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Reading Luke 11:29-32 where Jesus rebukes this generation for seeking signs from heaven, and says no sign will be given to them except the sign of the prophet Jonah. Visit wwutt.com for all our videos!
The people demanded from Jesus a sign from heaven. They were not content with the miracles that Jesus did. They certainly were not convinced by the preaching. So Jesus said, this is a wicked generation when we understand the text.
This is When We Understand the Text, a daily Bible study in the word of Christ. For he is before all things and in him all things hold together. Tell your friends about our ministry at www .wutt .com.
Here once again is Pastor Gabe.
Thank you, Becky. My voice has been a little weak for these couple of days. So we'll see how I do here. We're coming back to chapter 11 in the gospel of Luke and picking up where we left off yesterday.
So I'm gonna start reading here in verse 29 and go through verse 32, where Jesus talks about the sign of Jonah. Hear the word of the Lord. When the crowds were increasing, he began to say, this generation is an evil generation.
It seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah. For as Jonah became a sign to the people of Nineveh, so will the son of man be to this generation. The queen of the south will rise up at the judgment with the men of this generation and condemn them.
For she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon and behold something greater than Solomon is here. The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it.
For they repented at the preaching of Jonah and behold something greater than Jonah is here. So this is still part of the same conversation that's been going on ever since Jesus cast the demon out of the mute man.
The demon was causing the man to be mute. Jesus rebuked the demon, it was cast out of him and then he could speak again. And when the people saw this, they marveled. And some of them said he casts out demons by Beelzebul, by Satan, the prince of demons, but others were testing him.
This was back in verse 16. They kept seeking from him a sign from heaven. So even though Jesus is casting out demons before them, they're still going, we want more proof. We think you're the Messiah. We'd love to see a sign from heaven though, because that's what Elijah did.
Elijah called down fire from heaven, did that on more than one occasion. So let's see that kind of sign from Jesus. And so Jesus goes on to talk about the return of an unclean spirit. That was what we looked at yesterday.
And then those who are blessed by God will be those who hear the word of the Lord and keep it. But now here in this section, Jesus addresses those who were demanding a sign. Now, back where Jesus confronted or rebuked those who were claiming that he was of Beelzebul, that he was an agent of Satan, casting out Satan.
He had mentioned that, he mentioned something, this was in verses 21 through 23. When a strong man fully armed guards his own palace, his goods are safe. But when one stronger than he attacks him and overcomes him, he takes away his armor in which he trusted and divides the spoil.
Whoever is not with me is against me and whoever does not gather with me scatters. It just so happened, it was like the day after I did that particular lesson, I came across a video from a pastor named Glenn Berto.
He started the house church in Modesto, California. There's several of the house churches, but the main one in Modesto is the house that he's pastor of. They're not actually house churches. They're big churches, it's a mega church.
He's a mega church pastor. But the clip of his that I saw was he was wrestling an MMA guy on the stage at church. This was like during the sermon and he's fighting an MMA guy. And the point was to provide an illustration of Jesus binding the strong man, which really wasn't what he was trying to do.
He's not trying to give anyone an illustration of Jesus binding Satan and then plundering his house as Jesus talked about in Luke 11. No, he was looking for an excuse to fight an MMA guy on stage at church.
And so yeah, this story, that's a good place to put it. It was just entertaining the goats. It wasn't at all about preaching the word. And anyway, I thought about playing that clip, but when I listened to the clip again, it had music in it anyway, and I'd probably get a copyright strike if I played it.
But yeah, that was what I saw after. It was like the day after I taught on that particular lesson. I thought, hey, as it so happens, I just taught on that. So Jesus first rebukes those who were accusing him of being of Satan.
How can Satan cast out Satan? Rather, Jesus has bound Satan so that he may plunder his house. He is rescuing souls who are bound for hell through the preaching of the gospel. And of course, the disciples would continue this themselves as they would go out after Pentecost, preaching the gospel in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria to the ends of the earth.
Well, now after confronting those who were blaspheming, now he's confronting those who are demanding a sign. So remember, as Jesus was casting out this demon, you had some that were saying he cast out by Beelzebul and you had others going to, no, we think he is the Messiah, but we want to see something else.
