Chapter 16
Chapter Outline
The Pharisees and Sadducees ask a sign. (1–4)
Jesus cautions against the doctrine of the (5–12)
Pharisees.
Peter's testimony that Jesus was the Christ. (13–20)
Christ foretells his sufferings, and rebukes (21–23)
Peter.
The necessity of self-denial. (24–28)Verses 1–4
The Pharisees and Sadducees were opposed to each other in principles and in conduct; yet they
joined against Christ. But they desired a sign of their own choosing: they despised those signs
which relieved the necessity of the sick and sorrowful, and called for something else which would
gratify the curiosity of the proud. It is great hypocrisy, when we slight the signs of God's ordaining,
to seek for signs of our own devising.
Verses 5–12
Christ speaks of spiritual things under a similitude, and the disciples misunderstand him of
carnal things. He took it ill that they should think him as thoughtful about bread as they were; that
they should be so little acquainted with his way of preaching. Then understood they what he meant.
Christ teaches by the Spirit of wisdom in the heart, opening the understanding to the Spirit of
revelation in the word.
Verses 13–20
Peter, for himself and his brethren, said that they were assured of our Lord's being the promised
Messiah, the Son of the living God. This showed that they believed Jesus to be more than man.
Our Lord declared Peter to be blessed, as the teaching of God made him differ from his unbelieving
countrymen. Christ added that he had named him Peter, in allusion to his stability or firmness in
professing the truth. The word translated “rock,” is not the same word as Peter, but is of a similar
meaning. Nothing can be more wrong than to suppose that Christ meant the person of Peter was
the rock. Without doubt Christ himself is the Rock, the tried foundation of the church; and woe to
him that attempts to lay any other! Peter's confession is this rock as to doctrine. If Jesus be not the
Christ, those that own him are not of the church, but deceivers and deceived. Our Lord next declared
the authority with which Peter would be invested. He spoke in the name of his brethren, and this
related to them as well as to him. They had no certain knowledge of the characters of men, and
were liable to mistakes and sins in their own conduct; but they were kept from error in stating the
way of acceptance and salvation, the rule of obedience, the believer's character and experience,