Prove It

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Don Filcek; Matt 12:38-42 Prove It

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You're listening to the podcast of Recast Church in Matawan, Michigan. This week, Pastor Don Filsak takes us through his series on the book of Matthew called
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Not Your Average Savior. Let's listen in. Well, good morning,
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Recast Church. I'm Don Filsak. I'm the lead pastor here. And I want to thank you for coming on this first snowy
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Sunday of our year. Anybody excited about snow? I hear a couple of boos and a majority of delight.
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So, we'll see how that works in February, where you guys are at then.
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For those of you that are here maybe for the first time, I just want to let you know that there are free donuts and coffee and juice at two stations up here if you want to take advantage of that.
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And this morning, we're going to be looking into a text of God's word, Matthew 12, 38 through 42. And we're going to be looking into this text that shows us a sliver of the life of Jesus Christ.
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That's what the gospels do. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. And we're walking a bit through the holidays through a portion of the book of Matthew.
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And I would suggest to you that Jesus is pretty controversial in our day and age. And you can talk about God and get some interaction with your coworkers or your neighbors.
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And it's okay to talk about spirituality or spiritual things or to talk about your belief in God.
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And that doesn't quite label you too much. But mention that you believe in Jesus Christ at your workplace.
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And we'll see whether or not you get labeled in a hurry there. I would suggest to you that you're probably more likely to get a label by stating the phrase,
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I believe in Jesus Christ, than you are just simply by saying, I believe in God. And in our text, we see that Jesus has always been controversial.
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You see that through the gospels. As many times as I've read through the gospels, I'm not sure that it's funny and ironic that every time
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I read through them, I'm a little bit surprised at how controversial he truly is. The things that he says, I often turn to the gospels and I'm like,
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I just want to see something of Jesus. And then I get in there and I start reading the types of things that Jesus said.
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And I'm like, man, I'm just going to get back to the epistles. I'm going to get back to Paul because he makes me, you know, he challenges me in a way.
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But Jesus says some things that are indeed controversial and the way that he rolled with people sometimes ruffles us the wrong way.
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And that is with intention. Even while he was on earth, he had many people who opposed him.
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Many people who rejected him. And many people who even lied about him for their own purposes and their own agenda.
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In our world, I would suggest to you, people are all too eager to adopt Jesus as long as they can shoehorn him into their agenda.
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And before we talk about those people who would choose to do that, let's take a moment to think about ourselves and how we might shoehorn
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Jesus into our own agendas because the sword cuts both ways. If it is challenging for the world out there, what he says, it ought to be all the more challenging for those who claim to be his people, who desire and hunger to follow his example.
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Man, we've got to get that right and we've got to get down to where we're looking at his example and taking that as the gospel and not our own opinions or thoughts about the way that things should go.
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And the fact of the matter is, Jesus doesn't support your ideology. He is not a card -carrying member of a political party.
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He is not a lobbyist. He is not endorsing your agenda. He is the king of all kings and lord of all lords.
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And he calls for the allegiance of all of humanity, including you and I.
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So this morning in our text, we resume where we left off last week with a group of religious people who rejected Jesus as messiah.
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They said, you are not messiah and they spoke evil of him and even said, well how is he doing these miracles? How is he doing these parlor tricks in their opinion?
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Well, he's doing them by Satan. He's healing people and he's deceiving people by doing all of these false, they would have claimed that they were false miracles or just not true.
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And last week we saw Jesus address them with the issues of their heart and he really took it to them regarding their words.
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And this week we're going to continue, we're going to see he's going to continue to call them out, but this time he offers them evidence for who he says he is.
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He says, you're doubting how I'm doing these things? You're doubting with what power I'm performing these miracles?
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And so he's going to declare to them what he claims to be proof. And although he doesn't dance to their tune, they ask for a sign in our text.
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He doesn't dance to their tune, but he will respond to their request for him to prove that he is who he said he is.
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Maybe not in the way that they want him to, but he will indeed respond. So let's open our
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Bibles to Matthew 12, 38 through 42. If you're not already there, it would be great if you could navigate over to there on your device or in a
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Bible. And then if you need a copy of God's Word, Mark's got a handful that he's just willing to pass out.
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So if you just raise your hand so Mark can see you, then he'll get you a copy of God's Word. And you can take that home with you if you need a
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Bible, that's available to you. But this is Matthew 12, verses 38 through 42, recasts
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God's Word to you and I here this morning. Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered him, saying,
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Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you. But he answered them, an evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except, except the sign of the prophet
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Jonah. For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the
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Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will rise up at judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.
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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.