We want to see a sign. So now Jesus is confronting the sign seekers. When the crowds were increasing, he began to say, this generation is an evil generation. It seeks for a sign. Now, even the apostle Paul talked about how the Jews demanded signs.
The Greeks or the Gentiles, they seek after wisdom, but the Jews are always seeking after signs. This is from 1 Corinthians 1 .20. Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age?
Has God not made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom. It pleased God through the folly of what we preach, Paul says, to save those who believe.
For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles. So Jews want a sign, Greeks are seeking after wisdom. Paul is saying the focus, the emphasis of our ministry is just simply preaching Christ and him crucified.
So this was a typical thing for Jews to want a sign. We've seen them demand a sign previously with the casting out of a demon. And now Jesus rebukes them for sign seeking. This generation is an evil generation, he says.
It seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah. Now, remember where the people were wanting a sign, what they desired was something from heaven. It's often asked what kind of sign were the people looking for?
Because Jesus was doing miracles right there in front of them. Sometimes he'll do a miracle and then they'll go, we want a sign. Well, wasn't that the sign? Doesn't that work? Now in the gospel of John, he uses the word sign as synonymous with miracle.
But in the synoptic gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, the sign specifically that the people want is something from the sky, a sign from heaven. So not simply healing the sick or feeding a multitude or walking on the water, even though only the disciples saw that anyway, they wanted a miraculous sign that was the equivalent of something Moses or Elijah did.
Now, Jesus is doing amazing things that neither one of those prophets did. He's especially doing miracles on a scale that no one else in the Bible has ever done. Even the disciples themselves did not do the level of miracles that Jesus did.
As John says in his gospel, if we had written down all that he did, even in his three years of earthly ministry, the three years of his ministry from the time of his baptism to the time of his ascension into heaven, John said there wouldn't even be enough manuscripts on earth for us to write all that down.
Now, at the time, that was like a low literature culture. So there probably wasn't a whole lot of paper to get to anyway, but the point remains. There was so much that Jesus did during his ministry. We really don't have all of it.
We have the high points in Matthew through John, but there was so much more that he did. So great signs upon signs, wonders upon wonders, the magnitude of the miracles that he did, even the apostles didn't do that much.
When Jesus said greater things than these will you do, when he said that to his disciples, he was talking about the fact that they would go throughout the world doing it, whereas Jesus was just there in the region of Israel and Judea.
But even though Jesus does these signs, there were so many who did not believe him. They wanted a greater sign than this. And Jesus said, it's evil of you to be seeking this sign, to be saying that this is not enough.
This does not confirm what the prophets had said. Remember that John the Baptist sent his disciples to Jesus asking him, are you the Messiah? Are you the Christ? Or are we waiting for another? And Jesus told the disciples, go back and tell John what you have seen.
The blind see, the mute speak, the deaf hear, the lame walk. And Jesus was pointing to that because John would have known it's a fulfillment of prophecy. Yes, Jesus is the one because he's doing what Isaiah said the Messiah was going to come and do.
So if the people understood the scriptures, then they would have seen that Jesus was the fulfillment of those scriptures. And so Jesus calls them evil, demanding more than that. The scriptures are not enough.
Now, this is a point that's going to come back up again later on in Luke, we're several weeks away from it, but Jesus is going to bring this up again. You've got Moses and the prophets, and you see who is the fulfillment of all that was written in the law and the prophets.
So if you can't believe in me because of that, you're not going to believe in Jesus, even if he were to show you a sign from heaven. So he says, no sign will be given except the sign of Jonah. For as Jonah became a sign to the people of Nineveh, so will the son of man be to this generation.
Now it doesn't say in this account, in Luke's account of this exchange, that Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish. It doesn't say that in Luke's gospel. It does in Matthew's.
In Matthew 12, Jesus said an evil and an adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah and behold, something greater than Jonah is here. So Jesus makes the same point, but he brings out in Matthew 12 that Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish.
