God’s Sign for Man’s Unbelief | Matthew 12

April 12, 2014

INTRODUCTION

Are you battling with doubt or unbelief? Do you question God’s love towards you in your situation? This is the word of God for you.

Matthew 12:38-50

The Signs of Jonah

³⁸Then some of the Pharisees and teachers of the law said to him, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from you.” ³⁹He answered, “A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. ⁴⁰For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. ⁴¹The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now something greater than Jonah is here.

⁴²The Queen of the South will rise at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for she came from the ends of the earth to listen to Solomon’s wisdom, and now something greater than Solomon is here.

⁴³“When an impure spirit comes out of a person, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. ⁴⁴Then it says, ‘I will return to the house I left.’ When it arrives, it finds the house unoccupied, swept clean and put in order. ⁴⁵Then it goes and takes with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that person is worse than the first. That is how it will be with this wicked generation.”

Jesus’ Mother and Brothers

⁴⁶While Jesus was still talking to the crowd, his mother and brothers stood outside, wanting to speak to him. ⁴⁷Someone told him, “Your mother and brothers are standing outside, wanting to speak to you.” ⁴⁸He replied to him, “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?” ⁴⁹Pointing to his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers. ⁵⁰For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”

Evidence seeking generation

We are a generation looking for scientific, empiric and cognitive proofs to believe in concepts and theories. Many times when we come to Jesus, we come with the same mindset. We put Jesus on the witness stand and demand proof of his work and existence in our life. When we struggle with faith, we demand evidence for his love towards us. I have heard people tell, “I don’t understand this concept about God, so my faith is struggling.” Yet there are others who say, “Lord I am facing this challenge for a long time, my situations are not changing. I am your child but I do not experience your love. I am struggling in my faith.” We often say, “Jesus if you are Lord and I am your child, why is my life like this. If you are powerful and you love me, I expect you to change my situation.”

Today’s passage is a narrative about people demanding a sign from Jesus. Then Jesus talks about impure spirits and explains how dangerous it is to be noncommittal in standing in the fence regarding our faith. Then Jesus talks about his family. Who are truly his people.

CONTEXT

Matthew presents Jesus as the Messiah, the king of the Jews.

Matthew 4 Jesus has inaugurated his Kingdom.
Matthew 5-7 Teachings in the Kingdom.
Matthew 9-10 Miracles in the Kingdom.
Matthew 11-12 People doubt the Kingdom, yet some believe and follow.

Now, in Matthew 12:38, you have got a group of people who are demanding proof from Jesus.

These are people who are offended or bothered by Jesus’ claims about himself. God’s people (Israel, the covenant people), put God in the witness stand and demand proof from God.

This is written because there are times when we as God’s people demand proof from God. It might be you are offended because of what Jesus claims about himself but there are a lots of reasons why we get into this headspace where we put God in the witness stand and we demand that Jesus prove himself to us.

Some of you maybe in this headspace, I have been at some times in my life when I wrestle through a doubt regarding my experience, or an intellectual doubt or struggle or question in my life, or question about Christianity etc. I think many of us can end up putting Jesus on the witness stand when difficult life circumstances happen and we just want Jesus to come through for someone else or for us, solve some problem or heal a sickness or whatever.

So what is story about?

We are talking about moment where we have this kind of resistance to Jesus and want him to prove himself to us. In these moments of struggle with Jesus, it is like we are reserving the right to not actually be committed to him, until Jesus comes through with this thing I need him to deal with. That is what we are talking about. That is what is happening here in this story.

Jesus says that is a dangerous place. If you reserve the right to not be committed to Jesus until he does this thing for you, this is not a good place to be in. It is like taking a stick in our prayer times and going to Jesus and saying, “Solve my problem and then I will follow you.” We never actually say that, but that is what his happening here. More of us have been in this moment with Jesus than probably we would like to admit. Many of us have been there and we are struggling to even want to give our allegiance to Jesus because he is not coming through for us in the way that we want him to. If you are honest with yourself, you have been there. So let’s see how Jesus navigates the scenario.

