CLICK TO LISTEN: 064 The Danger of Craving Signs (Matthew 12 ,38-42)
The Danger of Craving Signs
Matthew 12:38-42
September 4, 2011
After reading the text, I suppose the point of the sermon is obvious.
Jesus said, “An evil and adulterous generation craves for a sign;”
No doubt that has to be one of
The most overlooked quotes Jesus ever gave.
For in today’s society, seeking signs
Has become one of the most staple aspects of religion.
Many, in fact, feel as though God owes them a sign.
Others are simply willing to claim any and everything as a sign.
But it is not foreign to understand the concept of seeking a sign from God
Now we know that God has given signs at times throughout history.
To Noah:
Genesis 9:13 “I set My bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a sign of a covenant between Me and the earth.”
To Moses:
Exodus 3:12 “And He said, “Certainly I will be with you, and this shall be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall worship God at this mountain.”
God actually told Ahaz to ask for a sign:
Isaiah 7:11 “Ask a sign for yourself from the LORD your God; make it deep as Sheol or high as heaven.”
And of course Jesus did in fact work signs.
Each of His miracles was a sign of who He was.
John 12:17-18 “So the people, who were with Him when He called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead, continued to testify about Him. For this reason also the people went and met Him, because they heard that He had performed this sign.”
And because of such occurrances, and many others like them,
Many have concluded that seeking for a sign is the way to go.
The poster child for such thinking would of course be Gideon
And his infamous “lay out the fleece”
People have been laying out fleeces ever since.
What is commonly overlooked about that story is that God did indeed allow Gideon to lay out the fleece, but God refused to let Gideon walk only by sight.
God then required him to whittle his army down to 300 men
And attack with a trumpet and clay pot.
But none the less it is a fad among men to ask for a sign from God.
The problem is that Jesus clearly condemned such practice
In our text here this morning.
Jesus never promoted a mystical faith.
Jesus never promoted an experiential faith.
Jesus always promoted a faith built solely upon the conviction
That God will do what He said.
The reason of course is because the one who believes what God says
Is a man who trusts the very nature and ability of God.
The one who only believes after God proves it with a sign
Is a skeptic who is uncertain whether God will or God can.
That is not the type of faith God is looking for.
And Jesus proves that to us here.
You are familiar with where we are in Matthew’s gospel.
Matthew is revealing the opposition that Jesus faced.
Jesus has gone out in search of the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
As He has found them He has given a simple command.
“Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.”
It was His command to lost and weary sheep.
But instead of running to Him to be taken back to the fold,
The sheep ignored His call.
But not only have they ignored Him.
They have spied on Him
They have accused Him
They have plotted against Him
They have blasphemed Him
Most recently we saw an incident after Jesus cast a demon out of a man.
The removal of this demon left this man able to see and speak.
The result was that the Pharisees knew who Jesus was,
But chose to ignore the testimony of the Holy Spirit.
Jesus revealed their blasphemy and pointed out that their wicked words
Would stand to condemn them in the judgment.
This morning we continue on in that same dialogue.
This morning the Pharisees bring about their counter argument.
4 things I want you to see
#1 THE DIVERSION
Matthew 12:38
And what a sly tactic this is.
Jesus has just told them that their refusal to believe
Will certainly lead to their judgment.
But the Pharisees contend with His point.
They say there is a different reason why they don’t come to Jesus.
They say they don’t come to Jesus
Because He has failed to prove Himself.
“Teacher, we want to see a sign from You.”
“We aren’t opposed to following You if You can prove You are really the Messiah. We simply need to see some credentials. We need to see a sign.”
I often wonder if the formerly demon possessed man
Stood in the background and raised His hand.
Jesus has worked no shortage of miracles
(recently a withered hand restored, and demon cast out)
But still they ask for more.
What they are doing is seeking to justify their unbelief
By blaming it on Jesus’ lack of proof.
If you would only give us more proof we would believe.
If you would only show us a verifiable sign we would follow You.
Sounds an awful lot like Satan doesn’t it?
Matthew 4:3 “And the tempter came and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.”
Matthew 4:5-6 “Then the devil took Him into the holy city and had Him stand on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down; for it is written, ‘HE WILL COMMAND HIS ANGELS CONCERNING YOU’;
and ‘ON their HANDS THEY WILL BEAR YOU UP, SO THAT YOU WILL NOT STRIKE YOUR FOOT AGAINST A STONE.'”
