How Many Signs Do We Need?

Signs prove claims.

What is Jesus’s life and ministry claiming?

Healer, Creator, Sovereign Lord....

By the time we get to chapter 12 we have seen claims of His Kingship, his omnipotence (all powerful), because he has healed the blind and the physically deformed. He claimed to be the bridegroom of the bride. Israel understands this language, because Israel had forever been called the bride of God, but Jesus also made the claim that he was bringing something new that would replace the old, because the old system of the Jews is like an old garment, or an old wineskin, and he was ushering in something completely new.

All of these claims of his Kingship, and His sonship, are essentially claims to his Godhood, and the signs have been plentiful, including the most recent clear sign of his power and authority when He cast a demon out of a man who was blind and mute right in front of their eyes.

In light of this, read v38 with me again, and see what you think.

v38 Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered him, saying, “Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.”

First of all, for them to use the word, Teacher, here is an utter insult. The word means, Master, but it has already been proven that their Master is the devil.

You cannot call Christ Lord and Master out of one side of your face, while saying his power is from Beelzebub.

How Jesus responds to this request is telling as to what their motivation was. “An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign.”

Remember what we’ve already discussed. They’re not looking for directions somewhere. This is not sincere. Whereas a Christian might ask for a sign, some sincere plea to hear from God in a time of trial, genuinely wanting to know the will of God…we should never be asking God to show us anything to prove that He is who He says he is, or that Jesus is God, or that Christ is Savior.

They were looking for further proof, not to help their faith grow, but to disprove the clear evidence, and hop to justify their own sin.

Think about how easy it is to live a life rejecting Christ as God because you have not seen the sign you want to see.

But that’s not how it works in a world in which God has created, and over which he rules. And that’s why we don’t see him soften here and say something like…sure, whatever you need I’ll do it for you.

Look at His response in v39 “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.”

Why did He say this?

He’s not saying that they won’t see any more signs from Him. He’s simply saying that they don’t get to choose which sign proves that He is the true Messiah. And what we’re going to see by his bringing up the prophet, Jonah, is twofold.

1. What he is going to do by His life, death, burial, and resurrection is the only sign we really need to see that He is Savior, and be saved from our sins.

2. This generation of Jews who reject Christ are going to be worse off than they ever have been for their disobedience. And anyone who follows in this kind of unbelief will end in the same condemnation.

Look at v40 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.

Jesus is explaining what the phrase “The sign of Jonah” means. There’s something about Jonah that Jesus wants us to compare to Him. Let’s remember some of those details.

God told him to preach repentance to the Ninevites because of their treacherous evil. What did he do? He disobeyed, and boarded a ship to Tarshish in the opposite direction. Jonah 1:4 says that God “hurled a great wind upon the sea, so that the ship threatened to break up.”

Everyone on board is afraid and trying to figure out what to do. They all tried crying out to their pagan gods, but nobody answered. They’re throwing cargo overboard to lighten the ship - and Jonah is asleep in the inner part of the vessel. The captain comes down and tells Jonah to call out to his God, maybe He will listen. They end up realizing that it must be because of Jonah, and they ask him who His God is.

Jonah 1:9 I am a Hebrew, and I fear the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.”

This really makes them afraid, and they said “what shall we do”, and Jonah says “Pick me up and hurl me into the sea; then the sea will quiet down for you, for I know it is because of me that this great tempest has come upon you.”

You know the story…They throw him over, God sends a great fish to swallow him, and in 1:17 it says “And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.”

In chapter 2 he repents from inside the fish, God spoke to the fish and it vomits him on the dry land.

In Chapter 3 Jonah calls Nineveh to repentance, and they do repent…and chapter 4…well, you should go read it again this afternoon.

Notice how matter of fact Jesus speaks about Jonah and the great fish? Have no doubt…if Jesus says it’s true…it’s true. It happened.

How is any of this similar to Jesus?

Jonah gave his life to appease the wrath of God, and though he swallowed by a fish (which Jonah himself described as hell), and it was an impossible situation…he did not stay there, but was raised out of the depths to bring salvation to Nineveh.

The prophetic picture of Christ screams from this story…But Jesus is the better prophet, for he was without sin.

Jesus gave His life on the cross, willingly and freely. His innocent and sinless life pleased God, and because of this, he was the perfect sacrifice to atone for sinners, and appease the wrath we deserved with his death. After His death, he is placed in a tomb (which for now is a sufficient explanation for the phrase “in the heart of the earth”). There the body of Christ lay, until on that Sunday morning He arose in victory, completely conquering sin and death.