Let us go to

Matthew 12:38

Then some of the Pharisees and teachers of the law said to him, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from you.”

Who is asking Jesus to provide a sign?

The scripture teachers and the Pharisees. If we read the story out of context, you are just like, “It is just religious people and they want a sign from Jesus. That is a reasonable request. Jesus is making this kind of claims about himself as the Messiah. That seems reasonable.”

So how does Jesus respond? What is Jesus’ response?

Matthew 12:39

He answered, “A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.

So what is happening here?

If you see how Matthew 11 ends, Jesus talks about offering rest to people but in Matthew 12 the Pharisees accuse Jesus and his disciples of breaking the rest of the Sabbath. So, the Pharisees pick a fight with Jesus. They are like fighting with Jesus because He is not observing the sabbath in the way they thing he ought to. In the process Jesus provides them with enough sign that He is the Messiah.

Jesus Provides Enough Sign In Matthew 12.

Jesus is greater than the temple. Mt. 12:6
Son of Man is the Lord of the Sabbath. Mt. 12:8
Healing of a man with a shrivelled hand. Mt. 12:9-13
Healing of a demon possessed man who was mute and blind. Mt. 12:22

People were astonished and called Jesus: “Could this be the Son of David.” In all these process, Jesus has not broken the Sabbath rules or the tradition of the Pharisees. But the Pharisees accuse Jesus of doing these signs by the power of Beelzebub, the prince of daemons.

This is the context of our text today.

Matthew 12:14-15

But the Pharisees went out and plotted how they might kill Jesus. Aware of this, Jesus withdrew from that place.

The Pharisees said, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from you.”

Is this a genuine question? No.

Now these guys are hatching plans to murder Jesus, and they come to Jesus and ask for a sign.

ILLUSTRATION

It is like your best friend betraying you behind your back and then you see this friend at a function and she comes and asks you., “How are you doing today?” This is what is happening here. These are people who are creating plans to murder Jesus. They come in public and ask this question, “Teacher we are so interested in what you are teaching and in the kingdom, so can you show us another sign or some more proof?’

Jesus knows that these people are plotting to kill him,. They are plotting to murder an innocent man.

Jesus’ Reply:

Matthew 12:39

He answered, “A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.”

He calls them wicked and adulterous:

Wicked – They are plotting to murder Jesus who has done nothing but heal and help people.

Adulterous – Then he calls then adulterous. Jesus’ grew up reading the OT and his mind is filled with the thinking and the theology of the OT writers like the prophets, poets, and the historians. The prophets look at the people of Israel, God’s covenant people and when they resist and rebel against YAHWEH, the prophet calls that Israel adulterous.

They stood at Mount Sinai and said, “Yes, we are your people. We will follow your laws and be faithful to you and we will follow wherever you lead us.” God led them some 1500 years. Then Jesus comes as Immanuel, as the very embodiment of that God for his own people, his bride for 1500 years.

What is the response of the leadership of Israel to Jesus?

We need more signs, we need more proof that you are our Messiah. By the way, this is not much about proof because they are already plotting in their minds to kill him, they have already rejected Jesus.

They felt that Jesus is evil and that they are on the side of God, they are going to kill Jesus by which they are going to do a service to God. So here they put up a pretext that they want a sign.

Here is the problem

The Pharisees are portrayed pretty negatively in the second half of the gospel of Matthew. It is easy for us to distance ourselves from the attitude of the Pharisees. We feel we are better than the Pharisees but remember we are not strangers to this mindset. It may not be you are intent in murdering Jesus.

The Pharisees had an expectation of what the Messiah would do when he came

A part of that story of expectation involved a victorious, military operation against the Romans. Liberate them from the Romans like an Exodus story, and give them freedom and set up a new kingdom of David in Jerusalem. Jesus is proclaiming that he is the Messiah, but the reign and rule of God that Jesus says has come does not look like is happening. They are not at all seeing kingdom in their perspective.

