DEMANDING A SIGN

Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on November 18, 2020 under AM Bible Study |

AM Bible Study Group: November 18, 2020 from Luke 11:29-32

Theme: With Jesus, the greatest blessedness comes not through a unique experience, but rather through hearing and keeping God’s word.

(All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).

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In Luke 11, the Lord Jesus had performed a great miracle. A man who had an evil spirit that made him mute had been cast out by our Lord. As a result, the man spoke. Many who saw it marveled. But a few found excuses for not believing.

Some of the unbelieving people in the crowd dared to attribute our Lord’s miracle to the work of Satan—saying, “He casts out demons by Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons” (v. 15). And as we have seen in Luke 11, the Lord Jesus answered that accusation and proved it to be error. But we’re told, “Others, testing Him, sought from Him a sign from heaven” (v. 16). It was this second request that we find our Lord responding to in our passage this morning—in verses 29-32;

And while the crowds were thickly gathered together, He began to say, “This is an evil generation. It seeks a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah the prophet. For as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so also the Son of Man will be to this generation. The queen of the South will rise up in the judgment with the men of this generation and condemn them, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and indeed a greater than Solomon is here. The men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and indeed a greater than Jonah is here (Luke 11:29-32).

And so; in this passage, our Lord shows us the spiritual danger of seeking signs with wrong motives—that is, with a desire to hold-on to unbelief and to hold-off repentance.

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Now; let’s be honest. Have you ever asked God to show you a sign? I have. I did it a lot in the early years of my Christian life. I can’t always say that I got what I was entirely sure was an answer to my prayer. Often, what I thought was a ‘sign’ didn’t prove to be very reliable. Over the years, I have grown to be a little less inclined to ask to be led by ‘signs’; and much more dependent—instead—on trusting what I find clearly stated in the sure word of God. That always proves reliable.

But when I turn to that sure word of God—to my surprise—I find that many of the saints of the Bible asked for, and were clearly given, signs from God. In the Book of Judges, for example, Gideon asked for a sign from God—even after he had been given a sure word from God. He was about to lead his people in a great battle against the Midianite army. But he was timid and uncertain. Judges 6:45-40 tells us;

So Gideon said to God, “If You will save Israel by my hand as You have said—look, I shall put a fleece of wool on the threshing floor; if there is dew on the fleece only, and it is dry on all the ground, then I shall know that You will save Israel by my hand, as You have said.” And it was so. When he rose early the next morning and squeezed the fleece together, he wrung the dew out of the fleece, a bowlful of water. Then Gideon said to God, “Do not be angry with me, but let me speak just once more: Let me test, I pray, just once more with the fleece; let it now be dry only on the fleece, but on all the ground let there be dew.” And God did so that night. It was dry on the fleece only, but there was dew on all the ground (Judges 6:36-40).

Gideon asked for a sign from God regarding a clear promise from God—not just once, but twice. And God honored his request both times. Many Christians and many church families since that time have ‘placed a fleece before the Lord’ in seeking guidance from Him. God didn’t seem to rebuke Gideon for this.

Or think of King Hezekiah. He was gravely sick; and God promised to respond to his prayers by healing him. God sent this promise through the prophet Isaiah; and when Hezekiah asked God what would be the sign that the Lord would heal him, God—through Isaiah—gave Hezekiah the choice of what the sign would be. He let Hezekiah choose! God pointed his attention to the public sundial and said;

“shall the shadow go forward ten degrees or go backward ten degrees?” And Hezekiah answered, “It is an easy thing for the shadow to go down ten degrees; no, but let the shadow go backward ten degrees.” So Isaiah the prophet cried out to the Lord, and He brought the shadow ten degrees backward, by which it had gone down on the sundial of Ahaz (2 Kings 20:9b-11).