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Let's pray as the band comes to lead us in worship. Father, we come before you having just read this text and preparing our hearts to worship and Father, it would be so much easier for us to be moved in worship if we genuinely believe that you are indeed better than the prophets, that your
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Son was better than the prophets, that your Son was better than the kings and better than the best wisdom, but he actually was wisdom incarnate.
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He was the one who made the sacrifice for us. And so Father, I would be remiss to not recognize that there's just a whole host of issues that are facing individuals here in this church.
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We're about to sing songs to you and we're going to call it worship and Father, I pray that it would indeed become worship as you move in our hearts to demonstrate and show us who you are in the midst of the chaos of a busy week and so many things that are pressing on us and some are here literally going through the motions.
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Some are here because it's just the thing to do on Sunday morning or they felt kind of compelled out of some social need to be in a church on a
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Sunday morning. But Father, I pray that you would turn that drive that is just out of duty into delight this morning, into a recognition that we have a
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Savior who loves us and paid the ultimate price for us, that he indeed is all that we need.
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And I pray that you would allow all of those distractions, all of the difficulties of this week to fade away in the light of your glory as we sing praises to you right now in Jesus' name.
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Amen. Amen. Yeah, you can go ahead and be seated. I would encourage you to get comfortable.
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Remember, you can get more coffee or juice or donuts while there's still some left at either place and you're not going to distract me during the message.
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I would encourage you to please keep your Bibles open to Matthew 12, verses 38 through 42.
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Again, that's Matthew 12, verses 38 through 42, that you see the flow to the message found there in that text.
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And I'm just going to start off with a question to all of us and that is, do any of you have a friend that often spouts off facts that sound incredible?
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Do you guys have that friend? I think everybody has a friend who kind of has a tendency to just state things as fact and then your first gut -level reaction is to use
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Google on them a lot. Am I the only one who has a couple of friends like that? Now you're wondering if you're that friend.
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You're not, but you're not in this room. But I do have a couple of friends that it's kind of like, oh, come on, dude.
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We're going to fact check you. You know it. And so that often is kind of, that kind of happens, right?
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Like there are some friends who are going to tell you that there's a little known loophole that might allow Clinton to take the presidency.
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Or they're going to tell you that killer bees have been found as far north as northern Indiana. They're probably on their way here right now.
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Or they're going to tell you that the band Nickelback is making a comeback. Five of you got that, but it was worth it.
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It was worth it. I think we all have a friend like that or know somebody like that. Maybe they're not even your friend.
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Maybe they're a co -worker. And it always comes down to, for those of us that tend towards a little bit more skepticism, prove it.
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Prove it. Let's look it up. Let's find it. Of course, we know Google is the place you go for all truth, right?
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Like, I mean, you can Google it and find out right away whether it's true or not, maybe. But Jesus made some pretty significant claims while he was here.
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Enough that people around him said, prove it. The religious leaders in our text this morning got set off by the crowds around Jesus calling him the son of David way back in verse 23 of chapter 12, before we kind of jumped back into the text.
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And the crowds were all saying, behold, is this the one? Is he the son of David? In other words, is he the
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Messiah? Is he the chosen one? And Jesus not denying it, now he's ruffled the feathers of the religious leaders.
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He's shown himself and basically allowed the crowds to declare him the most important religious leader in the world, is what he's allowed people to call him.
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And he didn't correct them when they said that about him. So the religious leaders, who fear losing their clout and influence, as religious leaders often do, instead came up with their own story for who
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Jesus is. Jesus is allowing them to call him the son of David, but they claim that he was a son of the devil, doing his works by the power of the evil one.
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Well Jesus told them that they were wrong, and not just wrong, but that their words betray that they have evil hearts, not just evil in their hearts, but evil hearts for maligning him like that.
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He said last week that your mouth is showing what is true of your heart and you're speaking evil, therefore he was able to surmise that they do indeed have evil hearts.
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And so that's where we come into our start here in verse 38 of our text this morning.
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The scribes and the Pharisees then respond to the rebuke of Jesus, who has just basically said you have evil hearts and you're speaking evil, by asking him to prove that he is the
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Messiah. Then prove it. We think you're a son of the devil, you're telling us you're the son of God, prove it, they say.
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And in verse 38 they ask Jesus to give them a sign, to prove that he is who he said he is.
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Well from our vantage point, we might be a little bit confused reading the entirety of Matthew chapter 12 in order.
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Jesus has just healed a blind and mute man, okay, who was demonically oppressed according to the text.
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We might use the word demon possessed. And he has just healed this man and now they are asking him for a sign and you and I from our vantage point are going, didn't they just get a sign?