The Kingdom that Jesus set up has an upside down value system

The highest value in this kingdom is love, healthy relationships, in loving God, loving your neighbour including your neighbour which means not killing the Romans but actually praying for the Romans and loving the Romans. The Pharisees cannot understand this. They say, “Jesus is not the Messiah because he is not dancing to our tunes, doing what we expect him to do.” He is not being the Messiah the way we think the Messiah has to behave, so they doubt and want more proof from Jesus.

So, this is not about proof at this point. It is about Jesus is not behaving the way they want him to behave. Because of that they demand that he just do one more thing to demonstrate he is who he says he is.

Brothers and sisters, we are not strangers to this kind of resistance to Jesus. Think about your own life. You have Jesus in your life. You are trying to follow Jesus and then the way He works in my life is just not the way that I would prefer him to work. I don’t like how Jesus is behaving in my life right now. So he does not solve my problem, so I am genuinely pained why I am like this in spite of following Jesus.

APPLICATION

So there is someone who is sick with cancer and they are praying and praying that Jesus would heal this person. Or there is some situation in our life which I want to sort out. Or I do not want to be jobless all through. I want to find a job. I want a good marriage partner and things are not working out. These genuine concerns when not met can disappoint us. We have a feeling that Jesus’ no. 1 priority is to work in that situation in the way that I want him to. Then Jesus does not and it begins to generate this resistance. Then we find ourselves in a space where we end up bargaining with Jesus because, “Jesus if you just do this one thing, then I know you are who you say you are and I will commit myself to you.”

If you are going to follow Jesus, you can end up in this phase.

Maybe you have justifications for all the expectations and plans that you have. Then you say, “Jesus this one more thing and then I will commit myself to you.”

Most people when they come to Christ, they say, “Here is my expectation of what Jesus should do and here is what Jesus is doing in my life. It is not the way I want Jesus to respond in my life.”

It also forces us to ask what do we do if we do not get all our expectations met when we follow Jesus. Can I give Jesus all my allegiance even though I have to redo my expectations? What do you with your doubts on faith?

This is a very dangerous position to put yourself in for lots of different reasons. Those reasons are these three responses that Jesus works through

So what is Jesus’ response to unbelief?

Three main responses:

Sign of Prophet Jonah.
A Talk on Impure spirits.
Jesus talks about his mother and brothers.

Matthew 12:39-40

³⁹He answered, “A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. ⁴⁰For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

You don’t get a sign except the sign of Jonah. The only sign you are going to get is of the prophet Jonah. This is so strange that Jesus is comparing himself with Jonah.

Who is Jonah?

Jonah is one of the most bitter, stubborn prophet in the Bible. He resists almost every attempt that God makes to humble him and to get him to do what God is asking him to do. He hates non-Israelites. And He hates people who are not like himself, so much that he would rather die than go announce God’s judgment and compassion to the people of Nineveh. When finally Jonah reach Nineveh and they do respond to Jonah’s one sentence preaching, and they humble and turn to the God of Israel, Jonah is so mad that he demands that God put him to death. The story ends with Jonah accusing God of being too loving and too good to his enemies.

Now Jesus is comparing himself to Jonah. Actually, Jesus is not comparing himself to Jonah but he specifies what he means. Jesus compares himself with Jonah to the strange death that Jonah undergoes. He sinks to the bottom of the sea and then he is swallowed up by a huge fish for 3 days. When you are reading the story, it is not a great news. You don’t want to be swallowed up by a great fish. The point is what Jonah has done, but then miraculously God’s grace preserves this man from death and delivers him from death. This is the story that Jesus eludes to. After disobedience and death, then he rises and he goes and preaches a message and people responds to him. This is the sign.

So what is Jesus comparing himself to? Why does he talk about the Jonah story?

Jesus knows that he too is going to be swallowed up by death. Now how does Jesus know that. He is God. He was aware that the Pharisees were plotting to kill him, He withdrew from that place.

