Sign-Seekers | Matthew 12:38-42

Scripture

• Matthew 12:38–42

About this sermon

Introduction: Beware a condition of being able to judge in others what you refuse to judge in yourself. If you could get an unbeliever to grant (for the sake of argument) that what the gospel accounts give us about the miracles of Jesus are true, and then asked about what the scribes and Pharisees did with the evidence of those miracles, most of those unbelievers would agree that the Pharisees and scribes were foolish to disregard what they saw. What those same unbelievers don’t recognize is that they suffer from the same sinful problem. Their unregenerate hearts are no more honest with the evidence from God than the scribes and Pharisees were. The same people who would rightly recognize and condemn the slowness of the scribes and Pharisees to believe the evidence they were given, find themselves equally slow to be persuaded by the evidence God has provided to them. THIS IS THE LYING SELF-PRAISE OF SINFUL HUMAN BEINGS. People imagine that they are different from what is worthy of condemnation in their own hearts. The scribes and Pharisees suffered from that also. ESV Matthew 23:29 "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous, 30 saying, 'If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.' 31 Thus you witness against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. 32 Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers. So, this is a sinful humanity problem. People want to believe that what explains their unbelief is not an evil heart but insufficient evidence. “I just need more evidence.” “I just haven’t seen enough to be convinced.” What the Scriptures expose, and what our Lord exposes in our verses, is that the problem is not the evidence. The problem is with sinful bias. The problem is the sinful and proud evaluators of the evidence. Sinful human beings are characterized by DETERMINED UNBELIEF. Matthew Henry — “none are so incurably blind as those who are resolved they will not see” You don’t respect the evidence because you don’t WANT to respect the evidence. TODAY WE CONSIDER SIGN-SEEKERS. FOUR TRUTHS CONCERNING THOSE WHO SEEK FOR SIGNS BUT WILL NOT BE GIVEN WHAT THEY SEEK. • THE HYPOCRISY OF SIGN-SEEKERS (vs.38) The first thing that stands out about the scribes and Pharisees is their dishonesty. The scribes were the lawyers, as it were, for the people of Israel. They were experts in the law. Most of them were also Pharisees. And so, it might be that the scribes are meant to be seen as a sub-set within the Pharisees on this occasion. The first word of verse 38 (then -Τότε) does not REQUIRE that this be the same setting. The word can mean something as simple as, “thereafter.” But it also can indicate “immediately.” Luke’s account seems to indicate that this conversation took place at the same time, but with a different group than those who had just been warned about blasphemy. So, imagine a crowd in which more than one group of Pharisees has spoken. ESV Luke 11:14 Now he was casting out a demon that was mute. When the demon had gone out, the mute man spoke, and the people marveled. 15 But some of them said, "He casts out demons by Beelzebul, the prince of demons," 16 while others, to test him, kept seeking from him a sign from heaven. Regardless, the first thing that stands out about these men would be equally applicable. THEY ARE ASKING FOR SOMETHING MORE WHEN THEY HAVE ALREADY GIVEN ABUNDANT ANSWERS FOR WHAT THEY CLAIM TO BE SEEKING. And the very act of asking for a sign, demonstrates the dishonesty of those asking. • THEY FEIGNED RESPECT (“Teacher”) They pretend to respect Jesus. They refer to Him as “teacher.” You can be sure that the scribes and Pharisees did not believe that Jesus was to be respected as a teacher. It is meant to give the appearance of respect for someone that many in the crowd respected. It is meant to give the appearance of fair-mindedness, a calm sort of reasonableness. I mean Jesus has just given a very serious warning. He has just referred to religious leaders as a brood of vipers. He has just called them evil. Then these men refer to Him in “respectful terms.” It is very much akin to what we witness in the political realm, when someone refers to a person with a respectful political title like “senator” or “Mr. President” and yet everyone listening to the person asking the questions knows that their words drip with disrespect and that they despise the person they are speaking to. JESUS HAS JUST BEEN ACCUSED OF BEING IN LEAGUE WITH SATAN, AND YET MEMBERS OF THE SAME BODY OF RELIGIOUS RULERS NOW REFERS TO HIM AS TEACHER. So, this is a hypocritical respect. As the Spirit of God told us through Luke, they were saying this to Jesus “to test him.” • THEY FEIGNED OPEN-MINDEDNESS