Matthew 12:38-50

We are in Matthew.

We've been going through the book of Matthew as a church for a little while.

We're in the middle of, we're going to finish chapter 12 this morning.

And this is, Jesus is just in the middle.

Jesus was born of a Virgin Mary.

He grew up 30 years of age, and he got baptized by John the Baptist.

The Spirit came down upon him at the end of that and said, This is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased.

That was the beginning of his public ministry.

And he had 12 disciples, the apostles that followed him around, and he just went through the region of Galilee teaching in synagogues and from town to town.

He would teach the gospel message about the kingdom.

And then he would in turn heal people, and he was doing different miracles from town to town.

And he was attracting these huge crowds of people that were listening.

And as he gained more and more of a following, there were the religious elite of the time became jealous.

And because they were the epicenter, they were the influencers.

If you've ever seen like an influencer kind of lose their position of influence, they go through this issue of like being jealous of the people around them and start to get nasty.

And the Pharisees started to get nasty because they were losing, their power was threatened.

They were no longer the influencers that they were no longer the influencers that they once were.

And Jesus was now the new kid on the block, in a sense.

It had been John.

So there's this whole wave of stuff going on with John the Baptist, and people were flocking to John the Baptist, they were getting baptized, and now it's Jesus, because John was preparing the way for Jesus.

Now Jesus is preaching, he's healing, and he's gathering a crowd.

So that's going on.

And so this guy, Matthew, is one of those 12 apostles, and he's after the death, the resurrection of Jesus, he puts together this account of the story of Jesus' life, death, and resurrection for the early church.

And that is what we are reading this morning.

And we're seeing some of the teachings of Jesus.

So we're going to look at three specific sections here.

And I've entitled this Signs, Spirits, and the Family of God.

And let me just start by saying this.

We live in a culture where Christian language and ideas are pervasive.

You can watch a sitcom on TV or on Netflix, and you'll hear terminology that actually comes from the Bible.

Maybe the writers didn't even know that they're borrowing imagery and language from the Bible, but our culture, we live in a culture that is just rooted in Christian influence.

And you'll run into people who will say, like, hey, I'm a spiritual person, but I'm not really religious.

In fact, the Pew Research group did a survey of American culture and found that there's 22% of people surveyed said that they're spiritual but not religious.

People feel comfortable identifying as spiritual, yet many misunderstand what true faith is.

You'll hear people say they're spiritual.

They're saying, oh, I'm a person of faith.

But there's so many misunderstandings.

And I think the text here is going to confront three misunderstandings about faith.

Some people demand of God that he give more proof of his existence.

Have you ever ran into anybody that would say, well, you know, I would believe in Jesus if he would just show me a sign?

Or I would believe in God if he would just show me a sign.

Or you maybe there's this focus on being good when it comes to faith.

It's like, you know, I've got to clean up my act.

And they assume that good morals will earn them the favor of God.

And that it's just, I need to, I need to clean myself up, get rid of my demons, and then God will bless me.

Or there's another misconception where people trust in their heritage.

And if you ask them about their spirituality or their faith, they'll say, oh yeah, you know, I grew up in a Christian home, or I grew up, you know, Catholic.

And their um their assumption is that they're good with God because their family was religious.

And they have this background or heritage.

They assume their religious heritage is what puts them in a good place with God.

But all of these approaches miss the heart of what faith and obedience to God is really about.

And Jesus confronts these misconceptions as he's doing his ministry, and they come up through the Pharisees or they come up through the crowd that's listening.

And so we're going to see a bit of conflict, Jesus being a little bit confrontational in our text this morning.

We're going to start in verse 38.

We'll go all the way to 50, verse 50.

We'll see that Jesus starts by confronting the Pharisees.

Again, those are the religious elites, and who are demanding of Jesus a sign.

He warns about superficial spirituality, and then he's going to redefine what it means to be a part of the family of God.

So let's pray, and then we're going to start in verse 38.

Let's pray.

Lord, we ask that you would speak to us this morning through the text.

Thank you for Matthew and the record that we have here of your teaching.

And we pray and ask that it would be razor sharp in our own life, not to hurt us, but to help us, just like a surgeon would cut in and take out what's bad in our life.

Use this to correct us, to instruct us, to help us to do life.

Lord, meet us, we pray, by the power of your Holy Spirit.

We ask this in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

Let's look at verse 38.

Verse 38, we'll talk about signs.

Then some of the scribes and the Pharisees said to Jesus, to him, Teacher, we want to see a sign from you.

