Looking For a Sign - a podcast by Lewis Marsh

The Road to the Resurrection

Looking For A Sign, Matthew 12:38-40

By Louie Marsh, 3-7-2021

 

Intro – 6 slides, last one laxative sign

 

1) People demanded a MIRACLE from Jesus

 

“38Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered him, saying, “Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.” (Matthew 12:38, ESV)

 

“48So Jesus said to him, “Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe.”” (John 4:48, ESV)

 

2) Everyone was looking for a SIGNAL from God that they approved.

 

“22For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, 23but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, 24but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.” (1 Corinthians 1:22–24, ESV)

 

3) People are still looking for signs today.

 

“1And the Pharisees and Sadducees came, and to test him they asked him to show them a sign from heaven.” (Matthew 16:1, ESV)

 

Signs we look for today:

 

• Miracles
• Solving personal problems
• An Easy Out

 

4) What happens when I don’t GET ONE?

 

” 39But 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. (Matthew 12:39 ESV)

 

Jesus a Great Example of this:

 

“14When the people saw the sign that he had done, they said, “This is indeed the Prophet who is to come into the world!”” (John 6:14, ESV)

 

“58This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread the fathers ate, and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.”… 60When many of his disciples heard it, they said, “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?” 61But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, “Do you take offense at this?

 

 62Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before?” “66After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him.” (John 6:58–62, 66, ESV)

 

Meanwhile, where is God? This is one of the most disquieting symptoms. When you are happy, so happy that you have no sense of needing Him, so happy that you are tempted to feel His claims upon you as an interruption, if you remember yourself and turn to Him with gratitude and praise, you will be—or so it feels—welcomed with open arms. But go to Him when your need is desperate, when all other help is vain, and what do you find? A door slammed in your face, and a sound of bolting and double bolting on the inside. After that, silence. You may as well turn away. The longer you wait, the more emphatic the silence will become. There are no lights in the windows. It might be an empty house. Was it ever inhabited? It seemed so once. And that seeming was as strong as this. What can this mean? Why is He so present a commander in our time of prosperity and so very absent a help in time of trouble? -  A Grief Observed, C. S. Lewis

 

I’m tempted to turn to popular idols

 

• Moralism
• Intoxicants
• Sex & Sexuality
• Self

 

5) God gives me the one I NEED.

 

” 39But 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. 40For 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.” (Matthew 12:39–40, ESV)

 

“21Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.” 23Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” 24Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.”

 

25Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, 26and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” 27She said to him, “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.”” (John 11:21–27, ESV)

 

 

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