1. religion and spirituality
2. judaism

1And the Pharisees and Sadducees came, and to test him they asked him to show them a sign from heaven. 2He answered them,a “When it is evening, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red.’ 3And 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. 4An 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. Intro: Good morning! We will be beginning chapter 16 of Matthew today. As we continue seeing the life of our Lord unfolding, let us be amazed at what we have seen Jesus do so far, let us be moved by the things He has said. Jesus’ life is unlike anything you will ever find. No man has ever done or said the things that Jesus does and says. Whether we believe or not, Jesus’ life is undeniable. Famous writer H.G. wells said this: “I am an historian, I am not a believer, but I must confess as a historian that this penniless preacher from Nazareth is irrevocably the very center of history. Jesus Christ is easily the most dominant figure in all history”.­­H.G. Wells So as we continue our trek through the Gospel of Matthew let’s not lose sight of the importance of Jesus Christ and the overwhelming implications of His life. Last week, Matt taught the end of Chapter 15 where we saw Jesus continuing to heal and again miraculously feeding 4,000 by multiplying fish and loaves. One thing that i loved about last week is that though we saw Jesus healing as He always did and Him doing the repeated miracle of feeding thousands, we saw above all the consistency of Christ’s Character. That Jesus is consistently compassionate, consistently merciful and consistently overcoming the disciples lack of faith. As we moved into Chapter 16 Jesus has another run in with His friends the Pharisees and tells them that there is only one sign that He will give them, the Sign of Jonah. Read. Pray. 1And the Pharisees and Sadducees came, and to test him they asked him to show them a sign from heaven. Sometime after Jesus finishes feeding the 4,000 the Pharisees and the Sadducees approach Him. We have seen the Pharisees before coming out to discredit Jesus but here we see the Sadducees come with them. The religious elite in Judaism during this time were broken up into 2 major groups. the Pharisees and the Sadducees. Their differences lead to many disagreements because the Pharisees were made up of middle class Jewish men, they were the minority when it came to the seats of the high council of the Sanhedrin, and they also were very big on upholding the spiritual side of the scriptures. They believed in angels, demons and an afterlife. The Sadducees on the other hand were upper­class Jewish men, they were aristocrats, they held the majority of the seats in the Sanhedrin and were more concerned with political things than those of their religion. The main difference that sets them apart from the Pharisees is that they do not uphold the beliefs of the Pharisees regarding the spiritual side of their religion. What is interesting is that throughout the Gospels, the main issue that continues to pop up between them is the resurrection of the dead. They definitely could not agree on this point. The Pharisees believed in resurrection and the Sadducees did not. But isn’t it amazing that two groups seemingly on two opposite ends of the spectrum both come together to oppose Jesus. That they would be divided in everything except the rejecting of Jesus Christ. That that is one thing that they can agree on. So they come out as it says here: to test Him We should note that their coming to Him was unlike the people’s coming to Him. When the people sought after Jesus, they came broken, they came humble, they came in need just as the many sick, lame and blind came. But it was not like this when the Pharisees and the Sadducees came. They did not come to be taught by Him, nor did they come for some need to be fulfilled. Instead they came to to test him, the word here can be translated as “try, or to put on trial.” Their asking was not sincere, it was condemning, they asking of him a sign from heaven was to only put him to the test, but to test Him in order to trap him and discredit Him. Sign from heaven ­ So they come to Jesus and they basically asking from proof. Give us a sign! Prove to us who you say you are and have the authority to do the things you are doing! Because what you are doing is pretty outrageous. You are flipping our perspective on religion upside down, you are flipping tables in the temple. What give you the authority to do these things. Prove to us that you are somebody. And we want you to produce a sign from heaven, do something that will really knock our socks off Jesus. Mark 8 says that he sighed deeply in His spirit at their demand. They weren’t asking Him because Jesus hadn’t done anything that counted as proof of who He was, on the contrary, from the beginning of His ministry Jesus has not ceased doing things that no one has ever done before. The signs were abundant and powerful. Who else can straighten a lame man’s legs with a word, or reanimate, and rearrange the inner workings of eyes that have not functioned correctly since birth. Who can tell sickness to leave with no more than a touch, or break bread and feed thousands? One night at the start of Jesus public ministry a Pharisee by the name of Nicodemus comes to Jesus at night. He comes at night so that he may not be seen, because his colleagues would disapprove of him even coming to talk with Jesus. Listen to what he says: Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.” (John 3:1­2 ESV) The Pharisees and the Sadducees ask Jesus for a sign as if no sign had yet been given to them, as if Jesus had done nothing worth noting and yet the opposite is true, there is an abundance of signs that Jesus has done. It just shows their inward rejection of Him, it shows their continual suppression of the truth. Jesus healed a man and the Pharisees said that Jesus did it by the power of Satan. But Jesus corrects them and shows them that they are even at the point of throwing away logic to discredit Him. It’s not good enough, these earthly signs you have been doing, we want to see something that so amazing it will be undeniable. Give us a sign from heaven. Show us something like when Samuel called to the LORD thunder and rain came down, or when Elijah called fire from heaven. That is what we want to see. They pretended to ask him sincerely but in reality the trick is if Jesus would not do what they were asking then He could discredited. 