He answered them.

But no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.

For as Jonah was in the belly of the huge fish three days and three nights, so the Son of Man will be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights.

The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and will condemn it, because they repented at Jonah's preaching, and look, something greater than Jonah is here.

The queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with this generation, and she will condemn it, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and look, something greater than Solomon is here.

So we have this request from the Pharisees for a sign.

And you see there that they are saying, teacher, we want to see a sign from you.

Now we know the story that Jesus has been doing a bunch of signs.

Like he's done a bunch of stuff already.

And he's teaching with authority already.

So like the fact that they're like, well, you know, we want to see another sign is kind of weird because he's doing that already.

He's going to continue to do it.

But it seems like they're just, well, Jesus kind of calls them on, and he says, it's an evil and adulterous generation that demands a sign.

And he says, no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.

So what is this whole thing?

Prophet Jonah.

Well, if you know your Bible, you know that there is a book in your Bible called Jonah.

It's in the Old Testament.

He was a Jewish prophet.

So his genes were Jewish.

He was Hebrew.

And God spoke to Jonah and said, I want to send you to Nineveh.

Now, Nineveh was not Jewish.

This is a pagan city that was massive and they were evil.

And God said to, Hey Jonah, I want you to go there and I want you to tell them that if they don't repent, I'm going to judge them.

I'm going to destroy that whole city.

And Jonah's like, yeah, no, I'm not doing that.

I'm out of here.

He hops on a boat and he's heading to Tarshis, right?

And he's in the middle of the ocean, and all of a sudden this huge storm starts, and the sailors on this ship start throwing stuff overboard and get rid of stuff, and still they're sinking and they're freaking out and they start praying to their gods, and still it's going down and it's sinking.

And they're like, something's got to give.

Who else is missing?

And they're like, it's Jonah.

He's down under the boat and he's asleep.

And they say to Jonah, Jonah, you know, what have you done?

And Jonah's like, owns it.

He says, I'm running away from God.

I'm in rebellion.

It's my fault.

Just throw me overboard and everything will be all better.

And they're like, no, no, there's got to be some other way.

Jonah says, nope, it's my fault.

I'm the responsible party.

Throw me overboard.

So Jonah gets thrown overboard, and this calm, the sea is just calm.

The storm goes away.

And then the next thing you know, this giant fish swallows Jonah, and he finds himself in the belly of this giant fish.

And if for three days he's in the, you know, the acidic fluids of this giant fish.

And finally, on the third day, he finally decides, okay, my heart is soft.

God, I messed up.

I'm going to pray.

And so we have in Jonah this prayer of repentance.

God forgive me.

You know, if you let me survive, I'll, you know, obey you.

So he gets barfed up.

Can I say that in church?

He gets barfed up onto the um onto the beach and he goes into Nineveh and he delivers the message on God's behalf, kind of bitter, but he says, listen, you know, if y'all don't repent, God's gonna smoke you.

And you know what happens?

Nineveh repents.

They listen to Jonah.

And you know what Jonah thinks?

Jonah's all ticked off.

He goes and has a pity party up on the hill because he didn't like the Ninevites.

He's kind of a racist and he didn't like them as a people group, and he's mad that God had mercy on him.

He's like, God, you knew they were gonna repent.

You know, and here they are, they're repenting, and you're having mercy on them.

That's not fair.

And that's how the story ends in Jonah.

Now Jesus uses that story and he says, Listen, you're gonna, this wicked and adulterous generation is gonna get the sign of Jonah, the Son of Man, just like Jonah's in the big fish for three years, the Son of Man is gonna be in the heart of the whale for, or the Son of Man's gonna be in the heart of the earth for three nights, just like that.

And so Jesus is talking about his resurrection that's gonna take place.

Then he's contrasting these Pharisees, he's saying, You're like Nineveh.

And he's showing them that Nineveh was willing to repent, but they're not willing to repent.

So there's like, look at the Ninevehes.

Do you see the Ninevites were willing to listen to Jonah when they had this crazy sign of it?

Imagine being in the heart of the belly of a whale for three days.

Guys is probably bleached white, you know, maybe his hair has fallen out.

He was a mess, probably stank.

But here he preaches, and Nineveh repents.

And yet, here's the Pharisees.

The point is, Jesus is like, here you are as Pharisees.

You're the ones who know the Bible.

You're you're like um your genealogy should like make you the most receptive to the work of God through the Son of Man, and yet you're rejecting this thing that's greater than Jonah in your midst.

