Matthew 16:1-28--Jesus Foretells of His Death and Resurrection

Matthew 16 English Standard Version (ESV)
Listen:  https://www.biblegateway.com/audio/mclean/esv/Matt.16

The Pharisees and Sadducees Demand Signs
16:1 And the Pharisees and Sadducees came, and to test him they asked him to show them a sign from heaven. 2 He answered them, “When it is evening, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red.’ 3 And in the morning, ‘It will be stormy today, for the sky is red and threatening.’ You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times. 4 An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah.” So he left them and departed.

The Leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees
5 When the disciples reached the other side, they had forgotten to bring any bread. 6 Jesus said to them, “Watch and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” 7 And they began discussing it among themselves, saying, “We brought no bread.” 8 But Jesus, aware of this, said, “O you of little faith, why are you discussing among yourselves the fact that you have no bread? 9 Do you not yet perceive? Do you not remember the five loaves for the five thousand, and how many baskets you gathered? 10 Or the seven loaves for the four thousand, and how many baskets you gathered? 11 How is it that you fail to understand that I did not speak about bread? Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” 12 Then they understood that he did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

Peter Confesses Jesus as the Christ
13 Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” 14 And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” 15 He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” 16 Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” 17 And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. 18 And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. 19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” 20 Then he strictly charged the disciples to tell no one that he was the Christ.

Jesus Foretells His Death and Resurrection
21 From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. 22 And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you.” 23 But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”

Take Up Your Cross and Follow Jesus
24 Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 25 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. 26 For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul? 27 For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done. 28 Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”

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A lot is going on in this chapter and I didn't want to break it up and lose the context here.  The title comes from what I think is the main thing we should see here--Jesus knows He is headed to the cross and is preparing the disciples for the thought of there being a time when He will no longer be around and Him going somewhere where they cannot follow Him and that there would come a day where there would be a great price for being a disciple of Jesus.  All this also spoke to the religious leaders to show them that Jesus knew what was in their hearts and that He was in complete control of the sequence of events--not them.  As much as Satan and his minions though this was their plan to kill the Son of God and take the inheritance that belonged to Him (see the parable of the vineyard), they are just actors on God's stage of history with God's script unfolding and they are playing their part to make that which He had ordained from before the beginning of the world come to pass in the fullness of time in the way that He had directed long ago and foretold through the prophets.

Let's start with the building tension between the Pharisees and Sadducee and Jesus.  Their disdain for Him should now be obvious  and they are now going out in person to "test" Jesus--not to see if He can prove Himself, but to try to get Him to make a mistake so they can say, "See this man is just another fake and a liar.  Everyone can go home now>"  They thought it their job to protect their religion and traditions and at a time their job was very important, but that time had passed and now they had gotten mixed up in politics.  They had their reasons for wanting to protect people from false Messiahs, but they also had reasons to try and keep Jesus from saying the word "Messiah" and "Savior" and "King" too loudly or Rome might come in and accuse them of being complicit in an insurrection.  They were so worried that this one man would ruin everything they had worked for that very soon they would reason that it was good that one man should die in order for the whole nation to be saved--not knowing that this was the very reason He came and that His goal was much larger--so that all mankind could be saved.

The last time we saw the Pharisees and Sadducees demanding a sign, Jesus told them they would see no new sign other than the sign of Jonah (His resurrection).  Jesus' answer here is consistent with this.  He tells them that they can look at the skies and figure out if it's going to be fair weather or poor weather but they can't look at the events going on around them and the prophecies they know and teach and see the signs all around them.  Then he repeats His condemnation of calling them wicked and adulterous and that there would be no sign other than the sign of Jonah. (The same thing He had told them in chapter 12)