That’s the sign of Jonah, the death and resurrection of Jesus. So, when they ask for a sign, or proof that He is the Messiah, the King, the Son of God, this is His answer…not that he has no sign further to show them, but that the most important sign, the only sign they need is yet to come. Will they believe when they see it?

Let me ask you here and now?

Do you ask for a further sign that this? Are you satisfied with the sign of Jonah, the resurrection of Jesus, the Son of God, the proof that He was and is God, and the savior, the lamb of God, the one who has the authority to forgive sin?

An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign. Jesus speaks to that era, that generation of Jews, who reject him then and there, though the miracles are right in front of them. Far less was given to Nineveh, and they repented. Notice v41 and 42

The point of this is simple…Something greater than Jonah had come, and something greater than Solomon has come.

Greater than Jonah because he is God. Greater than Jonah because He did many miracles and preached many years to them. Greater than Jonah because he did not rebel first against God, but went humbly and obediently to the cross to die for sinners. Greater than Jonah because we was not swallowed by a fish, but took upon Himself all the sinfulness of man, and the wrath of God as a punishment, then died. He was not vomited up on land, but overpowered death.

The queen of the south is referring to the queen of sheba in 1 Kings 10. She comes from the ends of the earth to hear his wisdom, and give him great and costly gifts, and Jesus says that He is even greater than Solomon, David’s son.

Let’s just think about the extent to which people will go for knowledge, and wisdom, and intellect. How many of us would consider it a great honor to consult Solomon for one day - for he was the richest, wisest, most knowledgeable man to ever walk this earth, and yet Jesus is greater than even Him, for he owns Heaven and earth, spoke it all into existence, and is himself wisdom and truth.

The testimony of Nineveh’s repentance - being warned by someone far lesser than Jesus - will serve to condemn them on the day of Judgement. The testimony of sheba, because she sought after the wisdom of God before God ever became flesh, will serve to condemn these Pharisees on the day of Judgement...

An evil and adulterous generation, an unfaithful generation, an unfaithful people of any time, place, or era, are those who have heard the testimony of Christ, and reject it.

Jesus goes on to explain just how bad off that generation of Jews would be for their stance against the true Messiah.

v43 “When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, but finds none. 44 Then it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ And when it comes, it finds the house empty, swept, and put in order. 45 Then it goes and brings with it seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and dwell there, and the last state of that person is worse than the first. So also will it be with this evil generation.”

The reason we know this another parable about the current circumstance, and not just some out of the blue teaching about possession, is because of the repeated phrase… “So also will it be with this evil generation.”

There are real truths we can learn about the demonic here, but the main point is that the state of these Jews who are rejecting Christ at that time, or for anyone who rejects Christ today for that matter, is a despicable state and doomed to get worse and worse. No amount of human attempts to cleans yourself from evil will ever work. By refusing to trust Christ here, the Pharisees and the ongoing Jewish religious system would continue to spend centuries seeking to please God by their good works, their efforts, their ceremonies…and it’s a futile thing.

Satan is not alarmed by a swept clean, orderly, religious, or relatively good life.

The man who was just possessed by a demon, and healed by Christ, needed a stronger man who could bind up the demon and cast him out. Jesus draws from this same imagery, and tells this entire generation that because they have rejected the stronger man, they will go from bad to worse as a people.

We learn from this that the Devil desires a place to rest…or a place to dwell. Demons are not simply wandering, or disembodied spirits. They want a house, or host, or at the very least a person to devour, and deceive and draw away from Christ.

Do you feel the urgency here? Be filled with Christ today, because until he takes up residence in your house and your heart, you are open to all manner of evil. 1 Peter 5:8 “sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.”

The generation Jesus is speaking to will crucify Him, and within the century Jerusalem and the temple would be destroyed by God by the the hands of the Roman empire. Do the Jews worship Christ today? No, not as a whole. Most continue to reject him, and Israel is not a nation after God’s heart.

v46-50 While he was still speaking to the people, behold, his mother and his brothers stood outside, asking to speak to him. 48 But he replied to the man who told him, “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?” 49 And stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! 50 For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”

And so we have a sweet ending to this discourse.

We have a clear word from Christ that, though that evil and adulterous generation had rejected him, there is a remnant who are His family.

You don’t join the family of God by birth. You can’t earn it. You can’t be good enough. Who are his mother, brothers, and sisters? It’s not those who demand signs from Him. The family of Christ are all those who by faith have looked to the sign of Jonah, the cross and the resurrection by faith, and are satisfied in Him.

My call to you is that if you are not His disciple today, that you become a disciple by trusting in the Christ. Repent of your sin, turn to the Son of God, believe the good news of His death and resurrection, and be saved. For the disciple of Christ, do not fall back to demanding signs - you have all you need.

Romans 8:32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?