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# Mt 15:11
\\Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man.\\ The
Mosaic law forbade Jews to eat what was ceremonially unclean, in
order to teach the need of moral purity. The Rabbis added
stringent precepts to prevent the slightest contact with
ceremonial uncleanness, but were careless about moral purity.
Christ shows that a pure heart is far more important than clean
food, in the ceremonial sense, in the stomach. Pharisees in all
ages have paid more attention to the letter than to the spirit,
to the symbol than to that which is signified.
\\That which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man.\\
The impure words that indicate an impure heart. What one eats
does not render him defiled before God, but what he says. See
# 15:18-23
(PNT 88)
00501
# Mt 15:12
\\The Pharisees were offended.\\ Found fault. They would
insist that he set aside the law, whereas it was tradition that
he rejected.
(PNT 88)
00502
# Mt 15:13
\\Every plant.\\ A general truth, but here refers to the
doctrines not of God, like "the tradition of the elders."
(PNT 89)
00503
# Mt 15:14
\\Let them alone.\\ The Pharisees. His disciples were
troubled by their opposition.
\\They are blind leaders of the blind.\\ They pretend to be
spiritual guides of the people, while spiritually blind
themselves. The blind are unsafe guides of the blind.
(PNT 89)
00504
# Mt 15:15
\\Expound to us this parable.\\ The figure was used in
# 15:11
(PNT 89)
00506
# Mt 15:17
\\Is cast out.\\ What is eaten passes through the body and
passes away. It does not defile the soul.
(PNT 89)
00507
# Mt 15:18
\\Come forth from the heart.\\ The emotional nature; the
mind. Evil deeds are begotten of evil thoughts; evil words are
the expression of these evil thoughts. These indicate a sinful
heart and make a man sinful, or defiled.
(PNT 89)
00510
# Mt 15:21
\\Jesus . . . departed into the borders.\\ Compare
# Mr 7:24-30
\\Tyre and Sidon.\\ Tyre and Sidon were the two principal
cities of Phoenicia, on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea.
Tyre was about twenty miles south of Sidon, and about one
hundred miles in a straight line northwest of Jerusalem. In the
days of David and Solomon, Tyre was the leading seaport of the
world. It was afterwards taken by the Babylonians, the Persians,
and Alexander, but up to the time of Christ it remained a great
commercial city. Since then its harbour has been filled with
sand, and there remains only a wretched shadow of its former
greatness. Both were Gentile cities in a Gentile country. That
is the only instance in the Lord's ministry when he went beyond
the bounds of Palestine.
(PNT 89)
00511
# Mt 15:22
\\Behold, a woman of Canaan.\\ The name Canaan was the oldest
bestowed upon the country, and all the heathen inhabitants were
often called Canaanites, whether of the same stock or not. Mark
says that the woman was a Greek, a Syro-Phoenician; i.e., a
Gentile, and a Syro-Phoenician, because she lived in the
district of Syria called Phoenicia.
# Mr 7:26
\\Have mercy on me.\\ She has a boon to ask for her daughter,
or rather indeed for herself, for so entirely had she made her
daughter's misery her own.
\\O Lord, [thou] son of David.\\ It is remarkable that two of
the brightest examples of faith seen in the ministry of Christ
were exhibited by Gentiles, that of the centurion,
# 8:8-10
and of this woman. The fact that the latter addresses Jesus as
"the son of David," shows that she knew of the prophecies
concerning the Christ and that he would be the son of David.
\\My daughter is grievously afflicted with a demon.\\ More
correctly, "a demon."
See note on "Mt 8:28"
(PNT 89-90)
00512
# Mt 15:23
\\He answered her not a word.\\ He neither repelled her, nor
made a favourable answer. There were reasons for hesitation, but
there is no doubt that it was his purpose to have mercy.
See note on "Mt 15:24"
He delayed in order to bring out a great lesson.
(PNT 90)
00513
# Mt 15:24
\\I am not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of\\
\\Israel.\\ The Lord's personal mission was to the Jews. Under
the first commission his apostles were directed to go only to
the Jews.
# 10:6
It would be impossible to evangelize the Gentiles without
setting aside the Jewish customs, the law of Moses, and arousing
the bitterest prejudice of the Jews. Hence it was the divine
plan that the Son should "keep the law blameless" during his
ministry. It was only when the Jews crucified him that "the
handwriting of ordinances was nailed to the cross"
# Col 2:14
the "wall of partition"
# Eph 2:14
between Jews and Gentiles broken down, and all prepared for the
Great Commission which bade his disciples "go into all the world
and preach the gospel to every creature."
