You may be seated. I invite you to turn. After some time, we're continuing to our study in the Gospel of Matthew. And that is found on page 972, Matthew chapter 12. We looked at in our last sermon on this series, "Blasphemy Against the Holy Spirit." This continues in that vein in light of what follows, and Jesus addressing their great, really blasphemy that was committed, and I want you to notice we are coming to the close of a major section here in Matthew, and then next time we begin a series of parables. And so this morning we're going to look at verses 38 through 50. Let's give our attention to the word of the Lord 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. The queen of the south will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it. For she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, something greater than Solomon is here. When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it passes through the waterless places seeking rest but finds none. Then it says, i will return to my house from which I came And when it comes, it finds the house empty, swept, and put in order. Then it goes and brings with it seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and dwell there, and the last state of that person is worse than the first. So also will it be with this evil generation. While he was still speaking to the people, behold, his mother and his brothers stood outside asking to speak to him. But he replied to the man who told him, who is my mother And who are my brothers and stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said, here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother
And there ends the reading of God's word.
Well, we return today in our study in Matthew, and it's important to, I think, uh kind of capture again the big theme that we have been working with and what we've seen so far uh in this book these first 12 chapters as we come to the end of a, I think, a major section here. But I want you to think, maybe fast forward a bit, to Matthew chapter 28. Here we are in the middle of the book, Matthew 28. He's going to leave them with the Great Commission: "Go out into all the world and make disciples." And I think the question that you could ask at this preliminary point, before we get to that great climax of Matthew's gospel, a missionary gospel for indeed is What kind of disciples is Jesus making? what kind of disciples is jesus making That seems to be a very fundamental question as to who is entering the kingdom and what kind of people he's after, isn't it?
You remember, right from the beginning of Matthew's gospel, his mission really was captured: "You shall call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins." So what we have is, in Matthew's gospel, Jesus showing us what that looks like. If you take the bookends, who are the disciples he's making? What his people look like? What's happening? Who the church will be? Who his family is? Who his family is his covenantal family that's really important to think about, isn't it?
Who is Jesus's family? Not everyone is in Jesus's family, and that's shocking for us. Most university i talked to christians talked to one yesterday in our community everyone is a child of God." You want to stop and you say, "No, that's not true." And then, of course, they look astonished at you. So it's a hard thing to run around saying, is it? Well, I can tell you, so far in Matthew, this is not the kind of family Jesus is building that Israel wanted, and that's part of the problem here that we're looking at.
He's going through regions this is what we've been seeing the whole time in Matthew's gospel, before the Sermon on the Mount, after the Sermon on the Mount, the teaching that followed he's going through the regions and he's taking all the people they would have said are cursed of God, and he's healing their diseases. Every disease among the people afflicted with various diseases and torments, and those who were demon possessed epileptics, and paralytics and all of these people are in the train of Jesus's family following him. Roman centurion has made it in there so far. The great thing that disturbed the pastors in Israel, the great thing that disturbed the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the scribes, were that so many in Israel were coming to Jesus, and this supposedly great Messiah, if he is indeed the Messiah, is reclining and having wine with tax collectors and sinners. "You've got to be kidding me." This just infuriated them. He's got rough people following him.
Well, we see the climax today where this ends, this major section in Matthew. And we have a series of teachings and even a parable here that follows. But what is the message? What is the message that we have here?
Well, we have Jesus here addressing now I want you to notice the importance of the emphasis on generation here we have jesus here addressing an entire generation of people who assumed they were the family of God, and they were not. Who assumed they were the family of God, who assumed that they had nothing to worry about, who assumed that they were the righteous, that they were the morally upright, that these were the ones God was pleased with, who assumed all these things because they had the covenants, the law, all the giving of these things throughout history. They assumed they had the blessing of God. And here Jesus says, "You're not in my family." So this is a stunning section.
I want you to notice, to make the preliminary case for this, verse 49. Jesus stretched out his hand. He makes a physical gesture to make sure everyone sees it. "Here are my mother and my brothers." And then he'll define that. Well, the passage presses us to have us think about what makes us children of God: uh who are the children of God, and how are we different from this generation we're studying that's in front of us that Jesus is interacting with?
We have a peculiar generation here that Jesus put before us to study a little bit and to understand this. So let's let's begin let's begin in verse 38 to see what's happening in this marvelous but surprising text. And you'll notice here that we read, that "Then some of the scribes and the Pharisees answered him, saying, teacher we wish to see a sign from you Wow! Um, that's a shocking request, right? That is a shocking request! These are the pastors in Israel. Matthew has been showing us Jesus do signs everywhere throughout Israel. He's healing all these people with sicknesses. He's raised the dead already that was chapter 9 that little girl. Why would they ask this? What are they looking for?