And then he tells, he talks about um Queen Sheba.

He calls her the Queen of the South.

The Queen of the South, um backwards here.

Let's go backwards here.

Um, that's not backwards.

This is backwards.

Okay.

The Queen of the South is from 1 Kings.

Now, Israel, the nation of Israel, had its high point, it's like financial high point, it's like geographic um reign and territorial um high point in the reign of Solomon.

It's kind of the golden era of Israel.

And so Solomon is this wise king, he has like just opulence, and the surrounding nations came.

And one of the people that came to see Solomon was this Queen Sheba, the queen of the south.

Um, and Jesus calls these Pharisees to remember Queen Sheba and says, Um, the Queen of Sheba, she will rise up at the judgment, this future time.

Remember, we talked about judgment last week, and I told you this is a running theme from 10 to 12, chapters 10 to 12.

Here it is again.

She will rise up at the judgment with this generation, and she will condemn it, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and look, something greater than Solomon is here.

The point is, is there were there are these people, like the magi who came and gave gifts when Jesus was born, when he's like two years old, they brought gold, frankincense, and myrrh, right?

There are these other strangers, even during the life, the ministry of Jesus, who participate and they're tender-hearted towards Jesus and they're getting it, they're tracking with it, and then you have the Pharisees, the religious elite, who have hard hearts and are not receiving what Jesus is doing.

And so this is the point.

This is the point.

And this is the question that we need to ask ourselves.

How often do we demand signs or proof from God before we are willing to follow him?

And the Spirit of God, you may be on this spiritual journey where you're kind of questioning and testing out.

And this would be God's question to you this morning is how many more signs do you need?

How much more do you need for God to do other than dying on the cross for your sins and caring for you and taking care of you?

How much more evidence do you need of the love of God before you're willing to turn your life over to Him?

How often do we demand signs or proof from God before we're willing?

We can do this even as followers of Jesus, where it's just like, you know the right thing to do, but it's like, ah, you know, God, could I just have one more sign?

And what is required of us is obedience.

Do the good, follow the commands, do what the Bible says, and stop waiting for some kind of sensational thing.

There's this is pretty popular amongst our Christian culture where people kind of do their, they do Christianity kind of like the stepping stones of their spirituality is like from one kind of goosebump experience to the next.

Of it's just like, oh, you know, that moved the needle with my emotions, and I feel kind of tingly and excited, and so, you know, that was the last significant thing that God did.

No, the last significant thing that God did for you is he gave you his word.

He died on the cross for your sins, he filled you with his spirit, he wants to have a personal relationship with you on a daily basis.

Our emotions go up and down.

And and the point here that Jesus would be making through this text is stop living off the signs, stop basing your religious off of your religious experience off of emotional experiences and just go for it with the Lord.

Now, it's not wrong to feel moved emotionally, but that shouldn't be the metric that we're going after.

We shouldn't need anything else to trust in the Lord or to obey him.

Let's talk about the spirits, this whole idea and this um teaching of Jesus about spirits.

He says this when an unclean spirit comes out of a person, it roams through waterless places looking for rest, but doesn't find any rest, or doesn't find any.

Then it says, I'll go back to my house that I came from, returning it, returning it, finds the house vacant, swept, and put in order.

Then it goes and brings with it seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and settle down there.

As a result, that person's last condition is worse than the first.

That's how it will also be with this evil generation.

So there's some continuity here, just a bit.

Here again, he's talking about an evil generation.

He's kind of uh rebuking uh the crowd or the Pharisees and just saying, hey, this is a problem.

But he says this in an interesting way.

Have you ever read Screwtape Letters by C.S.

Lewis?

C.

S.

Lewis was a philosopher that lived probably 60, 70 years ago, and he became a Christian, and he wrote this fictional story about Satan and Wormwood and some of these other demons.

And so he told the story of the earth through the lens of how he imagined demons and evil spirits work in the world.

So it's this fascinating kind of fictional imagination of like, hey, this is how Satan and demons are working in the world.

And so here Jesus is talking about people, but through the lens of demonic spirits.

Isn't that interesting?

So we've got to kind of pick up on what Jesus is teaching through this.

Um, it's like, hey, let me talk about um people, but let me tell you the story about people and their spiritual condition through a conversation that demons are having.

I don't know of any other material um off the top of my head like this in the New Testament, um, where we're getting the the language and the activity of demons and their thought process.

