Sermon: Asking for a sign (Luke 11:29-36) – Grant Vissers

Good morning. It's good to have you all with

us. If you are new especial, welcome

to you. My name is Grant and I'm one of

the pastors here at the church. If you've got kiddos with you

who are looking to go to Sunday school, now is your opportunity

to escape. Actually, there are plenty of

opportunities. It's OK.

But we want you to escape through that specific doorway

and then through another specific doorway just beyond.

And that's going to get you to our kids ministry area and you

can hang out there for for a while.

Thank you. We are continuing in the Gospel

of Luke. And so if again, if you're just

kind of flying in, we are looking at the life of Jesus

through this lens of Luke's biography.

So we're at Chapter 11 and we've been making our way steadily

through this book. And So what we're going to do

this morning is continue to do that.

We're going to continue to make our way through 11.

And what we are going to almost do is make it.

We're almost through. We're almost through God this

weekend took 11. We've got next week in Luke 11,

and then we're done. We're through to 12.

But what I want to do this morning is pray and then read

for us together. Yeah.

Thanks for your love and thanks for your grace and thanks that

you're with us and continue to speak to us.

And so, God, as we open up these words in front of us and read

together, God, I pray that you would do what you promised to

do. And that is to be here and

present in a way that causes and allows us to be aware of you.

So, yeah, do whatever you need to do in our hearts and in our

minds. Would you quiet the stuff that's

going on deep in our beings, in our minds and our bodies and our

souls that kind of rattle around and all of that?

Could you just kind of speak into stillness so that we can

hear from you? So as we read out, I, I do pray

speak to us in Jesus name, Amen. Alright, so we are starting in

Luke 11 versus 29. We're going to read 29 to 36.

So if you're looking for a Bible, we've got Bibles at the

back of the sanctuary over here. Also feel free to pull it up on

your phone. We're going to have it on the

screens in a minute. But this really is a

continuation of what has been going on.

Jesus has healed a man who's been possessed by a demon.

This man was mute, he couldn't speak, he didn't speak and then

he's healed, he begins to speak. There's a crowd that has kind of

grown up around this happening. More people arrive as the crowds

growing and that's the moment that we're hopping into right

now in 29. So it says this as the crowds

increased, Jesus said this is a wicked generation.

It asks for a sign, but none will be given it except the sign

of Jonah. For as Jonah was assigned to the

Ninevites, so also will be the OR will the Son of Man be to

this generation. The Queen of the South will rise

at the judgment with the people of this generation and condemn

them. For she came from the ends of

the earth to listen to Solomon's wisdom.

And now something greater than Solomon is here.

The men of Nineveh Ninova will stand up at the judgment with

this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the

preaching of Jonah, and now something greater than Jonah is

here. No one lights a lamp and puts it

in a place where it will be hidden or under a bowl.

Instead, they put it on its stand so that those who come in

may see the light. Your eye is the lamp of your

body. When your eyes are healthy, your

whole body also is full of light, but when they are

unhealthy, your body also is full of darkness.

See to it then that the light within you is not darkness.

Therefore, if your whole body is full of light and no part of it

dark, it will be just as full of light as when a lamp shines its

light on you. So if you've ever wondered why I

stubbornly believe in the practice of preaching through

like a single book like we're doing through Luke, this passage

is exactly why. This is one that reminds me why

I believe in this practice of slowing down and working our way

through a book line by line, verse by verse, section by

section, section and not skipping anything, right?

Because when we commit to reading every word of the book

of a book like this, there's no getting around the difficult

parts. There's no getting around the

hard parts for us to understand. There's no pares, no way around

the hard parts for us to put into practice or the things that

we'd rather forget and think aren't part of it.

Like we just leave those over here because they're a little

bit. We just don't want to deal with

them. When you commit to reading

through the entire thing, you have to face the verses as they

come. And verses like this, I think

passages, sections like this, at least initially, seem like there

may be difficult to understand. And they might make us scratch

our heads and it might make us kind of step back and think

like, whoa, like, what is this about?

What does this mean? How does it relate to life

today? What is the take away for me?

Like how am I supposed to live my life differently because of

what I'm reading through? How am I to make sense of my

life in relationship to this passage into the Kingdom, into

what's going on anyways? Like how do I make?

