The Bible Provocateur
The Bible Provocateur
LIVE DISCUSSION: Determining the Signs of the Times (Part 2 of 2)
What if the deepest blessing isn’t proximity to power or spectacle, but quiet fidelity to God’s word? We walk through Luke 11, where a woman praises Mary and Jesus redirects the moment: “Blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it.” That single turn reframes honor, obedience, and what God calls “blessed.” From there, we tackle Jesus’ hard line on sign-seeking and why the hunger for wonders can mark an “evil generation.”
We unpack the Sign of Jonah and how Jesus connects Jonah’s three days in the fish to his own death and resurrection. Along the way, we explore the true purpose of biblical signs and wonders: to authenticate the messenger and confirm the message. Moses before Pharaoh, Jesus among the crowds, and the reports to John the Baptist all serve one end—show who speaks for God and confirm that the message is true. If the resurrection doesn’t convince, nothing else will. That conviction resets the modern obsession with miracles, tongues, and spectacle, and invites us back to Scripture as our sure foundation.
We also compare responses across history: the Queen of Sheba honoring Solomon, Nineveh repenting at Jonah’s preaching, and our response to One greater than Solomon and Jonah. If Christ reigns now as Lord of Lords, how should we live? We press into practical, boots-on-the-ground discipleship: guard the word, move from milk to solid food, love your neighbor, and confess Christ in public without shame. Healing, if it comes, is a gift. Hope, because of the empty tomb, is a certainty. The greatest sign has already been given, and it is enough.
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BE PROVOKED AND BE PERSUADED!
He chose you. If you are a believer, he chose you to believe and to do the works for him that you will do. And he did not do that for everyone. He did not do that for everyone. Because if he did, then the whole world would be saved. And we probably, probably would not be having the problems that we're having today. In this world, this sinful world. And she said to him, Blessed, blessed is the womb that bore thee, and the breast that nursed you. This lady witness witnesses things that miraculous things that Christ was doing. She's heard the words that he was saying. And she comes to him after all that she witnessed, and after all that she heard him say. Now she says this. What Jesus said, and also what he did not say in response to this woman. Here's what I mean. This is what he said. Again, one more time, I'm going to repeat what the lady said. Blessed is the woman who bore you. And blessed are the breasts that nursed you. She says this about Christ. In her mind, she's paying him a compliment. Actually, she's paying Mary a compliment. But Jesus says this. Yes, but rather, yes, rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God and keep it. Blessed are they that hear the word of God and that keep it. Now, the first thing that I want to bring up here. If Mary was intended to be worshipped or glorified or lifted up or raised up in some divine way, this is the time where Jesus would have said it. This woman, she comes to him and she says, Blessed is the woman that bore you. And blessed are the breasts that nursed you. Here's what Jesus did not say. Yes, you should worship my mother. You should honor my mother. My mother is divine. And she needs to be worshipped because she is my mother, just as the father is my father. That's not what Jesus said. He didn't even start down that path. But had he done that, it would make a lot more sense as to why so many people worship Mary. But if Jesus wanted us to worship her for any reason, this would have been the time to say it. Because this lady, after all she saw him do, and after all she heard him say, he doesn't even deal with that. He tells her it is better for those to be blessed by hearing the word of God and to keep it. But then he goes on, and when the people were gathered thick together, he began to say, Now, Christians, I want you to listen to this right here. This is this is good. He says, This is an evil generation. The people of his day. You see it for yourself. Luke eleven verse twenty-nine. Now I'm gonna point something out here. This is an evil generation. Then he tells you the reason why. Because they seek a sign, they seek a sign, and there shall no signs be given to it, except, except for the sign of Jonah, the prophet. Now, let me point something out here. In Luke 11, I just told you about this lady who came to Christ and was giving accolades to his mother. And he corrected her. And he says, Blessed are they which hear the word of God and keep it. Blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it. Okay? But then right after this, he says, This is an evil generation. They seek a sign. But no signs, no sign shall be given to it except for the sign of the prophet Jonah. He tells the lady, Blessed are they, blessed are they that hear the word of God and keep it. Because most people don't. But then by contrast, he says, This is an evil generation, and they seek a sign. Now, Christians, let me let me hold on. I gotta get comfortable when I say this. I gotta get comfortable when I say this. I'm an old man. Now, follow me for a second