The people that he knows are hatching a plan to murder him and eventually Jesus knows that he has come to die. Jesus being God can see what is coming through these people. He knows and trusts that His Father is not going to let their ego and his death be the last word, but then he will be delivered from death. Jesus will be delivered into death and through death and from death into something on the other side.

Matthew 12:40

For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

Once His resurrection, his deliverance from death will vindicate him and his message as he really being who he says he is.

These people reject Jesus, but they come to Jesus and demand a proof which they don’t actually want. So Jesus says, “You don’t get any proof, because your motives are not right and you will never get me right. So I will change my mind. Here is the proof you get, the anti-sign. The only sign you are going to get is that you are going to kill me That is your sign. You are going to kill me and I am going to let you kill me.”

Who is Jesus in Matthew?

Jesus is Immanuel. He is the God of Israel come to be with his people. His presence, his goodness, his mercy draws goodness out of some people and repentance and humility from some people. It heals some people. But for others who are so fixed on how the God of Israel must be and Jesus is not that what I expect and reject Jesus. Here is the sign for all of us when we feel that Jesus is not behaving according to our expectation.

So here is the sign.

I am going to die and I am going to let you kill me because according to Isaiah I have come as a suffering servant. Matthew 12:18-21. He so loves his people that he is going to die for them. He is going to take their sins onto himself and absorb their own evil and the consequences of their own evil onto himself and take it to the grave because he loves them and because he is committed to them.

APPLICATION

A wicked and adulterous generation does not get a sign except the sign that you hate me, and you are going to kill me and I am going to let you kill me because I love you and I am committed to you despite your adultery and faithlessness. POINT: Jesus Remains Faithful Even Though His People Are Faithless.

Jesus says, “I don’t even need to condemn you. Your own actions condemn you..”

Who else will condemn you?

Matthew 12:41-42

⁴¹The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now something greater than Jonah is here. ⁴²The Queen of the South (1 Kings 10. She is the queen of ancient Ethiopia. She hears about the wisdom that the God of Israel has given to Solomon. And she makes this long journey and gives Solomon these great gifts.) will rise at the judgment with this generation and condemn it (those who listened to Jesus); for she came from the ends of the earth to listen to Solomon’s wisdom, and now something greater than Solomon is here.

So Jesus says, “I don’t need to condemn you.” He picks two stories of non-Israelites who had the faintest revelation of the God of Israel. Jonah preached a short, one-sentence sermon to Nineveh and they repented. The queen of Sheba just heard a report of the wisdom the God of Israel has given to his king Solomon. So they travel this long distance and come and totally humble themselves and turn to the God of Israel. And Jesus says to the Pharisees, “I don’t need to condemn you for your wicked adulterous heart, but these people are going to do that.

Because they are going to say, ‘You had a prophet greater than Jonah, you had a Messiah King that is far greater than Solomon and you killed him. You are so wrapped up in your vision of how God should behave, how the Messiah should behave. You actually hated God when he finally came and is doing something for you and you killed him. I don’t need to condemn you (Point One’s Own Actions Of Rejecting Jesus Condemn Oneself.) your own actions condemn yourself.’”

Then Jesus speaks about impure spirits.

Matthew 12:43-45

The impure spirit goes out of a person and seeks for a place of rest and does not find it. Then the spirit returns to the house it left. The person is the metaphor of the house. It is empty and unoccupied and really clean when the evil has left it. But then the spirit cannot find anywhere and then the spirit comes back and sees the house to be better than the spirit left, and the spirit goes and calls its friends (7 other spirits) and comes and live in that person or house.

What is Jesus actually talking about?

Matthew 12:45

⁴⁵Then it goes and takes with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that person is worse than the first. That is how it will be with this wicked generation.”

What is Jesus actually talking about? .. this wicked generation. This is how it will be with this wicked generation. Here is telling a parable here. This is not a study on exorcism but here Jesus is telling a parable here. Jesus is using an idea that is popular and understood in his generation that when someone is liberated from spiritual oppression because of Jesus, that is a genuine improvement. But if the house or the person’s life remain unoccupied, then it is vulnerable to that evil returning and having even more destructive influence and have even more devastating consequence.

