Matthew 12:40

0:00 Long ago in this galaxy, when we went on a road trip, we didn't have the luxury of just punching an address into our phone and then having Google dictate to us step by step where to go, where to turn when we have arrived. We would get out this ancient piece of paper known as a map that had a picture of the land that we were going to be traveling on, and it had little lines that showed the roads and the names of those roads, and we would carefully study that map to find the route that we wanted to take.

0:37 We would note the turns that we were supposed to make, and then as we drove, we would watch the signs and follow the signs. Seeing the signs in this arrangement is essential. So I can tell you about the time that I almost missed a flight to Indianapolis to visit my family because I didn't see the sign with the airplane on it. And I ended up several miles away from the Indianapolis airport. Seeing the signs was essential and understanding the signs was essential.

1:10 So interstates and highways and state roads can all have the same number, but they have different symbols on them that mean different things. And then sometimes the signs weren't actually signs. They were landmarks. I can remember going to my aunt's lake house in North Georgia with very specific instructions to the tenth of the mile of, you know, after so many tenths of a mile turn at this gas station or look for this tree or some specific thing that you had to see and you had to understand. But the most important thing is following the signs, right?

1:43 You can see the sign. You can understand the sign. But if you don't follow the sign, you're not going to end up at the right destination. And I think that's really what our text tonight is getting at. That's the message that we're looking at tonight, is that Jesus' resurrection is the great sign that shows that he's the Messiah. He is God's chosen king. So see it, understand it, and follow it in faith. So our text is Matthew chapter 12, verse 40. Let me read that for us.

2:14 It's on the front of your bulletin. if you want to follow along. 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. So we're in the middle of a conversation between Jesus and the Pharisees, the religious leaders at the time. And they've come to Jesus to ask him for a sign. They want to see something that will validate his ministry, his credentials, and the authority that he's claiming to speak on behalf of God. And Jesus responds to them in a kind of shocking way. He says, an evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.

3:01 Now again, I think this can kind of sound unfair at first glance, right? Isn't it reasonable to expect that there would be signs that accompany the Messiah? I mean, doesn't the Old Testament even talk about those signs? And of course, the answer is yes. But when we read further in the chapter, and really the whole gospel account of Matthew, what we see is that Jesus has performed one sign after another. And even in this section, he's just healed a man, and he's cast out a demon from another man. That is pretty conclusive evidence of divine power, right? Well, it should be.

3:39 If you've been a parent of a young child, you know that kids have an innate desire to interpret signs. They look around and they see unfamiliar things. And on a road trip, what are they asking? Are we there yet? Right? How much longer? And if you know how to interpret the signs, you don't have to ask that. So my family travels to Florida regularly to visit our family who lives down there. And so we know, Lindsay and I know, that if we're still in Kentucky or Tennessee or Georgia, you don't have to ask if we're there yet because we're not even in the right state yet.

4:14 Once we get, when we see the sign that says 150 miles to Valdosta, we know we still have five hours to go. We know that when we cross the St. John's River, we're 10 minutes away from my parents' house. And at one specific instance, Rebecca was probably four or five years old. She had asked and asked and asked one too many times. And I finally said, Rebecca, you will know when we are there, when we pull into the driveway and stop in front of a house and grandma comes out of it. That's the sign. The Pharisees were not following the signs.

4:51 Their response is to kill Jesus and to attribute his power to Satan. That's their plan in this chapter. And so Jesus isn't saying that there aren't any signs or that the Pharisees don't even understand the signs. What he's saying is that they're refusing to follow the signs. I think that what Jesus is doing when he says that the only sign he's going to give them is the sign of Jonah is to say that same thing. You want a sign? Here's an unmistakable sign. I'm going to die and I'm going to rise again.

5:25 And in verse 41 he goes on to say, So in other words, Jesus is saying to them, guys, you are not following the signs. The most explicit evidence for Jesus' identity as the Son of God will be right before their eyes, plain as day. And rather than repent and believe like the men of Jonah do, they're going to turn away and they're going to be condemned for it.

5:57 so what about us what about us we're confronted with the same sign and the same stakes that that original audience was confronted with jesus rose from the dead he defeated sin and he conquered death and now god demands that people everywhere repent of their sin of against of their rebellion against god and come to jesus for forgiveness and for transformation so if you're here tonight and you're not a Christian we are really really thankful that you're here it's great that you've chosen to spend some of your time with us and in God's providence you've now seen the sign right you've heard the news that Jesus has been raised from the dead now maybe your your initial response to that is hold on a second that's not the same thing I haven't seen the resurrected Jesus us. I've just heard people talking about it. And I'll grant you that. But God's word is clear that the evidence for the resurrection is sufficient to be the standard by which God will judge the world.

