SPEAKER_00: This sermon was recorded at Faith Evangelical Free Church in Grand Forks, North Dakota.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you, Jim.
SPEAKER_01: Good morning.
SPEAKER_01: Welcome to our time of worship together.
SPEAKER_01: Would you please take your Bible if you have one with you and open it to the Gospel of Matthew?
SPEAKER_01: Gospel of Matthew.
SPEAKER_01: If you don't have a Bible, there's one in the seat back in front of you.
SPEAKER_01: We encourage you to open it or use your device.
SPEAKER_01: Do you have one of those?
SPEAKER_01: As we look to the Gospel of Matthew near the end of this Gospel account.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you for showing up this morning after my preaching so long last week.
SPEAKER_01: It's encouraging to me.
SPEAKER_01: We talk often in our pastoral meetings about how the most difficult part of sermon preparation is the cutting.
SPEAKER_01: What do you cut out?
SPEAKER_01: What do you leave out?
SPEAKER_01: And that, again, is it was a struggle for me this week, so much that we could talk about in a very difficult passage of scripture in trying to figure out what's going on.
SPEAKER_01: How do we fit this together?
SPEAKER_01: How do we make sense of it?
SPEAKER_01: It's the end of chapter 12, beginning in verse 38.
SPEAKER_01: But before we get to reading the text, it's a pretty popular book in Christian ministry that had a very profound statement.
SPEAKER_01: The author wrote, ideas and images.
SPEAKER_01: Ideas and images are the primary focus of Satan's efforts to defeat God's purposes for humankind.
SPEAKER_01: Am I coming through?
SPEAKER_01: There we go.
SPEAKER_01: Let me repeat that.
SPEAKER_01: Ideas and images are the primary focuses of Satan's efforts to defeat God's purposes for humankind.
SPEAKER_01: Ideas and images form the primary arena of the battle of spiritual formation.
SPEAKER_01: When we are subject to Satan's chosen ideas and images, he can take a holiday.
SPEAKER_01: When he undertook to draw Eve away from God, he did not hit her with a stick, but with an idea.
SPEAKER_01: It was the idea that God could not be trusted and that she must act on her own to secure her well-being.
SPEAKER_01: Ideas and images are the primary focus of Satan's efforts to defeat God's purposes for humankind.
SPEAKER_01: The question I'd like us to consider this morning is what ideas?
SPEAKER_01: What images, what theories, what what speculations, what what world views have we bought into that are Satan's intentions, that are apart from what God has planned.
SPEAKER_01: Look with me at Matthew chapter twelve, beginning in verse 38.
SPEAKER_01: Some of the scribes and Pharisees answered Jesus, saying, Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.
SPEAKER_01: But Jesus 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.
SPEAKER_01: For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
SPEAKER_01: The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah.
SPEAKER_01: Behold, something greater than Jonah is here.
SPEAKER_01: 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.
SPEAKER_01: When an unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, but it finds none.
SPEAKER_01: Then it says, I will return to my house from which I came.
SPEAKER_01: And when it comes it finds the house empty, swept, and put in order.
SPEAKER_01: 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.
SPEAKER_01: So also will it be with this evil generation.
SPEAKER_01: Now while he was speaking to the people, behold, his mother and his brothers stood outside asking to speak to him.
SPEAKER_01: But he replied to the man who told him, Who is my mother and who are my brothers?
SPEAKER_01: 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.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Not going to really address at in depth the last section there, verses 48 through 50, this morning.
SPEAKER_01: We'll do that in a couple of weeks, but we will just touch on it briefly.
SPEAKER_01: Mostly in noticing the contrast where Jesus says, this generation that he's speaking to, primarily focusing on the Pharisees who are asking for a sign, this generation is much different than my mother and my brothers and my family.
SPEAKER_01: There is a contrast intended there.
SPEAKER_01: That contrast is important because Jesus is focusing on these Pharisees and this generation that he refers to as a skeptical generation.
SPEAKER_01: See, the skeptical world always wants more.
SPEAKER_01: It wants more evidence, it wants more proof.
SPEAKER_01: Always more, more, more, because what is given is never sufficient.
SPEAKER_01: And you and I live in that kind of world.
SPEAKER_01: The postmodern mindset has worked to demolish any sense of truth, of absolute, sufficient truth.
SPEAKER_01: And it's resulted in a world of skeptics who never have enough in which to believe.
SPEAKER_01: He talks about leeches.
SPEAKER_01: Says the leech has two daughters, give and give.
SPEAKER_01: I don't recommend naming your children the same name, but Solomon is painting a picture here.
SPEAKER_01: Leeches have two daughters, give and give.