# Mr 16:15
(PNT 90)
00514
# Mt 15:25
\\Then came she and worshipped him.\\ Instead of being
discouraged by the words of Christ, she only became the more
earnest.
(PNT 90)
00515
# Mt 15:26
\\It is not right to take the children's bread.\\ She knew
that, in comparing the Jews to the children of God's family, and
the heathen to the dogs without, he simply used the customary
language of a Jew. He would bring out fully the greatness of her
faith. The gospel was offered first to the Jews and then to all.
(PNT 90)
00516
# Mt 15:27
\\Truth, Lord.\\ Observe that she acquiesces heartily in
Christ's declaration: it is not fit that the dogs be fed before
the children.
\\Yet the dogs eat of the crumbs.\\ The word for "crumbs"
[\\psichion\\] is a diminutive, and means "little crumbs."
(PNT 90)
00517
# Mt 15:28
\\Woman, great [is] thy faith.\\ We can see how greatness of
faith is manifested:
(1) She came to Christ under difficulties.
(2) She persevered when her prayer seemed to be denied.
(3) She still pleaded when obstacles were presented.
(4) She waited at the feet of the Lord until he had mercy. Such
faith always prevails.
\\Her daughter was made well.\\ Mark, who adds some features
omitted by Matthew, follows the woman home, where she found her
daughter no longer raving, or in convulsions, but lying quiet
on the bed, healed in consequence of her mother's faith and
prayers.
# Mr 7:30
(PNT 90)
00518
# Mt 15:29
\\And Jesus departed from there.\\ How long Jesus stayed in
these parts is unknown.
(PNT 90)
00519
# Mt 15:30
\\There great multitudes came to him.\\ Where he had retired
for rest and solitude to a mountain.
# 15:29
(PNT 90)
00520
# Mt 15:31
\\Glorified the God of Israel.\\ They were Jews, but living
on the border, somewhat under heathen ideas. The miracles of
Christ led them to praise and reverence Jehovah.
(PNT 91)
00521
# Mt 15:32
\\I have compassion on the multitude.\\ Because while seeking
him in his mountain solitude many of them had been for three
days without regular food.
(PNT 91)
00522
# Mt 15:33
\\Where should we get so much bread?\\ This was not said in
ignorance of the Lord's creative power, but probably to suggest
the need of its exercise. They could not have forgotten the
events narrated in
# 14:15-21
(PNT 91)
00524
# Mt 15:35
\\He commanded the multitude to sit down on the ground.\\ Not
on the grass, as in,
# 14:19
for they were in a bare, desolate, grassless region, such as the
greater part of Judea is today.
(PNT 91)
00527
# Mt 15:38
\\Four thousand.\\ Instead of 5,000, as in the former
miracle.
(PNT 91)
00528
# Mt 15:39
\\Came into the borders of Magdala.\\ He took the boat to
escape the multitude. Magdala was on the western shore of the
lake, three miles north of Tiberias. The ASV says Magadan,
supposed to have been a village near Magdala. Mark says
Dalmanutha.
# Mr 8:10
The meaning is that he came into the vicinity of all three of
these places, which were near each other.
(PNT 91)
00529
# Mt 16:1
SUMMARY OF MATTHEW 16
\\The Foundation of the Church\\
A Sign Demanded
The Leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees
At Caesarea Philippi
The Elias Who Should Come
The Confession of Peter
The Rock on Which the Church Should Be Founded
The Keys
Christ's Death at Jerusalem Foretold
The Rebuke of Peter
Losing Life and Finding It
The Coming of the Son of Man
\\The Pharisees also and the Sadducees.\\ Compare
# Mr 8:10-13
For description of these two sects,
see note on "Mt 3:7"
It is the first time the latter party is mentioned as opposed to
Christ.
\\A sign from heaven.\\ Some mighty, visible miracle. See
# 12:38
Still in Paul's time "the Jews required a sign."
# 1Co 1:22
(PNT 92)
00531
# Mt 16:3
\\Can ye not [discern] the signs of the times.\\ They could
read the weather, but were blind to the events (signs of the
times) that showed the fulfilment of prophecy, the end of the
Jewish dispensation, and the establishment of the Messiah's
kingdom.
