Latest / Reformed Thinking / The Greater Jonah: The King’s Ultimatum to a Sign-Seeking Generation (Matthew 12:38-42)

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The Greater Jonah: The King’s Ultimatum to a Sign-Seeking Generation (Matthew 12:38-42) · Reformed Thinking

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  Hello and welcome back to Reformed Thinking.
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  We're glad you're with us as we well as we open up the text and
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  really try to see what's there, not just what we might wish was
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  there. Which is always the challenge.
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  It is. And today we're turning to the
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  Gospel of Matthew. Specifically.
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  We're looking at a moment that I think resonates with, well, with
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  just about everyone, no matter where you are on your spiritual
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  walk. We're talking about the idea of
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  proof. Yeah, it's the age-old demand,
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  isn't it? This idea that seeing is
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  believing you live in a world that you know, it prides itself
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  on being evidence based. We want the data, we want the
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  charts, and when it comes to God, we often want the
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  fireworks. Right.
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  We think if God would just write his name in the sky or if he
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  would just fix this one problem in my life right now in some
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  miraculous way. Yeah, and I'd believe then I
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  would finally obey. It feels like it's such a
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  modern, you know, scientific skepticism.
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  But what we're going to see today in Matthew Chapter 12 is
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  that this attitude is ancient, and it's not just an
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  intellectual hurdle. The text tells us it's something
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  much, much darker. It really is.
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  So we're going to be unpacking Matthew 12 verses 38 through 42.
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  This is that famous scene where the scribes and the Pharisees
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  come to Jesus and ask for a sign.
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  And on the surface, it sounds pretty polite.
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  It does. It sounds reasonable.
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  But just beneath that surface, it's a trap.
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  And the way Jesus responds is, frankly, it's terrifying if
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  you're not paying attention. It's terrifying because it's a
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  diagnosis. Yeah, Jesus doesn't treat this
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  as a simple request for information.
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  He treats it as a moral indictment.
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  This passage, you know, it isn't just a story about ancient
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  history. It's a diagnosis of the human
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  heart. It gets right to the core of the
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  Reformed understanding of total depravity.
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  It shows us how we instinctively, without even
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  thinking about it, try to judge God rather than letting God
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  judge us. We want to put God in the dock.
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  Exactly. We want to put God in the dock,
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  interrogate him, and then we'll decide if he meets our
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  standards. Which is just a complete
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  reversal of reality. So our mission for this deep
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  dive is to really take this text apart.
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  We want to understand why Jesus calls this request evil and
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  adulterous. I mean, those are incredibly
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  strong words. We also want to understand what
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  on earth the sign of Jonah actually is and what Jesus means
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  when he keeps saying something greater is here.
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  And then finally, I think we need to confront our own
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  tendencies, our modern tendencies to demand proof
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  instead of just submitting to the sufficiency of scripture.
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  That's the goal. We really need to move from sign
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  seeking to sign submitting. OK, so let's set the scene.
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  Let's get the lay of the land where in Matthew 12 you can't
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  just parachute into verse 38 and really get the weight of what's
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  happening. So what's been going on right
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  before this moment? Why is this confrontation
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  happening now? Context is everything here.
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  You really said it. Matthew 12 functions like a like
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  a tightening vice. The pressure has just been
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  building and building throughout the entire chapter.
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  This isn't the beginning of a conversation.
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  No, it's a. Crime X It's the.
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  Boiling point of a conflict the opposition from the religious
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  leaders has. It's immature.
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  It's gone from simple skepticism into real spiritual hardness.
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  If you look at the earlier parts of the chapter, you see these
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  Sabbath disputes. Right, the disciples were
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  plucking grain on the Sabbath, and the Pharisees just they lost
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  their minds over. It they did absolutely.
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  And Jesus response wasn't to apologize or to say oh you're
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  right my mistake. His response was to claim to be
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  Lord of the Sabbath. Which is an incredible.
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  Claim. It's a claim to deity.
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  He is saying I own the day that God himself sanctified.
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  It's my day, so the stakes are already incredibly high.
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  And then right after that he heals a man with a withered
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  hand. And not just anywhere he does it
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  in the synagogue on the Sabbath. Right in their house on their
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  holy day. He's forcing the issue.