See, this is a really remarkable moment in the gospels to think about. We have to appreciate that he had just healed, in the previous section, a demon possessed man who was blind that was doubly cursed in their view. And the Pharisees responded when they saw this. Now, he had just healed a demon-possessed man who was blind. And the Pharisees responded and said, "This fellow, it is only by Bilzebul, the prince of demons, that this man casts out demons." Wow. In other words, all this man's works are right from Satan. His power is backed from Satan. He is a demon possessed by Satan. He is a demon influenced directly by demonic activity from Satan. That's what they said. "He casts out by Beelzebul, by a demon. He's a demon. He has demonic. He's possessed by a demon."
Jesus will have none of this, because then you're attacking the Holy Spirit, that's why that particular sin is associating the works of Christ with that of the devil. That's the unpardonable sin a sin I've very rare It's not just unbelief or we all would be in trouble. Jesus responds sharply: "If if it is by the Spirit of God that I did this that I cast out demons then the kingdom of God has come upon you. Whoa! Let's look. You better be really careful what you're saying. Do you know what has come upon you? The whole kingdom of God! If I'm doing this by the Holy Spirit's power, this is not the nice Jesus we think of."
Um, the question, their question really, goes like this. This is what they're asking about the sign: "If you are really doing these things by the Spirit of God, like you say, prove it. Prove it. Show us a sign. Otherwise, you're from Satan." That's the context here.
What clearly comes across is they want something way more thrilling on their own terms from Jesus. This is why Paul would say in Corinthians, "Jews always seek a sign." "Give us something amazing. Give us something more exciting than this. Move the luminaries at least. What do a lot of people want to do with Sundays? What do a lot of people want from Jesus on Sundays?" Little to do with the burden of what what have we been seeing in Matthew? Forgiveness, reading a law, taking sin seriously, to deal with a crushing weight of the law because of sin? Know that people don't want that. They want to be validated. This problem is just as alive today as ever in the church people who follow based upon some kind of great sensual experience. It's sort of programmed in people in America today with worship. It's the same mentality, and behind it is pride. They don't want Jesus on his terms. They don't want what he's come to do. They want him on their terms to validate us, or we will invalidate him.
Now, it's important to say there is not a sign that he could do that would make them believe. This is a really, I think, important point to this. You could have Elon Musk take his rocket back to the first century and fly people up to the moon, and they still wouldn't believe. It's not a sign issue. It's never a sign issue. It's never a "wow" experience issue that's going to make people believe. It's never crafting something that could be more exciting that's going to get people into the kingdom of God. You could never convince an atheist, by the way. You cannot convince an atheist because he will not be convinced.
Now, what we have in front of us, and this is just the same hardness of heart in the Pharisees. what we have in front of us is Jesus coming, him preaching the gospel of the kingdom and calling people to repentance, and all these people are coming. It's really remarkable, but we're studying now an entire generation of people who, they thought this was boring, uninteresting, not validating. How sad! It's so important the question is never asked. You know, and think about this here: notice how Jesus responds to this. "A wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign." Why would he mention generation three times here? Why does he single out this generation?
I think it's a play that what we have recapitulated is the very same spirit and people that Jesus had to deal with when he led them in the wilderness out of the promise out of out of egypt was a wicked generation. Hebrews said that generation will perish in my wrath. They complained the whole time. They wanted a sign, even of a better god, so they made a golden calf, and he was greatly displeased with that generation. And Jesus here functions as an Old Covenant kind of lawsuit prophet: "You wicked and adulterous generation! Listen to this: I'm not giving you a single sign except one except that of the prophet Jonah."
Now, if there was any Old Testament story that was offensive to Israel, it was that one. God sent his prophet to Nineveh. Remember? And that prophet wasn't the greatest of prophets that's probably how I would have been back then, kind of rebellious, stubborn, stiff necked myself. That's what I am today, by the way. He sends the prophet to Nineveh to preach the gospel to Nineveh, to preach repentance. And remember, that was just at a time in Israel's history when they were being given over to idolatry. So it was as if God said, "Fine, I'm turning to Nineveh." So he sends Jonah to Nineveh.
You know what that's like? Do you understand the shock of this? Nineveh was the worst of the time. It was the worst pagan city of the time. I noticed this past week, last few weeks, there have been all these Christians from other parts of the country putting on social media that the fires were a judgment because California is so wicked. One even said and put up a sign of homosexuality: "That's why it's burning." So many have left California, right, because this place is so evil. I think in a lot of people, when you hear these kind of comments, you don't get a sense that before God, they're any better. They think they're better. That's what I mean. And their whole approach from God is, "I want a better experience. Away from all this."
