Grace Thoughts
Teaching Notes: On Matthew’s Gospel (Part 6)
Teaching Notes are Bible studies we taught before GraceLife Ministries began publishing articles online in 1995. Some were presented as sermons, others as group studies.
Our hope is that these older studies will be a blessing to you in your life and ministry. Please use them in any way God leads you.
These teaching notes are from a series of studies about the Gospel of Matthew.
[These notes are from a study prepared 45 years ago.]
Outline of Matthew 16
I. Jesus rebukes the Pharisees. 1-5
II. Jesus warns His disciples about the false doctrine of the Pharisees. 6-12
III. Jesus hears the confession of Peter. 13-16
IV. Jesus prophecies concerning His Church and the part Peter would play in its foundation. 17-20
V. Jesus begins to tell the disciples about His death and resurrection. 21-23
VI. Jesus explains to them the cost of discipleship. 24-28
Objective Summary of Commentary Material on Matthew 16
Christ again exposes the wickedness of the Jewish leaders. They had rejected all His previous miracles and asked for a further sign. He gave only one sign to them – the prophet Jonah. This spoke of Christ’s resurrection. 1-4
Christ then interpreted the meaning of the Pharisees’ leaven for the disciples.
Personal Interpretation of Matthew 16
This is a crossroads chapter. In this chapter Christ mentions His Church for the first time and His Second Coming for the first time.
The Pharisees and Sadducees were spiritually blind. Here was the Living God among them and they could not see. They sought from Christ a sign that He was what He said He was. He gave them only one sign – the sign of Jonah. The sign of Jonah was two-fold: It was the sign of Christ’s death, burial and resurrection PLUS the sign of repentance preaching. (1-4)
Christ took an ordinary problem facing the disciples and turned it into an opportunity for spiritual teaching. The disciples had forgotten bread for the day and Christ used the instance to warn them against the false doctrine of the Pharisees and Sadducees. (5-12)
Christ next taught them a lesson of spiritual discernment. Men thought that He was everybody but who He was. Only Peter confessed Christ’s true identity and the Lord pointed out that He could only be known by spiritual light given from God. Then He gave the first indication of the future of the Church and the apostles’ part in its founding. (13-20)
Verse 21 is a time mark in Scripture. Jesus now turns His teaching to the coming Passion, conditions of discipleship, worth of a soul, and the Second Coming. (21-28)
Reference Additions
Merrill Unger notes that the Greek words for Peter and rock in verse 18 are different. Peter was a stone while the rock was a great or large rock and spoke of the Lord Jesus. Christ would build His Church upon Himself. Peter was given “the keys of the kingdom of heaven” in reference to his opening the Gospel opportunity to Israel at Pentecost, to the Samaritans, and the Gentiles.
Unger’s Bible Handbook (p. 480)
The Wycliffe Bible Commentary notes that verse 23 speaks of Satan’s use of Peter to turn Jesus aside from the suffering that was His lot. (p. 60)
Next Time
We will look at the outline for Matthew Chapter 24 in the next part of our special series.
[Thank you for reading these teaching notes from 45 years ago. My prayer is they will be a blessing to you and your ministry.]
ApostlesBook of MatthewDiscipleshipJesus ChristSecond Coming
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