And so um the Jesus is very clear that in his teaching, um, and one of the the contributions that Jesus made in his teaching that's very helpful, that's not very clear in the Old Testament, is this whole teaching around demons and Satan and demonic powers.

And um and so here we have this unclean spirit or demonic spirit who is comes out of a person and um is well let's go actually uh yeah it starts in 43.

Yeah, so it comes out of the person, and then it's kind of like this demonic spirit is looking for somewhere else to stay, but can't find a place to stay.

This is weird, all right?

Can we just admit, like this is kind of weird, like this is how demons like demons need a place to stay.

Now we saw that with the the demons that were cast out of the the guys on this in Gennesaret that were demon possessed, and they're like, Can we go into the pigs?

So it seems like they're in and you may have animals like this where you're like, Man, that that animal has a has a demon.

Um, but no, these um The demons got cast into the pigs, and the pigs jumped into the water, which is also weird.

But here Jesus is like, no, this person had one unclean spirit who's like leaves, is looking for a place, and then that demon says, I'm going to go back to my house that I came from, return to it, and finds the house vacant, swept, and put in order.

Okay, so what's going on with the person?

So you have a person who was demonically possessed, or we could say the demon was living in the person, but then the demon goes away, and the person kind of cleans up their act.

That seems to be so that the house is the person, and then it so it seems like in the absence of the demon, the person metaphorically is cleaning house.

Now, we use this language, right?

If you're in rehab, we talk about people who they're fighting their demons.

I'm gonna get clean and sober, right?

And there's this effort of like I'm gonna, I'm going to um clean house in my life.

And we use those types of metaphors to talk about our own self-improvement.

And so Jesus says here, he says, look, then it goes and it brings with it, this first demon brings with it seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and they settle down.

They're like, oh good, you cleaned house.

It's set up for us perfectly.

Let me bring my friends.

And as a result, that person's last condition is worse than the first.

That's how it will also be with this evil generation.

Relapsed.

Relapsed, yes.

Okay.

When I was um like 20, I did um some ministry in Hawaii, and a lot of the people that I ended up kind of near the church, they were hippies.

And these hippies would talk about how they were gonna, they would have, they would carry around these like glass bottles full of a bunch of like junk in the water, and they would talk about how like I'm gonna do a um cleanse, and I'm gonna go out in the into the um mountains, and I'm gonna just kind of cleanse myself of everything, all the evil toxins, and I'm gonna empty myself.

And I would always think of this passage because Jesus is like, it's not about emptying yourself.

It's not about being like um just cleansed of evil.

No, it's about being filled with the right spirit.

That is the key.

It's not about being just emptying yourself.

That was the language that these hippies would use over and over.

I gotta just empty myself.

No, that's the most dangerous thing you could do is empty yourself because there's demons looking for houses, which are people or animals, that they can reside in.

Now, why do why do demons need how like people or animals to live in?

I don't know.

But this is Jesus teaching and giving us a window into the spiritual realm.

There is quite a bit, the the there is this self-improvement movement that exists, and there's a lot of wisdom that exists within the whole realm of self-improvement.

But if you're not filled with God's Spirit, then you're just an improved empty house.

The moral reform, the moral reform comes in when people attempt to clean up their lives in their own, on their own without relying upon God.

There are people who try to go through a moral reformation, they may rid themselves of certain behaviors.

You think of Ben Franklin and how he had a list of things that he was intentionally working on.

He'd had this journal of like, I don't want to be mean.

And there's nothing wrong with that, but you just have, it's if if Ben Franklin is not understanding that he was designed to be formed and to break bad habits that are then replaced by good new habits, that process is to be done in partnership with a spirit, the Spirit of God.

They rid themselves of certain behaviors or influences, but unless they are filled with the Holy Spirit, they remain vulnerable to even greater spiritual attacks.

The danger of superficial change is so real, Jesus warns against shallow moral reform.

Many of us think that external behavior, tidying up our life or moral self-improvement is enough.

Did you hear that?

Many of us think that external, um, I think I have a slide that says this.

Many of us think that external behavior, tidying up our life or moral self-improvement is enough.

If you're coming to church thinking that you're in church so that your behavior changes, but there's not a true heart change and encounter with the living God, it leaves you spiritually empty and vulnerable to greater problems.

You could be in this place where you're like, yeah, I finally am not like that anymore.

I'm not addicted to that thing anymore.

The Bible teaches that that's not good enough.

You have to be in a relationship with the God who created you.

You are a house.

In 1 Corinthians, it says you're the temple, and then it says you're the temple of the Holy Spirit because he's teaching Christians, but you're a temple.