SPEAKER_01: He says there are three things that never are satisfied.
SPEAKER_01: There are four that never say enough.
SPEAKER_01: Sheol, that is the grave, the tomb, death, the barren womb, the land that is never satisfied with water, and fire that never says enough.
SPEAKER_01: See, in the pro context of Proverbs chapter 30, these things that Solomon identifies as never having enough stand in contrast to the one who, in verse five of that chapter, rests in God alone.
SPEAKER_01: Solomon says previous to these leeches, every word of God proves true.
SPEAKER_01: For he is a shield to those who take refuge in him.
SPEAKER_01: Those who will not receive the word of God, and those who refuse him as their refuge will never be satisfied.
SPEAKER_01: Instead, they will be like the leech, like the grave, like the barren womb, and like the fire, never satisfied.
SPEAKER_01: And we can see the basic premise of this in Matthew chapter 12, I think quite clearly.
SPEAKER_01: The Pharisees in this chapter have been challenging Jesus all along, from the very beginning, but especially in these last few chapters of Matthew that we've been looking at.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, beginning in chapter 12 alone, we saw them challenge Jesus and his disciples' right to feed themselves on the Sabbath day.
SPEAKER_01: They challenged Jesus' right to heal on the Sabbath day.
SPEAKER_01: They challenged Jesus' right to cast out demons in the power of God, saying, No, you are in league with Satan.
SPEAKER_01: That's how you can do that.
SPEAKER_01: And now they're saying, Jesus, no matter what you do, it's not enough for us.
SPEAKER_01: Give us more.
SPEAKER_01: They do not believe that Jesus is who he has claimed to be.
SPEAKER_01: Beginning of verse 22, 23 of this chapter.
SPEAKER_01: A demon-oppressed man who is blind and mute was brought to Jesus and he healed him so that he can speak and see.
SPEAKER_01: And the people were amazed and said, Can this be the son of David?
SPEAKER_01: The people are wondering, is this David's promised son?
SPEAKER_01: And the Pharisees and the skeptics are looking at Jesus and saying, Yeah, no, there's not enough evidence yet.
SPEAKER_01: The reason for that is there's never enough evidence.
SPEAKER_01: And so they claim that Jesus is in cahoots with Satan.
SPEAKER_01: That's their most egregious action.
SPEAKER_01: No matter what Scripture said, no matter what Jesus did, they refuse to believe that Jesus is the Messiah.
SPEAKER_01: They are the leech's daughters.
SPEAKER_01: Give.
SPEAKER_01: Never satisfied.
SPEAKER_01: There is one thing that would satisfy the Pharisees.
SPEAKER_01: And that's if Jesus is destroyed.
SPEAKER_01: They want him out of the picture.
SPEAKER_01: And leading to that, they demand a sign.
SPEAKER_01: From their perspective, if there was any kind of chance that what Jesus is saying is true, then Jesus should demonstrate that for them by doing something miraculous.
SPEAKER_01: They ask for proof.
SPEAKER_01: As if healing lepers and the lame and the blind and the deaf and raising the dead and casting out demons is not enough, right?
SPEAKER_01: They treat the Lord Jesus merely as a miracle vending machine.
SPEAKER_01: There's no belief here.
SPEAKER_01: There's no trust in Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: There's no belief in Christ as God's promised redeemer.
SPEAKER_01: When the people are asking, could this be David's son?
SPEAKER_01: They're saying, yeah, no, no chance.
SPEAKER_01: None whatsoever.
SPEAKER_01: There's no recognition of his fulfillment of their beloved Old Testament prophecies.
SPEAKER_01: There's only this building and deeply held resentment of Jesus as though he's a demon in disguise.
SPEAKER_01: And so in faithless skepticism, they ask Jesus for yet another sign.
SPEAKER_01: And by asking for yet another sign, they're showing us how deep their unbelief goes.
SPEAKER_01: They're proving that they are part of an evil and adulterous generation of people who refuse to believe, even when the miraculous is present.
SPEAKER_01: But Jesus doesn't cater to every whim of people, even when we treat Christ as a miracle vending machine, praying for one thing after another, expecting him to give us what we want.
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't cater to every whim of people.
SPEAKER_01: You see, their request is the equivalent of what have you done for me lately?
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, Jesus, that casting out demons, that was an hour ago.
SPEAKER_01: What are you going to do for us now?
SPEAKER_01: Kind of idea.
SPEAKER_01: It places human beings in control of God.
SPEAKER_01: It's seeking to treat God as an idol, as something that can be manipulated.
SPEAKER_01: Now, as we look at this, we can divide this passage, I think, into four basic parts.
