Looking for a Sign; II Chronicles 9:1-12, Matthew 12:38-45, Hebrews 6:4-9

We all know the importance of good signage, and we recognize how difficult it is when the signs aren't clear. For example: Signs when roads too close together. Jim and my experience in New Bern with rerouted traffic. When your favorite store gets a makeover and they haven’t changed the hanging signs yet. Not being able to find the bathrooms or nursery in a big church. Antioch’s bathroom problem. There are good signs like the signs of spring around us. But sometimes we keep asking for signs missing the signs all around us, especially when it comes to the signs God gives us. Last Sunday devil tried to get Jesus to test God by jumping off the pinnacle of the temple. Gideon tested God by asking for signs. This is what the Pharisees were doing in today’s gospel. They asked for another sign. They were putting Jesus to the test and thereby putting God to the test. Remember that Jesus had been doing lots of signs. Go back and count all the miracles Jesus did beginning in Matthew 8. And in those chapters, not only are there individual healings and deliverances and miracles, there are times when many different individuals were healed, one after the other. Jesus’s teaching and connecting the Old Testament prophets to what He was doing both implicitly and explicitly testified to who He was. They had tons of signs. So Jesus calls them an evil and adulterous generation. They had turned away from idolatry for a brief time, but now they were unfaithful to God despite their religiousness. The scribes and Pharisees asked for another sign because they were trying to justify their unbelief. So Jesus chastises them and tells them the only sign they will get is the sign of Jonah. Jesus is referring to His death. Now Jesus did not spend three days and three nights in the tomb. He was raised on the third day, but analogies are not perfect. He goes on to say that it will be Gentiles who will end up judging these religious Jews. The Ninevites did not need a sign. They repented in response to Jonah’s preaching, and Jesus is greater than Jonah, and the kingdom of God is greater than Jonah. Then Jesus gives the example of the Queen of Sheba. She had heard of Solomon’s wisdom but wanted to check it out for herself. She doesn’t worship Solomon, she worships Yahweh, Solomon’s God. She doesn’t need any further sign to know that Yaweh is real. Jesus is greater than Solomon. The Kingdom of God is greater than Solomon’s kingdom. Both the Queen of Sheba and the Ninevites responded to what they heard. They didn’t need more and more signs to trust that God was speaking to them. Then Jesus seems to change the subject. He talks about a demon oppresses person whose unclean spirit leaves and searches for rest. In the meantime, the person has gotten his/her life back. Finding nothing better, the spirit decides to return with some friends, so that the person is completely oppressed and worse off than before. Jesus uses this illustration to show the people what they are like. Jesus had come with a message of deliverance. Good things were happening. The kingdom of God was being inaugurated, but those looking for a sign did not embrace the good news. They did not invite the Holy Spirit in. A power vacuum was created. We see this happen in our world all the time. A wicked government leader is overthrown. Procedures and regulations are not put in place to stabilize a society. Someone much worse takes over. This is true in the spiritual realm as well. For lasting transformation to take place, we must be filled with the Holy Spirit. The doubting scribes and Pharisees were looking for something more. This is why Jesus called them an “adulterous generation.” Having tasted of the good things of God, they wanted to see if there was something better, something that would meet their expectations, expectations set way too low. I don’t know what you would consider one of the scariest passages of the Bible, but for me, Hebrews 6:4-8 is one of the scariest Bible passages. READ. This passage speaks of those who have been immersed in the word of God and have witnessed the power of the Holy Spirit and yet somehow walk away from it. The writer of Hebrews says it is impossible for them to repent because it is as if they are crucifying Jesus all over again. It sounds a lot like the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit that Jesus refers to earlier in Matthew 12 at which we looked last month. I call this “playing Christian.” It’s impossible for those who belong to Christ to lose their salvation because our salvation is something God accomplishes in us and not something we do. We will actually look at this a little bit next week when we hear from Romans 8. But there are those who spend time with the faithful, who can talk the talk, who do lots of good things, but who have never truly surrendered their lives to Jesus, and they walk away. God gives them over to the hardness of their hearts. This is not everyone who walks away from the Lord. We hear stories of redemption all the time of people who walk away from the Lord for years whom Jesus brings back to Himself. But these words ought to stand as a warning to those who are playing Christian and not really serious about deepening a relationship with Jesus. Have you truly surrendered your life to Jesus, or are you trying to get God’s favor or the favor of other people through playing Christian? The writer of Hebrews ends these scary words with this in verse 9, “But beloved, we are confident of better things concerning you, yes, things that accompany salvation, though we speak in this manner.” There was a deeper evidence of salvation in the lives of the recipients of this letter, not only in action, but in character, character that reflected the saving work of God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—in their lives. May it be so with each of us. Have you seen the signs God has already given you? Romans 1 tells us that there are things we can know about God simply from the witness of creation. We can know that God exists and that God is powerful. Scripture also tells us that our consciences give us a sense of right and wrong. None of this is saving knowledge, but those two witnesses, creation and conscience, are a starting point for our spiritual journeys. But God has given us more. God has given us God’s Word. Most of all, God has given us Jesus Christ. And then there are signs that God gives to us as individuals, times we have been rescued when we should have perished, blessings we have not earned or deserved, “coincidences” of meeting the right person at the right time or being in the right place at the right time, or circumstances coming together. All that is God’s self-revelation to us. Some of us have seen things that can only be described as supernatural. More of us have experienced those things and failed to recognize them. What more does God need to do to prove God’s love for you? What do you need from God before you can place your trust in Jesus Christ? If you are still struggling, pray that the Holy Spirit would open your eyes and ears to hear and see the signs. They are everywhere. It’s okay to ask God for confirmation if you feel moved in your heart to respond to what you perceive as God’s will, but be careful not to put God to the test. Are you trying to justify your unbelief like the scribes and Pharisees, or are you truly seeking Jesus? If you are seeking Jesus, rest in assurance. The Lord says, “You will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with all your heart.” This can only happen because the Holy Spirit is already at work in your life, because on our own, “there is not one of us who seeks after God.” Trust the Holy Spirit to interpret the signs that God is giving you to assure you of God’s love and presence and direction.