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Didn't they just get a miracle? How many of you, if you watch Jesus heal somebody who is blind and had never spoken a word and they see and can speak, that might stand out to you as like a sign.
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I think a lot of us might go, well I would believe, I would believe if somebody could do that, that would put me over from the category of skeptic to believer.
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How many of you kind of think that there's maybe a miracle out there that you have in your mind that you're like, man, if God could do that, then
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I would believe, then it would be rock solid, then it would just be proof to me. But I think we ought to be careful with that kind of thinking.
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I think we can explain away an awful lot in a hurry and I think that these guys were here as well.
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One of the things by the way that we miss about this culture is that there were healers and exorcists aplenty in the first century.
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Even back in verse 27, you can kind of glance back there if you're open to this text, back in verse 27 of chapter 12,
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Jesus took for granted that these Pharisees knew other exorcists. He took for granted, he said, then if I'm doing this by the power of Satan, then who do your exorcists cast out and what power are they using when they're doing this?
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So it was not that uncommon in this era for people to be doing that kind of ministry in the community.
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And so we need to have in our mind what was first century like, not what was
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America like when we're reading this. So these Pharisees were not super impressed with these miraculous signs of Jesus.
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They were not impressed by them, but they should have been because Jesus was not like the charlatans and fakers of his era.
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You see, Jesus didn't just cast out demons, which you really can't see and tell if it's really happening or not, but he had just healed a blind and mute man.
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That's different. And yet these religious leaders show their own stubbornness by suggesting that maybe
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Jesus just one more sign and we'd be convinced. Maybe one more thing. If you do a big enough one, you do a big enough miracle, then we'll believe and we set the parameters for our faith based on if you could just do this for me,
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God, then I would trust you. If you could get me out of this foxhole, God, I will serve you.
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If you could just do this one thing, then I will trust you.
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But I'm not confident that any one of us in this room would have a more vibrant and life -giving connection to God with just one more sign.
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I'm not convinced that that's what you and I need. I want to pause here and consider our own hearts for just a moment.
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I think that many of us would love to have a sign, right? I mean, how many of you would just admit that it would be nice to have a sign?
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It would be nice to have God like, it would be really cool if while I was ladling out my spaghetti this afternoon,
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I don't know if I'm having spaghetti, but if while you're ladling out spaghetti the next time, if the spaghetti formed the words
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Jesus is Lord, that would be pretty cool, right? Wouldn't that be pretty awesome? It just falls on your plate and you're like, whoa, this is going on Facebook, right?
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This is going on Instagram because it says, Jesus is Lord on my plate of spaghetti. Or we would love to have a mini parting of the
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Red Sea experience in our swimming pool, right? That would be pretty cool, just like dry spot in the middle and you can walk through and it would be like, whoa, and we can really scrub the bottom and get it nice and clean.
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But some of us believe that if we had the right sign, then we would really have faith.
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Then we would have a genuine connection with God and we would just go forward in life without any more problems.
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But I'm not sure in our text how genuine these Pharisees were in their request for a sign.
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I'm not going to delve into that too clearly because I can't see their motives. I know that they were opposed to God and Jesus said that they had evil hearts.
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So something there is skewed in the way that they're responding. But something tells me that they actually believed that if they had the right miracle, then they would believe.
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Just give me the right miracle, Jesus, and then I'll trust you. Then I'll be your follower. But miracles do not ever complete our faith.
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In part, this is true because we have a sin -cursed skepticism that comes pre -installed in the human heart.
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It's already installed there. It's like a module in the human heart that is in us from the fall and all of us have inherited that.
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In context, it's clear that these religious teachers wanted incontrovertible evidence that Jesus was from God.
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But deep down, I think we all know that our issue is not ultimately an issue of evidence, but our true issue is one of trust and belief that God is good and has our best interests in mind.
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They didn't want to believe. They wanted their own power. They wanted to be in charge.
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Do you see that about the Pharisees? Do you see that consistently through the Gospels? They wanted to be in charge.
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They didn't want anybody sovereign over them. They didn't want Jesus to be. What does it mean if Jesus is indeed who he says he is?
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Then they have to bow the knee to him. Then they have to submit to his authority. Then they have to roll the way that he rolls.
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That means a lot of change. The human heart loves to have its own way.
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And so therefore, it was not an issue of evidence. It was an issue of even if the evidence came in, they had set their heart against the authority of one over them.
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Do you see that? Do you understand that difference? The evidence wasn't going to win them over. A change of heart was their only hope.
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That's what Jesus said last week. So Jesus answers them according to what he already knows of their hearts here in our text.
