will be loosed in Heaven.

Does everybody understand that? Don’t make it more complicated than it is. You know what’s wrong with "binding" and "loosing" there? Those are words that we’ve grown up associating with shackles and straightjackets. Bound and loosed. This is "old self" thinking. I want to look at it from God’s point of view. What’s He talking about? He just talked about guarding against the yeast of the Pharisees. "Who do you say I am?" "God, through the Holy Spirit, has revealed it to you." "Now, I’m going to give you the same Word to give to others." That’s why it’s put here. When you read it all together, it is all one thing Jesus is talking about. It’s one thing to us. It’s one thing to the disciples.

Does anybody have a problem with that? Why would He say this? It was premature. And remember what we started with: some people asked Him for a sign. When you read the Gospels and all the interactions between Jesus and others, there were some who, no matter what miraculous signs Jesus performed, would not accept Him. It was premature. They weren’t ready. They were not ready to hear the revelation of Christ in their life. So He told them not to tell anyone. He said, "Don’t do it yet." I will tell you that there is coming a time when He says, "Now. Go into all the world and teach all nations." Remember that from the end of Matthew? People were going to jump to a conclusion that Jesus was the military leader, Messiah, they were expecting. As a matter of fact, there’s a story in the Bible where a bunch of men wanted to take Jesus, put Him in charge of an army, and defeat the Romans. It’s in the Bible. You can read about it. But Jesus said, "Wait a minute. That’s worldly thinking. I have a different kind of thinking. Does everybody see that? So He said, "Don’t tell anyone that I am the Christ. Let them discover me through the Holy Spirit. Let God show them through the Holy Spirit that I am the Christ." That was then. Now we are to tell everyone.

So Jesus told them that He is the Christ, the Son of the Living God. "Upon me, I’m going to build my church." If you want the Scripture references to Christ being "the rock," send me an email. There are a ton of references in 1^st Peter, Ephesians, 1^st Corinthians, Isaiah 28, etc. It’s all about Christ being the rock.

Now let me understand this. Jesus just told them six months before He was to die that He had to go to Jerusalem, die, and be raised the third day. What did the disciples believe? Would you say that what Jesus just said was God’s Word? It has to be because Jesus spoke it. Jesus is God. When He speaks, it’s God’s Word. Here is another example where Jesus/God spoke His Word and people didn’t believe it. They heard it but did not listen to it. They didn’t take it to heart.

Let me tell you, this is not the only time. He also says it in Matthew 17:12, 17:22-23, 20:18-19, and 20:28. It’s recorded that He told His disciples that He had to go to Jerusalem, be killed, and raised the third day.

What happened when the time came? Where did the disciples go? What did they rush to? Where did they run? What did they place their comfort and security in? Their "pre-," worldly thinking. Didn’t they? They could not see the unseeable. They couldn’t see those things that were invisible, the things of faith. They said, "This is the way the world is. Jesus is dead. It’s over with. Pack up. Let’s leave town." Do you see that?

How does that apply to us? What do we do? We can read and even remember God’s Word but we’ll look at this 3-dimensional world and say, "This is it. This is all there is. This is reality. Let’s pack up our bags and leave. This doesn’t mean anything." It really comes down to every decision you make. Every time you go to sleep at night and wake up in the morning, it’s a faith decision. "Do I want to live by faith? Or do I want to live in this box? As a Christian, you’ve accepted Christ. You have eternal life. You’re a new creation. God sees Christ in you. But you still want to live in this box. That’s what He was trying to tell the disciples. That’s what He tried to tell people through His ministry. That’s what He’s trying to tell you. Get out of the "box" of this earth and experience the freedom of all the spiritual blessings that God gives you.

Now listen to Peter. If you thought Peter was "the rock," listen to this.

This is Peter, bold Peter. Remember that Jesus just got through saying something to him that you’d probably love for Jesus to say to you. "Upon this rock, I will build…" Can you see the magnitude behind what He just said to Peter?

So Peter goes from hero to zero. His Lord, God, Christ, the Son of the Living God says, "Get behind me, Satan!"

Do you all see this? What is this? The mind of the things of earth versus the mind of the things of God. Jesus was pushing the disciples, "Get your mind off this earth. Get it on the things which are of Heaven. Fix your eyes on the things above, not on the things of this earth." The more you, Christian, fix your eyes on the things of this earth, the more defeated, anxious, worried, and depressed you’ll be. You’re not living the life that God has for you. That’s what He’s telling His disciples.

I want you to make note of the severity of what Jesus said. How would you receive this? I mean He just called Peter "Satan."

Jesus didn’t leave them hanging. He said, "You have to forget about yourself." Jesus told them, "I must die and be raised." Peter said, "No! Never! You can’t do that." Jesus said, "Wait a minute. You’re not looking at it from God’s point of view. You have your mind on the world. Peter, (and you), the way you should do this is deny yourself, pick up your cross daily, and follow me."

What does it mean to deny yourself? We were eating dinner with someone last night. We were talking about sacrifice. The more I thought about sacrifice in a person’s life, I realized the importance of what we read last week in Romans 12.

The whole life of a Christian is denying self. Think about "denying self." What will you do today to deny self? I told you all about the wall I need to build. My wife asked me, "Are you worried about that wall?" I said, "Well, no, I’m not worried about it but it has to be built." I’m supposed to have it done by tomorrow because the plumbers are showing up. What if something happens this afternoon and I have to call or visit somebody? Just don’t worry about it—it will eventually be built. But can you see how a macho man with tools, wood, lumber, 2-by-4s, etc., has just got to work on this wall?

It’s not a "wall," but it’s something else in your own life. It’s something that you have put ahead of everything else that God wants you to put there. The priorities you maintain in your life lead you to misinterpret God’s Word so that you get to do what you want to do. There must be sacrifice in your life. I don’t mean once a day—I mean a total position of "I’m willing to sacrifice anything right now if God tells me through the Holy Spirit." You have to look at this the way the disciples did. You have to.

Do you see the significance of what He put in there? He said, "This decision to deny yourself daily is an eternal, second-coming-of-Christ, judgmental, standing-before-God decision. It’s not just a daily, earthly thing." In the same breath, He said, "Deny yourself," and "I will come in my Father’s glory and reward each person." It’s based on how you, individually, deny yourself today, tomorrow, and next week. Deny what you think is important in favor of what God tells you to do with somebody else. That’s the "keys to the kingdom of heaven." Right there—when you deny yourself and serve others.