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  Now you would think the response to a miraculous healing, a man's
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  shriveled hand suddenly becoming whole, would be wonder.
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  Or maybe curiosity? Or worship.
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  Or worship. But Matthew tells us their
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  response was a conspiracy. They left the synagogue to plot
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  how they might destroy him. That's a crucial point.
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  They saw a miracle. The man's hand was physically
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  restored right in front of them, and their immediate reaction was
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  murder. That's correct.
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  So when we get to the request for a sign a few verses later,
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  we have to remember that these are not people who are starved
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  for evidence. They're not honest seekers who
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  just need one more piece of the puzzle.
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  They're people who are actively suppressing the evidence they
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  already have. Yes, but the immediate catalyst,
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  the thing that happens right before our text, is the
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  exorcism. This is the peak of the conflict
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  so far. Yeah, Jesus heals a demon
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  oppressed man who was blind and mute.
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  So a man trapped in darkness and silence.
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  Exactly. And Jesus liberates him.
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  Suddenly the man can see and he can speak.
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  And the crowds, the regular people, they're amazed.
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  They're asking, could this be the son of David?
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  They're connecting the dots back to the messianic prophecies.
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  And the Pharisees, they can't deny the miracle happened.
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  The guy standing right there talking and looking around, he's
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  exhibit A they. Can't deny the power, so they
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  slander the source. This is what Jesus calls the
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  blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. It's the unforgivable sin.
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  They attribute the work of the Spirit of God to be eligible to
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  Satan. So they look at this clear
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  display of God's goodness, this act of liberation and healing,
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  and they call it the work of the devil.
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  They call light darkness. It is the absolute definition of
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  a hardened heart. There's nowhere else to go from
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  there, intellectually or spiritually.
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  And it's in that specific atmosphere, with the stench of
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  that blasphemy still hanging in the air, that they turn to Jesus
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  and ask for a sign. The irony is just staggering.
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  They have just witnessed a massive display of power.
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  A dynamis is the Greek word. And yet they turn around and ask
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  for a semion, a sign. OK, Let's pause on that
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  distinction because that feels important.
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  You mentioned dynamis versus semion.
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  What's the real difference there?
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  Why wasn't that incredible exorcism enough of a sign for
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  them? Well, a dynamist is a raw act of
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  power, a miracle, the demonstration of authority.
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  Like the exorcism, it proves that Jesus has power over the
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  demonic realm, over sickness, over nature.
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  But Asamian, in the way they were likely using it, refers to
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  a specific kind of credential. So not just any miracle.
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  Not just any miracle. They wanted a sign that
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  authenticated his claims in a very specific way.
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  Often this meant a cosmic spectacle.
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  They didn't want a healing that required moral engagement that
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  forced them to decide if this was good or evil.
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  They wanted a show. Like what?
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  What would they have been looking for?
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  They probably wanted mana to fall from the sky to prove he
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  was a prophet like Moses. Or maybe they wanted fire to
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  come down from heaven and consume an offering to prove he
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  was like Elijah. A celestial firework display.
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  Exactly something that fit their theological boxes.
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  Something undeniable from the heavens that proved God was
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  endorsing Him in their language on their terms.
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  So they're essentially saying, yeah, that whole casting out a
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  demon thing you did, that's nice work on Earth, but if you're
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  really from God, show us something from the sky.
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  Do a trick for us. Precisely.
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  They are ignoring the miracle right in front of their noses to
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  demand one that suits their preferences.
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  And you see the audacity of it. It's the creature dictating
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  terms to the creator. They want a sign they can
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  control. That's it.
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  They want a sign they can control, interpret, and
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  evaluate. They want to remain the judges
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  if Jesus performs for them. If he jumps through their hoop,
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  then they retain the upper hand. They get to decide if it was a
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  good enough trick. It's a power play disguised as a
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  polite request. Absolutely.
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  So let's look at the request itself.
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  In verse 38, Matthew records it as Teacher, we wish to see a
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  sign from you. As we said, it sounds so polite.
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  Teacher, we wish. It sounds like they're just
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  eager students. It's false flattery, and it's
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  dripping with condescension. Notice the title Teacher or
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  Descale in the Greek. They don't call him Lord.
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  They don't call him Messiah. They don't even use the title.