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He states a fact that is quite logical. Those with an evil heart are always saying that there just isn't enough evidence.
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Those with an evil heart are always saying that there isn't enough evidence. I've spoken with many unbelievers who have said something to that effect.
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Maybe you've had interactions with co -workers or family members or someone who is not in the faith that has basically said there's just not enough evidence,
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I'm out. There's just, you know, they might say there just isn't enough proof and if you would give me proof then
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I would believe. Jesus is not saying, by the way, and I want you to hear me very carefully here,
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Jesus is not saying it is evil to want proof. He doesn't say it's evil to want proof.
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How many of you are a little bit more like just kind of into science and you'd like to see, I mean there should be some evidence for your faith, right?
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Faith is not just a leap off of a blind cliff going I hope something catches me at the bottom.
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We have tons of evidence that my, I am a fairly natural skeptic.
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I like to see things lined up and I like to see and work through logically the connections.
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And I am not a Christian because I've had to throw my brain out the window and just come in going
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I guess I'll just believe something. I've had to think through it and wrestle through it. I went through a period of time in my college years where I was considering,
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I was going to Bible college to be in ministry and I was considering throwing the whole thing away over one particular issue.
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Was Jesus really God? Was he really God? And I had to wrestle through that and just dig in and I read the
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Gospels multiple times. It would have been probably my junior year, somewhere between my junior and senior year of college and I read them multiple times just poring over who did
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Jesus say he is? What's the evidence here for it? Obviously you know where I landed. But it was a rational process.
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It wasn't just a blind leap off of a cliff going, man, I hope it's real.
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My faith is based on evidence. And so it is not evil to want proof, but he is saying this.
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Evil people always want proof. Evil people will always say there is not enough evidence.
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But don't reverse it. Don't you reverse it. Everyone who is evil wants proof, but not everyone who wants proof is evil.
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Do you hear the difference? It's a big difference. Every cat is a lion, but not every lion, wait, every lion is a cat, but not every cat is a lion.
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I almost really confused us all there for a second. They all think they're lions. I'm sorry. I meant, that's what I meant.
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So he is saying it is an evil generation that wants proof, but he also calls them another word, adulterous generation.
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This word is being used as a metaphor. It's not specifically calling out the sin of extramarital sex, but the concept of adultery with spiritual adultery used through the
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Old Testament, used as a concept in the New Testament. When faith in God and a belief and trust in God is adulterated with false gods, with false things that grab a hold of our attention for our worship, this causes a similar desire for signs.
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I believe there's a logical conclusion to this. Let me illustrate this. The more, I'll just use the illustration of worshiping wealth and investment and money.
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Jesus talks about it. He used the word mammon for it, a common word in their day and age for kind of like a deity of wealth, if you will.
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So if I worship wealth and investment, the more I become satisfied with my own ability to protect myself and provide for myself, and the more money that, more money and income that begins to, that begins to kind of fill my mind, right, like that's going to be what
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I'm going to meditate on. If that's what I really worship, then it's going to consume me, so to speak, and it's going to dominate me.
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And the more it dominates me, the smaller God looks. Wealth begins to grow big in my mind.
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The ever present and almighty American dollar is my service, and I will render service to that, and I will do whatever
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I can to get that, and that becomes this big thing, and where's God in that? God is shrinking over here in the corner. God is getting smaller.
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He's getting a smaller chunk of my mind and my thoughts. And the smaller that God appears, the more evidence
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I need that He even matters. I'm going to need more evidence. I'm going to need you to prove yourself,
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God. I'm going to need to, I'm going to need you to at least prove yourself as more, more potent than money.
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I'm going to need you to prove to me that you can do more for me than my bank account provides security for me, right?
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Do you see how that, that requires a sign, it requires something more from God? Do you even matter in my life,
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God? When I worship other things, He becomes smaller. People without faith and people with adulterated faith will be eager for signs.
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They will be the loudest voices crying out, prove it, prove it. So Jesus says to them, in essence,
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I'm not dancing to your tune, Pharisees. I'm not a circus sideshow. I'm not a vending machine for miracles.
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I don't, I don't just perform miracles on request, but in His amazing mercy and grace,
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He doesn't completely deny them. Okay, so He's, He's identified that at least this group of people, these
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Pharisees have a wicked heart and He still throws them evidence. Notice it, verse 39 there, if you've got your
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Bibles open. No sign will be given to it, that is this generation, that's the pronoun, no sign will be given to this generation except the sign of the prophet
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Jonah. You want a sign? I'm going to show you a sign. I'm going to give you something here, folks.