Surely, if God would give Hezekiah the choice of which sign it would be, then there must not have been any wrong in asking for one. There was even another Jewish king that God sternly rebuked because he would not ask for a sign. In the Book of Isaiah, God had promised the northern kingdom of Israel that their enemies would cease tormenting and threatening them. God even offered King Ahaz—through the prophet Isaiah—to ask for a sign. But ungodly Ahaz refused:

But Ahaz said, “I will not ask, nor will I test the Lord!” Then he said, “Hear now, O house of David! Is it a small thing for you to weary men, but will you weary my God also? Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel’” (Isaiah 7:12-14).

It turned out to be an early hint of one of the greatest signs in all of history—pointing forward across the centuries to the birth of our Lord. So clearly, from these examples, we can see that it’s not necessarily wrong to ask God for a sign. Sometimes, He Himself has even offered to give a sign if asked for one. He even rebuked someone for not asking for one.

So; why then in our passage this morning did our Lord say to the Jewish people who were there that day—who had witnessed Him heal the demon-possessed man—“ This is an evil generation. It seeks a sign …”? It would be because their request for a sign was not a sincere one. It was not with the intention of believing on God and doing what He said. These Jewish people in Jesus’ day had just seen Him perform a great miracle right before their eyes. They had, in fact, seen many miracles—in addition to hearing Him teach—and in addition to seeing how He had fulfilled prophecy—and in addition to having heard the testimony of how He was born—and in addition to hearing the bold preaching of John the Baptist, who saw the Spirit descend upon Him, and who confirm that He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. No further signs were needed. There had already been signs aplenty. What was needed at that moment was repentance from the unbelief that kept them from believing the signs they had already been given.

This passage, then, teaches us a very important lesson. For someone to continually seek ‘signs’ before they will believe on Jesus may itself be a sign of hard-hearted and persistent unbelief. And what is needed, in a case like that, is not to have more convincing signs—but rather, to repent of unbelief. What an important lesson this is for the people today—especially after two-thousand years of testimonial proof of who Jesus is and what He has done!

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Now; let’s look a little closer at this passage. We’re told that, when Jesus spoke, the people were gathering together and the crowds were growing. They were fascinated by the arguments He was having from those who were not believing and who were demanding that He perform impressive signs from heaven.

And it’s then that we’re told that He turned from those who were not believing, and spoke directly to the crowds. He began to say, “This is an evil generation. It seeks a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah the prophet” (v. 29). It’s interesting to notice that He doesn’t say, “These evil unbelieving people will get no sign at all!” Instead, He promised that they would be given a sign. But it would be a specific sign that they did not demand; and it would come at a time that they did not expect.

Notice what Jesus said about …

1. THE ONLY SIGN THAT WOULD BE GIVEN.

Look carefully at how He described this sign: “For as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so also the Son of Man will be to this generation” (v. 30).

You remember the story; don’t you? The prophet Jonah was called by God to preach a warning of destruction to the people of Nineveh. But Jonah refused. He didn’t want God to show mercy to the Ninevites; because they were the enemies of his people. He fled away by ship in the other direction, and the great fish swallowed him. After he spent three days in the belly of the fish repenting of his disobedience, he was—shall we say—’deposited’ upon the dry land. He then went into Nineveh; and on the first day preached the message, “Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown” (Jonah 3:4).

Now; imagine what an impact this would have had on the people of Nineveh. It would have been as if a man had come and spoken to them that had been dead for three days—and then raised to life. And that’s exactly the kind of sign that the unbelieving people of Jesus’ day would receive. In Matthew 12:40, Jesus explained;

“For 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” (Matthew 12:40).

Jesus would be crucified by unbelievers, would be buried, and would be raised from the tomb three days later. It wasn’t the sign they were asking for. They were asking for a sign from heaven; but Jesus was promising them a sign from the grave. It wasn’t when they were expecting it either. They wanted a sign from Him on demand; but Jesus was promising them a sign that would come after they had crucified Him and thought that He was dead and gone. What a great sign this is! It’s a sign, not just to the Jewish people, but to all people around the world. Paul spoke to the learned, philosophical Greeks of Athens and called them to repent and believe; saying,

“Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead” (Acts 17:30-31).

