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LOJ #86: ‘Here’s Your Sign…Again’
Andover Baptist Church-November 28th, 2010
[don't forget the Lottie Moon Christmas offering during announcements]
Opening
A. Text for today is Matthew 15:39-16:4 and our sermon is titled
‘Here’s Your Sign…Again’
B. Scripture NET:
“15:39 After sending away the crowd, He got into the boat and went to the region of Magadan. 16:1 Now when the Pharisees and Sadducees came to test Jesus, they asked Him to show them a sign from heaven. 16:2 He said, “When evening comes you say, ‘It will be fair weather, because the sky is red,’ 16:3 and in the morning, ‘It will be stormy today, because the sky is red and darkening.’ You know how to judge correctly the appearance of the sky, but you cannot evaluate the signs of the times. 16:4 A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah.” Then He left them and went away.”
C. Children’s Sermon (SLIDE)
1. Call the kids up with Ian as Timmy
2. Say kids I need a volunteer…thanks Timmy
3. Now let’s say that Timmy comes in from outside
a. And he’s wet (splash with water) what does that
mean?
b. What if he has ice on him (dump ice on
him)…Timmy says ‘The weather outside is
frightful’
c. What if you look outside and see his little hat
doing this (turn on fan)….Timmy rolls away
saying, ‘Auntie Em, Auntie Em’
d. Pretty easy to tell the weather by that isn’t it?
e. Well today Jesus tells some people that it’s easy
to see that He is from God because of what He
says and does
D. Introduction
1. SKIT
a. Have these signs made: Stop now! / Bridge Out /
Turn Back / Don’t Go One More Step
b. Have one of the kids (Zack) walking by the other
kids showing each sign to them
c. After they read the signs (stops at the end of the
first row) they fall forward screaming…a long
time…and then say splat
d. Hold’s up a sign that says, ‘OUCH!’
e. Stands up, ‘Why didn’t someone warn me?’
f. Hailey: ‘We did silly didn’t you see the signs?’
2. Isn't that people?
a. They ask for signs when they refuse to see the
ones that are plainly before them
b. “I'll believe in God if you prove it to me that He
exists”
c. But it’s not really about there being enough
proof, because there is substantially more than
enough
d. It really boils down to the fact that people like
this don’t care to see the proof, because they
don’t want it to be true (our world is full of them)
e. Jesus runs into a group of men today in our text
that are just like this asking for proof of Who He
is when they have already ignored more than
enough
f. And as all people who treat God this way will
find out, Jesus doesn’t play their games, nor will
He play yours or mine if we too approach Him
like this
Sermon
READ: Matthew 15:39 (Scripture slide)
“After sending away the crowd, He got into the boat and went to the region of Magadan.”
A. This story takes place after the feeding of 4k+ Gentiles last
week
1. Now notice Jesus dismissed them before He left,
2. He did not leave them (play a factor later on this
morning)
B. Mark 8:10 tells us that after dismissing them Jesus
‘immediately’ got into ‘the boat’ with His disciples who one of
probably owned the boat
1. Jesus is leaving the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee
in the Gentile region of the Decapolis
2. He’s heading back to the western shore where there are
more people (especially more Jews)
C. Jesus destination: the region of Magadan
1. Mark says they went to Dalmanuth (might be a variant
name for Magadan)
2. Either way we don't really know the exact location
3. We do know that this was one of the towns that the tribe
of Naphtali received in its division of the lands between
the 12 tribes of Israel (Jud 19:32-39)
4. This could be where Mary Magdalene was from (cf. Mk
15:40)
READ: Matthew 16:1 (Scripture slide)
“Now when the Pharisees and Sadducees came to test Jesus, they asked Him to show them a sign from heaven.”