It was the same sort of doubting and daring going on here.
They had no more intention of following Jesus than Satan did,
The were just creating a diversion by which they could get off the hook.
They were trying to get the focus off of their own wicked hearts
And onto Jesus supposed lack of ability.
So they ask for a sign.
Let’s see if their tactic works.
#2 THE DETECTION
Matthew 12:39a
If the aim was to get the focus off of their own wicked hearts
I’d say their plan failed miserably.
For instead of deflecting the focus from themselves,
All they actually accomplished was to dig their hole ever deeper.
“But He answered and said to them, “An evil and adulterous generation craves for a sign;”
In other words, your quest for a sign
Does not prove you to be studious or even thorough.
Your quest for a sign only proves that you are “evil and adulterous”
Since you ask for proof, it proves you hate truth and are unfaithful.
WHY IS JESUS SO HARSH ON THEM FOR THIS?
WHAT IS SO WRONG WITH ASKING FOR A SIGN?
Asking for a sign indicates a lack of faith.
Faith is all about what is not seen.
Hebrews 11:1-2 “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it the men of old gained approval.”
Hebrews 11:7 “By faith Noah, being warned by God about things not yet seen, in reverence prepared an ark for the salvation of his household, by which he condemned the world, and became an heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.”
Hebrews 11:13 “All these died in faith, without receiving the promises, but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance, and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.”
Hebrews 11:39-40 “And all these, having gained approval through their faith, did not receive what was promised, because God had provided something better for us, so that apart from us they would not be made perfect.”
The faith God wants is a faith that operates apart from sight.
We have talked quite a bit lately about rest
And how the children of Israel failed to achieve it.
Do you remember why?
Hebrews 3:7-11 “Therefore, just as the Holy Spirit says, “TODAY IF YOU HEAR HIS VOICE, DO NOT HARDEN YOUR HEARTS AS WHEN THEY PROVOKED ME, AS IN THE DAY OF TRIAL IN THE WILDERNESS, WHERE YOUR FATHERS TRIED Me BY TESTING Me, AND SAW MY WORKS FOR FORTY YEARS. “THEREFORE I WAS ANGRY WITH THIS GENERATION, AND SAID, ‘THEY ALWAYS GO ASTRAY IN THEIR HEART, AND THEY DID NOT KNOW MY WAYS’; AS I SWORE IN MY WRATH, ‘THEY SHALL NOT ENTER MY REST.'”
Hebrews 4:1-2 “Therefore, let us fear if, while a promise remains of entering His rest, any one of you may seem to have come short of it. For indeed we have had good news preached to us, just as they also; but the word they heard did not profit them, because it was not united by faith in those who heard.”
They failed to achieve God’s rest
Because they would not believe what God said.
They heard the truth, but that wasn’t enough, they wanted to see a sign.
That was to test God…
That was to call God a liar…
That was to find God unreliable…
Their craving for a sign only indicated
That they did not trust God as they claimed.
And this meant they were “evil and adulterous”
Tony Evans was quoted, “Faith is believing God is telling the truth.”
The Pharisees didn’t.
And they proved it because they asked for proof.
So the Pharisees plan of diversion didn’t work.
They tried to push the focus on Jesus, and Jesus told them
They are only digging a deeper hole for themselves.
The Diversion, The Detection
#3 THE DISAPPOINTMENT
Matthew 12:39b-40
We already know that asking for a sign is a bad idea.
It reveals an evil heart.
Here we find out that asking for a sign is a bad idea
Because Jesus won’t grant it anyway.
“and yet no sign will be given to it…”
Jesus says, “I am not in the business of pulling rabbits out of hats just to entertain the stubborn-hearted.”
I’m not giving you a sign.
Except for one.
“no sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah the prophet; for just as JONAH WAS THREE DAYS AND THREE NIGHTS IN THE BELLY OF THE SEA MONSTER, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.”
The only sign you will get is the sign of the resurrection.
No miracle Jesus worked proved Him to be the Messiah
More than His resurrection from the grave.
Romans 1:4 “who was declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead, according to the Spirit of holiness, Jesus Christ our Lord,”
The resurrection proved Him to be the Son of God.
It also proved Him to be the Messiah by reason of fulfilled prophecy.
Psalms 16:10 “For You will not abandon my soul to Sheol; Nor will You allow Your Holy One to undergo decay.”
