Pentecost 12 - August 27, 2017
What Miraculous Sign Are You Looking For?
Matthew 16:1-4
The Pharisees and Sadducees came to Jesus and tested him by asking him to show them a sign from heaven. 2 He replied, “When evening comes, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red,’ 3 and in the morning, ‘Today it will be stormy, for the sky is red and overcast.’ You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times.
4 A wicked and adulterous generation looks for a sign, but none will be given it except the sign of Jonah.” Jesus then left them and went away.
Dear brothers and sisters in the Lord Jesus,
What did you think of the solar eclipse this past week? Even though Florida was not in the path of 100% coverage as the moon passed in front of the sun, I still thought we’d experience a greater darkness during the day than what we did. I was a bit disappointed.
But the eclipse does make people think of signs in the heavens, and there were some prophecy preachers who tried their best to connect this week’s event with prophecies in the Bible. This is quite silly because even if solar eclipses are rare, they are still a natural occurrence. They can be predicted and put on a calendar years in advance. There is nothing miraculous or prophetical about them at all.
But some kind of sign from heaven is what the Pharisees wanted Jesus to do! They had something much greater than an eclipse in mind. By “sign” from heaven, they used a word that is one of the three main words for miracle. When you see this sign, do you know what is there? How about this one? So the word sign, means a miracle that points to something, identifies who the doer is. They wanted a miraculous sign from heaven, something not normal, something that would show that Jesus really was who he said he was, the Son of God and the Messiah.
But notice that they said this to test him. No matter what he did or didn’t do, they had already made up their minds. How many miracles did they want him to do? He had healed the sick, and fed 5,000 and later 4,000 and made the blind to see and the lame to walk. No matter what kind of miracle he did, they weren’t going to accept him as the Son of God from heaven. Their minds were already made up.
Demonstrations of divine power may impress people, but they never bring people to faith. God brought ten plagues to Egypt and Pharaoh became hardened in his unbelief. Elijah called down fire from heaven, but that did not convert King Ahab or Queen Jezebel to faith. The queen was even more determined to put Elijah to death. If Jesus had caused the sun to skip across the heavens in reverse, like God did for King Hezekiah, they would not have believed. The French philosopher Voltaire who was a hardened atheist said, “Even if a miracle should be wrought in the open market place before a thousand sober witnesses, I would mistrust my senses before admitting to a miracle.”
Jesus knew exactly what was going on. Vv.2-3. These people had learned to predict the weather by observing the color of the sky at sunrise or sunset. But they couldn’t see the “signs of the times.” The Lord was fulfilling prophesies one right after another, but they wouldn’t accept the proof of their own Scriptures. So he told them that they would only get the sign of Jonah. V.4
What did he mean by that? You remember what happened to Jonah, he’s the whale guy. He tried to run away from God and took a boat sailing across the Mediterranean to Tarshish. But he couldn’t escape the Lord. God sent such a terrible storm that Jonah had to admit to the sailors that he was the one at fault. They needed to toss him overboard. But God by his grace, brought a huge fish to swallow up Jonah in the sea, so he didn’t drown. Three days later, the fish spit Jonah up on the shore where he had started. So Jesus had said: 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. Matt.12:40. Just as Jonah was tossed overboard and disappeared under the waves of the sea, so Jesus would be rejected by men and disappear into the earth, dead and buried. Just as Jonah remained underneath the waters of the Mediterranean but still alive in the belly of the whale, so Jesus would remain in the grave but not suffer decay. Just as Jonah was freed from his fishy tomb in three days, so the Lord would rise again from the tomb in three days and give us the greatest miracle of all. The sign of Jonah is his Easter victory over sin and death, so that we might have life forever.
So let’s apply this to our lives right now. Have you ever wished that God would do a miracle for you? Lord, heal this terminal cancer, protect my relatives from Hurricane Harvey which is now pounding Texas, send your guardian angels to protect my teenager when he drives, free the world from terrorists, get rid of all the criminals and those who harm others. Just send your fire and brimstone down Lord and get rid of all this evil.
But what are the signs of the times? As we get closer to the end of the world Jesus said it would get worse, not better:
· Nation will rise against nation.
· There will be famines and earthquakes in various places.
· Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold.
· This gospel of the kingdom will be preached to the whole world.
· Many false prophets will appear and deceive many people.
We can read these signs and realize that we are getting close to Jesus’ return.
