마태복음 Chapter 16

Translation: ESV

1

And the Pharisees and Sadducees came, and to test him they asked him to show them a sign from heaven.

Key Message

Religious and political opponents sometimes unite against truth; Jesus consistently resists demands for signs that would make faith unnecessary.

▸The Pharisees and Sadducees — normally theological rivals — unite in testing Jesus.

The Pharisees and Sadducees — normally theological rivals — unite in testing Jesus. Their demand for a 'sign from heaven' echoes their earlier request in 12:38. The verb 'to test' (peirazō) is the same word used of Satan's temptation in the wilderness (4:1). This is not genuine inquiry but an attempt to trap or discredit him. A sign 'from heaven' would be an unambiguous celestial display — something Jesus consistently refuses.

Related Verses

Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered him, saying, 'Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.'For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified.
2

He answered them, 'When it is evening, you say, "It will be fair weather, for the sky is red."'

Key Message

Selective perception is the mark of willful unbelief; those who refuse to see spiritual signs are not incapable of reading them.

▸Jesus' weather proverb ('Red sky at night, shepherd's delight') exposes the hypocrisy of the demand for a sign: the same people who cannot read the signs of the kingdom can read the sky.

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.

Key Message

Spiritual perception of God's decisive action in history is a matter of heart-orientation, not intellectual capacity.

▸The contrast is devastating: they interpret the appearance of the sky (natural signs) skillfully but cannot interpret 'the signs of the times' (eschatological signs).

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.

Key Message

The resurrection is the supreme and final sign; demanding additional signs is the posture of those whose problem is not intellectual but moral.

▸The repetition of the 'sign of Jonah' answer (cf.

5

When the disciples came to the other side, they had forgotten to bring any bread.

Key Message

Everyday oversights can become occasions for important spiritual instruction; Jesus uses the ordinary to address the essential.

▸The transition from the Pharisee-Sadducee confrontation to a domestic concern among the disciples is abrupt and somewhat comic: after speaking of signs from heaven, Jesus must address the disciples' worry about bread.

6

Jesus said to them, 'Watch and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.'

Key Message

False teaching spreads like leaven — gradually and pervasively; the warning to be on guard is always relevant.

▸Jesus uses the occasion of the bread shortage to issue a warning: beware of the leaven (yeast) of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

7

And they began discussing it among themselves, saying, 'We brought no bread.'

Key Message

Literal-mindedness can block spiritual comprehension; when Jesus speaks of spiritual matters in everyday images, a posture of openness is required.

▸The disciples' discussion reveals that they hear 'leaven' and think '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?'

Key Message

Faith learned in one situation must be applied in the next; the disciples who witnessed two miraculous feedings should not be anxious about bread.

▸Jesus is aware of their discussion — his knowledge of unspoken thoughts appears throughout Matthew (9:4; 12:25).

9

'Do you not yet perceive? Do you not remember the five loaves for the five thousand, and how many baskets you gathered?'

Key Message

Memory of God's past provision is the foundation of present faith; Jesus calls his disciples to remember and understand, not merely to experience.

▸Jesus appeals to memory as the antidote to anxiety and misunderstanding.

10

'Or the seven loaves for the four thousand, and how many baskets you gathered?'

Key Message

The surplus of grace in past provision is evidence for present trust; faith builds on remembered experience of God's faithfulness.

▸The second miracle is also cited, with its specific detail of seven baskets.

11

'How is it that you fail to understand that I did not speak to you about bread? Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.'

Key Message

Patient repetition is a form of grace; Jesus repeats the warning rather than abandoning the disciples to their misunderstanding.

▸Jesus restates the original warning with mild exasperation: the issue was never about bread.

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.

Key Message

Understanding comes to those who persist in listening; the disciples' eventual comprehension rewards Jesus' patience and their own willingness to stay with the question.

▸Finally they understand: leaven equals teaching.

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?'

Key Message

The question of Jesus' identity is the fundamental question; Jesus himself raises it at the decisive moment of his ministry.

▸The Caesarea Philippi question is the Christological hinge of Matthew's Gospel.

14

And they said, 'Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.'

Key Message

Popular religious opinion, however respectful, is always insufficient to capture who Jesus truly is; only divine revelation produces accurate Christology.