Luke doesn't mention that. So it's kind of funny that Matthew does and Luke doesn't. Maybe because Luke was written after Matthew and it was written sometime after Matthew, maybe he didn't think that he needed to put that in there or maybe it's readily implied enough that we all know Jonah represents three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
Maybe this is known by now. Or perhaps it could be that the reason why Luke doesn't include that is because the point that Luke is trying to draw out of this is not that Luke thinks that the three days and three nights thing is unimportant, but it could be that what Luke desires to draw out of this is that Jonah simply told Nineveh to repent and Nineveh repented.
And that was the sign of Jonah, at least the way that Luke encapsulates it here. Because again, he doesn't include that Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish. He doesn't mention specifically what the sign of Jonah is.
So it could be that Luke's emphasis was on Jonah's preaching especially when you consider the context in which this is given. Jesus has been preaching. He's been doing miracles. The people won't believe him.
Well, he's gonna go on preaching as Jonah went on preaching. And those who will repent and believe are those who will be saved. But those who do not repent, well, they will perish in the judgment. And it will be the Ninevites of that generation that had heard Jonah and repented.
They will be standing there and will condemn this generation because they didn't listen to the word of Christ. A greater preacher than Jonah has come. It's Christ. And you wouldn't listen to him. And so the Ninevites are gonna stand there at the judgment and end up judging this generation.
So will the son of man be to this generation, Jesus says. So let me read verse 30 again. For as Jonah became assigned to the people of Nineveh, so will the son of man be to this generation. Again, so I think the emphasis that Luke is trying to put on it is with regards to the preaching.
Jonah said, repent. Well, he didn't even say repent. If you go back and read it in Jonah, he just simply said, 40 days in this city will be overthrown. So he's warning them that God's judgment is coming.
He doesn't even give them the exhortation to repent. The king of Nineveh just simply said, we're gonna repent. So everybody put on sackcloth and ashes because maybe God will relent from this disaster that he means to bring upon us.
So Jonah simply gave the warning and the people repented. And Jesus' teaching is much more clear and specific. And yet the people are not listening to it. They're demanding signs. Only sign that's gonna be given to you guys is the preaching of the son of man.
Verse 31, the queen of the south will rise up at the judgment with the men of this generation and condemn them. For she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon and behold something greater than Solomon is here.
So going back to 1 Corinthians 1, where Paul said that Greeks seek wisdom or Gentiles. Greek being synonymous with Gentiles. The queen of Sheba, the queen of the south was a Gentile. And she came from a far off land because she heard about Solomon's wisdom and how great it was.
So she comes there seeking Solomon's wisdom. She's just seeking after the wisdom and is amazed at how intelligent he is, how studied he is, even how rich he is. But the wealth that Israel had was by the blessing of God.
And that blessing of God included Solomon's great wisdom. So she observes all of this and recognizes how much their God Yahweh has blessed their King and this land with all of the wisdom that he had. So she came from a far off land seeking wisdom, which was the wisdom of God.
The wisdom that God had given to Solomon to rule the people of God. But how about this people? Are they seeking after wisdom? They don't come running to Jesus to sit at his feet and listen to his teaching.
His wisdom is greater than Solomon's because Solomon got his wisdom from Christ. A pre-incarnate Christ, of course, but it was Jesus who granted this godly wisdom to Solomon. And now the very source of that wisdom has arrived.
He's here and the people are not running to listen to him. They're running to him for signs. We want to see a sign from heaven. We want to be healed by you. Their hearts are not really for God. Their appetites are for themselves.
And so the Queen of the South, she came a great distance seeking the wisdom of God. She will be your judge even at the end. She came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon. So verse 31, the Queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with the men of this generation and condemn them.
It's interesting to consider the Queen of the South was saved. If she's going to be standing at the judgment condemning that generation that would not listen to Jesus, then she was saved. She feared Yahweh.
And because of her faith, then Yahweh was pleased to save her. So verse 32, Jesus comes back to referencing Nineveh. The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it for they repented at the preaching of Jonah and behold something greater than Jonah is here.
Talk about this wicked pagan nation. Hundreds of thousands of people that lived in this city. It was a huge city, Nineveh was. I won't go into all of the archeology. I don't think my voice is going to hold out long enough anyway.