How do we make sense of it? And so like I said, and there's

something good about committing to the difficulty of moving

slowly as we just simply read the book.

Some of you will know that we have teaching team that meets

and Pastor Justin and Allison are involved in that.

We meet every week to read through the verses as we are

preaching and preparing for what is coming up ahead.

And so this past week, as we sat down on Monday, we did what we

always did with this passage. And so that is we sat down and

we prayed and then we took turns reading it and we just kind of

went around until we had read it through.

It was passes these two sections that I had said, this is what

we're preaching on. And I think collectively we got

to the end and looked up and all three of us paused and then just

simply said, what? Like there are some passages

where we read and you get to the end of it and you're like, OK,

ABC D like the IT preaches itself.

And we are excited and we know exactly where we're headed.

And sometimes there's a little bit of surprise as you get

there. This was not that kind of

passage because we read the whole thing through and each

one, it wasn't like, hey, I one of us, like I got it and the

other two every all three of us at the same time, like, what is

going on? What's this about?

And I say that because I think it's important for you to know

and to hear. Like I don't write in a vacuum.

None of our preachers preach in a vacuum.

None of us go away and spend an entire week like walled off and

you're just kind of like, God, please do something inside of me

so that I know what to say. Like none of us, none of this

happens in a complete isolated vacuum apart from community.

It takes community to work our way through and to fully

understand. And so we collectively got to

the end of reading this one and we're scratching our heads a

little bit. And I think you may know that

feeling, right? You know the feeling when you

sit down to read something and maybe it takes like you're like

I think I've read the same line like 3 or 4 times maybe had that

happen like it's late at night, you're just trying to get

through something for school the next day and you're like I know

I gotta show up with something to say and you're trying to and

you just can't seem to get past the one paragraph.

Like I said, some passages feel like they preached themselves

and others don't, and so you can decide which one this falls

into. We've got Jesus, so Jesus and a

growing crowd, right? Jonah pops up, so he's like long

dead now. He's here some Ninevites, he's

being mentioned. Solomon, a queen from the South.

Who's she? There's signs, there's judgment,

there's lamps, there's eyes, there's light, there's darkness.

What's going on? And the whole thing starts

really with Jesus calling the people of his day a wicked

generation. Now I don't know how you might

read that, but I read that and I start thinking, what does that

mean for our generation? Like what does that mean for my

generation? If Jesus is calling his

generation wicked, those in the crowds gathering like what would

he say about our generation? Because I look around and I see

our generation where there is war and humanitarian crises in

Ukraine and Gaza, to name only two, where 14 million people

have been displaced by war and famine.

In Sudan. I see violence and killing in

Nigeria. I see in our own backyard

unemployment and the cost of living skyrocketing and with it,

house lessness. I have friends and family like,

do they need to know Jesus? How do I navigate that?

And what's my role and responsibility in their life

anyway? Like there's this increasing

rate of depression and loneliness and anxiety and it's

getting darker sooner and earlier.

And how do I figure that piece out?

And that's not forget AI. Like should I be worrying about

AI and what's real in the end anyways?

What would Jesus say to the crowds today?

Like what would he call our generation?

How is the Kingdom of God still coming today in a way that

matters and am I supposed to be part of it?

Am I supposed to be a part of God's Kingdom in its arrival?

Like, what is there for me to do?

And so I don't know about you, but sometimes I open up

Scripture and that's the kind of, when I get right down to it,

that's what rattles around in my heart and in my mind, in my

soul. How am I to Live Today, not

today in this like sort of metaphorical big, like in the

midst of everything, Like how am I to Live Today when tomorrow,

How am I to Live Today in light of everything that's going on

and in light of what Jesus says? So I think the thing, one thing

that I want you to hear, if you tune out the rest of it, hear

this to you and to me in that question, I think Jesus's

invitation is this slow down, take a breath so that you don't

miss what God is doing right in front of you.

Because again, I think we can get worried about everything

that's going on and we can get focused on all of the things and

all of the ways and everything we see out there and miss what

God is doing right here. And Jesus gives us 2 lessons to

make his point. So first lesson is from Jonah.