SPEAKER_01: There's the question and response at the beginning of it, and that is then followed by three different illustrations.
SPEAKER_01: There's an illustration of Jonah, the great fish.
SPEAKER_01: There's an illustration of this queen of the south.
SPEAKER_01: And then the third illustration is one of demon possession.
SPEAKER_01: At least that much is connected together.
SPEAKER_01: And we can see that through the repetition of this generation.
SPEAKER_01: That's the link that connects all of those accounts together.
SPEAKER_01: Let's consider this passage under those four headings, beginning with the question and answer.
SPEAKER_01: And the form of it is very simple.
SPEAKER_01: We want a sign.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus' answers, no.
SPEAKER_01: But the function of the answer, that is what it does or what it seeks to accomplish, is much different.
SPEAKER_01: It's not a simple no.
SPEAKER_01: There's implied skepticism in the question, right?
SPEAKER_01: Jesus, yeah, we're not quite sure, we're not convinced that you are who you are, no matter what you say, no matter what you do, we need yet another sign.
SPEAKER_01: There's skepticism involved in that, but there's much more than a simple no to the answer.
SPEAKER_01: Starts with Jesus condemning them for asking.
SPEAKER_01: He says, asking for a sign indicates an evil and adulterous spirit.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know what that does in you, but in me, that generates a question.
SPEAKER_01: Think about Gideon.
SPEAKER_01: Gideon asked for a sign.
SPEAKER_01: Twice.
SPEAKER_01: He said, God, I've got this little piece of fleece here of lambs.
SPEAKER_01: Well, I'm going to put it out on the ground.
SPEAKER_01: And tonight would you make it all wet with dew?
SPEAKER_01: And tomorrow and the ground all around it dry?
SPEAKER_01: And God did.
SPEAKER_01: Then he reversed it.
SPEAKER_01: He said, God make the ground wet, but the fleece dry.
SPEAKER_01: God encouraged a pagan king of Israel to ask for a sign.
SPEAKER_01: So why is it evil to ask for a sign?
SPEAKER_01: Why is it adulterous to ask for a sign?
SPEAKER_01: The answer is not given clearly or directly.
SPEAKER_01: Which makes it an even more intriguing question.
SPEAKER_01: But I think we will be able to obtain a sufficient answer as we work our way through these four headings, but probably not a fullest answer until we get to the end.
SPEAKER_01: See, the Pharisees wanted more from Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: In their minds, if Jesus wanted faith and trust and belief from them, then he needed to give them something more to prove his worth.
SPEAKER_01: That desire, Jesus declared, came from an evil and adulterous spirit.
SPEAKER_01: But that's not to say that there will be no sign given to demonstrate who Jesus is.
SPEAKER_01: There have already been many signs, right?
SPEAKER_01: We looked in chapter 12, verses 15 through 21, that just in Isaiah 42 there were eight confirmed fulfillments of Scripture.
SPEAKER_01: There's a sign in and of itself.
SPEAKER_01: There will be many more miracles pointing to the deity and the kingship of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: But those miracles do not generate faith in skeptics.
SPEAKER_01: If they've not believed because of what they've already seen, then they're not going to believe if they see more.
SPEAKER_01: And so Jesus declares that those who are indeed evil at heart are only going to receive one sign directed to them.
SPEAKER_01: And it won't be a sign of hope.
SPEAKER_01: It won't be a sign of salvation, but a sign of condemnation.
SPEAKER_01: Matthew's shown us very clearly, again and again and again, that Jesus fulfills the Old Testament prophecies of a Messiah.
SPEAKER_01: The one that Israel expected is the one that Jesus is.
SPEAKER_01: But most people, including the Pharisees, rejected that fulfillment.
SPEAKER_01: And so from our context, just here in chapter 12, we have a preliminary answer to our question, and you're asking, what?
SPEAKER_01: We do?
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we do.
SPEAKER_01: Why is it evil and adulterous to seek a sign?
SPEAKER_01: Because merely asking for a sign points to the presence of an unbelieving heart.
SPEAKER_01: If God has already done this and this and this and this and this and this and this, and it just keeps going on, and you're saying, hey, give us more, that says you don't believe what he's already given.
SPEAKER_01: Asking for a sign when many have already been given shows the rejection of evidence already given.
SPEAKER_01: But I think we can get a clearer answer to our question if we move on.
SPEAKER_01: We move on then to Jonah's fishing expedition.
SPEAKER_01: Jonah's fishing expedition.
SPEAKER_01: God, as you know, wanted Jonah to go fishing for people.
SPEAKER_01: In the ancient city of Nineveh.