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  The crowds were just whispering Son of David.
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  By calling him Teacher, they're deliberately placing him in a
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  category they understand and control.
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  An instructor. A rabbi.
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  Someone they can evaluate. Exactly.
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  It's a way of keeping him at arm's length.
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  You grade a teacher. You cross examine a teacher, but
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  you submit to a Lord. They're refusing to grant him
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  the title that his actions have already demonstrated he
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  deserves. And that phrase we wish, or in
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  some translations we want to see.
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  It just reeks of entitlement. We, the undersigned, have
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  decided that we would like to see a sign now, please.
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  It implies we are the board of theological credentials and you
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  are the applicant. Now perform your task so that we
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  may decide if you were legitimate.
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  It's a summons. Which brings us back to that
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  courtroom inversion you mentioned earlier.
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  It's the very heart of the issue.
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  Theologically, according to their own Scriptures, the Sinner
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  is supposed to stand before God, trembling, waiting for
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  judgement, the creature before the Creator.
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  But here, in an act of supreme arrogance, the Sinner installs
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  himself as the judge and puts God in the dock.
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  That's such a helpful image, and we do this all the time, don't
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  we? God, if you're real, prove it to
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  me by getting me this job or fix my marriage, and then I'll serve
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  you. We're essentially putting God on
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  trial, and we're the judge and jury.
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  We are, and we use the demand for more evidence as a kind of
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  camouflage. We tell ourselves, I just have
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  intellectual doubts. I'm a good skeptic.
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  But so often the demand for more proof is really a strategy to
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  postpone repentance. A stalling tactic?
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  It's a perfect stalling tactic. As long as I am evaluating God,
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  I don't have to obey Him. I can keep my autonomy.
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  I can say, well, the evidence isn't quite sufficient yet, and
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  in the meantime I can keep living the way I want to live.
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  So it's not really an intellectual problem, a lack of
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  light. No, it's a moral problem.
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  It's a hostility to the light. The light is shining right on
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  them, and they're demanding that it perform a new trick before
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  they'll acknowledge it. So Jesus, of course, sees right
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  through this. He doesn't play their game.
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  He doesn't say, oh sure, let me show you something amazing to
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  convince you. In verse 39, he bypasses the
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  request and gives them a diagnosis.
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  He says an evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign.
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  That is not the response of a man trying to win a popularity
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  contest. No, he's not trying to win them
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  over. He is rendering A verdict.
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  First, he calls them evil. The word is ponaros.
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  It doesn't just mean mistaken or misguided.
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  It means their demand is not clean.
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  It's morally rotten at its source.
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  They are not on aesthetics. They are rebels.
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  And then he adds that word Adulterous.
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  Yes, adulterous. And to really understand the
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  force of that, we have to go back to the Old Testament.
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  He's speaking their language. Right, because he obviously
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  doesn't mean they're all physically cheating on their
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  wives. This is a spiritual metaphor.
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  Correct. It's covenant to language.
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  You see it all through the prophets.
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  Especially in the book of Hosea. Israel is depicted as the wife
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  of Yahweh. God entered into a covenant with
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  them at Sinai, the kind of marriage contract.
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  He was their husband. They were his people.
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  And when they chased after other gods, the prophets called it.
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  Adultery or whoredom? They were being unfaithful to
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  their divine husband. So when Jesus looks at these
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  Pharisees, the most outwardly religious people in the nation,
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  and calls them adulterous, he is stripping away their pious mask.
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  They claim to be the most faithful, the guardians of the
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  Torah. And Jesus says no, you are
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  fundamentally unfaithful. You are cheating on the God you
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  claim to represent. Because they're rejecting Him,
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  the very God they claim to serve, standing right there in
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  the flesh. That is it.
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  They are standing in the very presence of the Bridegroom, the
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  Messiah, and they are demanding to see His identification
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  papers. It proves they have no intimate
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  relationship with Him. A faithful wife knows her
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  husband's voice, and adulterous wife demands proof because she
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  is estranged and hostile. It also seems to expose that
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  they want the benefits of the covenant, the status, the
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  position, the feeling of being God's chosen people without the
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  Lord of the covenant. That's a piercing way to put it.
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  They want the wedding ring, but not the husband.