A. Enter the 'Pharisees and Sadducees'
1. Jesus had just left the Gentiles who had open armed
accepted Him
2. Now He comes back into Israel and faces His own
people, the Jews, and they treat Him as an enemy
3. Likely these Pharisees and Sadducees had been waiting
for Jesus to return
4. They come to ‘test’ and ‘argue’ (Mk 8:1) with Christ
5. These people had considerable religious and political
power in Jesus’ day, as they were the men who made up
the law courts called the Sanhedrin (like our Supreme
Court in a way)
6. It could be that in fact this was a legal body from the
Sanhedrin
a. This might explain why the Pharisees and
Sadducees were working together
b. The two groups working together would have
been an odd sight to see for the Jews in the area
c. Normally they were political and theological
opposites and generally couldn’t stand one
another
d. This would be like the Democrats and
Republicans working together to against and
Independent
e. In this case their common enemy was Jesus
b. Jesus had pointed out publically the faults of both
parties and in doing so became the one person
they hated more than each other
c. Work together to destroy Jesus and then go back
to hating one another
B. They wanted to ‘test’ Jesus by having Him ‘show them a sign
from heaven’
1. This is the 4th time they have asked for a sign
2. The word ‘test’ here is used in tempting Jesus to prove
Who He is (devil did the same in Mt 4:3)
3. They had seen His healings, but they wanted something
else, something bigger
4. They wanted something with supernatural power in the
heaven, either a sign in the sky or something that only
God could accomplish
a. Something to compete with the OT prophets
b. Cause manna to fall from heaven
c. Stop the sun and moon
d. Have fire come down from heaven
5. Strange considering that Jesus had done countless
unexplainable miracles they must have either seen or
heard about
Matthew 11:3–5 (NET) “11:3 “Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another?” 11:4 Jesus answered them, “Go tell John what you hear and see: 11:5 The blind see, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news proclaimed to them.”
John 12:37 (NET) “Although Jesus had performed so many miraculous signs before them, they still refused to believe in Him”
6. They wanted Jesus to fail, not succeed…not sincere
7. They asked for a sign from Heaven but they didn't want
Him to be the Messiah so they simply ignored the signs
8. Besides such a sign did occur in Mt 3:17 (at His
baptism)
READ: Matthew 16:2, 3 (Scripture slide)
“16:2 He said, “When evening comes you say, ‘It will be fair weather, because the sky is red,’ 16:3 and in the morning, ‘It will be stormy today, because the sky is red and darkening.’ You know how to judge correctly the appearance of the sky, but you cannot evaluate the signs of the times.”
A. According to Mark 8:12 Jesus said this after 'sighing deeply in
His spirit'
B. Weather Forecasting (SLIDE OF THE SKY)
1. Jesus uses a very simply metrological sign to show that
it is very easy to see what the weather is doing by the
sky
2. In the same sense they should be able to see Jesus'
teachings and miracles and tell the same thing about
Him being the Messiah
3. Jesus’ example is kind of like our folk saying: ‘'Red sky
at morning, sailors/shepherds take warning, Red sky at
night sailors/shepherds delight'
4. Some of you in Kansas may say, 'Fat chance telling the
weather here'…but Palestine is different
a. A cloud in the west would be coming off the
Mediterranean sea and would undoubtedly picked
up moisture from it
b. If the wind was blowing from the south it would
be going over thousands of miles of scorching
hot desert and thus would be hot itself
c. Dark clouds are carrying water, lighter clouds
will be burned off in the heat
Luke 12:54–56 (NET) “12:54 Jesus also said to the crowds, “When you see a cloud rising in the west, you say at once, ‘A rainstorm is coming,’ and it does. 12:55 And when you see the south wind blowing, you say, ‘There will be scorching heat,’ and there is. 12:56 You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and the sky, but how can you not know how to interpret the present time?”
d. But Jesus may have been speaking about the
Pharisees claim they could tell by how the
smoke blew on the last evening of the Feast of
the Tabernacle what the weather would be for
the year
C. 'cannot evaluate the signs of the times'
1. 'signs of the times' = the coming of the Messiah Who
and Who's coming would start the countdown for the
end of days
2. The Kingdom of God was upon them
a. History and current circumstances mixed with
Jesus' teachings and miracles should have
screamed to the Jews Who Jesus was
b. God was visiting with His people and the people
failed to see this and instead of welcoming Him
they are opposing Him
3. 'cannot' = unable to….they were looking at Jesus
through the wrong lenses….3D is the rage now, in TV's
at the movies…but try and watch those events make
sense without the right glasses
a. They cannot see the signs because they have to
ask for them…Jesus has been doing them for
almost 2 years now
b. They could not see because they did not WANT
to see
1. Someone goes to the doctor and the
doctor says looks like I found something
on the x-rays, and that they need to run
more tests
2. But that person never goes back to the
doctor to get those tests because they
would rather pretend that there was
nothing wrong
3. Arguments for God (look in William
Lane Craig's book)
4. People will continue to reject the truth
even when it is obvious because they
don't like the responsibility to Christ that
comes with it
c. Ian’s Jewish Old Testament teacher
1. No matter what is said or what proof is
given he will refuse to believe
2. He is a modern day descendent of these
men (elaborate on him more fully)…'We
already rejected Him once, why would
we accept Him now?'