SPEAKER_01: Jonah refused, right?
SPEAKER_01: He ran off down, actually, the text says there's the author of Jonah, whether it was Jonah himself or somebody recording on his behalf, uses this word picture of going down, down, down, down, down, as if he's going away from God.
SPEAKER_01: Goes down to the Mediterranean Sea, he goes down into a boat.
SPEAKER_01: He goes down into the water, he goes down to the depths of the sea, he goes down, down, down.
SPEAKER_01: He runs away from fishing for people and promptly becomes fish bait.
SPEAKER_01: And since Jonah didn't want to go fishing for people, specifically evil people, people that he thought should be under the condemnation of God's righteous justice, God redirected Jonah's path via an unpleasant fishing expedition.
SPEAKER_01: And the point Jesus makes here is the comparison between Jonah and himself.
SPEAKER_01: Jonah, he says, was three days and three nights in the belly of a great fish.
SPEAKER_01: That's quite an amazing statement, by the way.
SPEAKER_01: Many people, even today, don't really believe, or maybe it's better to say they doubt, whether the story of Jonah is real.
SPEAKER_01: Or whether it's simply a fabricated story to emphasize a point.
SPEAKER_01: Well, Jonah's only mentioned in two New Testament books: Matthew and Luke.
SPEAKER_01: In both gospel records, it comes, the reference comes from the mouth of the Lord Jesus Himself.
SPEAKER_01: In both instances, the Lord speaks of Jonah as a real person who experienced these real things in real life.
SPEAKER_01: So, on the one hand, if we're going to deny that the account of Jonah is truthful and real, then we have to begin to question everything that Jesus said.
SPEAKER_01: But on the other hand, it is possible for a great fish to swallow a person.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe you see the news just two weeks ago?
SPEAKER_01: Two weeks ago.
SPEAKER_01: Two weeks ago, a lobster diver was reported in the Cape Cod Times.
SPEAKER_01: Veteran lobster diver Michael Packard was swallowed whole by a humpback whale before being spit out.
SPEAKER_01: I'll leave you to determine then whether or not we can believe Jonah.
SPEAKER_01: But I would suggest another reason to believe that it's real.
SPEAKER_01: And that's because it provides the prophetic background for the life of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus says, in the same way, just as Jonah was three days in the belly of a great fish, so too Jesus would spend three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
SPEAKER_01: Put yourselves in the shoes of the Pharisees for a moment.
SPEAKER_01: Now we have the benefit of knowing the end of the story, right?
SPEAKER_01: We have the benefit of having the rest of the story, as Paul Harvey used to say.
SPEAKER_01: We know that Jesus was crucified and that he was laid in a tomb and that the tomb was sealed and that he arose from the grave.
SPEAKER_01: And then the tomb was opened on the third day.
SPEAKER_01: We know that that resurrection was verified by hundreds of people.
SPEAKER_01: We know that.
SPEAKER_01: The Pharisees didn't have that benefit.
SPEAKER_01: This is likely a year, maybe a year and a half to two years before the crucifixion takes place.
SPEAKER_01: So when Jesus made this comparison, the Pharisees would have no clue as to what Jesus was referring to in the future.
SPEAKER_01: All they have is Jonah.
SPEAKER_01: The only sign that they will receive, Jesus says, is the one that will come when they, in their own wickedness, would crucify the Lord of glory.
SPEAKER_01: As Jonah's time in the belly of the fish served to authenticate his position as God's witness and to verify his message, so too Jesus says his death, burial, and resurrection will verify everything that he's done and everything that he's said.
SPEAKER_01: You know, three days in the belly of a great fish would mean that your skin has been impacted by stomach acid, probably bleached to some extent.
SPEAKER_01: Probably wouldn't smell too good.
SPEAKER_01: But all of that would have served to verify his message.
SPEAKER_01: The same way Jesus says, when when you recognize that I've been crucified, buried, and the tomb is empty, you will have condemning proof of everything that I've said and done.
SPEAKER_01: But that will do these people no good.
SPEAKER_01: Because these people of whom Jesus speaks are far beyond that fork in the road that leads to the narrow gate that takes you to life.
SPEAKER_01: They've already gone down the wide road to destruction.
SPEAKER_01: They've rejected the Lord Jesus, and the sign that will come would only serve to condemn them.
SPEAKER_01: Notice what Jesus says.
SPEAKER_01: Nineveh, verse 41, Nineveh heard the word of God through Jonah.
SPEAKER_01: They understood that the prophet Jonah was bringing to them a message from God.
SPEAKER_01: Jonah is a prophet as a messenger of God.
SPEAKER_01: He's coming with God's word, he's coming with God's authority, and they repented of their sin.