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  They want the status of being Mrs. Yahweh, but they don't want
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  Yahweh Himself telling them what to do.
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  And he was just called them adulterous.
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  He calls them an evil and adulterous generation.
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  That word generation seems specific too.
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  It is. This is a dispensational
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  judgement. He's not just making a general
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  statement about humanity. He is speaking to the specific
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  leadership of national Israel at that specific moment in history.
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  What's the significance of that? Think about their privilege.
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  This generation had everything. They had the law given its
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  Sinai, They had the writings of the prophets.
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  They had the temple. And now, the culmination of it
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  all, they have the Messiah standing in front of them,
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  healing the sick, casting out demons, and teaching with the
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  authority of God Himself. No generation in history had
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  more light than this one. None, and yet they remained
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  willfully blind. So the judgement against them is
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  heavier precisely because their privilege was greater.
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  To whom much is given, much is required.
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  And there's one more word in that verse that stands out.
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  He says this generation seeks for a sign.
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  Yes, and the Greek word there is epicentae.
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  It's stronger than the normal word for seek.
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  It implies A craving, A demanding, a constant clamoring
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  for something. It's the language of addiction.
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  An addiction to the sensational. It is.
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  It's what the Apostle John would later call the lust of the eyes.
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  A wicked heart is addicted to the show, to the spectacle, to
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  the emotional high. A faithful heart, by contrast,
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  rests on the quiet, steady authority of God's Word.
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  They're constantly looking for the next big thing because they
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  have no resting trust in God's character and His promises.
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  So having diagnosed them, having exposed the rotten heart behind
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  the request, Jesus finally gives them an answer.
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  But it's absolutely not the answer they wanted, he says.
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  No sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet
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  Jonah. This is the great refusal and
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  the great promise all in one sentence.
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  He refuses to perform their trick.
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  He will not dance to their tune. He denies their authority to
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  judge him. But he doesn't leave them
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  without a witness. He points them to the one final
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  definitive sign they will receive the sign of Jonah.
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  And in doing so, he completely validates the historicity of the
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  book of Jonah. He absolutely does.
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  I want to stop there for a second because this is so
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  important for how we view the whole of Scripture.
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  There are plenty of modern scholars, even some in the
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  church, who look at the story of Jonah, a man swallowed by a
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  giant fish and surviving for three days, and they say, come
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  on, that's a myth. It's a fable.
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  It's a nice allegory about God's love for the Gentiles.
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  And that position becomes a major problem if you claim to
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  follow Jesus, because Jesus himself treats Jonah as
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  historical fact. He doesn't say you know that
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  nice story about Jonah. He says.
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  For as Jonah was, he grounds the reality of his own future
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  resurrection on the reality of Jonah's past experience.
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  So if Jonah's just a myth. Then Jesus is using a fairy tale
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  to predict and explain the most important event in human
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  history. The type of Jonah's experience
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  would be fake, which makes the anti type the fulfillment in
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  Christ's resurrection incredibly shaky.
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  Reformed thinking following Christ himself adheres to the
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  veracity of the Old Testament. If Jesus took it as history, we
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  take it as history. So we take the fish seriously.
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  The text in Jonah says a great fish and the Greek word Jesus
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  uses here is kotos. Right, which can mean sea
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  monster or huge sea creature. It doesn't have to be a whale as
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  we picture it in the children's books.
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  The point is that it was a miraculous preservation vessel
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  appointed by God for his specific purpose.
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  The miracle isn't the species of fish.
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  The miracle is that Jonah survived.
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  OK, so let's look at the typology.
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  What is the actual connection Jesus is drawing between Jonah's
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  experience and his own? The primary connection is the
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  descent and the ascent, he says. As Jonah was 3 days and three
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  nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be
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  3 days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
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  So it's a parallel of being in Entombed and then returning to
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  the world of the living. Yes, but with a crucial, crucial
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  difference. We can't miss this.
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  Why did Jonah descend into the deep?
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  Because of his disobedience, he was running away from God's
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  command to go to Nineveh. He was a rebellious prophet.
