Written ~ 01-22-2024
Read Matthew Chapter Sixteen
Matthew 16
What a wonderful chapter in Matthew! We see in verses 16:1-4 how Jesus responds to the Pharisees and Sadducees for demanding a miraculous sign from Him. In verses 16:5-12 Jesus is reminding the disciples to watch out for the “yeast” of the Pharisees and Sadducees. In verses 16:13-20 Jesus asks the disciples who they think He is. Simon Peter responds by confirming He is the Messiah, the Son of the Living God. These verses also have Simon Peter’s name changed to Peter (which means rock). Jesus says here that He will build His church upon the rock, that means He will build His church on the truth of Who He IS! Then in verses 16:21-28 Jesus tells the disciples what will happen to Him when He goes to Jerusalem. You might say, this news did not go over very well. Let’s look at the following verses…
Matthew 16:21-23,
21 From then on Jesus began to tell His disciples plainly that it was necessary for Him to go to Jerusalem, and that He would suffer many terrible things at the hands of the elders, the leading priests, and the teachers of religious law. He would be killed, but on the third day He would be raised from the dead.
22 But Peter took Him aside and began to reprimand Him for saying such things. “Heaven forbid, Lord,” he said. “This will never happen to You!”
23 Jesus turned to Peter and said, “Get away from me, Satan! You are a dangerous trap to Me. You are seeing things merely from a human point of view, not from God’s.”
Previously Jesus spoke in parables, the meaning of those parables would only be revealed to those who had ears to hear the truth. In verse 16:21a, it says that “Jesus began to tell His disciples plainly…” the means He wasn’t wrapping His truth in stories and parables when speaking to His disciples. Jesus spoke plainly to them about what was going to happen to Him in the near future. This was news they did not want to accept and Peter took a stand.
Peter was bold in his convictions, but this was probably one moment he should not have challenged Jesus. It says in verse 16:22 that Peter took Jesus aside to reprimand Him, or in other words, Peter wanted to correct Him.
“Heaven forbid, Lord,” he said. “This will never happen to You!”
Can you imagine telling Jesus to His face that He is wrong!
The response Jesus gives Peter can be a warning to all of us when we challenge anything Jesus has to say.
“Get behind Me, Satan! You are a dangerous trap for Me. You are seeing things merely from a human point of view, not from God’s.”
As believers in Jesus Christ we are called to follow the Lord. We are to study the Word of God and obey what we read, right? We know we have a sinful nature, it is something that must be controlled with constant prayer and through the meditation of God’s Word. When we challenge the Lord by not agreeing with His Word, we are allowing the enemy to control our hearts and minds at that moment. And what is happening? “You are seeing things merely from a human point of view, not from God’s.” When we read the Scriptures and we don’t understand the meaning, or we don’t want to apply some of the teachings to our own lives, could that mean we are standing in front of Jesus reprimanding Him? Are we telling Him things will never work out the way He says they will? Do we know better than God how our circumstance is going to work out?
We may not like what Jesus is saying to us, maybe His answer to our prayers is not in the way we hoped. But do we only focus on the negative? Look again at what Jesus said to His disciples…
“…He would suffer many terrible things... He would be killed, but on the third day He would be raised from the dead…”
The disciples did not want to hear that their friend, their teacher, their master would have terrible things done to Him and that He would be killed. Does it seem to you that they only heard that part of what Jesus said? If we look closely, there is that small word “but” that we see so many times in Scripture… Sure there may come an answer or a response that we absolutely do not want to hear, that’s when we need to look for the “but.” The most exciting thing Jesus said to His disciples was found after that word “but!” “…on the third day He would be raised from the dead!”
How is the Lord answering you? What is He saying to you today? Are you focusing only on what you think is a negative response? Or will you choose to look deeper, continue to pray without ceasing, study the Scriptures closer and find where Jesus is saying but “are you looking at this from your point of view, or from God’s?” Do we look at the Word of God and fight against what it says? Are we reprimanding the Word of God?
When Jesus said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan!” He was cautioning Peter to only listen to the words of the Lord, not to the inner voice of the enemy that would only get him into trouble. The same goes for us. When we allow the enemy’s voice to creep in and turn our hearts and minds off of what Jesus is telling us, especially when it’s not something we want to hear, we risk being deceived and falling into the enemy’s trap.
Father God, I pray for Your wisdom through Your Holy Spirit and that I would always seek my answers from Your point of view, not my own. I want to be sincere in my search for the word “but” after receiving an answer I did not want to hear. Help me to respond to Your Word in a way that honors You, help me to never come to the point of wanting to correct You or tell You that what Your Word says is wrong for my situation. I pray that I can come to You with a humble heart when I am questioning Your answer to my prayers.
~AMEN~