Remember the miracles

Remember the miracles

Mathew 16 : 5 -12
And when His disciples had come to the other side, they forgot to take loaves. And Jesus said to them, Take heed, and beware the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducee s. And they reasoned among themselves, saying, It is because we have taken no loaves. And knowing Jesus said to them, Why do you reason among yourselves because you took no loaves, little-faiths? Do you not yet understand, nor remember the five loaves of the five thousand, and how many hand baskets you took up; nor the seven loaves of the four thousand, and how many lunch baskets you took up? How is it that you do not understand that I did not speak to you about loaves, but to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducee s? Then they understood that He did not say to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and Sadducee s.

We have two main themes running through this passage which we will investigate together today.
The first theme is The Leaven of the Pharisees.

Two weeks ago our message was about how leaven influences and causes bread to rise, ready for baking.

Jesus says to his disciples while in the boat.
Mathew 16 : 6
And Jesus said to them, Take heed, and beware the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.

When Jesus says take heed he is using strong language

Pay special attention to
The Greek word translated means
Stare at with the intent of understanding.

The second word we should pay attention to is Beware
This as we all know is a warning to stay away.
We read in
Mathew 16 : 12
Then they understood that He did not say to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and Sadducee s.
Jesus is warning the disciples about the doctrine or the teachings of these religious leaders.
Why was he warning the disciples about these teachings?
The Pharisees were strict legalistic leaders who followed very rigid rules and regulations.
On the other hand, the Saducees where liberalism, believing that everything was okay.
The reason why Jesus is warning them is because we were all created to worship God.

This means that even if we say we are atheists the reality is, we will always worship something, no matter who you are.

We basically have two types of people in our world
Those who love rigid rules based societies
Others who love absolute liberalism.

Jesus is warning the disciples to understand that the doctrines of these two ideologies will lead us astray.
No matter how attractive they are to our defaults.

He is not warning us because he is a religious fun spoiler, or a liberal, he is warning us for our good.
Both of these ideologies lead to pain and suffering.
We find true liberty and life in the doctrines of Christ.

In the end the disciples understand this warning.
We too should take heed and beware of this leaven.
The problem with leaven it works in the dark, unseen realms of life.

So many people, many calling themselves Christians have been influenced by the doctrines of both of these ideologies.

The only true way,
Living in the Truth of God’s word, by living and understand that Jesus desires a living, growing, intimate relationship with him and the father.

The second theme is quite humorous

This story is so typical of so many of us in every day life.

Mathew 16 : 5 - 7
And when His disciples had come to the other side, they forgot to take loaves. And Jesus said to them, Take heed, and beware the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees. And they reasoned among themselves, saying, It is because we have taken no loaves.

How often do we hear something and immediately presume to know what it means without gaining correct understanding.

The disciples immediately jumped to the conclusion that Jesus was rebuking them because they didn’t bring lunch with them.
Jesus had something completely different in mind when he spoke with them.
Mathew 16 : 8 - 10
And knowing Jesus said to them, Why do you reason among yourselves because you took no loaves, little-faiths? Do you not yet understand, nor remember the five loaves of the five thousand, and how many hand baskets you took up; nor the seven loaves of the four thousand, and how many lunch baskets you took up?

The disciples had twice encountered Jesus performing amazing miracles of multiplication.
Twice he had been preaching to large crowds of people 5000 and 4000 men, without women and children counted.

After each multiplication miracle, the disciples were able to collect enough food to feed themselves as well.
So Jesus was reminding them about the fact that food was never going to be a problem for him to supply them with.

But he is also wanting to teach us a much deeper principle than the provision of food.

Our human problem is how quickly we forget and allow fear to dictate to us.
Twice the disciples had encountered Jesus performing miraculous multiplications and now they are worried about the next meal.
The principle will Jesus is wanting the disciples

Do you not yet understand or remember the miracles?

The disciples allowed fear to creep into their hearts so quickly,
Instead of understanding that the miracle worker was with them,

When we remember miracles which occurred in the past, they inspire us to trust God for future miracles.
You might be saying that you have never experienced a miracle.
If we know what to look for, and live expectantly
We will discover so many miracles which occur regularly.

I would like to share recent example of miracles which Sharon and I experienced.

As we all know we cannot enter china right now, We have tried to get visas and that door is tightly closed for SA citizens wanting to get to China.
Sharon’s company canceled her contract as from the end of February.
We looked for work opportunities in SA for her, but nothing materialized.

This would have meant that as from end of February, we would have to sit in SA without anything to do, and no way of earning any money until we could return to our home in China.

Here is our first Miracle
One day in late January, after Sharon received news about her contract, we received an email from a stranger who asked if we would be interested in discussing a teaching position in Rwanda.

Well here we are today, speaking to you from Rwanda, we have agreed to work and stay here until 2nd June.

Second miracle
We arrived 9 days ago, we also needed to find a place to stay, after 7 day isolation we would need to find a home, remembering that all of our household is in storage in Shenzhen.

On Friday morning the administrator of the school informed me that they had a home for us, fully furnished 3 bedroom house, with everything we need, including a house keeper, security guard, including water, gas, electricity and the cost of 4500 RMB per month.

Two amazing miracles in such a short time.

I am sharing these miracles with you because Sharon and Richard are learning that Jesus is the miracle worker and we remember the many miracles which we have experienced over the years in his service.

Hebrews 13 : 8
Jesus Christ the same yesterday and today and forever.

In other words, the miracles Jesus performed when he walked the earth , he will and can still do today.

Hebrews 13 : 5 - 6
Let your way of life be without the love of money, and be content with such things as you have, for He has said, "Not at all will I leave you, not at all will I forsake you, never!"
so that we may boldly say, "The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do to me."

The scripture says Let your life be without the love of money. This does not mean that we must not have money,

It says don’t love money we cannot serve God and money

Money has power which is able to buy many things which don’t require Faith.
When Money is our God, we lose out on experiencing God’s miracle provision.

Jesus will always be with us, in everything, through everything,
When we have understanding and remembrance,
We can boldly say
The Lord is my helper.

What are the conditions for receiving miracles.
Having a living, loving growing relationship with Jesus
Willing and obedient lives
Isaiah 1 : 19
If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land;

Sharon and I are learning these two truths
We will do as God wills
We will go where it pleases God to go.
God’s ultimate provision is in the place of his perfect will

The beauty which we should understand,
When Jesus said
Remember the yeast of the pharisees, and they didn’t understand, he didn’t rebuke them or scold them, he taught them the Truth.

Psalm 32 : 8
I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you should go; I will counsel you, My eye shall be on you.

When we desire truth we live in the environment of Grace.

The characteristics of God’s Grace
Divine influence of the Spirit on the hearts of Gods people
Grace instructs us, Grace teaches us, Grace gently nurtures us, leads us, encourages us, matures us
Brings us to a place of Faith.
The place of understanding and remembering.
The miracle worker is with us
The miracle worker will always be with us.

Nothing is impossible with God