Bad Bread
Summary of sermon on Matthew 16:1-12 from Pastor Ky Martin.
Our text this week (Matthew 16:1-12) opens with a familiar story… a group of Pharisees and Sadducees approach Jesus with ill-intentions, asking for Him to give them a sign.
Jesus knew that their minds were already made up about Him. So instead of placating their requests, He basically tells them that they are better meteorologists than theologians.
These guys are supposed to be teachers devoted to God’s Word. But, when God’s Kingdom came and literally stood two feet in front of them, they missed it entirely.
Meanwhile, after traveling, Jesus’ disciples realized they had forgotten to pack any food. In their distress, Jesus said to them, “Watch and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”
Because the disciples’ minds were so fixated on earthly things (food), they couldn’t understand what Jesus was saying. They missed the bigger picture. Somehow they already forgot that Jesus had just recently fed 5000 with just five loaves; and that He had fed 4000 with seven loaves. The disciples were standing right in front of the Creator of food Himself, yet they couldn’t get past their temporal hunger.
Jesus grew frustrated at them that his disciples were not “seeking first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness” with the promise that “all these things will be added to you.”
He wanted them -- and He wants us -- to be preoccupied with His Kingdom.
To be preoccupied means to be engrossed in thought.
It is EASY to be preoccupied with things of this world
(food, money, sports, leisure, appearance, etc) but it is always an
act of intention for us to be preoccupied with Godly things.
Ask yourself...
What are you thinking about when you get up and when you lie down?
Deuteronomy 6:7-9 paints us a clear picture of what it looks like to be preoccupied with God’s Kingdom:
“You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”
Seeking first the Kingdom of God looks like, on a practical level, looking outward instead of inward and focusing on the needs of those around you.
As Pastor Ky said on Sunday, “nobody drifts into godliness.” (ex. “We sat down on the couch after the kids were in bed, and next thing I knew, we’d binge read 18 chapters in one night, and I was radically conformed into the image of Christ.” - said no one ever.)
We need reminders and cues all around us because our minds drift away.
The message that Jesus was trying to get across to His disciples here was an important one:
be on guard against false teachers.
Teachings and ideas are the most powerful things in the world. Jesus Himself didn’t come as a military leader or a man with power, He was a teacher.
As Victor Hugo once said, “There is one thing stronger than all the armies in the world, and that is an idea whose time has come.”
Another quote, “The pen is mightier than the sword.” (Edward Bulwer-Lytton)
The vast majority of warnings in the Bible aren’t about external movements, they are about false teachers infiltrating the church. Wolves that come in sheeps’ clothing; people who come into the church and begin to teach things that destroy and harm God’s people. False teachings are the greatest enemy of the church.
If a pastor is to do his job well, he must cling to sound doctrine and stand against false teachers (Titus 1:9).
In the context of false teachings today, there are many dangerous ideologies that have become pervasive in North American church culture.
(Note: as Ky mentioned on Sunday, we do not list these types of teachings out to be a slam-fest. These are real dangers that lead people astray. We need to be aware of these teachings and ideas that are destructive, so that we can call them out and run far from them.)
Here are a few prevalent examples of common false teaching:
Social Justice Sam.
This is a person who decides that a social issue is worth more time and attention than the gospel. This could be anything from clean water in Africa to standing against abortion to wokeness to any other issue you can name. The issue may be good and worthwhile, but for this false teacher, it becomes the ultimate issue and the Gospel becomes a side note.
In the worst version of Social Justice Sam, He even decides to compromise the message of the Gospel for the sake of reaching the hurting. In trying to rally for their chosen social issue, this false teacher will compromise the message of the Gospel. (Example: “We probably shouldn’t talk about things like sin and Jesus’ work on the cross, when there are real people who need us. Those things are getting in the way of us reaching out and helping them.”)
Visionary Victor.
This is a person (usually with a strong personality) who says they had a vision or revelation given to them from God and wants to focus on talking about that vision more than Scripture. A good antithesis to Visionary Victory in the Bible is Paul. Paul could have spent his whole ministry talking about visions the Lord gave Him, yet His nature and ministry was characterized by humility and dependence on the work of Jesus Christ.
Visionary Victor isn’t dangerous because he has a vision or even if he writes a book on his vision, he’s dangerous because he builds his whole ministry on his vision and what God has shown him rather than the message of the Gospel and the revelation God has given to us through His Word.
Prosperity Preacher Preston.
This is one of the most evident false teachers of our day. We hear from this teacher that God wants us to prosper. He wants us to experience financial success and success in our careers and in our marriages; he wants us to be healthy and doesn’t want anything bad to happen to us. While some of those things can be true, Prosperity Preacher Preston has no room for martyrs in his theology.
Maybe for some of us, God wants to bring us through suffering to honor Himself and glorify Himself (as He did with Jesus) not through our prosperity but through our sufferings, and how we handle difficult things in our lives.
Prosperity Preston talks a lot about things getting better here and now in this life and not a lot about trusting in the finished work of Jesus.
A well-known prosperity teacher Pastor Ky warned us to beware of is Joel Osteen. He may say some true things, but his teaching is false. It is not rooted in the Gospel.
Grassroots Gary.
This is a guy who really doesn’t like the idea of “big church”. He often says that “we need to get back to the book of Acts”, forgetting that the church in Acts started with 2000 people. He has a very radical, individualistic view of the church and structure like elders, deacons, and paid staff is very off-putting to him.
New Insight Nick.
Similar to Visionary Victor, New Insight Nick is usually a guy who has written a book full of new insights and things uncovered through extensive research that no one has heard for the last 2000 years. New Insight Nick often has a lot of followers who stand by his word and what he says over Scripture.
1 Timothy 6:4 describes this teacher well, “he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words…”
If you have your Bible, what you can understand from it is enough. The simple message of the Gospel is enough.
The antidote for all of these things is
sound doctrine.
If we know what’s true and we know what the truth looks like, we are all the more equipped to spot false teachers and steer clear away from them.
Paul, who had more reason to boast in himself than anyone, defined his teaching this way, "And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of me but in the power of God." (I Corinthians 2:1-9)