"What if God sent a preacher into Hollywood and the whole thing repented, newsome and all? What a story to raise!" God sends Jonah into wicked Nineveh, baby aborting Nineveh. You think we do it bad? The most wicked, perverse nation and capital of the Assyrians. "Here's the sign I'll give you. Here's the sign I'll give you. Jonah goes on his way to Nineveh to preach the gospel, and he goes three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish. By the way, Jesus is just proving here he believes that's not some kind of false story, that he believes that's a historical record, that it really happened. Jesus ties the sign that as Jonah went into the fish and came out, that Jonah is a type Jonah is a type of him who went three days and who would go at this point three days and three nights into the heart of the earth."
That sign has been preached to this day all over the world. It's really remarkable. It's a sign of the cross, if you will, and the grave and the victorious resurrection that would follow. Where, after that, Jonah would go and preach repentance to Nineveh, here's Jesus, come to do this, and he's out preaching repentance. "I'll give you a sign. I'll give you a message like no other message. How about this, you wicked and adulterous generation? I'm going to give you a bloody sign. You're going to take God's only son, and you're going to hate him, and you're going to spit on him, and you're going to kill him and murder him, and you're going to bury him in the earth."
Jesus replies it in a remarkable way. Jonah comes out of the fish you remember, he goes and preaches. Remember what happened? The whole city repented. that generation of ninevites repented And Jesus says they're going to be in the resurrection judging you. The whole generation of Ninevites repented. They went in sackcloth and ashes, and he captures that The in verse 44 the men of nineville will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah. And Jesus follows it up with a statement that's intended to make make us marvel at the claim and: "Something greater than Jonah's here." That's a trembling statement. Think of the comparison. Jonah's a minor prophet. He's a very weak prophet. He was a rebellious prophet. He doesn't even seem like his heart was in it. And God, everywhere he went, could even convert sailors through this man Jonah. enters the city. Yet in 40 days yet in four this is all we have recorded, which is interesting, because you want to say, "Well, he must have said a lot more than that." Jesus doesn't really indicate that here. He says, "Yet in 40 days, Nineveh will be overthrown. That's it. There's nothing more said." And the entire city falls down in sackcloth and ashes the king, the wicked king, whom somebody would have probably called scum, new scum. This is what we live in. Christians don't do that stuff, by the way. We treat our leaders with respect. Repent. They turned to the Lord. They humbled themselves. And that whole generation was saved.
Who are they listening to? Preach. This generation? The eternal Son of God in human form, flesh. This whole story is playing out, and luke here's what happened that all gospels give all this attention to it. He's in his hometown preaching in Nazareth. A prophet is not with honor except in his hometown. He preaches and he heals a leper there, and And then they reject him and he says, "Listen, there were many lepers in Israel in the time of Elijah the prophet. Listen to this: and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian." Offensive! These good and these righteous people it says at that point that they rose up in wrath in Nazareth, and they took him and thrust him out of the city, and they led him to the brow of the hill on which the city was built, that they might throw him down over the cliff.
Jesus gives one more example. The queen of sheba she's going to rise up in judgment against this generation. She came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon. I mean, think about what that woman did. She heard of this great king. She heard of a great king in Israel who was so wise, and she traveled they say 1200 miles. She didn't even get an invite. She gave treasures. She wanted to sit at the feet of this king and listen to his word. She's going to rise up. "Here I am, preaching," says Jesus, "demonstrating all wisdom, the Son of God is here, all compassion, and what do they want to do to him?"
Did the queen of Sheba want to kill him? You ask, "Who are the most difficult to reach?" Sometimes I was reading a writer who said this: "Less enlightened people obeyed less enlightened preaching, but more enlightened people here refuse to obey the light of the world." And I think we're pressed here. We're in the church, right? We're the good people, right? At this point, the test comes. The righteous would rather have a better show. The righteous would rather have a better show be validated. It. Do you think they're saying, "Amazing, He's come to save sinners"? They want nothing to do with it.
What does this all have to do with us? Well, it comes with a solemn question: Have we repented? Do we think we are not as deserving as other sinners who deserve the wrath and judgment of God? God chose the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. So think right now what we're preaching. What is happening all over the world in those churches that are faithful to the message? They're preaching Christ from all scriptures. They're preaching the sign. Nobody would ever make this up. Who would ever thought that this would work? Who would? Who would ever thought this sign would work? A pastor's running around all over the world and preaching about a bloody death? The Romans thought it was so stupid. "How could you ever put your god on a cross? That's not power. Who would ever come and believe that?"
And the first section of Matthew presses us to say, "Which house are we in?" See, he gives a little parable here. We understand this: "When an unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it passes through waterless places seeking rest but finds none. Then it says, i'll return to my house from which I came And when it comes, it finds the house empty, swept, and put in order. Then it goes and brings with it seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and dwell there, and the last state of that person is worse than the first."