So the crowds are increasing. Jesus said this is a wicked

generation. It asks for a sign.

We're going to come back to that.

So you can just kind of highlight, sign, highlight asks

for a sign says, but none will be given except the sign of

Jonah. For as Jonah was assigned to the

Ninevites, so also the Son of Man will be assigned to this

generation. And so Jonah was and one of them

probably maybe one of the most well known Old Testament

stories. Jonah was a prophet and this

prophet Jonah was commanded told by God.

God shows up and says Jonah prophet go to Ninevah and

proclaim the guy essentially proclaim judgment to them so

that they will repent. Like this is what this is what

God says Jonah go to Nineveh and proclaim judgment says their

wickedness has reached my ears. Like I'm kind of hearing about

what's going on over there. So I need you to go.

And Donna says absolutely no way will I be doing that.

And the whole book is kind of written like this comedy because

Jonah, prophet Jonah, go this way.

He says absolutely not. I'm gonna turn and I'm gonna go

in the exact opposite direction. And not only that, I'm gonna

flee. I'm gonna try to run as absolute

far away as possible as I can get.

Says I'm not going to go over here to Ninevah.

I'm going to go all the way, like to the ends of the earth,

to a place called Tarshish. And Jonah, instead of going to

Nova, this is what happens. He goes, he goes to Japan, he

gets on a boat and he's headed in the complete opposite

direction and in a storm rises. So Jonah completely fleeing from

God amidst the storm, sailors are kind of going, hey, like

what's going on here? They fearing for their own

lives, not sure what is happening.

They're afraid the boat's going to be swamped and Jonah is

asleep in the bottom of the boat.

So they wake Jonah and they're like, hey, Jonah, like maybe you

can ask your God what's happening and ask for him to

save us and deliver us. And there's a whole lot of back

and forth in the short of it is Jonah gets tossed in the ocean.

You get swallowed by a big fish, and he's in the fish for three

days. And there he kind of comes to

his senses and he wrestles with God and he prays and the the

fish vomits him up again. It's the whole thing's written

to be funny so it's OK. Fish vomits Jonah up and Jonah

at that moment like 3 days in the belly of a fish, God shows

up again and says Jonah go to Nineveh.

And John at this time says, OK, like he's like, I guess I

learned a little bit of my lesson.

And so Jonah this time he goes to Ninevah and Jesus says Jonah

was a sign to the people of Nineveh.

Jonah was a sign in part. There are usually 2 reasons why

people consider Jonah to have been assigned to those people of

that time in the city, a town called Nineveh.

Jonah was assigned because of his miraculous delivery outs of

the belly of the fish, right? So sometimes whale, sometimes

big fish. Jonah was assigned because he

showed up to these guys like half eaten, puked up by fish,

and then proclaims to them the judgment of God.

He shows up as one who who's been rescued by God to declare,

hey, guys, we got some stuff to figure out if you also by

implication want to be rescued by God.

And so he's there, He's standing right in front of them.

He's been in the belly for three days.

And Jesus says this is the only sign that you're gonna get.

It will be the sign of Jonah, as Jonah was a sign of the people

of Nineveh. So the Son of man will be future

tense assigned to this generation.

And what people talk about, what scholars point us toward, is

Jonah being in the belly of that big fish for three days is a

sign pointing us to say, hey, pay attention when Jesus is in

the tomb for three days because he will be rescued out of that

tomb. And that rescue after three days

will be a sign to not only a small group of people, but to

everyone. So that's one way that Jonah is

a sign. But I don't think that's all

because this other way, the second way that Jonah is a sign

is just simply, I think, walking it out further.

And that is that Jonah preached essentially repentance to these

people in Ninevah preach God's judgment in a way that causes

them to turn and to ultimately repent.

They turned their lives around toward God because of what he

proclaims. And it's like the windiest

little sermon. It's like one line.

He say, hey, guys, like we know you're doing some bad things,

probably should stop that. And it works and they repent and

they believe and God shows them mercy and and the turn in Jonah.

And one day we're gonna do Jonah all the way through, like one

day line by word by word, we'll spend who knows how long.

