Looking for Signs
Notes
Transcript
Introduction:
What are some wise pithy sayings that you’ve heard people say about the weather or the times we live in?
"When the wind is in the east, 'tis neither good for man nor beast." – Suggests that easterly winds often bring bad weather.
"Ring around the moon, rain soon." – A halo around the moon can indicate moisture in the air, often preceding rain.
"Clear moon, frost soon." – A bright, clear night often means colder temperatures and potential frost.
Some Southernisms are:
“It’s fixin’ to come up a cloud”
“The bottom’s about to fall out”
“The air feels thick enough to cut with a knife”
If you are going fishing, you might look to the fields on the way.
The cows are lying down, it’s gonna rain
Most of these sayings are actually true or they wouldn’t have reached a status of popularity like they have.
Today, we are going to look at what Jesus had to say about people reading the skies and looking for signs of the times.
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.
5 When the disciples reached the other side, they had forgotten to bring any bread.
6 Jesus said to them, “Watch and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”
7 And they began discussing it among themselves, saying, “We brought no bread.”
8 But Jesus, aware of this, said, “O you of little faith, why are you discussing among yourselves the fact that you have no bread?
9 Do you not yet perceive? Do you not remember the five loaves for the five thousand, and how many baskets you gathered?
10 Or the seven loaves for the four thousand, and how many baskets you gathered?
11 How is it that you fail to understand that I did not speak about bread? Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”
12 Then they understood that he did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.
Pray
Matthew highlights the different responses to Jesus in this chapter.
All of the responses can be categorized into one of the following four categories.
Jesus is Denied
Jesus is Misunderstood
Jesus is Confessed
Jesus is Served
This morning we are only going to look at the first two and then in a few weeks we will come back and look at the last two.
1. Jesus is Denied (vv. 1-4)
1. Jesus is Denied (vv. 1-4)
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.
We are pretty good at reading natural signs around us. At least some of us can.
We all have that friend that can read the obvious signs that you need to go and not stand around talking all day.
Jesus refers to the concept of weather forecasting that most people would have been able to use.
Back then they were better at reading the weather patterns by gazing at the sky. They didn’t have the weather app on their phone or 13wmaz on the TV.
They could look at the sky and tell if the weather was going to be a frog strangler or not. They could also tell the time of day by looking at how high in the sky the sun was.
Many of us would be lost today if we had to depend on the signs.
However, what Jesus is referring to is deeper than natural signs. They could read these signs easily, but they could not read the signs of the time that pointed to the identity of Jesus.
These leaders who came to Jesus were from two different parties that were at odds with each other.
Pharisees - the self-righteous, “holy men” with all of their rules and regulations
These would have been mostly scattered throughout the country of Israel
Sadducees - these were the liberal, anything goes guys
They had compromised and gained influential positions through bribery and were mainly centered in Jerusalem and held the priestly roles
They didn’t believe in angels or the resurrection of the dead and had a “one life to live so make it count” attitude
You could group the Pharisees into the super religious category and the Sadduccees into the liberal category.
Both of these enemies team up against a common enemy in Jesus. He was a threat to them both as the rightful heir of the Kingdom and the Son of God.
They both should have been familiar with all of the signs of the Bible that pointed to who the Messiah would be and when He would come.
They came to Jesus wanting to see a sign from heaven. Origin, one of the early church fathers, wrote in his commentary that they believed that earthly signs like many of the miracles that Jesus had been doing, could be done by Satan or his demons. Of course, this would have to have been the Pharisees since the Sadduccees didn’t believe in angels or fallen angels.
They believed that only a sign from heaven could be a real sign, according to Origin's view.
This may be true, but they failed to recognize the many signs from heaven, like the fire that fell from heaven and killed Job’s livestock.
The truth is that Jesus had performed miracles, or signs as the word really means, that no one could really do if they were not from God. The issue was not that they needed a sign to confirm their faith. The real issue is that they had already rejected Jesus and hardened their hearts in unbelief.
This is why Jesus says in verse 4,
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.
What is ironic about this is that Jesus tells them that the only sign they will get is the sign of Jonah. Jesus has previously referred to this sign in Matthew 12:39.
This sign was that just as Jonah pointed to Jesus in that he was in the depths of the earth in the belly of the great fish for 3 days and 3 nights and was spit out onto the land in a type of resurrection, Jesus would be cut off from the land of the living and be 3 days in the grave and then rise again.
Jesus performed many signs that pointed to His identity, but His ultimate sign is the sign of His resurrection. It is ironic because it is a sign that comes straight from Heaven down to earth.