▸Popular opinion places Jesus in the prophetic tradition — John the Baptist (as Herod feared, 14:2), Elijah (the returning forerunner of the day of the LORD, Malachi 4:5), or Jeremiah (the weeping prophet of judgment).

15

He said to them, 'But who do you say that I am?'

Key Message

The question of Jesus' identity demands not merely intellectual acknowledgment of others' views but a personal, first-person confession.

▸The question shifts from 'who do people say' to 'who do you say' — from sociological observation to personal confession.

16

Simon Peter replied, 'You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.'

Key Message

The fullness of Jesus' identity requires both titles: Messiah (mission) and Son of the living God (nature); both are needed for an adequate Christology.

▸Peter's confession is the theological summit of Matthew's first half.

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.'

Key Message

True knowledge of Jesus Christ is a gift of divine revelation, not an achievement of human wisdom; the Father reveals the Son.

▸Jesus pronounces Peter 'blessed' (makarios — the same beatitude-word of the Sermon on the Mount) and immediately attributes the confession not to Peter's intelligence or insight but to divine revelation.

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.'

Key Message

Jesus is the builder of the church; its foundation is his own initiative and Peter's Spirit-given confession; death itself cannot destroy what Christ builds.

▸Jesus gives Simon a new name — Peter (Petros/petra, rock) — and announces the building of his church on this rock.

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.'

Key Message

The authority to guide the community of faith in doctrine and discipline is entrusted to those who confess Christ; it is a stewardship, not a personal possession.

▸The 'keys of the kingdom' represent the authority to grant or refuse access — a steward's authority (cf.

20

Then he strictly charged the disciples to tell no one that he was the Christ.

Key Message

The nature of Jesus' messiahship — the suffering servant, not the warrior king — must be understood before it can be faithfully proclaimed.

▸The so-called 'messianic secret' — Jesus' instruction to tell no one about his identity — continues here.

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.

Key Message

The cross is not the defeat of the Messiah but the fulfillment of his mission; Jesus announces it deliberately to prepare his disciples.

▸The phrase 'from that time' marks a decisive turning point in Matthew's narrative (cf.

22

And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, 'Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you.'

Key Message

Even correct Christological confession can coexist with a fundamental misunderstanding of the cross; the disciples' journey from confession to cross-embracing takes time.

▸Peter's rebuke of Jesus is one of the most startling moments in the Gospels.

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.'

Key Message

Those who love Jesus most can be the greatest obstacles to his mission when they substitute human wisdom for divine purpose; the cross must not be bypassed.

▸Jesus' response to Peter is one of the most severe in the Gospels: 'Get behind me, Satan!' The same words used against the devil in the wilderness temptation (4:10) are now addressed to Peter.

24

Then Jesus told his disciples, 'If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.'

Key Message

Discipleship means taking up the cross: placing God's purposes above personal comfort, security, or survival — the posture of one who has already surrendered life on the world's terms.

▸The cross-bearing requirement is stated in the most universal terms: 'if anyone.

25

'For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.'

Key Message

The paradox of the cross: losing life for Jesus' sake is the only way to find the life that truly matters — an eternal logic that inverts all self-preservation instincts.

▸The paradox of discipleship: the strategy of self-preservation leads to loss; the strategy of self-surrender leads to finding life.

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?'

Key Message

The soul has infinite worth; no earthly acquisition, however vast, is adequate compensation for its loss — the fundamental argument for prioritizing the kingdom.

▸The commercial metaphor sharpens the paradox: even if you could acquire everything the world offers — power, wealth, status, pleasure — and sacrifice your soul (psychē) in the process, the exchange is catastrophically bad.

27

'For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father's glory with his angels, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done.'

Key Message

The coming judgment of the Son of Man gives eschatological weight to all discipleship choices; how we respond to Jesus now determines what he will say to us then.

▸The coming of the Son of Man in glory is the eschatological horizon that gives urgency to the call of discipleship.

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.'

Key Message

The Transfiguration is the immediate fulfillment of this promise: Peter, James, and John will see the Son of Man's glory within days, anticipating the final parousia.

▸This difficult saying has been interpreted in several ways: (1) the Transfiguration, which follows immediately in chapter 17 and is itself a preview of the Son of Man's glory; (2) the resurrection and ascension; (3) the events of AD 70 (the fall of Jerusalem as a coming in judgment); (4) Pentecost.