here. He tells the lady, blessed are they that hear the word of God and keep it. And who keep it. And when he says keep the word of God, it means to guard it, protect it, put a fortress around the word of God and hold on to it, watch it, protect it, preserve it. Okay? And then right after telling this lady to that is that blessed are those who keep the word of God, who who hold on to the word of God, he then goes on and says, This generation is evil because they seek after a sign. They seek after a sign. Now, there are two kinds of people being spoken about. Those who ought who hear the word of God and keep it, and those who seek after signs. Listen to what I'm saying. Because we're talking about believers, we're not talking about people who are outside the Christian faith. Christ is talking about those who are under the banner of belief. He says that an evil generation is characterized by their seeking for signs. Now, somebody asks, what's a sign? They want to see the miraculous, they want to see a wonder. They want to see, quote unquote, evidence. They want Christ to be a circus monkey to perform for them. And then they say that if he just performs for us, then we will believe. You and I both know they won't believe. And he tells them, I'm not going to give you a sign except for one, the sign of Jonah the prophet. And what do we know about Jonah the prophet? He was swallowed up by a great fish and spit out on the beach at Nineveh. And that sign that Jesus is talking about is that Jonah was in the heart of this fish for three days, and he was spit out. So the sign that he's referring to was his own death, where he would die, and three days later he would rise from the dead. Jesus was talking about the sign of his resurrection, of his death and resurrection. There are people that will tell you that the Jonah story was just a story. It's not real. It's just symbolic fiction having some kind of a point that he's trying to make. Well, according to Jesus, that actually happened. He validates what happened to Jonah. Jesus is validating it. He's validating it. If you want a sign, go back and read what happened to Jonah. Because that is the only sign you're going to get. Signs. Signs were meant to accommodate the weak. Signs were meant to accommodate the weak, the weak-minded. True people of faith don't need signs. They are comfortable and satisfied enough with the word of God itself. Jesus himself says that blessed are they that hear the word of God and that keep it. They are the ones that are blessed, not the ones who are witnessing signs. Now, let's talk about signs for a second. Because I noticed so many of you are out there just beside yourself because you need to have your miracles. You need to have your tongues and all that other nonsense. All right? Let me explain something to you. Signs had two purposes. And the signs that every prophet ever did, that every prophet ever did. Now, let me tell you what those signs were for. They were to authenticate and to confirm the one performing it. So what I'm saying is this every sign that was ever done in the Bible, every one of them, every single sign and wonder in the Bible was done for one reason and one reason only, or two reasons. To authenticate and validate the messenger, and to authenticate and validate the messenger's message. It was not used to be a device to save souls. The signs had nothing to do with those who witnessed it or even those who experienced it, even though Christ saved and healed many people. But he did it so that everyone would know he was the Messiah and that his word was true. That's why signs and wonders were done. When Moses was given the ability to go before Pharaoh and perform all the signs and wonders that he did in Egypt, it was so that all those people would know that Moses was sent by God and that Moses' message was coming from God and it was true. But Christianity today has turned signs and wonders and fake ones at that into a practice, ritual. No, signs and wonders are given when your faith is weak. For weak people, signs and wonders were for unbelievers. But they were meant to validate the source of the miracle, whoever's doing it, the prophet, and to authenticate his message. So when I tell people today, some of you have heard me say this, all these people that are going around talking about casting out demons, they're not. They're going around saying they're healing people, they're not. They're going around speaking in babbling in tongues, they're not. And I can tell you the reason why. And it's the reason for what I just told you. Signs and wonders were to were to confirm that the messenger or the person who's doing the signs is God's messenger and to authenticate his message that it is coming from God. That is why signs and wonders were performed. Today, no other man needs validation. We don't care. No other man's message needs to be validated. Why? Because we already have the word of God, we have it all. Brethren, signs and wonder seekers need to see proofs and evidences because they are weak and they do not have faith. Somebody every day comes on my feed and wants to tell me you can't prove God exists. Not trying to. Nature does that. Nature does that. Only God's chosen people will hear the voice of God. Only the sheep, only the sheep hear their master's