Here's Your Sign
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Intro
Intro
Time zones and time change.
Time change next week. That’s a reality of our current time system that is very inconvenient. But there are other aspects that we hardly think of that are very convenient.
Time zones were created as a result of and by railroad companies. How could one town know when the train would arrive? and more importantly, how could they know when the train would leave one town to arrive at another on time? What happened at one station is determined by what happens at the stations before it.
Jesus was confronted several times by the ‘time keepers’ of God’s plan. They were the ones who marked the times. What we find recorded int he Gospels is the tragic disagreement about who was the authority of those times. Was Jesus responsible to the scribes to show His place on the timeline? Let’s explore that question...
Pray
11 When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had arrived, they came and started to argue with him. Testing him, they demanded that he show them a miraculous sign from heaven to prove his authority.
12 When he heard this, he sighed deeply in his spirit and said, “Why do these people keep demanding a miraculous sign? I tell you the truth, I will not give this generation any such sign.” 13 So he got back into the boat and left them, and he crossed to the other side of the lake.
The pharisees were seeking a sign. But they were insincere about it.
They were convinced Jesus was a false flag - He claimed a position He was not entitled to.
Time of the Coming Messiah.
Time of the Coming Messiah.
The Messiah was expected. But what they expected was wrong.
They expected a king like David, but who would reign forever. There was a specific series of events that took place that Israel would look for to establish a new king.
Israel Kingly Accession
Designation (Anointing, declaration, Divine stamp of approval)
Baptism - water, Devine Declaration, Spirit
Act of legitimacy (Military conquest of defeat of opposition)
Temptation in the wilderness is the inaugural event
Casting out demons
combating pain of death of sin
Coronation
Crown and authority given.
This were likely the signs the Pharisees were looking for. But since they saw themselves as God’s instruments at the time, that stamp of approval would just HAVE to come through them!
We could see some of these elements in the recent accession of King Charles to the thrown on the Britain. We saw the designation (by the decree of the Accession Council) and then established in the position by the ceremony that followed. No need for that middle element of proving his steel in military conflict or otherwise besting an enemy.
But for the Messiah, they would have sought all three.
David was anointed by Samuel, defeated Goliath, and eventually crowned in Hebron. This was the pattern they were looking for in the Messiah.
And this doesn’t seem to be the first or only time they had asked Jesus about His validity.
Possibly the first time is recorded in John
13 The Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14 In the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money-changers sitting there. 15 And making a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen. And he poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables. 16 And he told those who sold the pigeons, “Take these things away; do not make my Father’s house a house of trade.” 17 His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.”
18 So the Jews said to him, “What sign do you show us for doing these things?” 19 Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” 20 The Jews then said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?” 21 But he was speaking about the temple of his body. 22 When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.
Jesus’ actions and words exposed His claim of Kingship. But the question was, “Who do you think you are?”
Two times this same type of conversation is recorded in Matthew.
38 Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered him, saying, “Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.” 39 But he answered them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. 40 For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
There is a parallel passage in Luke (11:29-32)
And again
1 And the Pharisees and Sadducees came, and to test him they asked him to show them a sign from heaven. 2 He answered them, “When it is evening, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red.’ 3 And in the morning, ‘It will be stormy today, for the sky is red and threatening.’ You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times. 4 An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah.” So he left them and departed.
In both of these Jesus responds with a word about His own death and resurrection.
When we consider the four Gospels, they are at least compatible with the expression of these three elements in the life of Jesus…
Designated at His baptism. Struggled against Satan the tempter in the wilderness, and then against acceptance by His own people for years. Finally - and here’s the most profound twist - Coronated at the cross. The Gospels are, in some ways, the Chronicles of the New Testament. Chronicles of the coming, the rise, and the establishment of the King. What else would we expect for One who’s coming was to establish the Kingdom of Heaven?
But most did not receive His message.
Our passage in Mark shows more frustration.
Deep sigh
No explanation
He moved on rather than engaging.
That is the most terrifying part of this to me.
Time’s Up For The Deniers.
Time’s Up For The Deniers.
Is there a time Jesus will stop engaging? Is there a time that it’s too late to receive His offer of salvation? Yes, and no.
There is clearly a time that God give us up to our own choices.
24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.
26 For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature;
For those who deny God, there is a time they are given up to their choice. But the result of their choice is not given at that time.
2 We know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things. 3 Do you suppose, O man—you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself—that you will escape the judgment of God? 4 Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?
There is a time, when we deny God’s authority - His Kingship - that He will remove His active engagement from us. We will feel empty. We will feel abandoned and alone. And we will feel the weight of our choices and sinful behaviour crashing down on us.
But we will not be crushed. Judgement is held back. Wallowing in the grime of our own sin is not God’s harsh judgement, but His patient and kind mercies.
romans 2:4 “4 Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?”
There is a time God moves away. Gets in the boat and leaves us in our denial. But that same God walks on that same water to show us His glory.
While yes, there is a time He gives us up, it is for the purpose of drawing us back.
No, it’s not too late to return. Salvation is at hand. Restoration is available.
I am speaking about an opportunity to see and acknowledge Jesus as the very presence of God who gave His perfect life to pay for your sins. He took the death penalty you deserved. It is never to late while you still breath to accept that offer and make Him the ruling King of your life.
But I am also speaking to those who are already saved. Do you think there are no areas in your life that you allow - that you demand - sin rule in? That passage in Romans 1 and 2 tell us entirely otherwise. It warns us against passing judgement on those who live filthily because the sin they highlight lives in us too! And when we let OUR judgement trump GOD’S mercy and patience, it is us who drive them to an eternal grave.
Let it not be!
Time To Share Hope.
Time To Share Hope.
So it is time to share hope! It is time to swallow pride. It is time to take the basket off the light God has lit in us! It’s time to obey the command of our King - Go, make disciples!
It is this imperative to go, this urgency to share, this desire to see souls saved from judgement that must motivate our direction.
As individual followers of Jesus - follow! There were twelve spies sent into the promised land. The majority touted reasons they could NOT obey God. It was only Joshua and Caleb who spoke up that God WOULD make His word true! As a reward, they were the only ones who would see the promised land.
For us, our Promised Land is sure. We have a place in God’s Kingdom established. But God didn’t only promise His Kingdom in Heaven, but commanded we would expand it here too!
Is It Time?
Is It Time?
To our friends and family, is it time?
To our neighbors and community, is it time?
Around our new church home, will you begin to pray now for them? Will you ask God how you can be a light of hope to them?
11 Besides this you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed.
In seeing the people of Jerusalem right before His crucifixion, Jesus said...
41 And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, 42 saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. 43 For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side 44 and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.”
May we not think too little of the time we have with others. May we spend that time not on thoughts of judgement or trifle matters. But on the message of hope. The hour of Jesus visitation might just be that time you have with them this week.
Pray
In Mark, never called king until trial. Then called king 6 time in 30 verses.