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  Christ, on the other hand, descended into the heart of the
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  earth, which is a Hebrew ISM for Sheol, for the grave, the realm
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  of the dead. In perfect, loving obedience, He
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  ran toward the will of the Father, even though it was the
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  Cross. So Jonah is a type of the Sinner
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  saved from death. And Christ is the Savior who
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  enters death to save sinners. Jonah was delivered from death
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  for his own sake. Christ defeats death for our
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  sake. And the sign itself then is
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  essentially death and resurrection.
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  That is the only sign this evil and adulterous generation gets.
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  It's the ultimate ultimatum. God is effectively saying I will
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  not give you a trivial sign to entertain your unbelief.
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  I will give you one massive world altering sign that will
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  either save you or condemn you. The.
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  Resurrection. The resurrection.
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  It is the Father's cosmic Amen to the Sons finished work on the
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  cross. It is the definitive proof if
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  someone conquers death and rises from the grave, you don't ask
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  them for more ID, you fall in your face and worship.
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  Now before we move on, we have to address the math problem.
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  I know I've heard this question 1000 times and you probably have
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  to. Jesus says 3 days and three
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  nights, but if he died on Friday afternoon and rose on Sunday
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  morning, that's not 72 hours, it's barely 36.
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  And people either say aha, the Bible contradicts itself, or
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  they come up with these really elaborate theories that he must
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  have died on a Wednesday. This is a classic example of
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  imposing our modern western hyper literal scientific mindset
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  onto an ancient Semitic text. We have to read the Bible in its
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  own context, not ours. The key is understanding Jewish
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  idiom. There was a different way of
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  counting days a. Different way of reckoning time.
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  There's a concept in Rabbinic Judaism known as Ona.
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  In Jewish reckoning, any part of the day counts as the whole day.
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  So part of Friday, all of Saturday and part of Sunday
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  would be referred to as three days.
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  Can you give us another example of that from scripture itself?
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  Absolutely. A great one is in the book of
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  Esther. Esther tells Mordecai and the
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  Jews to fast for her, saying do not eat or drink for three days,
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  night or day. OK, that sounds pretty clearly
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  like 72 hours. It does to us.
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  But then the text says she went into the king on the third day.
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  If she had to wait for three full 24 hour periods, she
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  couldn't go to the king until the 4th day.
• 18:23
  But in their idiom, part of day one, all of day 2 and part of
• 18:27
  day three meant she fulfilled her vow on the third day.
• 18:31
  Three days and three nights was a stock phrase, an idiom for
• 18:34
  this duration. So the point wasn't to give them
• 18:37
  a stopwatch challenge for the tomb.
• 18:38
  No, not at all. The point was the reality and
• 18:41
  finality of his death. He would be truly dead,
• 18:44
  certified dead and publicly buried.
• 18:46
  He would be in the grave, and then he would be publicly and
• 18:50
  verifiably raised. It was about the reality of the
• 18:53
  death and the vindication of the resurrection, not the precise
• 18:56
  number of hours. That makes sense.
• 18:57
  OK, so Jesus has offered them this one sign, his future death
• 19:00
  and resurrection. But then he takes this courtroom
• 19:03
  setting he's created and he flips it again in verses 41 and
• 19:06
  42, He starts calling witnesses for the prosecution.
• 19:10
  This is a preview of the final judgement he's describing.
• 19:12
  It's a chilling scene. He's the one on trial, but he
• 19:16
  suddenly becomes the judge. And he says the men of Nineveh
• 19:20
  will rise up at the judgement with this generation and condemn
• 19:23
  it. And then the Queen of the South
• 19:26
  will rise up at the judgement with this generation and condemn
• 19:29
  it. And think about who he's
• 19:30
  calling. He's not calling Abraham or
• 19:32
  Moses or David. No, He calls Gentiles.
• 19:35
  He calls Pagan outsiders, people the Pharisees would have
• 19:38
  despised as unclean dogs to testify against the religious
• 19:42
  elite of Israel. The shock value of this would
• 19:45
  have been immense. Let's start with the first
• 19:47
  witness. The men of Nineveh remind us who
• 19:49
  they were. They were the capital of the
• 19:50
  Assyrian Empire. Historically, they were known
• 19:53
  for being unbelievably brutal, violent pagans.
• 19:57
  They were the sworn enemies of Israel.
• 19:59
  They were uncircumcised. They didn't have the Torah.
• 20:01
  They were as far from God from a Jewish perspective as you could
• 20:04
  possibly get. And God sends Jonah to them.