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He says, you want unassailable evidence that I am indeed the Messiah? Let me draw your attention to Jonah for a moment.
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In the same way, says Jesus, that Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will
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I, the Son of Man, spend three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
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In essence saying, just like Jonah went into the whale and came back out, so will the Son of Man go into the tomb and come back out.
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Jesus is not offering to the Pharisees a second -rate parlor trick. He is abundantly and extravagantly granting their request, even though I'm not sure that any of them really got it.
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He's doing it for our benefit. We get a chance to look back and see, yes, he did indeed predict his resurrection and then did so to strengthen our faith as evidence for us, as proof for us, so that when we say prove it, we're looking backwards at something that's already been fulfilled and done.
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Jesus used the Old Testament account of Jonah to illustrate his burial and resurrection, and I wonder if any of these
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Pharisees recalled these words when the sign actually occurred a couple of years later at the resurrection.
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He offered them the same evidence he offers to us today, an empty tomb, the same evidence for them as he offers today.
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But before I move on from verse 40, I want to tackle what has been difficult in this text for many scholars.
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Many have debated back and forth. Jesus uses a phrase, three days and three nights. Some of you maybe wrestled with that when
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I read it. Some of you aren't really into the calendar and just skipped over your mind here, but the use of that, you don't have to be a scholar to catch the problem with trying to get three days and three nights between Good Friday and Easter morning.
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And have you ever wrestled with that a little bit? Anybody struggle with that? Some of us maybe have kind of been attentive to that, some not, so I'm going to share just a little bit of my thoughts on it, and it's going to be like, whoa, and hopefully it's not too jarring for some of us who are a little bit more traditional in the room.
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But it's interesting that nothing in the gospel ever says, none of the gospels ever declare that Jesus was crucified on a
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Friday. Did you know that? Never says it. Does not declare, I know you're like, whoa, wait a minute, you're getting close to messing with my
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Easter week, okay, but hold with me for a second. It says that he was crucified on the day before the
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Sabbath, right, and it does. So now you kind of go, oh, well, wait a minute. If their Sabbath was on Saturday, then he was crucified on Friday, and we're on pretty good ground suggesting that he was crucified on Friday, except for the fact that the word
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Sabbath is synonymous in Hebrew for holiday.
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It's holiday. It's a vacation period, and so there was indeed a
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Sabbath every week, but then all of the different celebrations through the Jewish calendar, like Passover, for example, is also called a
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Sabbath, and it would be called a Sabbath very clearly. And so then we get down to looking at calendars, and we've actually been able to date back to a date in a year where right about the time that we think
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Jesus was crucified, A .D. 30, the Passover Sabbath fell on a Friday so that the
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Jews had back -to -back Sabbaths. They had a Friday Sabbath, which was Passover, and the routine and regular every week
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Saturday Sabbath. So when it says that they were eager to remove Christ from the cross lest they be found carrying a body on the
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Sabbath, it was, in my opinion, the Passover that they had to hurry and get square.
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So they're taking down the body, putting him in on what day? I'm suggesting
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Thursday. And now all of our minds are blown, causing some of you to immediately get concerned about the church, and you can come and talk with me if you're kind of like, well,
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I'm a traditionalist. Friday, Friday, it's Friday, and I am not lobbying to change Good Friday to Good Thursday.
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But I think this makes more sense of the historical and biblical evidence and helps us to clarify how this phrase works into the entire narrative of Scripture.
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So that's one way. I'm not alone in that. I didn't invent this. I obviously did a bunch of research this week.
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I don't have a whole lot of access to ancient calendar practices and things like that, but I've been able to do some research to come to conclusions on this.
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And this isn't the first time that I've studied this issue before. I've spent some time on it in years past.
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But it was all a side note because Jesus was telling the Pharisees that we don't want to lose the point, and that is that he will return from the heart of the earth after spending the same time that Jonah spent in the fish.
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And further, the men of Nineveh, by the way, I'm not even getting into the issue. Some of you in the room are like, really, Jonah spent that time in a fish?
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And Jesus uses that illustration here and seems to imply that there's some literalness to that. And so I'm going to run with that.
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I believe that Jonah did indeed spend three days and three nights in the belly of a fish. How? We'll take that up on the other side, and it'll be a great question to ask.
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And we'll have a race to see who gets to ask the question first. So probably not many people who want to win that race, but we'll see.
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But really, the men of Nineveh, he goes on and still continues to use the illustration of Jonah and the fish.