Jesus then takes the disciples away from that place so that He can have some time alone with them to teach them.  He warns them about the "leaven" of the Pharisees and they immediately think Jesus is trying to subliminally criticize them for forgetting to bring bread with them so quickly forgetting that Jesus has twice miraculously fed thousands of people.  Jesus wonders out loud "How do you not get it?," but He speaks clearly to them and says "I was not talking to you about bread."  Then they actually listened to what He was saying and realized He said to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees, meaning their teachings that were like yeast where a little bit that got in would work its way through the entire lump of dough and ruin the whole thing (if you were trying to make unleavened bread).  We'll fully see this later in The Acts of the Apostles the Pauline epistles where the Pharisees and Sadducees send their envoys out first to try to kill the Christians and later to try to tell them that they couldn't be saved unless they became Jewish first and they were required to follow the Law and that grace alone wasn't sufficient (these would be called the Judaizers.

Jesus and the disciples reach their destination of Caesarea Philippi.  He's over in the land of the Decapolis (10 Gentile cities) that was very pagan...remember the demonized man that was named Legion and Jesus cast the legion of demons into the heard of pigs?  He's back in that area now....the Pharisees and Sadducees were not going to follow Him over here.  Caesarea Philippi was the center for much pagan worship and it was the land that used to be held by the tribe of Dan that wickedly led the northern 10 tribes into worship of the Canaanite god Baal and God was so angry with them that He took away their portion in the eternal kingdom to come (you will not see them listed among the tribes of Israel mentioned in the book of Revelation.  Now this areas was full of Greeks who set up temples to their Greek gods and the people actually believed that the caves there had a pathway down to Hades itself and called them The Gates of Hades or The Gates of Hell.  Jesus will use this phrase in a minute.  Every spring the people of this town engaged in all kind of immoral acts to invite the gods that they believed had been hibernating in the caves and the Underworld to come back and bring fertility and life back to their land.  This is the scene that Jesus led His disciples into.  One commentary I read said it was like Jesus had walked them right into the middle of a "red light district" to give them this speech about how He would establish His Church and the gates of hell would not prevail against it.  It was a powerful picture.  Much emphasis is put on the use of the word "Rock" and if it was a play on words to refer to Peter and if Jesus is saying He was going to build the Church on Peter or Peter's confession...but it seems obvious to me from the teaching about the two foundations in the Sermon on the Mount that Jesus is the Rock and that only things that are build on Him will last the coming storms.  (Refer back to Matthew 7 as needed).  Some people believed that Jesus was John the Baptist come back from the dead (the must have been people that started to hear about and follow Jesus after John's beheading), others that He was Elijah or Jeremiah or one of the other prophets, but Peter in faith responds, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."  Peter doesn't know just how right he is, but He's about to find out in the next chapter on the Mount of Transfiguration where Jesus is revealed in all of His glory to Peter, James and John as He talks about His coming death with Moses and Elijah.  Even though Jesus commended Peter's answer, He told them not to tell anyone else because it was not yet time for this to be revealed to everyone as this would incite the religious leaders to move up their time table, and the time was not yet right, but it was coming soon.

Jesus then spoke clearly to the disciples about His coming death, burial and resurrection.  He didn't tell them these things in parables like before, but spoke so clearly that Peter who had just had one of the greatest moments of faith pulled Jesus aside and said, "Let it never be."  Jesus recognized that the true source of this was that Satan was trying to tempt Jesus to not go to the cross--the same temptation He faced in the wilderness when Satan said that he would give Jesus all the kingdoms of the world if Jesus would simply bow down and worship him.  The purpose of this temptation was for Jesus to short-circuit God's plan and try to get the reward without paying the price and in doing so he'd actually disqualify Himself from being worthy to receive and open the scroll that was the title deed to all of creation.  It was never Satan's to give to Jesus anyways and Jesus knew this when Jesus replied "Away from me Satan.  It is written you will worship the LORD your God and serve Him only."  In the same way Jesus replies directly to Satan here and says, "Get behind me Satan!  You are a hindrance to me for you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of men."  Jesus was also talking to Peter here and rebuking him for having the wrong perspective.  Like so many other times we see Peter go from great highs to great lows in moments, but this is the man that Jesus had chosen to be one of the great leaders of the early Church and once he had received the Holy Spirit it would be obvious that God had done a great work in him to transform him.  We'll see this in the book of Acts during the celebration of Pentecost when Jesus' promise is fulfilled and the Church is established.