Which was of course the Scripture Peter quoted at Pentecost.
Furthermore the resurrection
Proved Christ was successful as the atoning sacrifice for salvation.
Romans 4:25 “He who was delivered over because of our transgressions, and was raised because of our justification.”
He wasn’t raised to justify us, His death did that.
He was raised so we would know His death was sufficient.
No event proved to be a more emphatic sign than the resurrection.
And Jesus says that is the only sign they will get.
But let me tell you two problems with that being the only sign.
1) It is a sign that occurs after they crucify Him.
They will have already fully rejected Him before the sign ever occurs.
They will have killed the Messiah before the greatest sign.
2) It won’t be enough for a true skeptic.
Remember the rich man in hades who wants Abraham to send someone from the dead to warn his family about the horror of hell?
What did Abraham tell him?
Luke 16:30-31 “But he said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent!’ “But he said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead.'”
And wasn’t this true of the Pharisees?
Matthew 28:11-15 “Now while they were on their way, some of the guard came into the city and reported to the chief priests all that had happened. And when they had assembled with the elders and consulted together, they gave a large sum of money to the soldiers, and said, “You are to say, ‘His disciples came by night and stole Him away while we were asleep.’ “And if this should come to the governor’s ears, we will win him over and keep you out of trouble.” And they took the money and did as they had been instructed; and this story was widely spread among the Jews, and is to this day.”
Even the resurrection wouldn’t work to prove who Jesus was to them.
And from that we learn another great lesson about signs.
SIGNS ARE NOT GOD’S MEANS OF PROVING HIMSELF
OR OF LEADING MEN TO SALVATION.
Think about some of the greatest sign workers in Scripture.
Jesus – Moses – Elijah & Elisha
Nobody worked more than those guys.
Now let me ask you how successful they were in getting converts?
People easily and instantly disregarded them.
John MacArthur wrote:
“In spite of all Jesus’ miracles – raising the dead, healing the sick, giving sight to the blind, and his authority over demons – Israel rejected him and crucified him. And at the time of his death, it appears he had only about 120 dedicated followers (Acts 1:15).
The gospels contain numerous examples of people who witnessed Jesus’ signs and wonders, yet remained in unbelief. He rebuked the cities where he performed most of his miracles, Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum, because they did not repent (Matthew 11:20-24). John 2:23 tells us that “many believed in His name, beholding His signs which He was doing,” yet Jesus did not consider them true believers (2:24). John 6:2 records that a great multitude was following him “because they were seeing the signs which He was performing on those who were sick.” John 6:66 tells that many of this same crowd “withdrew, and were not walking with Him anymore” after hearing teaching from him they could not accept. In John 11, Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, a tremendous miracle even his enemies could not deny (11:47). But far from believing in Jesus, they began to plot His death (11:53). John 12:37 sums it all up: “Though He had performed so many signs before them, yet they were not believing in Him.”
Nor were things any different in the early church. In the third chapter of Acts Peter and John healed a man who had been lame from birth. Again, the Jewish religious leaders did not deny that a miracle had occurred (Acts 4:16). But their response was far from saving faith: they ordered the apostles to stop speaking in the name of Jesus (4:18).
Examine the record of Old Testament signs and wonders. They did not produce saving faith, either. Pharaoh’s heart was hardened despite the powerful signs and wonders God did through Moses. And the entire generation of Israelites, who also witnessed those miracles and many others, died in the wilderness because of their unbelief.
Despite al the miracles performed by the prophets, both Israel and Judah failed to repent and were ultimately carried away into captivity.”
(MacArthur, John F Jr.; [Charismatic Chaos, Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1992] pg. 134-135)
The point is that signs never led people to faith in Christ.
All the request for a sign did was prove the “evil and adulterous heart”
Of the person who sought it.
And for that reason Jesus refused to grant it.
The Diversion, The Detection, The Disappointment
#4 THE DECLARATION
Matthew 12:41-42
We have already heard Jesus use Tyre, Sidon, and Sodom
As proofs of a great judgment for Israel.
Now Jesus throws in Nineveh and the Queen of the South.
(41-42) “The men of Nineveh will stand up with this generation at the judgment, and will condemn it because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and behold, something greater than Jonah is here. “The Queen of the South will rise up with this generation at the judgment and will condemn it, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and behold, something greater than Solomon is here.”