And Jesus then went on to give examples of …

2. THE CONDEMNATION THAT WOULD COME FROM THAT SIGN.

First, He pointed to the way that the ancient queen of Sheba readily believed the truth. In verse 31, Jesus said, “The queen of the South will rise up in the judgment with the men of this generation and condemn them, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and indeed a greater than Solomon is here.”

What a fascinating woman this Gentile queen was. We’re told her story in 1 Kings 10. From a faraway land, she heard about the fame and the wisdom and the wealth of King Solomon—that the blessing of God was upon him and upon the people of Israel. So she traveled a long distance to seek God’s wisdom from him. When she saw for herself, she didn’t ask for further signs. She saw enough. She said;

“It was a true report which I heard in my own land about your words and your wisdom. However I did not believe the words until I came and saw with my own eyes; and indeed the half was not told me. Your wisdom and prosperity exceed the fame of which I heard. Happy are your men and happy are these your servants, who stand continually before you and hear your wisdom! Blessed be the Lord your God, who delighted in you, setting you on the throne of Israel! Because the Lord has loved Israel forever, therefore He made you king, to do justice and righteousness” (1 Kings 10:6-8).

This story of her immediate repentance and faith would have stung Jesus’ Jewish listeners pretty painfully. Jesus said that this Gentile queen from a pagan land will—one day—rise up in the day of judgment and condemn the men who were standing before Jesus at that moment. She traveled a long distance to hear Solomon because she believed in the God of Solomon. And yet Someone greater than Solomon was right there before them—and they still wouldn’t believe.

Then, He pointed again to the people of Nineveh—another pagan people. Jesus said, “The men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and indeed a greater than Jonah is here” (v. 32). Do you remember that story? Jonah walked a short way into the city of Nineveh and preached the warning—that in just forty days the wrath of God would fall upon them. And we’re told in the third chapter of the Book of Jonah;

So the people of Nineveh believed God, proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the least of them. Then word came to the king of Nineveh; and he arose from his throne and laid aside his robe, covered himself with sackcloth and sat in ashes. And he caused it to be proclaimed and published throughout Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying,

Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything; do not let them eat, or drink water. But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily to God; yes, let every one turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. Who can tell if God will turn and relent, and turn away from His fierce anger, so that we may not perish? (Jonah 3:5-9).

It’s one of the greatest revival stories in all of human history! An entire city—from the top down—repented at just a few words of preaching from a man who had been thrown up onto the beach by a fish. And Jesus said that those repentant pagan men of Nineveh—who had been warned that they would experience the righteous judgment of God—will one day and rise up in judgment against the religious Jewish men who were hearing Someone greater than Jonah—and who were refusing to respond in repentance to the evidence set before them.

And all because they demanded a ‘sign’ in order to cover-up their hard-hearted unbelief.

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Dear brothers and sisters; let’s learn to recognize from this that not all people who demand ‘proofs’ before they will believe are sincere in their desire. Very often, the constant craving for ‘signs’ is a way of putting off the commitment that the evidence already demands of them. In such cases, we should simply affirm that the proofs are enough to anyone who wants to believe—and that it’s time to repent and believe the gospel.

And to those who say that the evidences of the Christian faith are not enough—that they don’t yet have enough convincing evidence—I would suggest that you repent and place your faith in Jesus right where you are. Receive the evidence you have already been given. And examine your heart to see if the craving for evidences is—in reality—only an excuse for not believing as you should.

Believe the evidence you have been given, place your faith in the cross of Jesus, and the truth of who He is will be sufficiently confirmed to your heart. As Jesus Himself once put it in John 7:16-17;

“My doctrine is not Mine, but His who sent Me. If anyone wills to do His will, he shall know concerning the doctrine, whether it is from God or whether I speak on My own authority” (John 7:16-17).

EA