But there's some cool stuff out there. If you're familiar with Expedition Bible, a channel on YouTube, check that one out because the guy that does Expedition Bible, I almost said Exposition Bible. Did I say Exposition before?
I meant Expedition. So Joel Kramer, who is the host of Expedition Bible, he's got some cool stuff on there, excavating the city of Nineveh and showing some different archeological things about it. It's just a fantastic channel.
One of my favorite channels on YouTube. So anyway, for all the archeological stuff, you can go there. But anyway, with how big this city was, not a one of them feared Yahweh. Nobody was worshiping God.
It wasn't like there were Christians or at least the pre-Christian version of Christians wandering around in Nineveh and finally there was some great revival that swept the city. It was an incredible revival and probably the greatest revival in history.
But it was simply through Jonah telling them, 40 days and God's going to overthrow this city. And then they tore their clothes and wept and repented before God and he spared them. He relented from bringing disaster upon them.
And yet there's someone else here who's preaching is greater than Jonah's. And the people are not turning from their sin to God so that they would escape the wrath of God. So the men of Nineveh, those men who repented and feared God, they're going to rise up at the judgment and condemn this generation because those people in Nineveh repented at the preaching of Jonah,.
Even though Jonah didn't even,.
He did not give them an exhortation to repent. But now something greater than Jonah is here. So the church, the church in America especially has got to stop with these stupid gimmicks, thinking that, hey, if we throw out there enough gimmicks, then people will be entertained, they'll be captivated, we'll be able to bring them to Christ because hey, they're here in church.
Or even the movies that we're doing right now, like the computer animated film, The King of Kings. So you got a Jesus story that's done as a cartoon. Well, we're trying to make something that appeals to kids, but of course they soften the gospel in that movie.
It's not really the gospel as Jesus preached it. That's not what you'll find in that film. But we'll have these animated movies because that's what's really gonna connect with kids. And then when I call it out for changing the message, then somebody's gonna push back on me and go, oh yeah, but it's just trying to teach the kids.
Okay, well, open your Bible and teach your kids. And whatever they don't understand, you explain it to them. You don't need a cartoon. It's not like we had cartoon Jesus's running around 60, 70 years ago, convincing kids that the Bible is true.
We didn't need any of that. Even children have come to faith in Jesus Christ, hearing the word. This generation, our generation now is so allergic to gospel preaching. We can't have that.
It's boring.
I can't sit through that. Give me something entertaining. And Jesus would be saying even to this generation, what a wicked generation this is. Can't even listen to solid biblical preaching. You've gotta have a sign.
You gotta have something entertaining before your eyes or the message is no good to you. Those who will not believe the words that Jesus said, even the Ninevites and the Queen of the South will rise up at the judgment and condemn this generation.
So let us love and revere the word of God that we have in the scriptures, not trying to dress it up, decorate it, make it something that's gonna be appealing to the world. Because again, as we read in 1 Corinthians 1 .22, the Jews seek a sign, the Greeks seek wisdom, but it's folly to them.
We preach Christ and Him crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles. They hate it. They won't listen to it because they're after their own appetites. They're not really after God. Dear God, I thank you for the word that we've read today.
And I pray that we would just open it up and let the lion out of the cage. Knowing that your word, as said in Romans 10 .17, it is the word of Christ that has the power to save. Faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of Christ.
Romans 1 .16, I'm not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God for salvation to all who believe. We just need to speak it. We need to share it. We don't need to dress it up and make it entertaining because then a person is being drawn to it since it appeals to their flesh instead of being convicted from their spirit that they're sinners in need of a savior.
So Lord, draw them to you through the teaching of your word and teach us to be bold with the preaching of your word. Not ashamed of it, but knowing that it has the power to save souls. It's in Jesus' name we pray, amen.
Pastor Gabe keeps a regular blog, sharing personal thoughts, alerting readers to false teachers and offering commentary on the church and social issues. You can find a link to the blog through our website, wwutt .com.
Thank you for listening and join us again tomorrow as we continue our study in God's word when we understand the text.