(PNT 92)
00532
# Mt 16:4
\\The sign of the prophet Jonah.\\
See note on "Mt 12:39"
See note on "Mt 12:40"
(PNT 92)
00533
# Mt 16:5
\\His disciples had come to the other side.\\ They crossed
over the sea to the eastern shore.
\\Had forgotten to take bread.\\ They had started on a
journey to Caesarea Philippi, partly through a wilderness
country, and would need a supply. Mark says that they had one
loaf. Compare
# Mr 8:14-21
(PNT 92)
00534
# Mt 16:6
\\Beware of the leaven,\\ etc. The teaching and influence
which spreads like leaven. See
# 16:12
The figure of the leaven was suggested by their need of bread.
\\Sadducees.\\ Mark instead of Sadducees, says, "of Herod."
# Mr 8:15
Herod and his followers were Sadducees.
(PNT 92)
00535
# Mt 16:7-11
\\[It is] because we have taken no bread.\\ The thoughts of
the disciples were so fixed upon their failure to supply bread
that they thought the remark about leaven contained a rebuke.
The Lord reminds them of his creative power, and how it has been
put forth.
(PNT 92)
00541
# Mt 16:13
\\When Jesus came into the borders of Caesarea Philippi.\\
Compare
# Mr 8:27-38 Lu 9:18-22
This city was located near the base of Mt. Hermon, at a source
of the Jordan, and in the northeast extremity of Palestine. It
was called Caesarea Philippi by Herod Philip, who rebuilt it in
honour of Tiberius Caesar, and added Philippi after his own name,
to distinguish it from Caesarea on the Mediterranean coast. It
has now about fifty houses, many ruins of columns, towers,
temples, a bridge, and a remarkable castle.
\\Who do men say that I the Son of man am?\\ The original
Greek is more specific, and means, "Who do the common people say
that I am?" He does not ask for the opinion of the scribes,
Pharisees, or priests, but of the people.
(PNT 93)
00542
# Mt 16:14
\\Some [say that thou art] John the Baptist.\\ Who had been
killed by Herod a few months before. That was one popular notion
regarding him, circulating, no doubt, chiefly among those who
had never seen him. Herod Antipas entertained it.
# 14:1
\\Elijah.\\ It was very generally expected that Elijah was to
return to the earth in connection with the Messiah's advent.
# Mal 4:5
\\One of the prophets.\\ The Jews believed that at the coming
of the Messiah the prophets were to rise again.
(PNT 93)
00543
# Mt 16:15
\\But who say ye that I am?\\ This is the great and smaller
catechism, the one great and essential question. Christ is the
one object of the Christian's faith. We say we believe in him;
but in whom do we believe? The hour had not come for the
settlement of what should constitute the Christian confession.
(PNT 93)
00544
# Mt 16:16
\\And Simon Peter answered.\\ With the impetuosity and
impulsiveness that were ever manifested in him, Peter replied at
once and expressed the faith of all the apostolic band.
\\Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.\\ This
confession not only sees in Jesus the promised Messiah, but in
the Messiah recognizes the divine nature. The confession of
Peter is the one Christian confession of the NT and of the
apostolic age, and the very foundation of the church, into which
all saints are built as living stones of the temple.
(PNT 93)
00545
# Mt 16:17
\\Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona.\\ Happy are all lips that
make this confession, for such shall be confessed before the
Father in heaven.
\\For flesh and blood hath not revealed [it] to thee, but my
\\Father.\\ This holy and blessed confession no one can make
from the heart unless he is moved by the Spirit. See
# 1Jo 4:1,2
(PNT 93)
00546
# Mt 16:18
\\Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my
\\church.\\ This is the first time Jesus speaks of his church,
and here, as not yet founded.
Three terms are to be noted:
(1) \\Peter\\, in the Greek, \\Petros\\, meaning a single stone;
(2) \\Rock\\, in the Greek, \\Petra\\, which means the solid,
immovable bed-rock, a great mass like a cliff, and
(3) \\church\\, Greek, \\ecclesia\\, those "called out," the
fellowship of believers, the organized society of Christ,
the kingdom of heaven on earth.
There is probably no passage in the word of God that has
called forth more discussion. The Papal church insists that
Peter is the rock upon which Christ founded his church. The
Catholic position is based upon the fact that Peter means a
stone, and the Saviour's language might be rendered, "Thou art a
stone and upon this rock I will build my church."