And Jonah, it's not very long, but the turn in this whole book

is that Jonah is angry with God. Jonah is angry by the end, not

because they've, they've been, you know, given a judgment, but

because they've been given forgiveness and grace and mercy.

So Jonah, he shouts at God. He's got this like, see, like

This is why I left and I went to Tarshish, or at least tried to

was because I knew you were gracious and I knew you were

merciful and I knew if I came that you would forgive these

guys. And I don't really want you to

forgive them anyway. That's why Jonah gets angry with

God. He was angry because the people

he hated we're forgiven. John is angry because God does

not destroy the Ninevites. And so I think Jonah ultimately

becomes a sign and a symbol of God's mercy and his favor and

his grace and his love and his forgiveness falling on people

who you wouldn't expect to be deserving of it.

Jonah was a sign of God's love and God's forgiveness shown to

outsiders, shown to people who were the least expectant and

deserving of it. Jonah brings them good news, and

they respond to it by turning their lives around.

And so Jonah, Jesus says, will be the sign as he was assigned

to Ninevah, so the Son of Man will be assigned to this

generation, one of love and of mercy and of forgiveness and of

repentance, one that calls you to turn your life around.

Jesus, though, continues. So second history lesson.

He says the queen of the South will rise also right at the

judgment with the people of this generation and condemn them, for

she came from the ends of the earth to listen to Solomon's

wisdom. This one shorter.

So the queen of the South is the queen of Sheba from First Kings.

You can go there and read about it if you'd like to, But

essentially this queen from the South hears about Solomon's

wisdom, is intrigued enough by it and Solomon's relationship to

quote to her his God that she pursues, she goes, she travels

from far away to arrive and to ask Solomon about his wisdom and

about his God. And that interaction ends with

her declaring praise be to the Lord your God.

She's like, hey, the rumors were true, everything we heard about

you and so much more. All of the wisdom that you've

been given by God, all of this true praise be to the Lord your

God. The Queen of Sheba again was an

outsider. It says from the ends of the

earth she came to listen to Solomon's wisdom.

She was not Jewish. She was socially, culturally and

religiously an outsider. But because she chose to seek

him out and search for Solomon ends up declaring praise be to

the Lord your God. So we have the people of

Ninevah, Outsiders, we've got the Queen of Sheba and Outsider,

and we've got both of them ending up experiencing God's

mercy and God's favor. And then Jesus turns, so he

says, you know these stories, you know these things like this

is our collective history together, he says.

And now something greater than Solomon is here.

The men of Nineveh will will stand up at the judgment with

this generation and condemn it, for they repented.

OK, so we get this. They repented at the preaching

of Jonah and now something greater then Jonah is here.

Jesus is saying, hey, something greater than Jonah, something

greater than Solomon is right in front of your face and you're

still asking for a sign. Someone greater is here doing

the things of the Kingdom and you are still asking for a sign.

Something is happening in front of your eyes, but you, he says

are missing it. Jesus calls them wicked because

they ask for a sign. So the man is healed.

This demon possessed man is healed.

But some says some they claim Jesus is working under the power

of Satan. And then it says others continue

to demand a sign from heaven that this is from God.

And Jesus ends up, he says, calling them wicked because they

ask for a sign while at the same time ignoring what's happening

right in front of their face. So Jesus, by this point in his

life, he has spoken and taught about what the Kingdom of heaven

is like. He's demonstrated how it ought

to and does change the way you live.

He's begun to reveal who he is. He's shown how to pray and how

to have access to God. And they are, he says, missing

it. Jesus has healed.

He's cured a man with leprosy. He's healed A paralyzed man who

was lowered down through a hole in a roof by his buddies.

He's healed a Roman centurion's kid who was dying.

He's done more and he says they are still missing it.

He's cast out demons literally minutes ago in this story in

front of their eyes and they are missing it.

And all the while, here's the comedic part.

All the while they are demanding a sign from heaven.

It's like asking for scientific proof.

Here's what's like asking for scientific proof that the polio

vaccine actually works, and looking at all the research done

since 1955, Meeting with the doctors, interviewing real

people, having face to face conversations, and then

dismissing all of it in favour of your friend's Facebook post.

Jesus says if you are still asking for a sign, then you've

already missed the very thing you're looking for.