But in the midst of it all, there will be real signs in the heavens:
“Immediately after the distress of those days “‘the sun will be darkened,
and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.’ “Then will appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven. And then all the peoples of the earth will mourn when they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory. The Pharisees had asked for such a sign, and at the end of the world, Christ will give one. What exactly will this be? What to you is the greatest sign of Jesus as our Savior? Yes, the cross. And perhaps there will be a sign such as this one just before Jesus comes back to set things right. (Eclipse with a cross shining out of it). This is a miraculous sign that we can look forward to.
But in the meantime, perhaps you’d like a little more from God. Have you been hoping or looking for some kind of miracle from God? Perhaps you want more spirit, more feeling of the presence of God. You doubt and wonder at times about your personal relationship with God, because it seems like he is so far away, and he hasn’t done any miracles for you. Matter of fact, life has gotten worse, more difficult, more bills, more sickness. Where is the Lord? Are you the Lord of my life or have you given up on me for all the bad things I have done? Will you give me a sign that you are there?
Did you know, dear friends, that you have all the miraculous signs that you need to be sure about the Lord. Go to Mt. Calvary and see the unearthly darkness in the middle of the day, not a thunderstorm or an eclipse, but as Luke says: “The sun stopped shining.” Then when he gave up his life, the rocks split, tombs broke open, the temple was shaken and the curtain that closed off the Holy of Holies was torn down. The centurion on the hill had to admit: Surely this man was the Son of God. Mark 15:39. Then go to the tomb early Sunday morning and hear the angels: He is not here, he is risen, just as he said.” Then come to the table of the Lord’s Supper – and Jesus says I am here too to commune with you – “This is my body, given for you, This is my blood of the new covenant, shed for the forgiveness of all of your sins.” We don’t need any more miraculous signs
Some would like the Lord to prove these salvation miracles. Take for example the famous Shroud of Turin. Is it the actual burial cloth that was wrapped around Jesus body? There’s no explanation of how this image, like a photo negative, got burned on this cloth. I can’t say for sure if it’s real or not, but I don’t need to. Do we need more proof that Jesus died for us and rose, that it was all really real? Jesus says: I’m not going to give you more than the sign of Jonah. I rose to give you life. I don’t have to prove it any further. Believe me, or not.
So maybe we are quite satisfied with what we have in the Word and don’t need any more signs that Jesus is our Lord and Savior. But what about your personal future? Wouldn’t it be nice if God would give miraculous signs from heaven to tell us what to do? Should I take this job or not? Should I marry this person or not? Should I study for this profession or that one? This can be a problem, especially if we’re looking for some kind of confirmation of what we have already decided.
Take the example of a sincere and faithful farmer somewhere in the Midwest. It was always his desire to serve the Lord full time as a pastor. As he was sitting on his tractor working out in the field, he was watching some of the cloud formations, and he was amazed to see the clouds shift into two letters: PC. He saw this and knew what God had intended for him. He came back to the house and said to his wife: “I got a sign from God – he spelled it out in the clouds: PC -Preach Christ.” So he rented out his farm and went off to Bible college, intending to become a pastor. But college didn’t go well. The required courses were just too difficult for him. He took some speaking courses, but froze in front of the class. Finally the dean had to call him into his office, to try to gently let him know that perhaps there were other ways to serve the Lord. The dean knew about his sign in the heavens, and said: Perhaps God had a different message in mind: Instead of Preach Christ. Maybe the Lord was telling you: Plant Corn.
So is it wrong to ask for a sign? Not necessarily, but be careful that you don’t misread signs in the heavens or in nature. Most often, we pray to the Lord to guide our future, and then he will often answer by opening the door to that possibility or closing it. It’s not always a direct miracle. I see this for example in starting our school. Ten years ago we tried it, and God slammed all the doors, basically said, Not Now. He preserved us from a crash in the recession that came. Now, he has opened the doors and helped us find a way to make it possible.
But above all, what do we need to guide our lives? If you follow what the Word of God says, you will be blessed. As Jesus once said: Blessed are they who hear the Word of God and obey it. And even if you don’t know what God has in mind for the future, you will be blessed. It’s so important to hang onto the Word, which is a miracle all by itself.
That’s what the Pharisees refused. Jesus had made it clear that he would rise from the dead. They had the Word. They thought it possible that Jesus might rise from the dead, so they asked Pilate to seal the tomb and post a guard. When Jesus did rise, they manufactured a story. They paid off the Roman soldiers to tell a lie, that the disciples had stolen his body away. It is just as Jesus said in one of his parables: If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead. Luke 16:31
That’s the greatest sign we need: Moses and the Prophets, which means the Holy Scriptures, the Word of God. When you have the truth of Jesus and our salvation, you really don’t need any more signs. Amen.