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And he says, oh, by the way, let me just use the men of Nineveh here as an illustration. They will be raised to new life because they repented, and they will be the judges of these very
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Pharisees who are rejecting Jesus. The pagan, wicked nation of Nineveh, he says, will rise up and judge the religious
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Jews and Jewish leaders because they listened to Jonah. Nineveh listened to Jonah and repented, turned from their sin and turned to God, while something greater than Jonah came to these
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Jews, and they refused to repent and turn from their sin and turn to their
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Messiah. The severity of this statement in this context where Jesus is uttering it,
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I cannot overstate how insulting this was to those
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Jewish leaders he's speaking to. In that context, those Jewish religious leaders thought themselves to be so much better than Gentile pagans.
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And here Jesus says, you know who your judges are going to be? Gentile pagans who listened to the word of God and believed it and trusted it.
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And the difference between the two groups boils down to this. Nineveh acknowledged God's prophet.
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They listened to God's prophet, and they obeyed God's prophet. Simple. Straightforward.
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They heeded, they trusted him, they listened to him, and they obeyed him. And Jesus is so much more than Jonah, so much greater, and these religious leaders are in the process here in our text of rejecting him outright.
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Jesus adds a second story to drive his point home further. Jesus uses the Old Testament account of the
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Queen of Sheba, here called the Queen of the South, a clear reference to her as we move on and talk about Solomon. But from 1
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Kings, if you want to read this account, it's a pretty short account and it would be probably pretty cool for you to study if you're unfamiliar with it.
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1 Kings 10, verses 1 -10, tell the account of the Queen of Sheba.
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It goes on a little bit longer than that, but you get the gist of it in those 10 verses. But in this account, the word of the wisdom and blessings of Solomon's great kingdom,
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Solomon the wisest of men, that word of how awesome his kingdom was and how glorious God's blessing was on him, made its way down into a kingdom in the area of modern -day
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Yemen, which is on the south side of Saudi Arabia, down by the
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Persian Gulf there. And a queen heard of God's wisdom that he had blessed with Solomon, an unnatural wisdom.
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So at great expense and risk to herself, this queen took an epic ancient road trip and went to sit under the wisdom of God through Solomon.
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Jesus, in essence, says here in our text, this pagan queen traveled to the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of God, but wisdom incarnate stands in front of you and you won't listen, he says to the
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Jews standing there accusing him. I am wisdom incarnate and you won't listen. I am so much greater than Solomon.
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And so, he says, the Queen of Sheba will be raised up in that final judgment to condemn that Jewish generation who rejected the very incarnate wisdom of God.
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Jesus didn't pull punches. He wasn't soft, but he was always loving. He wasn't soft, but he was always loving.
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He didn't skirt the conflict, but he dove in with words of conviction and even words of judgment when needed.
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So how should we respond to this ancient conversation between the religious elite and the
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King of Glory? I would suggest the following points to center your application on this week.
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First, is to contemplate and consider the ways in which we're still asking him to prove it. Our culture is still asking him to prove it.
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People around us are asking him to prove it. Our culture, I would suggest to you, is maybe the most skeptical generation that ever lived.
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Now, I can't give evidence for that, but I have a good inkling that that may be the case. We live in an era where we are spoiled with instant answers to everything.
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It's kind of funny for those of us in the room that can remember back to times when someone would state a sketchy fact and there was no way to validate it, and you just kind of go, okay, whatever.
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I mean, you couldn't even, you couldn't look it up on the internet. You couldn't find out whether it was true or not unless you wanted to carry a huge backpack full of Encyclopedia Britannica.
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You weren't going to really get down to anything with substance in the discussion, so you were just going to take it and go,
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I don't believe him, and that's about it. But our access to tons of information with much of it doubtful, much of it doubtful, even when you look it up.
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Boy, I hope you're skeptical of the information you read on the internet, right? I think we're becoming more and more prone to just take it, you know, read it and take it.
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But it has caused us to be fairly skeptical, so consider where you stand today in your life regarding proof.
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Are you in a place of asking him to prove it? And on this point,
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I want to take a further moment to talk to you about the interplay between faith and proof. Some of you might be moved to think that there really is no such thing as proof.
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It is all faith. You have contemplated and considered that your faith is just merely standing on a cliff, as I said, jumping off and just trusting.
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And some people have even gone so far as to think that maybe that kind of faith is more rewarded. Maybe if you don't need any evidence, if you don't want any proof, if you don't want to think with your mind, then you're closer to God, and that couldn't be further from the truth.
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He's given us a book to read, for goodness sake, a book to study, to see who
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He is and to know Him, okay? So He's given us words, propositional truth in the
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Gospels, propositional truth in the letters, all throughout the New Testament, stories, narrative for us to understand who
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He is, that He has revealed Himself to us for our consideration.