SPEAKER_01: In some sense, they felt guilty about their sin.
SPEAKER_01: They knew they needed to make it right with God.
SPEAKER_01: They needed to be different, and they sought to correct it.
SPEAKER_01: And now, even though Jesus, someone of incomparably greater stature and authority and position and power, even though he is present among his own people, they refused to believe and trust that he is God's messenger, bringing God's word.
SPEAKER_01: And so to repent.
SPEAKER_01: Because of that, Jesus says, something will happen that to the Jewish mind was incomprehensible.
SPEAKER_01: These evil pagans from Nineveh would arise at the final judgment and condemn those skeptical people.
SPEAKER_01: Because they didn't want to hear Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: We don't really get the sense of that.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe if we if we go back a few years when our own country was at war with Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden, and you get the tensions there, maybe you get close to it.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know, maybe if those of you that were around following World War II, maybe you get a sense of that.
SPEAKER_01: It's hard for us because these these Ninevehites were some of the evilest people that you could ever imagine.
SPEAKER_01: They delighted in torturing their enemies.
SPEAKER_01: Not only did they torture their enemies, they made graphic depictions of it on their city walls so that their enemies would always be reminded of this is what happens when you go against us.
SPEAKER_01: They were the worst.
SPEAKER_01: The worst.
SPEAKER_01: And yet Jesus said, they're going to condemn every one of you that doesn't repent and believe.
SPEAKER_01: That was incomprehensible to these people.
SPEAKER_01: See, the Jews believed that they would judge the evil Gentiles.
SPEAKER_01: And if you if you happen to be a Gentile, a non-Jew, and you would make the conversion to Judaism, then you would participate with the Jewish people of condemning the Gentiles.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus now flips that around and says, No, they're going to be condemning you.
SPEAKER_01: That was just incomprehensible.
SPEAKER_01: Now Jesus goes still further, as if that wasn't far enough, with his second illustration, with a reference to the queen of Sheba, or the Queen of the South coming to seek God's wisdom.
SPEAKER_01: This queen of the south, he says, will one day stand in judgment over all of these skeptical, unbelieving religious people.
SPEAKER_01: This is speaking of the Queen of Sheba in 1 Kings chapter 10, who heard of the wisdom of Solomon and came from beyond the southern borders of Egypt to see if what she had heard was true.
SPEAKER_01: See, the Queen of Sheba had heard through the grapevine that Solomon had wisdom unlike anyone else.
SPEAKER_01: And she responded to the son of David's wisdom and message because they were from God.
SPEAKER_01: Solomon's wisdom was God's wisdom.
SPEAKER_01: It was the word of God, just as Jonah's message was God's message.
SPEAKER_01: And so we begin to see here that Jesus is emphasizing the response to the word of God.
SPEAKER_01: When the people of Nineveh heard the word of God, they responded with repentance.
SPEAKER_01: When the Queen of the South heard the word of God, she packed up for a long journey to come and hear more.
SPEAKER_01: And now Jesus, the ultimate, the true son of David.
SPEAKER_01: Greater than Solomon, that physical direct descendant of David.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus, the ultimate son of David, is here.
SPEAKER_01: And yet these Pharisees and the people like them did not respond to Jesus like the Ninevehes did to Jonah.
SPEAKER_01: They don't respond to Jesus, the son of David, like the Queen of Sheba did to the son of David.
SPEAKER_01: So in another humiliating truth, Jesus declares that this queen of Sheba will rise up at the last judgment and condemn those who pursue this skepticism and reject the Lord Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And the proof that this will happen, the sign that Jesus says will demonstrate who Jesus is and the truth of his message, all along with the reality of condemnation, is his death, burial, and resurrection.
SPEAKER_01: Pictured in the life of Jonah.
SPEAKER_01: Just side note, here in part is why the Lord's death, burial, and resurrection is so important.
SPEAKER_01: Without that work of God, we wouldn't understand judgment.
SPEAKER_01: But because of that action, there is a certainty of condemnation for those who reject Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Because Jesus is Emmanuel, right?
SPEAKER_01: We've already seen that in Matthew's gospel.
SPEAKER_01: He is the one who's come to save his people from their sins.
SPEAKER_01: He can save his people from their sins because he's Emmanuel, God in the flesh.
SPEAKER_01: And his life and his message and his ministry demonstrate those things.
SPEAKER_01: And his death, burial, and resurrection prove them.
SPEAKER_01: Matthew's told us again and again, as if it were on repeat.
SPEAKER_01: Everything that Jesus said and everything that he did was a demonstration of who he is.