Illustration
You’ve probably heard someone say something like, “Yeah, I’ll believe that when I see it.”
The truth is that seeing is not believing, believing is seeing and God has given us proof to back up our faith, but we must first have faith to begin with in His Word.
Application
Pastor Jon Courson puts it this way,
Miracles never convert a person. They can satisfy a person’s curiosity, but they will never bring him into a born-again salvation experience.
•The world says, “If I can see it, then I’ll believe it.”
•The Bible says, “If you believe it, then you’ll see it.”
In his commentary on this passage, he goes on to say that the French philosopher Voltaire famously said of miracles:
“Even if a miracle should be wrought in the open marketplace before one thousand sober witnesses, I would rather mistrust my senses than admit a miracle took place.”
Friends, this is reality of our generation. Romans 1 says,
18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.
19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.
These people refuse to see. This is why we should not hesitate to use the Bible when we witness to people. Those people that are going to believe because God has worked regeneration in their hearts will believe through hearing the word of God and confessing Jesus. The others have the Word of God as a testimony against them.
The other interesting part of this passage is that if these religious leaders had been studying their Bibles, there is a prophecy that is made about Jesus in Daniel that was being fulfilled right before their eyes.
24 “Seventy weeks are decreed about your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to put an end to sin, and to atone for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal both vision and prophet, and to anoint a most holy place.
25 Know therefore and understand that from the going out of the word to restore and build Jerusalem to the coming of an anointed one, a prince, there shall be seven weeks. Then for sixty-two weeks it shall be built again with squares and moat, but in a troubled time.
26 And after the sixty-two weeks, an anointed one shall be cut off and shall have nothing. And the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. Its end shall come with a flood, and to the end there shall be war. Desolations are decreed.
27 And he shall make a strong covenant with many for one week, and for half of the week he shall put an end to sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of abominations shall come one who makes desolate, until the decreed end is poured out on the desolator.”
Regardless of your millennial view or views concerning the rapture, all of the positions can see the fulfillment of this verse in Jesus’ death and the destruction of Jerusalem in the years to follow. In fact, Jesus was cut off according to the exact calculations of Daniel regarding the issue from Cyrus the Persian hundreds of years earlier to rebuild the city of Jerusalem.
They were right on schedule but they could not discern the times.
Friends let me say that God is right on schedule today as well. He is delaying His return to judge the world for the last believer to come to faith in Christ. Don’t be left behind because you have no faith.
But now, let’s look at the second response to Jesus.
2. Jesus is Misunderstood (vv. 5-12)
2. Jesus is Misunderstood (vv. 5-12)
5 When the disciples reached the other side, they had forgotten to bring any bread.
Now the Disciples leave and are traveling back to the other side of the Sea of Galilee and they realize that they forgot to bring food.
Jesus makes a statement that almost seems like it falls on guilty consciences like He was dropping a hint or something. He says in verse 6,
6 Jesus said to them, “Watch and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”
Jesus was being serious in warning the Disciples about the teaching and the hypocrisy of the Pharisees and Sadduccees, but the Disciples misunderstood Jesus.
They thought He was upset that they hadn’t brought bread and was just dropping a little hint for them.
They couldn’t seem to remember that Jesus doesn’t struggle to provide for the needs of His people.
That might be something that you need to hear today also.
Jesus calls out their dullness of hearing. He was not referring to bread when He used the illustration of leaven.
Jesus often spoke in parables, but here He was referring to the teaching that easily infects and spreads and the self-righteousness that can be so easy for religious people.
Application
You know you and I can forget that we are not righteous because of our deeds. Our ability to do good deeds comes from God. He is the one that gives us a desire to do it.
We can tend to fall in one side of the ditch or the other on the road of life. We can fall on the side of sinful living and worldliness, much like these liberal Sadduccees, or we can fall into the ditch of self-righteous hypocrisy.
Neither are good and both lead us to be disconnected from the Father.
Conclusion
What God wants is for us to have Christ formed in us.
We have to come to Him just as we are and turn form our sinful living to a relationship with Christ that produces righteous living out of a desire to please Him.
We have to come to realize that Jesus came because we needed to be rescued from our sinful selves.
I hope that you know Christ as your Savior today and if you do not, what is keeping you from seeing the signs of the times around you?
Jesus is coming back soon, at an hour when we least expect Him. He has given you all the proof you need to believe in Him in the Bible.
We have to simply trust His Word and then He will give us the conviction of the things that we believe.
Maybe this morning you’ve misunderstood what Jesus was all about. He didn’t come to make your life on earth better by making you healthy, wealthy, and recognized. He came to save you.