• 20:07
  Yes, and remember the messenger Jonah, A reluctant, pouting,
• 20:12
  racist prophet who actively did not want them to be saved.
• 20:16
  He didn't perform a single miracle in Nineveh.
• 20:18
  He just walked into this massive city and preached what might be
• 20:22
  the worst sermon ever. It's 5 words in the Hebrew Oh,
• 20:25
  was it yet? 40 days and Nineveh shall be
• 20:27
  overthrown. That's it.
• 20:29
  So you're all going to die. There's no promise of grace.
• 20:32
  There's no God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.
• 20:36
  Zero. It was the worst evangelism
• 20:38
  strategy you could imagine. So you have a lesser light.
• 20:40
  A lesser messenger and a lesser message.
• 20:42
  And what was the response for these pagans?
• 20:44
  Immediate national repentance. From the king on his throne down
• 20:47
  to the commoner in the street, they put on sackcloth and ashes,
• 20:50
  they fasted, they begged the God they barely knew for mercy.
• 20:54
  And Jesus's point is the devastating contrast.
• 20:56
  The contrast is the whole point. The Ninevites repented at the
• 21:00
  preaching of a grumpy prophet with a bare bones message of
• 21:03
  doom. The Pharisees, on the other
• 21:05
  hand, have the light of the world standing in front of them.
• 21:09
  They have a gospel of the Kingdom.
• 21:10
  They have seen miracles that Jonah never dreamed of
• 21:13
  performing, and they refused to repent.
• 21:15
  So the Ninevites will stand up at the judgement and essentially
• 21:18
  say. They'll say we repented with
• 21:20
  almost zero light, you were bathed in the sun at high noon
• 21:25
  and you chose to close your eyes.
• 21:27
  You are guilty. It's a powerful lesson that
• 21:30
  privilege increases accountability.
• 21:32
  It does. Proximity to truth without
• 21:35
  repentance just creates a greater condemnation.
• 21:38
  It's a dangerous thing to sit in church week after week to hear
• 21:41
  the gospel and to do nothing with it.
• 21:43
  You are accumulating responsibility.
• 21:45
  That's exactly right. Then he calls his second
• 21:47
  witness, the Queen of the South, who we know as the Queen of
• 21:50
  Sheba. And this provides a different
• 21:52
  kind of contrast. If Nineveh showed the power of
• 21:55
  repentance in the face of judgement, the queen shows the
• 21:57
  power of earnest seeking in the face of wisdom.
• 22:00
  She came from the ends of the earth, Jesus says.
• 22:03
  That's right, we think this was modern day Yemen or Ethiopia.
• 22:06
  That's a journey of roughly 1200 miles.
• 22:08
  And not on a 747. We are talking about a massive
• 22:11
  caravan, camels, scorching desert, the threat of robbers.
• 22:15
  A huge expedition, incredibly expensive, dangerous and time
• 22:19
  consuming. And why did she do it?
• 22:22
  To hear the wisdom of Solomon. And Solomon as great as he was.
• 22:26
  He was just a man, a flawed man who ended up an idolater.
• 22:30
  But she recognized that God was doing something unique through
• 22:33
  him, and she went to extraordinary lengths just to
• 22:36
  listen to him. She brought her hardest
• 22:38
  questions. She wanted truth.
• 22:40
  And the Pharisees. The Pharisees won't even cross
• 22:42
  the street with an open heart. They won't humble themselves for
• 22:44
  5 minutes to listen to divine Wisdom Incarnate standing in
• 22:48
  their own courtyard. Jesus is saying look at her.
• 22:51
  She exerted massive effort for a lesser human wisdom.
• 22:54
  You exert 0 effort for ultimate divine wisdom.
• 22:57
  So her effort condemns their spiritual laziness.
• 22:59
  It condemns their apathy. Their indifference and
• 23:02
  indifference to Christ is a damnable sin.
• 23:04
  They just didn't care enough to honestly investigate.
• 23:07
  That brings us to the refrain that Jesus repeats in this
• 23:09
  section. After talking about Jonah, He
• 23:12
  says something greater than Jonah is here, and after Solomon
• 23:17
  something greater than Solomon is here.