Now here's the reality that I need to face you and I I think

we demand signs all the time. I think it's natural.

It's like the human inclination is to ask for and long for and

look for and wonder. And sometimes we ask for signs

or we demand them explicitly. And sometimes it's implicitly

and sometimes it's willfully and sometimes it's accidentally.

I've told you this story before, but when I was trying to discern

whether or not to move here to Guelph and to become your next

lead pastor, like I remember praying for clarity and I

remember asking God for direction.

And I remember thinking to myself, hey, God, like this

would be great if you just gave me a very clear, bold, crystal

clear sign in front of my eyes for me to see.

And so I want to tell you one of the stories.

Like I was driving and I, you know, had to commute from one

side of Hamilton to the other side of Hamilton when we were

living there. And on this commute, I was

praying and I was wrestling with God and I was wrestling with

traffic. And I was wondering this to

myself, like God, hey, it would be great if you gave me a sign.

And I remember bumper to bumper looking up and there was like

sign on the side of the highway. Hwy. 6 N Guelph.

But that wasn't the sign. Like I didn't go home and say to

Connie, like, that's it. That's God gave me a sign that

that sign's been there for years.

Like, that's not the sign. You've seen that every day for

the last five years. That's not the sign, and it

wasn't, but I think we still wrestle with this.

I think we asked for signs all the time.

We want what is spectacular instead of what is slowed down

and steady. And when we want what is

spectacular, we end up missing the ways that God is present in

everyday, ordinary life. We want clarity before we want

commitment, right? And we demand that God give us a

clear picture of where our life is headed and how we're gonna

get there and every step in between, rather than simply

focusing on taking that first and next step in obedience.

We want proof of God's involvement in our lives and

proof that looks very specific. So often the way it looks is

like our own success or God. If you're real, then this We

fail to see the ways that God is leading and blessing us every

single day. We want public validation, but

maybe not personal transformation.

We want the sign, but we want the sign without the surrender.

See, I, I think human beings, we still say prove it.

Like prove yourself, Jesus, show up in a dramatic way.

If you would, if you could, if you're real, do this thing and

then I will believe. Give me a sign and then I'll

take a step. And you know what?

Maybe he will, but more than likely he already has.

And it's a sign that looks like a cross to sign that is of his

death and resurrection. It's in the gift of the Holy

Spirit. It's in the community that you

are given and called into and challenged by and who annoys

you, but who you love and who loves you.

Sometimes what we really need is simply to slow down and ask God

to help us see where He's already at work.

So for me and for my family, when it came time to decide

whether to move, wasn't that big sign on the side of the highway

that said go north to Guelph, been taking that road for five

years. It was the slowed down ways in

which God had already been speaking to my heart and to

Connie's heart for years. It was the way God directed our

lives every single day to pray for you and and it was how gang

God's wisdom. He surrounded us with people who

prayed for us and who cared enough to ask us really

difficult questions, and then who ultimately encouraged and

challenged and supported us as we took our next step.

That's why Dallas Willard writes this and, and I love this line.

He says the best way to hear God's voice is to cultivate the

quiet inward space of constant listening.

And he says that constant listening, instead of always or

only approaching God for very specific direction on only

specific things, says the real challenge is to cultivate daily

these practices and habits that call us or encourage or

challenge lead us into these places where we are listening

every day to how God is speaking and where he is leading and

where he is present and where we get to see what He's doing.

The people in the crowd, they want signs from heaven in this

dramatic fashion, but what Jesus wants for them is simply to

embrace life inside the Kingdom of God.

And that's why I think that Jesus says to us, also, stop

looking for signs and start looking inward at your heart.

Stop looking for what is big and bold and it's gonna like hit you

in the back of the head and push you in a direction and start

looking at whether you are embracing daily life inside the

Kingdom. What does it look like as you

live this day by day by day? He says.

Embrace the Kingdom of heaven and you will become like a lamp

in the darkness. So next part, he says no one

likes the lights a lamp and puts it in a place where it will be

hidden. OK or under a bowl.

You're like, that just makes common sense.

Instead, they put it on its stand so that those who come in

may see the light. Your eye is the lamp of your

body. When your eyes are healthy, your

whole body also is full of light.