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He's put Himself out there. For us to test and to see. So there's a reality to that.
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Why do you, those of you in the room that believe, why do you believe? Why do you have faith?
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Faith according to the Bible has evidence right in the middle of its definition. It is the evidence of things unseen.
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But it's evidence. Is your faith based on some thought, or is it based on, man, my parents were pretty smart and they were
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Christians? Is that the extent of the evidence that you have? Or have you taken hold of the
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Word of God and made it your own and wrestled with it and come to some conclusions yourself and studied it to know who
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He is? Proof is not antithetical to faith.
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Proof or evidence is the substance of faith. Jesus doesn't turn to the
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Pharisees and say to them, proof is for evil people. Instead, He acknowledges that their quest for proof was flowing out of, for them, a wicked and adulterous heart.
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And there is an evil source of hungering for proof that really isn't hunger for proof at all because you're not open to the evidence.
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That's what He's identifying for this crew here. But He still, even in that context, is willing to offer them proof if they would only trust in it, if they would only believe
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Him. And that leads to the second point of application. He did prove it. He did it.
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The resurrection of Jesus Christ after three days and three nights buried in the earth is the greatest proof of all and the one that He gives to them and the one that He shares with us, the centerpiece of our faith, the central truth.
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If you're here and you're not in with Christ, let me put forward for you one piece of evidence that I want you to focus on in your quest.
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Did Jesus rise from the dead? That is the question. All the other things, well, is this the right church?
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Is this the wrong church? What about Catholicism? What about Islam? What about all these things? Ask yourself this question and don't give up until you decide the answer.
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Did Jesus rise from the dead? That is the central question. If your answer is yes, then
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He owns you. Then He has something to say for you. And not only that, but He has eternal life to offer to you.
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If He is indeed the risen Lord and the King over the universe, then my goodness, bow before Him. If your conclusion is no, then you're off on your own in some other direction.
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But that is the fundamental question. And that is the number one evidence that Jesus gives.
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That is the proof. He did prove it. Notice, think about all the things.
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I just got in my mind. Sometimes I just think a little bit outside of the box. But think of all the things that Jesus could have done when they asked for a sign.
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He could have offered them all kinds of crazy things. He could have made an, you know, got down on his knees and made an animal out of the dirt.
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See, it's breathing, it's walking. Now bow to me. Or He could have turned the sky green for proof.
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You know, like, oh, look, I'm gonna, watch, I'm gonna turn the sky green. Boom, it's green. Okay, now do you believe? But instead,
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He offered them for their consideration the greatest of all proofs. He said, I'm going to rise from the dead.
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Watch this. I don't think they got it. I don't think they understood. But man, I wonder if some of these guys didn't get it later.
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If there wasn't some connection in their mind to go, three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
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Now His followers are saying, He's alive. The tomb is empty. For your own application, consider what role the resurrection plays in your faith.
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Do you believe that Jesus rose from the grave? Is that historical event the basis of your trust and hope?
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A proper understanding of the resurrection of Jesus is essential to saving faith. And that leads to my third application.
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The wise person believes that He proved it and sees in Him the wisdom of the
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Almighty. You see, the Queen of Sheba heard of the wisdom of Solomon that was provided by God and traveled many uncomfortable miles to get there.
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And how far would you be willing to go to hear the words of wisdom? How far would you be willing to travel to hear the very words of God?
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Would you travel to the coffee table in the morning where your Bible sits? Go out to the van where you left it after church last
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Sunday? Would you be willing to go out on a limb and download a Bible app and actually read the words of wisdom from God?
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Or even in your commute, let some unknown voice read it to you?
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We live in a day and an age where you don't even, I mean if you're, if you're really struggling with the motivation, just let somebody else read it to you because it's there and it's available.
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It's amazing. Or how about would you be willing to carve out some time to get involved in a study with others in community and connection?
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We're going to be starting something new in the new year. In January, we currently have about two or three small groups that are going.
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That's down from about seven or eight at our high point. So we're looking to kick, re -kick off and re -install some community here.
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Just kind of jump start that thing because we've got a sense that it's kind of, it's kind of gone a little bit through a down cycle.
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And so we're looking to pick it up again. And so in January, we are looking for people who are willing to lead some short cycle community groups.
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They're going to go for about 10 weeks. We are asking everyone to get involved.
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I am, I'm right now asking you when this comes around in January and we start kicking these off in the middle of January, I hope that everybody in this room has a name on a sheet to give it a shot to connect with others in community here at our church.
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And those are going to be, there's going to be some content oriented around that, but it's going to be primarily discussion groups for communities surrounding some kind of a topic.