• 23:19
  This is the greater than theology, and it's central to
• 23:22
  Matthew's Gospel, and it's interesting In the Greek, the
• 23:25
  word for something greater is pleion.
• 23:28
  It's in the neuter gender. What's the significance of that?
• 23:31
  It suggests he's not just saying I as a person and better than
• 23:34
  Jonah, he's saying a greater reality, a greater office, a
• 23:38
  greater Kingdom, a greater state of affairs is now present in me.
• 23:42
  He is the substance to which all the Old Testament figures were
• 23:45
  merely shadows. So how is he greater than Jonah?
• 23:48
  Well, Jonah was a prophet who reluctantly preached a message
• 23:51
  of judgement. Jesus is the prophet who
• 23:54
  willingly bears the judgement force on the cross.
• 23:57
  Jonah was a sign of delivered life.
• 23:58
  He came out of the fish. He survived.
• 24:01
  Jesus is the very author of life.
• 24:03
  He doesn't just survive death, he conquers it for all time.
• 24:06
  Jonah brought a temporary reprieve for one Pagan city.
• 24:09
  Jesus brings eternal salvation for the entire world.
• 24:12
  And greater than Solomon. Solomon was famous for his
• 24:15
  wisdom, but it was a derivative wisdom.
• 24:18
  God gave it to him as a gift. Jesus is the wisdom of God
• 24:21
  Incarnate. Solomon built a magnificent
• 24:24
  temple out of stone, a place where God's presence would
• 24:27
  dwell. Jesus is the true temple, the
• 24:30
  ultimate meeting place between God and humanity.
• 24:33
  Solomon's Kingdom was glorious, but it eventually crumbled.
• 24:36
  Jesus Kingdom is eternal and will never end.
• 24:39
  The implication of all this for the Pharisees listening must
• 24:41
  have been just explosive. If Jesus is truly greater than
• 24:46
  rejecting him isn't just a mistake.
• 24:48
  It's a greater sin. It's a cosmic treason.
• 24:50
  You cannot just admire Jesus as another good teacher in the line
• 24:53
  of prophets. If he is greater than the
• 24:55
  greatest prophet Jonah, and greater than the greatest King
• 24:58
  Solomon, then he is claiming to be the apex and fulfillment of
• 25:01
  all of Israel's history. It forces a decision.
• 25:04
  It absolutely forces the decision.
• 25:05
  You either bow to him as Lord and King or you are committed
• 25:08
  the highest form of rebellion. There's no middle ground.
• 25:10
  Which brings us to today. We don't have Pharisees in
• 25:13
  ancient robes walking around our churches, but do we still have
• 25:16
  sign seekers? Oh, absolutely.
• 25:19
  We have what I would call sign Christianity, and it's alive and
• 25:22
  well. You see it, for instance, in
• 25:23
  some extremes of the charismatic movement or in the prosperity
• 25:26
  gospel. What does that look like in
• 25:28
  practice? It's the attitude that says God,
• 25:31
  if you show me a sign, if the traffic lights are all green, if
• 25:34
  I see a feather on the ground, then I'll know it's your will
• 25:37
  and I'll obey. Or it's the person who says I
• 25:40
  can't make a decision until I get a fresh word from the Lord.
• 25:43
  Or I need to feel a shiver down my spine or get goosebumps to
• 25:47
  know God is really here in this worship service.
• 25:49
  It's an addiction to the sensational, just like them.
• 25:53
  It is, and the deep theological problem with it is that it
• 25:56
  undervalues and sometimes even denies the sufficiency of
• 26:00
  Scripture. This is a key Reformed critique.
• 26:03
  We believe the Canon is closed. We believe in sola scriptura.
• 26:06
  The Bible alone is our final infallible authority for faith
• 26:10
  in life. If you have the 66 books of the
• 26:12
  Bible, you have the completed sufficient revelation of God.
• 26:16
  You don't need another sign. And Jesus's own examples point
• 26:19
  to this. They do think about it.
• 26:21
  Nineveh repented at preaching. The Queen of Sheba came to your
• 26:24
  wisdom. They didn't have a laser like
• 26:26
  show. They didn't see a healing.
• 26:28
  They responded to the proclaimed Word, the ordinary means of
• 26:32
  grace, preaching Scripture, the sacraments.