2He answered them,a “When it is evening, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red.’ 3And 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. Jesus criticizes their power of observation. The Pharisees and the Sadducees knew how to interpret the weather by the things they see in the sky. But when it came to as Jesus puts it “the signs of the times” they were unable to understand, they were unable to interpret its meaning of the things being unfolded before them. It is interesting that both the Pharisees and the Sadducees held to the scriptures daily, they knew it like the back of their hands but when it came to what scripture had foretold about the messiah they were blind to seeing it. These things were happening right in front of their eyes... Just to list some of these very things: ● The Messiah would be virgin born Isaiah 7:14 ● The Messiah would be born in Bethlehem Micah 5:2 ● One in the wilderness would prepare the way, namely John the Baptist Malachi 4:5 ● And then the one that is happening right in front of their very eyes: The blind see, the lame walk, the mute speak and deaf hear Isaiah 35:2 Sidenote: What is amazing is that some of these prophecies are 700 years before Jesus ever set foot on the earth. With all this evidence the Pharisees and the Sadducees still ask for a sign. And this is just a piece, this is just a couple instances of the many prophecies that Jesus fulfilled by His life. Jesus looks at them and says, you are able to see the sky and understand the weather but what is plain to you, revealed by the Scriptures of whom you are experts, you cannot understand? look at John 5:39: You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life. (John 5:39­40 ESV) Side note: With this Jesus declares the central point of all the scriptures is Him. Jesus is always pointing to Scripture but it is point forward to Him. and this is what it was, it was a refusal by them, a rejection of the truth. They knew that they believed on Him as LORD, they would be uncovered, the light had come into the world but they loved the darkness because their works were evil. They wanted to stay in the shadows and not be exposed and so in that they suppressed the truth. Every chance they get they try to discredit Him or eplain Him away. And that is true wtih everyone who does not bow their knee to Christ. But Jesus does not entertain their testing even though he had the power to at that moment call down legions of angels in flaming fire, as a sign from heaven. He doesn't, instead he says this: 4An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah.”... Hey is calling them evil, he is calling them adulterous or unfaithful, that they pretend to be lovers of God and sole followers of Him when in reality they are for themselves. Their god is their status and their praise they get from the people. They do not seek the Glory of God but their own glory. You know what you guys are going to get, even though you have been given all kinds of signs about me and who I am. You are going to get this one final sign. “the sign of Jonah” The question is, “What is it?” As I mentioned before this answer that Jesus gives the Pharisees and Sadducees is an abbreviation of something He told them earlier in His ministry. This instance is actually the second time Jesus mentions the Sign of Jonah. The first time was in Matthew 12 Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered him, saying, “Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.” 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. 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. The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here. (Matthew 12:38­41 ESV) Jonah was a prophet of Israel, that God had sent to the city of Nineveh to warn them of the destruction that was coming to them because of their sins. We all the know the story, Jonah runs away from God not wishing to go to Nineveh when God sends a storm against the boat he hitched a ride in. The men throw him out of the boat and at the moment that he hits the water the storm ceases and a great fish is sent by God to swallow him. Jonah spends three days and three nights inside the belly of the fish and then is brought to Nineveh and thrown up on shore. Jonah carries out what God commanded him to do, and the people of Nineveh repent at his preaching and God relents from His Wrath against them. Thats just a quick summary there is so much more there. Side note: If you have never read the book of Jonah i suggest it, it will surprise you what you thought you knew about the story and what you will see differently from when you heard the story as a child. So Jesus compares Himself to Jonah in 2 major ways which lend to what the sign of Jonah actually is. The first way that Jesus describes is that Just as Jonah was in the belly of the great fish for 3 days and 3 nights Jesus himself will be in the heart of the earth for 3 days and 3 nights. Jesus is referring to His resurrection. It seems from the Gospels every time anyone demands a sign from Jesus He refers to His resurrection. Remember when He went into the temple and flipped the tables, the Pharisees came to him and demanded a sign that proved He had the authority to do theses things. You know what Jesus said? He said, destroy this temple and in three days i will raise it up. The Pharisees thought He was talking about the Temple itself but He was speaking about His body. The Pharisees and the Sadducees demand a sign and Jesus basically says “I will lay my life down and then I will take it up again.” This will be the only sign that I give you. And it is the most important thing Jesus ever did, the whole of Christianity hangs on this one thing: The resurrection. Paul says without it, everything falls apart. And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. (1 Corinthians 15:14 ESV) and again he says: And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. (1 Corinthians 15:17 ESV) Without out the resurrection Jesus was just some guy who promised things that he couldn't deliver. Everything depends on this, that Jesus Christ died and rose from the grave. Jesus’ entire ministry is validated by His resurrection. If anything proved who Jesus is and solidified all that He said, it was the fact that He walked out of that grave that grave remains empty today. What I always find so interesting about Christianity is how fast it spread in light of the extraordinary claim that Jesus rose from the dead. Because it wasn't preached in some far away land where they knew nothing of Jesus but it was preached in the very city he died. It was preached where people could have fact checked all that was being said. 1 Corinthians 15:3­6, 8 NIV For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance : that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born. No other religious leader can boast an empty grave except Jesus Christ. It was not only the most important thing that Jesus did it was also the last thing He would do. The resurrection is the last thing given to men by which they may look and believe. It was the last statement given to all the world. Leads And that is the second way Jesus compares himself to Jonah, as a warning, a call to repentance. For as Jonah became a sign to the people of Nineveh, so will the Son of Man be to this generation. (Luke 11:30 ESV) Just as Jonah preached to Nineveh warning them of God’s Wrath against their sins and it resulted in their repentance. So now Jesus is the sign to all men, warning them of the wrath to come and calling them to repent. The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.” (Acts 17:30­31 ESV) Close with this: What does this mean for us? It means that God has commanded everyone of us to turn from their sins and believe on Him because He will soon judge the world in righteousness and He will do it by the one whom He raised from the dead. Jesus Christ. Let us not be like the Pharisees and the Sadducees, suppressing the truth of God blinding ourselves from Him. Instead let us look full into the most important sign Jesus ever did. Let us now put our hope in the Resurrection of Christ, because in it we have been delivered from sin and death and been reconciled to God. In it we have everything and without it we have nothing.