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And if you are interested in leading one of those, please come and see me or come and talk to Linda. And we would love to get you plugged in, find out what content you would like to lead and move forward from there.
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These are going to be groups that meet in people's homes, much like small groups, but they're going to have an end date. And I think that that might help us in our culture where long -term commitment,
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I mean, you would acknowledge long -term commitment is tough, but maybe a short cycle would be something that you could grab ahold of.
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And so I'd encourage you, we're going to be unrolling that and there's going to be a lot more detail about that coming up at the first of the year.
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And we're hoping to kick those off in the middle of January. And then wrap them up around before spring break.
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That's the goal. So that gives you a perspective. But it's a wise person who routinely seeks out the wisdom of God from his word and from his son.
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And my fourth application is a simple call to trust him. He is greater than the prophets.
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He is wiser than Solomon. And he rose from the dead victorious over sin and death. Jesus is indeed the only hope.
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He has given proof through his historical resurrection from the dead. Historical event.
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He was victorious over the grave and either he is what he said he is. Think about what he said in our text.
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You thought about it from this perspective? He said he is greater than the prophets. Prophet Jonah.
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He's greater than Solomon, the wisest of men and one of the greatest kings over all of Israel.
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And he claims to be king of kings and Lord of lords. And so either what he said was true or he's a liar.
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And actually much worse than a liar. He'd be like a megalomaniac who declared pompous lies about himself.
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He's self -aggrandizing. But I for one believe him to be true. And that he means he truly is the best and worthy of your trust.
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And not just your trust but the trust of the whole world. And that leads to my final application. Jesus took a request for a sign and turned it around to the gospel of his sacrifice and resurrection.
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The resurrection should always be a part of your answer. What was the question? The resurrection is always a part of your answer.
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Why do you have hope? Why do I have hope? Because I serve a living king. Why do
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I have hope? Because my king has conquered the grave. Why do I have hope? Because my king now reigns in heaven.
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Why do I have hope? Because my king is coming again for me. Yes, he's living and he's returning. Why do
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I have hope? Because the grave is empty just like the belly of the great fish at the end of the account of Jonah.
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It was empty and the grave is empty. Can you share that message with others?
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You might be intimidated by the thought of sharing your faith with others. But can you tell people why you have hope?
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I believe that you can. And I pray that you will. And I pray that it will be surrounding the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
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We're going to conclude our service once again with communion this morning. We do this each week to come back to the reminder that Jesus Christ died for you and me.
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Jesus told us to take bread together as a symbol of his body broken for us. And that's why we have that cracker.
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And he told us to take juice to remember his blood shed for us. And so we have the cup of juice. And if your trust, if your trust, hear me carefully, if your trust is placed in the belief that Jesus Christ is indeed king.
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And he died for you and was raised again. If your trust is placed in his saving work that he was indeed victorious over sin and death at the resurrection.
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Then please come to one of the tables during this next song and take the cup and the cracker. And as you eat that cracker, consider his body that was broken for you.
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And as you drink that cup, that little cup of juice, remember that he loved you enough to sacrifice for you.
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But I would encourage you to go one step further this morning. Do something a little different. After you drink that juice, take notice of that empty cup and reflect on the glory of the empty tomb.
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Do you want a sign? Do you want a miracle? Do you want proof? That empty tomb stands as the greatest of all evidences and the source of all true hope.
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Let's pray. Father, I thank you that you, that you have honored us with evidence.
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And I recognize that for not everybody in the room is the evidence is clear. I certainly have wrestled with it and have come to a place of steadfast faith in you.
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And I pray that you would continue to maintain that for me. And then for others who are firmly in that faith,
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Father, I pray that you would continue to strengthen us day by day, moment by moment, that we would recognize the hope that we have through Jesus Christ.
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His death, yes, but also his resurrection. And Father, for anybody in the room that's wrestling, that's trying to figure out this whole
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Christianity thing and who Jesus was, I pray that you would help them to drive down deep into that one question.
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Did Jesus rise from the dead? I pray that that question would plague them until they come to a solution with it.
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And obviously, Father, I'm a little bit biased and bent that they would come to the truth, that it is indeed fact.
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It is indeed proof. And that you did indeed rise from the dead.
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And that you are indeed sending your Son to come back for your children. Father, I pray that you would walk with us through this week of thankfulness.
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Help us to even take communion this morning with an intense gratitude that kicks off a week of thinking through all of the many blessings.
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Father, this week is not sufficient to thank you. We need weeks, months, a lifetime.
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We actually need eternity to give you the thanks that are due for the sacrifice that was paid for our sins.