• 26:35
  These are God's chosen methods for saving and sanctifying His
• 26:38
  people. And if the Bible and the
• 26:40
  resurrection aren't enough for you?
• 26:42
  A miracle won't save you either. That's the hard truth that Jesus
• 26:45
  teaches elsewhere in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus.
• 26:50
  The rich man begs for someone to come back from the dead to warn
• 26:52
  his brothers, and Abraham says if they do not listen to Moses
• 26:55
  and the prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone
• 26:59
  rises from the dead. People think if I just saw a
• 27:01
  real miracle, all my doubts would vanish.
• 27:03
  And it's not true they wouldn't. The Israelites saw the Red Sea
• 27:07
  part, ate manna from heaven, and we're worshipping a golden calf
• 27:11
  a few weeks later. Miracles don't regenerate
• 27:14
  hearts. The gospel applied by the Spirit
• 27:16
  regenerates hearts. This also has huge implications
• 27:20
  for how we do church, doesn't it?
• 27:21
  This temptation toward pragmatism, trying to entertain
• 27:24
  people into the Kingdom. It's a massive temptation for
• 27:27
  pastors and church leaders. We think we need to compete with
• 27:30
  Netflix and Hollywood. We feel this pressure to have
• 27:33
  smoke machines and professional level bands and funny skits
• 27:36
  because we're afraid the plain preaching of the Word will be
• 27:39
  boring. We're trying to entertain goats
• 27:42
  rather than feed sheep. That's a classic way of putting
• 27:45
  it, and it's true. We don't need a circus.
• 27:48
  We need the sign of Jonah. We need to clearly and
• 27:51
  faithfully proclaim Christ crucified and risen.
• 27:54
  Paul says that is the power of God and to salvation.
• 27:57
  If we bore people with the Bible, the problem isn't the
• 28:00
  Bible. The problem is they're
• 28:01
  unregenerate hearts or perhaps our unfaithful, lifeless
• 28:05
  presentation of it. But we cannot substitute our
• 28:07
  manufactured signs for the one sign God has given.
• 28:10
  So as we wrap up this deep dive, we're left with a pretty stark
• 28:14
  ultimatum. Jesus basically says I am not
• 28:16
  giving you the sign you want, I am giving you the one final sign
• 28:19
  you need and that is it. The empty tomb.
• 28:22
  That is the verdict. That is the Father's stamp of
• 28:25
  approval on everything Jesus said and did.
• 28:27
  That is the receipt that the debt of sin has been paid in
• 28:30
  full. We must stop bargaining with
• 28:32
  God. We have to stop putting Him on
• 28:34
  trial and saying, Lord, prove yourself to me one more time.
• 28:37
  He has proved himself. He has proved himself
• 28:39
  definitively. He died and he rose again.
• 28:42
  The question is no longer is God real or or is Jesus who he said
• 28:46
  he was. The question for every human
• 28:48
  heart is, will I bow? And that warning about the
• 28:51
  witnesses, the Ninevites and the Queen of Sheba haunts me a
• 28:55
  little bit. The idea that people with so
• 28:57
  much less light could stand up and condemn us who have so much.
• 29:00
  It should haunt us. It should chasten us.
• 29:03
  Don't let the Ninevites rise up against you.
• 29:04
  On Judgement Day. They repented with A5 word
• 29:06
  sermon from a racist prophet. We have the entire New
• 29:09
  Testament. We have 2000 years of church
• 29:11
  history. We have the indwelling Holy
• 29:13
  Spirit. We have absolutely no excuse for
• 29:15
  our unbelief or our apathy. The call then isn't to go
• 29:18
  looking for another sign, the call is to rest.
• 29:21
  Yes, that's it perfectly. Stop running after the next
• 29:24
  spiritual high. Stop looking for new proofs or
• 29:27
  fresh revelations. Rest in the finished work of
• 29:30
  Christ. Look at the empty tomb.
• 29:32
  That is the sign, and it is more than enough.
• 29:36
  Thank you for taking us through that.
• 29:37
  It is a heavy text, but a deeply necessary one.
• 29:40
  This has been reformed thinking. We hope this deep dive helps you
• 29:43
  stop seeking signs and start submitting to the Savior.
• 29:46
  Until next time. Grace and peace to you.