voice. Only that collective will hear his voice. Everyone else, they don't belong to him. They'll never hear it. They'll never embrace it. They'll never embrace you if you're standing up for Christ. All of you, go to the Word of God and challenge me. Prove me wrong. Prove me wrong. Go look up signs and wonders and who did them and why they did them. Look up those verses where it talks about what they were for. They weren't for the righteous and the believers, they were for the unbelievers and the wicked. God was telling them that I'm going to show you who I am by what I do. Remember, John the Baptist sent his servants to Christ to ask him, You are the Messiah, right? I mean, I'm not getting this wrong. You are the Messiah. So John's disciples go to Jesus and they say, My master, John the Baptist, he wants to know, are you really the one? Are you right? Did John wants to know if he got it right? So you know what Jesus said to them? Jesus says, Go and tell John the things that I've been doing. Go and tell John the things that I've been saying. Go and tell John that I've been casting out demons. Go and tell John that I've been healing the sick. Go and tell John that I've been doing all these things. And then John will know that I am the Messiah. He will know that I am the Messiah, and he will also know that the works that I'm doing are evidence of that. This was what signs and the wonders were all about. To authenticate, to invalidate, to confirm the messenger as well as his message. So Jesus says that no sign will be given but the sign of Jonah the prophet. Now Jesus is talking about his resurrection, his death and resurrection. And he says that just as Jonah was assigned to the Ninevites, so also shall the Son of Man be assigned unto this generation. In other words, just as Jonah was in the well, the belly of the fish for three days, so shall the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth for three days, and will resurrect on the third day. So Jesus says, Jonah was in the heart of the whale for three days and was sped out on that ocean beach as if one raised from the dead. And he communicated the gospel to those people. And the Ninevites believed. Dead as a doorknob. And three days later, he resurrected. He resurrected. And he said, This is going to be the only sign that you get. So for all of you going around chasing after signs and wonders, you're wasting your time. What sign or wonder is greater than the one that has been done, the biggest one of all. The death, the burial, the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. There is no greater sign to be had. None. Everything else pales. I don't need to be healed if I got cancer. If I am, great. But if I die, I'm going to be in the presence of my Lord. And happy to be there. And I'll be happy to see you there if I beat you there first. We don't need pacifiers. And we should be beyond drinking milk. We should be eating steaks. We need to deal with these things, Christians. And we need to show our Lord our love for him. We need to show our neighbor our love for him. And we need to show everyone our love for each other. And I know that's probably very difficult for so many of us because we like to be in our own little uh worlds, our own little cocoons. We're in our own little cocoons. We don't want to step out and ruffle any feathers. Now listen, Jesus is telling them that a greater than Solomon is here. He's talking about himself. He's telling them, I am greater than Solomon. He says in verse 32, the men of Nineveh shall rise up in judgment against this generation and shall condemn it. Why? Because they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, a greater than Jonah is here. He's talking about himself. We see how the Queen of Sheba bowed and brought gifts to Solomon. We see how all of the Ninevehes submitted to the message that was preached by Jonah. But now I have to ask all of you if Jesus, and he is, if Jesus is greater than Solomon and Jonah, then why are we giving him the respect and the honor and the due glory that those people gave Jonah and Solomon? Because indeed, Jesus is greater than them all. So, Christians, we are blessed to have such a great Lord who's done so much for us. And we all we have to do to show our gratitude is to serve him honorably and to promote his glory and his fame and all that he's done for us and not to be ashamed of it. Stop hiding and making up excuses for not serving him and not being vocal for him. We need to let this sinful, cruel world know that we know our Lord is still on the throne. And he is on the throne right now. Not Satan, not anyone else. Jesus is Lord, King of Kings, Lord of Lords right now. Not in the future, right now. In his kingdom, there is no end in sight for it. It will never end. He will vanquish all of his enemies, all of them. And then he will offer up that kingdom to his father when it's all done. And then we shall all be in all, and all will be in all. And death will be swallowed up in victory. May God bless his awesome word. And may you find solace in his word, and may you keep his word and guard it and protect it with everything that you have and keep your heart as well. May God bless you all until next time. Love you guys and uh continue to stay faithful, be provoked, or be persuaded. Have a good night.