But when they are unhealthy, your body also is full of

darkness. See to it that then that the

light within you is not darkness, so see to it.

Look inside and see whether the light inside you is really light

or whether it is darkness. Therefore, if your whole body is

full of light and no part of it dark, it will be just as full of

light as when a lamp shines its light on you.

In Jesus's day, the light was viewed less like an input

device. Alright, we like to read these

verses and think it's exclusively about OK, what am I

putting in? What am I consuming?

What am I reading? What am I watching?

What am I inputting into my heart, into my mind, into my

being? In Jesus day, eyes weren't seen

as input devices, they were seen as output devices.

Think of them more like lamps or projectors, because eyes in

Jesus's day, they would project what was already true about your

heart and your mind, your soul, your being inside of you.

And so he's doing this this for us.

What takes a little bit, I think a reverse of the way we think

about it, because what Jesus is saying is what's going on inside

of your heart, inside of your mind, inside of your soul, in

your being will be projected, exuded, will shine through your

eyes. This closer to this idea that

the eyes are a window to your soul kind of thinking.

He says eyes like lamps, They are going to shine whatever

light or darkness is inside of that person.

The people, here's the connection, The people in the

crowd who are demanding a sign are missing Jesus right in front

of them. And so their actions, they're

demanding a sign, reveals something about themselves,

reveals what's going on inside their heart.

And I think you and I, we need to ask ourselves whether our

actions reveal Jesus around us or not, whether what is being

revealed by our actions is light or dark.

And to your right puts it like this, he says of us.

Are we any better at embracing the Kingdom for ourselves than

Jesus's contemporaries and these guys running around in the

crowd? For that matter, are we shining

this light to the world so that they can see the one who is

greater than Solomon and greater than Jonah?

Are we shining Jesus? Are we showing Jesus?

Are we living Jesus to those around us or not?

So Jesus says it like this. He says no one lights a lamp and

puts it in a place where it will be hidden or under a bull.

Instead, they put it on its stand so that those who come in

may see the light. Here's the reality.

When the light or a lamp is lit, it shines and pushes out into

the darkness. A lamp that's lit and put on a

stand and shines pushes against the places of darkness around

it. In John 1 Jesus is called the

light of the world. John 1 talks about Jesus like

this says in him was life, and that life was the light of all

humanity, of all human kind. The light shines in the

darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

Jesus is the light that brings real light and fullness of life

into the darkest places of our world.

And, and Jesus says of you, You are also a lamp.

You are also alight and knowing Jesus and embracing the Kingdom.

It fills you with Jesus's light and with his life.

This is what the crowds were missing Jesus in front of them

in a very real way that changes not just their lives for

themselves, but the way in which they begin to push against the

darkness around them and carry the Kingdom with them into the

world. And so Jesus says to you, slow

down. Embrace the Kingdom because

there is light and there is life on offer for you, but not just

for you, also through you to the world.

And so as you go literally from this place, you carry the light

and the life of Jesus with you and and the life and the light

of Jesus that you carry with you does push against the darkest

places in this world. And the promise of Scripture is

that the darkness has not overcome it.

Let me pray God thinks that in you there is life and there is

light. And thank you that we have it in

front of our faces. Yeah, we do.

We admit we struggle with some of these ways of being.

Like we ask for signs or we want to see what you're gonna do

before we move. God, I pray that you would help

to make us people who are obedient and who choose to

trust. And I pray that you would make

us people who move in step with your Kingdom.

Yeah, I pray for the little pieces of death and darkness in

each of us that still need to be pushed out.

Thanks that what your spirit does is fill us up to fullest

measure pushes out these pieces of death and darkness.

So God would you do that in us? We need you to.

Yeah, for the pieces of sin and death and darkness that are

rattling around in each of us that we may be wrestling with

today. God, would you push?

Would you bring your light? Would you bring your life and

when you drive those things out and got through us, not just as

individuals, but through us as a community and a church, Like

would you make us into a people who carry your Kingdom and your

light and your life in a way that pushes against the little

places of darkness in our world? So I got things that you knew

there is life and in you there is light.

Would we? You'd be filled to the fullest

measure because of you and your love and your grace and your

spirit with that life in Jesus name, Amen.