SPEAKER_01: So these skeptics read their Bible, they hear the word of God taught to them, just as the Ninevehes did and the Queen of Sheba did.
SPEAKER_01: They witnessed the greatness of Jesus through the displays of his power over and over and over again, but they would not repent.
SPEAKER_01: They would not hear.
SPEAKER_01: They would not believe.
SPEAKER_01: Neither, Jesus implies, would they believe in his death, burial, and resurrection.
SPEAKER_01: But the passage doesn't end there.
SPEAKER_01: Verses 43 through 45 are part of this too, and you can see that by the end of verse 45, this evil generation, right?
SPEAKER_01: This is where Jesus gives a frightening illustration of demon possession.
SPEAKER_01: We have to understand that Jesus isn't expressing a complete theology of the spirit world here.
SPEAKER_01: He's not giving us a theological exposition on demon possession and exorcism.
SPEAKER_01: They don't contain all that God says about the spirit world.
SPEAKER_01: Instead, Jesus is giving us a word picture.
SPEAKER_01: He's giving us an illustration of the consequences of rejecting him.
SPEAKER_01: You see, that the condition of a demon-oppressed person is oppressive.
SPEAKER_01: The Gospels are full of accounts as to the ability and the power of demons to take control of a person and even seek to destroy them.
SPEAKER_01: Just in verse 22, the man was blind and mute.
SPEAKER_01: He was blind and he could not speak because of this demon possession.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus says, if you cast out a demon, as it does when Jesus powerfully casts them out of people, it's as though it's been evicted from its home, been cast out of its home.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus is bringing in conventional Jewish thought at the time.
SPEAKER_01: Because conventional Jewish thought at the time was that demons lived in the desert.
SPEAKER_01: Wonder what that made them think of John the Baptist who lived in the desert, but that's a separate question.
SPEAKER_01: Jewish thought was that demons wandered around in the desert looking for a place to live.
SPEAKER_01: So they could find a decent place.
SPEAKER_01: And so Jesus isn't so much addressing that belief as he is incorporating it into his illustration.
SPEAKER_01: He's saying the point is not that demons live in the desert, but that they leave the home they were in and they go looking for another home.
SPEAKER_01: They wander around looking for a new place, and if a demon can't find a new home, then it returns to its previous home.
SPEAKER_01: And when it returns, it finds its home in good shape.
SPEAKER_01: For when the power of God comes upon a person and rescues it out of that oppression, the house becomes clean and orderly and uninhabited, and it's in great shape in which to move in.
SPEAKER_01: But the demon wants some housemates, and so it returns and gets seven other demons, more evil demons, and they all take up residence within the person.
SPEAKER_01: Now be careful not to read too much into that text.
SPEAKER_01: This is an analogy.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is using this as the third illustration.
SPEAKER_01: And the point is simply this.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus has been at work.
SPEAKER_01: He's come to save his people from their sins.
SPEAKER_01: He's come to rescue them from the work of Satan.
SPEAKER_01: He's been at work in the nation of Israel, casting out demons from individuals, opposing and correcting the work of Satan in the populace at large.
SPEAKER_01: These demons are being kicked out of their homes by the power of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: He is bringing hope and healing and restoration to his creation.
SPEAKER_01: He's undoing the work of evil and oppression by combating the primary enemy.
SPEAKER_01: The message that Jonah preached and the wisdom that Solomon declared is present in the person of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: People should have seen through all of his work to see who Jesus is.
SPEAKER_01: They should have seen through that to understand his power and to believe in him so that the Holy Spirit would come and take residence within them.
SPEAKER_01: But when a person or maybe a group of people sees the work of God, when they hear the word of God, when they begin to experience the byproducts of God's powerful working and his authoritative cleansing of his evil world and the work of Jesus, and they refuse to repent of their sin and to trust in him, they leave themselves empty.
SPEAKER_01: They may have a cleaner house for a while, but unless they replace the presence of demons and Satan, as it were, with the presence of Christ, then they leave themselves open to the multiplied evil of Satan taking final control.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus is saying, that's what's happening to this evil generation that is so skeptical in the presence of the Word of God that they refuse to believe.
SPEAKER_01: Now, let's go back to the beginning.
SPEAKER_01: Rushed through all of that so we can spend a little bit more time going back to our question.
SPEAKER_01: Why is it adulterous and evil to ask for a sign?
SPEAKER_01: What's the significance of that?
SPEAKER_01: Can we clarify that anymore?
SPEAKER_01: Well, a place to begin thinking about the significance of asking for a sign is in the repeated elements here that form an emphasis.
SPEAKER_01: There are two repeated elements that we see.