Now, here's the application: "So it will be with this generation." this evil generation. he's describing that generation His presence as the Son of God, the greater than Jonah, the greater that is here, was casting out demons everywhere. He was cleaning up the house, for a while, of Israel. That whole generation had seen it. What a generation to see this! Can you imagine? But what were they like to him? They were the ones influenced by Satan. They were the ones in darkness. The people hated him. Or like a man now who are going to have eight demons, he comes, helps to sweep up the house, and as soon as he leaves, it's over eight demons are coming back to make this thing that much worse.
You stop and you say, "Today, well, where's the good news in this section?" You know, this is one of your challenges as a pastor. I really want to bless and comfort you all the time. I really do. Come back from vacation or whatever it's come sometimes hard to come and bring the whole counsel of God that challenges us, but it's healthy for us because now the good news really sounds out, doesn't it?
"While he's still speaking his mom and his brother stand outside." But "go tell him we need to talk with him right now." Mom is in the way. Never seen that in the ministry. Mark tells us why. This kind of teaching has caused a stir. "He's crazy. He's crazy." Mark says this much: "And when his family heard it, they went out to seize him, for they were saying, he's out of his mind. I feel like that sometimes when I'm preaching. I hope you don't think that of me. Think of what I'm saying. His family was saying it. As Lewis said, "You've got a choice. He's either a liar, a lunatic, or a lord."
So his family thinks he's crazy, and in verse 49, he stretches out his hands in front of everyone to his disciples: "Here are my mother and here are my brothers, right here another shocking statement. And then comes the answer the answer of the passage this this whole section for whoever does the will of my Father who is in heaven is my brother and my sister and my mother."
Boom! Section ends. We go to parables. And you stop and you say, "Who's doing the will of his Father in heaven?" And you can answer that by what Matthew has showed us. Jesus is about to, remember what he declared back in chapter 11: "I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you've hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to who? Little children. Yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom listen the Son chooses to reveal Him."
And then he, can imagine, puts out his hands: "Come to me, come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I'm gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light."
What is the will? What is the will of the Father? Well, it was said everywhere: "The will of the father this is the will of my Father this is the will whom the father gives me, will come to me and he who comes to me." I will: in no wise throw out all those who my father gives me they will come to me there's the will come but that was hidden from the wise and the proud and the presumptuous so who's The family of God who's the new covenant community he's building the new Israel it's the generation of the Ninevites if you will. There sits the queen of sheba if you will there are those who are broken and needy who hear the sign and see it sign of the cross, the preaching of the cross who need their sins forgiven. It's not rocket science. You don't need a rocket to come. Come, that's the will: come, repent, believe these words.
And Jesus encourages us in closing, his family are not the proud. They're not the pompous Pharisees, and aren't you thankful? Sure, we all struggle with it. That's not what I'm saying. They're not the people who have it all together. They're not the people who are so wealthy they don't need anything. They are a train of weak people. And so, when people say, "Christianity is for weak people," we say, "Yeah, because it's never been for the strong, because there are no strong."
Jesus, I close with this is about to tell the parable of the wedding feast. This gracious master went out and invited all these people to the wedding of his son, and a shocking thing happened. The first invites went out They didn't respond they actually did we read They made light of it they went each one to his own farm. Farm was more important. Another to his business. Definitely more important. another other seized the ones who went out and do the inviting, and they killed him. Master was furious, says, "Go out to the highways and the byways. My wedding hall will be filled with guests." And they will come, and it was. Guests who understood, of course, most of all, they need a wedding garment. They need the righteousness of Jesus, washed in Him. Isaiah 1: "Come, though your sins are like scarlet, I'll make them white as wool."
In the midst of this passage that Jesus exposes the darkness of the human heart is hope. Jesus has come to have compassion on you and your sins, to save you from your sins. He won't fail. And He promises those who come to Him: "He'll never cast out." That's His will. Come. You then, in contrast to that generation, are what the Psalms call the generation of the upright, the generation of the blessed. You are blessed. So believe Him, trust Him, and receive all that He's done for you by faith.
Amen. Let's pray.
Gracious Lord, thank you for this text. What a marvelous text. We pray that You would give us faith to believe You and to trust You. And that we, Lord, would come. We are that weak, prone to wander, prone to leave the God we love. We ask, Lord, that we would hear this gracious call that You have revealed to children like us. And that we would see that Your family is a family whom You have identified closely with of sinners redeemed, purchased by the precious blood of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We give You thanks with a cheerful heart today for the gracious gift of salvation, for working in us true repentance by the power of Your Holy Spirit.
In jesus name we pray, Amen.