ILLUSTRATION

Imagine a person are having addition with alcohol. He decides to find help to come out of the addition. So he go to AA and take help is having the same set of friend. Now, his home (body) is clear of alcohol intake but he is not filling his house with new things, new friends, and new things to do. Actually, if you are planning to come out of some addition, you need to fill yourself with new friends, new environment, a new way of utilizing your time and fill your day with things that keep you away from your addiction. What if you stop alcohol because of some counselling sessions and have the same group of friends. The chances are that you will end up with the same addition and consume even more.

So Jesus is using the evil spirit as an image of this whole situation with the leaders of Israel and with the people of Israel. Jesus is saying, “If you fill your house with me and my teaching, then you have a new way of life, a new community I am forming. If you come to me and just be superficial be in the fence. Then it is going to be more destructive.”

He is also speaking of the house of Israel. I have come to the people of Israel as their Messiah. If you receive me, then have my way of life. But if Israel rejects me, then the destruction can be even more devastating.

Jesus is using this as an image of this situation. I am confronting evil and brining the rule and reign of God and that is having a positive effect in Israel. But here is the thing. You are going to kill me and I am going to let you because I love you and things are going to change after that refusal. The house will be empty and people will have a choice as to what they are going to do with Jesus after that point. Jesus can come and have an effect on someone, but if they have not actually committed themselves wholeheartedly to follow Jesus, and if they are superficial. Jesus says that for people in that situation it is actually dangerous because their final condition will be worse than the first.

This is a parable. Jesus is critiquing this shallow reception of himself.

That when people kind of have this positive effect on their life and say, “I need Jesus. I kind of get a positive effect on my life. Jesus helps me have a good day.” This is good but if there is no wholehearted commitment to actually follow the real Jesus what you end up doing is following a Jesus of your own making. For such people, Jesus guarantees that Jesus will let you down. Because you are forming a Jesus who is a magician, He will solve all my problem when I pray to him and then all of a sudden you hit this point when Jesus is not behaving the way you expected and he is not doing what I thought.

Then you will get bitter, then you will be frustrated the and then all the transforming power that Jesus could have in your life you never even open yourself to it because you are not following Jesus. This is happening here. Point So The Final Condition Is Worse Than The First. This is an intense warning.

This paves the way to the note of hope after this harsh warning.

Matthew 12:46-50

⁴⁶While Jesus was still talking to the crowd, his mother and brothers stood outside, wanting to speak to him. (Apparently Jesus is now inside a house with his disciples and the crowd.) ⁴⁷Someone told him, “Your mother and brothers are standing outside, wanting to speak to you.” ⁴⁸He replied to him, “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?” ⁴⁹Pointing to his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers. ⁵⁰For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”

It is not that Jesus is rude to his mother and brother. The point is that Jesus is in the business of creating a new family, a new household, a people who will just sit and listen to him and have the intention of actually following him and doing the will of His Father in heaven. The people who actually want to be disciples of Jesus. That is in contrast to even his own family.

Yes, the Pharisees refused Jesus. But here his own family is not in the crowd with him listening to him. We do not really know other than Mary until the resurrection if anyone from his family wanted to follow Jesus as his disciple.

Here the contrast is between the disciples who are in the house and they are sitting and listening to Jesus and then you have Jesus’ own family, and they are standing and staying outside the house and they expect Jesus to come out to meet them.

So we have the contrast of Jesus’ own family, people who have every reason to know Jesus very well but they don’t actually. Then you have the Pharisees who know the law but fail to follow Jesus.

Jesus says, “No this is my family, people who trust me, invite me into their home, who sit and put themselves under the yoke of the kingdom, Mt. 11 and follow me.”

CONCLUSION

So what is happening in this passage? We have three people that we can model.

Pharisees

You have got the Pharisees because Jesus have not behaved they want him to behave, they have refused him outright. They put up a pretext of demanding proof but it is not really about proof. They reject Jesus and are plotting to kill him.