d. Someone who doesn't want to believe…won't
READ: Matthew 16:4 (Scripture slide)
“A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah.” Then He left them and went away.”
A. 'wicked and adulterous generation'
1. Why can't they see? Because they are wicked and like
an unfaithful lover of God
2. Wicked = opposite of all that is good and right (used of
times as an actual name of the devil)
3. They were adulterous spiritually because they were not
doing what God would have them do: i.e. accept His
Son Jesus
a. Anytime you put anything before God your are
being idolatrous
b. You see they had an idol in the form of a Messiah
who was non-existent
c. We do the same when we try and fit Christ in our
own molds instead of treating Him as He is
4. A generation is the group of people who are alive at the
time and the Pharisees and Sadducees become the
spokesmen for this evil generation
5. Our own generation is just as wicked and adulterous in
their attitudes about Christ
B. No sign but Jonah was going to be given them
1. Jesus has already told them this before in chapter 12
2. Jesus is done giving signs and points to the fact that only
the sign of Jonah will be given them
3. What happened to Jonah?
Jonah 1:17 (2:1) “The Lord sent a huge fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the stomach of the fish three days and three nights. “
a,. Jonah was swallowed by a great fish (for all
intensive purposes this would spell death),
b. When He was swallowed by a great fish he went
into it's belly (burial),
c. But all was not lost because the great fish could
not hold him (resurrection)
d. The sign of Jonah: death, burial and resurrection
e. Jonah’s story served as a warning to the Ninevites
he was sent to that they had best repent or face
judgment
4. Jesus' death, burial and resurrection would be to the
same sign to the Jews
Luke 11:30 (NET) “For just as Jonah became a sign to the people of Nineveh, so the Son of Man will be a sign to this generation.”
Matthew 12:40 (NET) “For just as Jonah was in the belly of the huge fish for three days and three nights, so the Son of Man will be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights.”
a. As Jonah was in the belly of the great fish for
three days so too will Jesus be in the belly of the
earth for three days and rise again
b. And how surprised would the Pharisees be when the One they put to death rises and to the
Sadducees who don't believe in a res will be
resurrected to stand before Him
Matthew 26:64 "Jesus said to him, 'But I tell you, from now on you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of power and coming on the clouds of heaven."
C. 'He left them'
1. After saying this Jesus left them….one of the most
horrible sentences that can ever be said of someone
2. They came to Jesus and He left them
3. Jesus left them to their own sin
Deuteronomy 32:5 (NET) “His people have been unfaithful to Him; they have not acted like His children – this is their sin. They are a perverse and deceitful generation.”
Deuteronomy 32:20 (NET) “He said, “I will reject them, I will see what will happen to them; for they are a perverse generation,
children who show no loyalty.”
4. The opposition Jesus gets here will send Him again into
Gentile territory (Mark 8:13 tells us He went to the other
side of the lake)
5. When you share the truth and it is trampled underneath,
do what Jesus did and just walk away
Invitation (slide)
A. The sign of heaven now IS Jesus!
B. Eventually Jesus will appear in a heavenly sign in the sky, but
then it will be too late for His detractors (Rev. 3:17)
Phil 2:8-11 "He humbled Himself, by becoming obedient to the point of death - even death on a cross! As a result God exalted Him and gave Him the Name that is above every name, so that at the Name of Jesus every knee will bow - in heaven and on earth and under the earth - and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father."
C. Have you bowed the knee to Jesus yet? One day you will no
matter what, but I pray you do it now!
Let us sing our last song # ,
[pic]
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