Read Matthew Chapter 12:38-45
You’ve Got To Be Kidding Me?
The Pharisees and scribes responded to Jesus’s rebuke by saying, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from you.” You’ve got to be kidding me! He’s already done miracles that gave signs of his Sonship to the Lord God. Jesus said, “An evil and adulterous generation craves for a sign.” They probably wanted to see a sign so they could gain ammunition to downplay Jesus miracles and accuse him of being an evil person versus being the Messiah.
The problem with those always wanting a sign is they love to see God work but they don’t want to repent of their sins. Jesus gives two examples of this:
1. Jesus speaks of a sign that will prove his authority: just as Jonah was in the belly of a fish for 3 days and three nights, so will Jesus be three days and three nights in the belly of the Earth, referring to his death and Resurrection for the forgiveness of sins.
The people of Nineveh responded to Jonah’s message by repenting. But on the day of judgment, they will condemn the generation that Jesus is speaking to because they didn’t repent. Plus,
2. The queen of the South, she also will condemn that generation because they did not repent. Her life was changed after hearing Solomon’s message. But Jesus is greater than Jonah and Solomon so you’d think people would definitely repent after hearing him speak and do miracles. But they won’t! “You’ve Got To Be Kidding Me!”
Jesus said to the Pharisees and scribes that they are an evil generation because they deny and reject the work of Christ and his truth. Their evil hearts are empty of the Spirit of God and to deny the work of the Spirit of God only makes some receptive to evil spirits which will only make them worse than they were.
CHALLENGE: May we also heed the message and signs of Jesus, thus bringing us into true repentance of ALL SINS! Forgive me God when I refuse to heed the nudging of your Holy Spirit. Help me repent rather than to have my heart hardened and susceptible to the deception of the devil thus making my heart worse than it already is.