Now for probably the hardest thing the disciples had to hear.  Following Jesus was going to mean their own death march.  It's not just Jesus who lived knowing He was going to be killed by the religious leaders but every single one of the disciples save John who was exiled for life was executed by the political and religious leaders of that day.  Jesus told them pretty plainly that they needed to live every day as if that was the day that they would be compelled to take up a Roman cross--an instrument of torture and death--and die for their faith.  We see this today where many Christians are put to death each and every day in other countries around the world.  Churches are bulldozed or burned to the ground with people inside of them continuing to sing praises to God in the midst of their mass murder.  Parents kill their children in "honor killings" because the children converted to Christianity or because they marry a Christian.  Those who are baptized often have death warrants issued for them, and anyone who preaches the gospel in certain countries or to certain people groups may face life in prison, labor camps, or execution.  In spite of this the gospel is going out like never before and the promise of Jesus that the gates of hell will not prevail against His church is truer than ever before.  Unfortunately, we also have an issue in the Western church where "leaven" has gotten into the church and corrupted it.  The same concern for power and politics that corrupted the Pharisees is now corrupting the mission and vision of the Church--to go and make disciples of all nations (see Matthew 28).

Christ not only went to the cross but He left to prepare a place for us with His Father in heaven.  One day He'll be returning with His angels to gather all those that belong to Him for Himself and take them to heaven with Him and to gather all those that are not in Him for judgement.  Jesus asks a great question here, "What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world yet loses his soul?"  This is the question each of us must ask ourselves today and these are the eyes of Christ that we should look at the world with.  There is a day coming when 

Only One Life, by C.T. Studd

Two little lines I heard one day,
Traveling along life’s busy way;
Bringing conviction to my heart,
And from my mind would not depart;
Only one life, twill soon be past,
Only what’s done for Christ will last.
Only one life, yes only one,
Soon will its fleeting hours be done;
Then, in ‘that day’ my Lord to meet,
And stand before His Judgement seat;
Only one life,’twill soon be past,
Only what’s done for Christ will last.
Only one life, the still small voice,
Gently pleads for a better choice
Bidding me selfish aims to leave,
And to God’s holy will to cleave;
Only one life, ’twill soon be past,
Only what’s done for Christ will last.
Only one life, a few brief years,
Each with its burdens, hopes, and fears;
Each with its clays I must fulfill,
living for self or in His will;
Only one life, ’twill soon be past,
Only what’s done for Christ will last.
When this bright world would tempt me sore,
When Satan would a victory score;
When self would seek to have its way,
Then help me Lord with joy to say;
Only one life, ’twill soon be past,
Only what’s done for Christ will last.
Give me Father, a purpose deep,
In joy or sorrow Thy word to keep;
Faithful and true what e’er the strife,
Pleasing Thee in my daily life;
Only one life, ’twill soon be past,
Only what’s done for Christ will last.
Oh let my love with fervor burn,
And from the world now let me turn;
Living for Thee, and Thee alone,
Bringing Thee pleasure on Thy throne;
Only one life, “twill soon be past,
Only what’s done for Christ will last.
Only one life, yes only one,
Now let me say,”Thy will be done”;
And when at last I’ll hear the call,
I know I’ll say “twas worth it all”;
Only one life,’twill soon be past,
Only what’s done for Christ will last. ”
— extra stanza --
Only one life, ’twill soon be past,
Only what’s done for Christ will last.
And when I am dying, how happy I’ll be,
If the lamp of my life has been burned out for Thee