When you were born, you were born as a house, ready to house some spirit.

It's either going to be demonic spirits, you're going to be an empty house, or you're going to have the spirit of God.

Those are your three options: demonic spirits in you, an empty house, or the spirit of God.

And Jesus says, listen, the word the latter condition is going to be worse than this.

So again, Jesus is confronting a misconception about religion and faith.

This isn't just about getting bad demons out.

No, this is about having a indwelling of the Spirit of God.

So let's talk.

This is the last one here, the family of God, 46 through 50.

He says this.

And he replied to the one who was speaking to him, Who is my mother and who are my brothers?

I feel like I read that Dr.

Seuss book.

Stretching out his hand towards 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.

So this is just sometime in this Galilee region in the midst of teaching, the place is packed.

This is also this story is also found in the book of Luke.

And they say, Hey, they're here to see you.

And Jesus uses this like real moment where his family's there to explain family.

Jesus' family comes to see him and he redefines what it means to belong.

It's not about a heritage or a tradition, but about obeying God's will.

And some of you may have grown up where it's like you've got your family crest and you've got these sayings of like, oh, you're a smith, and us smiths, this is what we do and who we are.

And Jesus is like, listen, when you become a follower of me, your heritage changes.

He remember, he's using, usually he's using the language of kingdom and society that he's inviting you to come into a kingdom.

Here he's talking about, hey, look, if you obey, if you obey, then you're my mother and brother.

Whoever does the will of my father in heaven is my brother and sister.

Some people rely on their religious upbringing thinking it guarantees favor with God.

But Jesus says, truly, true family is defined by obedience.

This is one of those sections that kind of confronts the Catholic idea about Mary and Mary being a co-redempress.

Jesus is not necessarily rude to his family, but he reframes.

It's just like, no, family and those who are in, it's not Mary, it's not Jude, it's not James, it's those who align themselves with me.

And they were.

They were his family, his spiritual family, but it had nothing to do with heritage.

None of these things, signs, moral improvement, family heritage can truly bring us closer to God.

I want to close with these um these few statements that should bring to mind what we've covered.

Jesus is the true and greater Jonah.

I told you the story of Jonah.

Jesus is the true and greater Jonah.

The ultimate sign he gives is not another miracle, but his death and resurrection.

The resurrection is the definitive proof of who Jesus is.

The sign of Jonah shows that it is not about external signs, but the transformation brought by the gospel.

So Jesus is greater than Jonah.

And this morning you're invited to look at that sign, to look at Jesus, the one who was in the belly of the earth for three days and was raised from the dead.

That person, Jesus, is the one who has come to redeem you, and his message is a message of hope and invitation that you would enter into a new life with him.

But there's also this idea of true heart change.

Jesus doesn't call us to clean up our lives superficially, he calls us to deep transformation.

Only by the power of the Holy Spirit can we be filled with God's presence, preventing us from falling back into worse spiritual states.

The last idea here is this Jesus redefines family.

Not by birthright or heritage, but by faith and obedience to God.

The gospel opens the door for all to enter the family of God through faith in Jesus.

You didn't have to be born of the lineage of Jesus to be in the family.

The whole Old Testament is a story of God's special care for a genetic race, the nation of Israel.

And God does these special things for that racial group, not just as a dead end, but to bring a blessing on the entire world.

But there is something special about being born a Jew.

But to inherit the blessings of Jesus, you don't have to be born a Jew.

He says, look, you're in my family if you're placing faith and demonstrating obedience.

You're in by being one of these that received the invitation.

You're responding to the invitation.

So we need to stop demanding signs.

We need to pursue a heart change in partnership with Jesus.

And we need to live as God's family in obedience to his will.

He offers a new identity as part of his family.

So how will you respond?

Will you continue to look for signs trying to clean up your life superficially or relying on your family background?

Or will you embrace the true sign of the resurrection, true change by the Spirit, and live as a part of God's family?

Lord, we ask that you would work in our lives in that way.

We want to receive the Jesus agenda.

And sometimes we get it wrong.

Sometimes the world around us just gets this idea of faith and spirituality wrong.

And we just we receive the correction from your word this morning, that it would line us up, line us up with the work that you have done and want to do in our lives.

I pray for each person here that they would step into and respond in faith to this message.

That they would not hold out waiting for another sign, but that they would surrender to you.

Thank you for your love and your kindness towards us.

We love you, Jesus.

And we pray this in your name.

Amen.