SPEAKER_01: One is this generation, specifically this evil generation, right?
SPEAKER_01: Jesus adds an adjective to the to the noun.
SPEAKER_01: This generation is not simply a generation of people that exist, it's an evil generation.
SPEAKER_01: That's one element.
SPEAKER_01: The other element is there's something greater.
SPEAKER_01: There's something greater.
SPEAKER_01: Let's think first about this evil generation.
SPEAKER_01: The illustrations of Jonah and the queen of the south and the demons show us that Jesus is comparing these skeptical Pharisees and people like them to the people of Nineveh and the Queen of Sheba.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: He's making a comparison.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Here you are.
SPEAKER_01: Here are these other examples.
SPEAKER_01: Let's see what the comparisons and contrasts are.
SPEAKER_01: So when the Ninevites were confronted in their evilness with the word of God, what happened?
SPEAKER_01: They repented, right?
SPEAKER_01: This generation of people did not.
SPEAKER_01: When the Queen of the South heard that the wisdom of God resided in King Solomon, the son of David, she traveled, as it were, across the world to receive it in person, to get more of it.
SPEAKER_01: This generation, Jesus says, would not receive the word of God even though it came to them.
SPEAKER_01: And so we see the first key to understanding this passage, and that is that it is about God's revelation to his creation.
SPEAKER_01: It's about the word of God.
SPEAKER_01: It's about the revealed and the written word of God.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe we can use the term inscripturated so you can put it with scripture.
SPEAKER_01: Also, it makes it a little easier to remember what the next word I'm going to give you.
SPEAKER_01: The incarnated word of God.
SPEAKER_01: It is about the inscripturated word, the word that God gives in his speaking and in his word itself, and it's about the incarnated word of God in the presence of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: It is about the word of God from the mouth of the prophet and the word of God from the Son of David.
SPEAKER_01: It's about the word of God coming to people, and this encounter describes people encountering it with skepticism.
SPEAKER_01: They were more likely to believe in the wisdom of Solomon than the truthfulness of Jonah.
SPEAKER_01: You see, there was an apocryphal book, not an inspired book, an apocryphal book that was written and was circulating in Judaism either just before the time of Christ or during the time of Christ and in the years following.
SPEAKER_01: We're not exactly, can't pinpoint when it was written.
SPEAKER_01: It was an apocryphal book written that was popular among the Jewish people.
SPEAKER_01: Guess what it was called?
SPEAKER_01: The wisdom of Solomon.
SPEAKER_01: It's the name of the book.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, it among other things, it declared that Solomon, the son of David, had the power to cast out demons.
SPEAKER_01: Except the power wasn't in Solomon himself, but in what Solomon did, how he went about his supposed exorcisms.
SPEAKER_01: And there are certain incantations, certain things that Solomon supposedly said that would drive away demons and pulstices and potions that he would make up, the stench of which would drive demons away.
SPEAKER_01: And the people of the first century during the time of Christ bought into this stuff.
SPEAKER_01: And so they they said the same things and they made up the same concoctions and supposedly drove out demons.
SPEAKER_01: You can understand then why at the beginning of verse 22 and 23 the people are wondering, is this Solomon?
SPEAKER_01: He's driving out demons.
SPEAKER_01: The Pharisees, though, are saying no, he's he's in league with demons.
SPEAKER_01: But when the when the true son of David appeared, and he drove out demons by his own power and his own authority, as the incarnated word of God, they chose not to trust in the word of God, but in ideas and philosophies and patterns that were popular in the day.
SPEAKER_01: And you saying, Yeah, I need more proof.
SPEAKER_01: I need more than that.
SPEAKER_01: The word of God in the pages of your Bible, the word of God incarnated in the person of Jesus Christ, and we say, Yeah, that's not enough.
SPEAKER_01: Instead, we'll believe in this, these ideas of the wisdom of Solomon that are just making their way around that are in vogue now.
SPEAKER_01: See, the truth of the word of God through Jonah seemed more far-fetched to them than this supposed wisdom of Solomon.
SPEAKER_01: Notice the subtleties.
SPEAKER_01: Because Jesus cast out a demon, they wonder if Jesus is the son of David.
SPEAKER_01: The Pharisees say, no, he can't be, but he's a partner with Satan.
SPEAKER_01: And then Jesus uses a parallel to Solomon, the son of David, to illustrate you're rejecting everything that God has given you.
SPEAKER_01: When the word of God is present before them, they're blind to the truth and they refuse to believe the word of God.
SPEAKER_01: And so Jesus says the last state of that skeptical person is worse than the first.