Family

You have Jesus’ family and they want Jesus to work on their terms and to come out to them. Jesus is not meeting their expectation.

Disciples

Then you have the people in the house. They see the real Jesus for who he is and they just want to sit and listen to him and commit themselves to following Jesus.

Where are you today? Are you like the Pharisees, or Jesus’ family or like the disciples? Have you truly understood the sign? What is this sign? Talking about Jonah’s life Jesus compared to his sign. His life, his death and his resurrection are a sign. They had the sign standing right in front of them and they missed Jesus.

Jesus is God’s sign.

You are going to kill me but I am going to let you because I love you.

Why did Jesus’ death have a meaning which is the act of God’s love? It is God coming among his own people, and they do not like him and because he does not meet their expectation and he exposes them, and they plot against him and kill him.

The paradox is that God Is So Committed To Binding Himself To Broken People that even despite our own faithlessness, he remains faithful. In Jesus we see God binding himself to wicked and hearted human and he becomes human, he lives among us, loving us, having compassion towards such people. He dies long with us, for us and for our sins and he is raised from the dead as an expression of God’s love for us and he offers us his life as a gift.

When we ask Jesus to prove that he really loves us, Jesus just says that look at me, look at my life for you and my death and resurrection. This is my sign that I love you. It is the sign of my life, my death, my resurrection as my gift to you.

Jesus’ death and resurrection exposed and our real need as human beings. We do not have a magician God who solves all our problems the way we want it. It is a God who comes and address the heart of the human condition, that we are in a culture of wickedness, evil and death because of sin and we live and participate in a culture of death and the creator God comes among us because of his love and grace and he takes us into himself on our behalf, he defeats death it and he brings himself back to life and he gives us that life as a gift.

What more do you want me to do for you says Jesus? Jesus does not ever promise that he will solve all of our problems. What he promises is that he will be with us and his presence with us is the presence of Jesus who is committed to us, he died for us and he reigns for us.

So, what I am I going to do?

I can either refuse that sign and say Jesus died 2000 years ago and I do not find any relevance to my life and situation now.
Be like Jesus’ family. I could be like Jesus’ family I will be connected to Jesus. I will stay outside the house and hand around kind of Christianity. But actually what I really want him to do is to come outside and me at my condition and terms.
Come to Jesus. We can humble ourselves and come to Jesus.

We understand that there are stuffs that happen in our lives and we do not know why, there are disappointments and other things that come that life bring in this world, but they do not alter the fact of God’s sign for you and I in Jesus. Whatever your life circumstances are, Jesus is saying that they do not alter the fact that I have done what I have done for you, because I love you.

You can either reject it or you can be near of it and be around it in your life. Or you can come sit inside the house and trust and follow me. That is what is going on in Matthew 12.

APPLICATION

I know that we are all in different stages of our following Jesus. And I want to ask you, which of these three stages you see yourself in?

Our salvation points to the true sign.
Our fellowship points to the true sign of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection.
The communion elements point to the true sign, Jesus.
The hope of His return points to the true sign.

I just want to encourage you to ask Jesus to give you the insight to see the real Jesus. Ask God to soften your heart and see the real Jesus who loves you and he proved it by coming into our this world, living and dying for us. He gave his life for us and he rose again for us. Thank God for the sign.

The benefit of following Jesus: Rest. Matthew 11

LIFE APPLICATION POINTS

Jesus Remains Faithful Even Though His People Are Faithless.
The Life, Death, & Resurrection Of Jesus Is The Sign For Us That Jesus Is God.
One’s Own Actions Of Rejecting Jesus Condemn Oneself.
Jesus Is Looking For Wholehearted Commitment. (Allow him into your house, sit in his presence, learn from him, and take his yoke upon you.)
Superficial Christianity Is Dangerous. (The final condition is worse than the first. This is an intense warning.)
God Is So Committed To Binding Himself To Broken People

God’s Sign for Man’s Unbelief | Matthew 12