What is it that makes those illustrations so relevant to His present argument?
Consider the accusation of the Pharisees.
When asked for a sign, they in essence said, “Our failure to follow is not based upon our bad heart, but upon Your failure to provide enough proof.”
In short, our unbelief is not our fault, it is Your fault.
Jesus proves that is not the case.
And He uses two illustration.
“Nineveh” and “the Queen of the South.”
Both of them had one thing in common.
They only heard the truth, and yet that was enough.
“The men of Nineveh…repented at the preaching of Jonah”
“The Queen of the South…came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon.”
DO YOU REMEMBER THE PREACHING OF JONAH?
Jonah 3:4 “Then Jonah began to go through the city one day’s walk; and he cried out and said, “Yet forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown.”
• He didn’t tell they why it would be destroyed.
• He didn’t even tell them to repent.
• He certainly did not prove his claims with a sign or wonder.
They simply heard that destruction was coming in 40 days
And they repented.
Consider the Queen of the South.
WHY DID SHE COME?
1 Kings 10:6-7 “Then she said to the king, “It was a true report which I heard in my own land about your words and your wisdom. “Nevertheless I did not believe the reports, until I came and my eyes had seen it. And behold, the half was not told me. You exceed in wisdom and prosperity the report which I heard.”
She said she didn’t believe, but notice she came.
And all she had was a second or third hand testimony.
And the testimony didn’t even do justice to the truth, but she came.
See the Pharisees said they couldn’t believe
Because Jesus hadn’t been convincing enough.
And yet people throughout history traveled great distances to find the truth, and believed hearing a whole lot less.
AND THIS IS GOD’S INTENT
Seek truth and believe it when you hear it.
Acts 17:24-27 “The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands; nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things; and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, that they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us;”
God wants men to seek truth and believe truth.
Those who crave signs indicate “an evil and adulterous” heart.
Hebrews 11:6 “And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.”
God simply wants you to believe what He says.
And this is why it has never been His miracles that lead men to salvation.
WHAT DOES LEAD MEN TO SALVATION?
His Word.
Romans 1:16 “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.”
Romans 10:17 “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.”
This may surprise you
But God really only has one sign for believers today.
He did work many signs in the Old Testament,
And certainly Jesus and even His apostles worked signs.
But once the New Testament was completed the signs stopped,
And the New Testament doesn’t tell you to go looking for signs.
In fact there is only one sign the New Testament says is for believers.
1 Corinthians 14:22 “So then tongues are for a sign, not to those who believe but to unbelievers; but prophecy is for a sign, not to unbelievers but to those who believe.”
Tongues is a sign for the lost.
It is actually the ultimate condemnation.
God takes a people who won’t listen to the truth so He gives it to them in a language they can’t understand.
“but prophecy is for a sign, not to unbelievers but to those who believe.”
And of course by “prophecy” we don’t mean the ability to proclaim the future, but rather the proclamation of the word of God.
In short, if you want a sign from God, there is only one.
The proclaimed word of God.
If you will believe what God says in His word, you will be saved.
If you won’t believe what He says in His word,
You wouldn’t believe even if someone rose from the dead.
• God’s word indicates that Jesus Christ is God made flesh.
• He came to this earth and lived a sinless life.
• He then died upon a cross to atone for those who believe in Him.
• He rose from the dead, proving His sacrifice effective.
• He then ascended to heaven to intercede for the saints.
• He will come again to judge the world.
That is what Scripture says,
And you and I must believe God is telling the truth.
Because if you are waiting for a sign it isn’t coming.
In fact there is only one more yet to come.
Matthew 24:30-31 “And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the SON OF MAN COMING ON THE CLOUDS OF THE SKY with power and great glory. “And He will send forth His angels with A GREAT TRUMPET and THEY WILL GATHER TOGETHER His elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other.”
The only other sign coming is the “the sign of the Son of Man”
And at that point it will be too late.
The point is trust in Jesus because Scripture says to.
Repent of your sin because God demands it.
But don’t sit around waiting for more proof.
God is telling the truth when He tells you that Christ alone is the Savior.
Matthew 11:28-30 “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS. “For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
This morning we are going to partake of the Lord’s Supper.
We are going to remember the atoning sacrifice of our Savior.
As always we will first have a time or preparation.
It is a time for self-examination.
And then we will partake of the table of the Lord.