# Joh 1:42
The Catholic view is untenable, for
(1) The Saviour does not say, "Thou art a stone, and upon thee I
will build," etc., or "Thou art a rock, and upon this rock
I will build." He changes the word in the Greek from
\\Petros\\ (Peter, a stone) to \\Petra\\, a rock, or ledge
of rock--a solid bed-rock.
(2) Every saint is a stone. See
# 1Pe 2:5
The Lord declares that Peter is one these living stones,
made such by his confession of faith, and ready to be built
into the church, the spiritual temple, formed of living
stones, and built upon the rock. So is every confessor of
Christ. In order to settle what the Saviour does mean by the
\\rock\\, we must consider the 18th and 19th verses
together, and keep in mind the entire figure.
This figure portrays
(1) a Builder, Christ;
(2) a temple to be built, composed of lively stones, the church;
(3) a foundation for that temple, the rock;
(4) the gates of an unfriendly city or power which shall seek
its destruction, hell, or more correctly, \\Hades\\, the
unseen abode of the dead, the grave;
(5) a door-keeper of the church, or spiritual temple, with his
keys, Peter.
Peter's place in the figure is not that of the foundation,
but that of the key-holder, or turnkey. The only difficulty is
in settling what the Lord means by the \\rock.\\ Since this rock
is the foundation of the church, the central principle, the
fundamental idea, we are aided to a correct decision by the
teachings of the Word elsewhere. We learn [through Paul] "That
other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is
Jesus Christ." This excludes Peter or any human platform.
# 1Co 3:11
Christ is often called a stone:
(1) "the stone that the builders rejected"
# 21:42 Mr 12:10 Lu 20:17
(2) "the chief corner stone"
# Eph 2:20
(3) "the stone that is the head of the corner"
# 21:42 Mr 12:10 Lu 20:17 Ac 4:11 1Pe 2:7
(4) "the spiritual rock which is Christ"
# 1Co 10:4
Faith in Christ held in the heart, and confessed with the
lips is the very foundation of the spiritual life and of the
church. This constituted the fundamental difference in apostolic
days between Christians and unbelievers, the church and the
world. It does still. It is the essence of the teaching of the
NT that the platform or foundation of the Christian society, the
church, is this belief that "Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the
living God." It is then Peter's grand confession, faith in the
Spiritual Rock, the faith that lays hold of Christ, belief that
he is the Anointed of God, the Divine Saviour, that the Lord
pronounces the rock upon which he will found his church. That
this view is correct is shown by a correct understanding of the
declaration.
\\The gates of Hades shall not prevail against it\\ (ASV).
From the gates of the city always marched forth its armies. The
powers of \\hades\\ are represented by its gates. \\Hades\\ is
not hell \\(Gehenna)\\, but the unseen abode of the dead that
holds the departed within its gates. Just after these words the
Lord talks of his death, or entering hades. Six months later the
Sanhedrin sent him to death for making the same confession Peter
had just made. See
# 26:64-67
They expected to demonstrate that the confession of his divinity
which he had made was false by sending him to \\hades\\, which
they supposed would hold him and prevail against the confession
of the ROCK. He was sent there from the cross, but the gates of
hades did not prevail, for they could not hold him, and the
living Saviour, rising triumphant from the tomb, was the
unanswerable argument that his own and Peter's confession was a
rock that could never be moved. His resurrection demonstrated
that he is the Rock. Hades did not prevail.
(PNT 93-94)
00547
# Mt 16:19
\\I will give to thee the keys of the kingdom of the
\\heaven.\\ That is, of the church. The office of the keys is to
open the doors, or close them. On Pentecost, Peter first opened
the doors and declared the conditions of which men could have
their sins forgiven, be bound or loosed, and thus enter into the
church. Seven years later at Caesarea he declared the same
conditions to the Gentiles. While Peter took the lead the keys
were given to all the apostles, and to no other mortal. See
# 18:18 Joh 20:19-28
All that is here said to Peter is said to all the apostles.
(PNT 94)
00549
# Mt 16:21
\\From that time forth Jesus began to show to his
\\disciples.\\ They were not strong enough to bear this teaching
until they were convinced of his divinity.
\\And suffer many things.\\ In this strange way carrying out
the true idea of the Messiah.
# Isa 53:1-12
\\From the elders and chief priests and scribes.\\ The three
constituents of the Sanhedrin.
(PNT 94-95)