SPEAKER_01: For to reject the word of God for something more palatable, for something more current, for something more popular, for something that you feel is more effective, is to reject the inscripturated word of God and ultimately the incarnated word of God.
SPEAKER_01: And then your state is worse than at the beginning.
SPEAKER_01: Can we see then why it is evil and adulterous to ask for a sign when you have the word of God.
SPEAKER_01: And the person of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: They had the written and scripturated word.
SPEAKER_01: They read it and they heard it, but they would not receive it.
SPEAKER_01: So God sent his son as his incarnated word to take on flesh and to dwell among us so that we might see his glory.
SPEAKER_01: So to not receive the written word and to reject the incarnated word is to be adulterous, to reject the one who made you for himself, and instead to put your own evil heart on display.
SPEAKER_01: I trust that is not you.
SPEAKER_01: Hear this plea to not harden your heart, but instead to receive with meekness the implanted word that can save your soul.
SPEAKER_01: Look to Jesus, believe in him.
SPEAKER_01: And if you read the next few verses, you will see that the truth, that you too can become part of his family.
SPEAKER_01: You do not need to remain in that category of skepticism that rejects the truth given to you, or you end up worse than the beginning.
SPEAKER_01: Now, to my brothers and sisters in Christ, listen to me, please.
SPEAKER_01: Just because we are in Christ does not make us immune to this temptation to reject the truthfulness of God's word for the philosophies of the world?
SPEAKER_01: For the ideas of Satan and the ideas that are generated in our world.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, that is Satan's goal for those who belong to Christ.
SPEAKER_01: What better way to render God's people the Lord's brothers and sisters?
SPEAKER_01: What better way to render them ineffective and to shift their focus from the Word of God to transpopular theories, philosophies, and empty deceit?
SPEAKER_01: To human traditions and the elemental spirits of the world rather than to Christ.
SPEAKER_01: What better way?
SPEAKER_01: We live in a world that thrives on the next version of the wisdom of Solomon.
SPEAKER_01: We live in a world that throws at us the newest ideas to be current, to be helped, to be healed.
SPEAKER_01: And we are prone to buy into them new theories, reworked philosophies, empty deceit packaged with enough truth to make it sound helpful and healing, redefined terms that trick us into thinking this is good.
SPEAKER_01: When in reality we're settling for less than the word of God.
SPEAKER_01: We too, brothers and sisters in Christ, not just the skeptics, we too are prone to miss the greater thing.
SPEAKER_01: The inscripturated word of God and the incarnated word of God, when we pursue something less.
SPEAKER_01: There's a reason, I think, that the Apostle Paul wrote to the church in Corinth these words in chapter 10.
SPEAKER_01: He says, For though we walk according to the flesh, though we live in a fleshly body and we live in this world, we're not waging war in that way.
SPEAKER_01: For the weapons of our warfare are not fleshly, they're not worldly.
SPEAKER_01: They're different because they have the power, they have the authority to destroy strongholds because they come from God.
SPEAKER_01: And notice what he says next.
SPEAKER_01: What kind of things do we destroy?
SPEAKER_01: We destroy arguments.
SPEAKER_01: And we destroy lofty opinions.
SPEAKER_01: What kind of arguments and what kind of lofty opinions?
SPEAKER_01: The ones that are raised, that are elevated, that are thrown out there and lifted up against the knowledge of God.
SPEAKER_01: Where do you get the knowledge of God?
SPEAKER_01: From the inscripturated and the incarnated word of God.
SPEAKER_01: So God's people, by the Spirit of God, say, no, those things are not the things that give us hope.
SPEAKER_01: Instead, we take every thought, everything, captive to do what?
SPEAKER_01: Not to be skeptical, not to go and do our own thing, but to obey Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Let's make it our prayer then to imitate the Queen of Sheba by pursuing the wisdom that God has given us in his word and by responding to its truth, just as those evil Ninevites did.
SPEAKER_01: Can we say amen to that?
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_01: Lord Jesus, help us, we pray.
SPEAKER_01: Help us to be the people that you've called us to be.
SPEAKER_01: Give us the mind of Christ by which we might have clarity and understanding and discernment that only comes from you.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, keep us from being held captive to things that are not true.
SPEAKER_01: Keep us from being led astray by things that do not lead us to you, but would take us away.
SPEAKER_01: Hold us closely to yourself.
SPEAKER_01: And even as you did with the demon-possessed man, open our eyes so that we might see Jesus, the word of God, and behold in him the glory of the Father.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: That concludes this sermon from Faith Evangelical Free Church.
SPEAKER_00: Our mission is to declare the Word of God and disciple believers into mature, devoted followers of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You can learn more by visiting our website at faithfree.com.