7:03 And so if you're here tonight and you're thinking there's no way you could have seen the sign, I just want to take a minute to talk through a little bit of the evidence about the resurrection to show that it is a credible historical event. Now, there's no way we could unpack all of that in this few minutes tonight, but I want to just give a sense of a few of the lines of reasoning that support the resurrection. So, just four things really quickly. First of all, there's no credible evidence for a body of Jesus, right? The easiest way to discredit the resurrection would have been for somebody simply to produce the body, to go back to show that the tomb is still sealed or open the tomb up and show that Jesus' body was still there.

7:41 no evidence second the grave clothes were undisturbed greg led us through this in the gospel of john several weeks ago but john goes through painstaking detail to show that the grave clothes were not just like crumpled up in the corner as if somebody had stolen the body they were there laying undisturbed and it's very specific eyewitness evidence to show that the body had essentially dematerialized from within the clothes that he was wrapped in third there were more than 500 witnesses who saw jesus after his crucifixion most of whom were still alive when the new testament was being written and people were talking about it so they could have been you know those witnesses could have been cross-referenced at the time and then the last the last thing that i would say is just that the disciples were changed right if you look at the lives of the men who were hiding at the time of the crucifixion because they didn't want to be associated with Jesus. They go from that to preaching him boldly and giving their lives, proclaiming that Jesus had been raised from the dead. And even the Apostle Paul went from

8:44 trying to kill people for believing in Jesus to proclaiming him as the resurrected Lord and King. If you're interested in reading more about that, I could recommend John Stott's Basic Christianity. It has a section about Jesus. It's super helpful. I also have a copy of The Case for Easter if you want to find me afterward. That's been something that's helpful for me as well. And I think even some of Greg's books touch on some of those things too. If you're willing to see and understand the signs about Jesus, I would just encourage you to sort of suspend all your other questions and doubts and reservations, anything else about Christianity, and just look at the evidence for the resurrection.

9:29 If it's true, and it is, then everything else you're wondering about Jesus, all your other questions, all of that stuff is going to fall into place. And when you see the sign, and you accept that Jesus rose from the dead, and you understand that it means he's everything he claimed to be, he's God become man for our salvation, then friend, follow the sign. Just throw up your hands and say, Jesus, I see who you are, and I'm going to follow you. Please forgive me and change me.

10:03 And he'll do that. And if you're thinking those things for the first time tonight, it's probably a good idea for you to talk to a Christian friend that you trust. Now, for those of us here who are Christians, are you following the sign? As I've thought about this, I've found that there are times in my life where I've sort of conceived of the resurrection as one sign here that says, you know, heaven 10,000 miles away, and then one sign here that says, welcome to heaven, with nothing really in between.

10:42 But that's not at all how the New Testament conceives of the resurrection. In fact, throughout the New Testament, the resurrection is supposed to be the guiding and animating principle for our lives as God's people from the moment we first believe until we see Jesus face to face. And so I just want to think about a few of those realities together for us to think about application, about different things that the resurrection points to that help us practically day to day. So first of all, the resurrection is a sign of our assurance as God's people. So in Romans chapter 4, Paul says that Jesus was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification. So that big word justification is our legal standing before God. It's the verdict of not guilty that God pronounces over our lives when we're united with Jesus by faith. And so often as Christians when we're discouraged, when we're questioning our status before God, when we're wondering if he really loves us, it's because we're looking at the wrong sign. We're looking at our lives. We're

11:48 looking at our performance to see if we've done well enough to do something that we feel like deserves God's love. But this verse tells us that the verdict on our lives has nothing to do with anything that we've done, that we ever could do. It has everything to do with the fact that Jesus's tomb is empty. Because Jesus was raised, God's verdict on his life is applied to our lives. for everyone who's united with him. And so if you're here tonight and you're struggling with God's love for you, friend, don't look to the shifting sands of your performance.

12:22 Look to the solid rock that was rolled away from the empty tomb and let the resurrection confirm to you what Jesus said on the cross, which is it is finished. Or even as we just sang a minute ago, that word above all earthly powers, no thanks to them abideth. He lives. And because he lives, the penalty for your sin has been paid in full and the accusations of hell have been silenced. Second, the resurrection is a sign of power.

12:56 So Paul prays for the Ephesian church to know the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead. So over and over again, we see references to the fact that Jesus' resurrection life is said to be the power that now animates our lives as Christians. And Paul refers to this also in Romans chapter 6. He says, We were buried, therefore, with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

13:34 So far from being something that's primarily about just salvation past and salvation future, the resurrection is for everyday living as God's people. It's for that difficult conversation you need to have. It's for that stressful situation at your work. It's for that dreaded diagnosis. It's for that persistent sin in your life. It's for that irritating person that you have to deal with. You're not left alone to your own resources in order to face life's challenges and confront those problems.

14:06 You face those situations in light of Jesus' reign and rule over everything. His inevitable defeat of sin and death and his personal presence with you to give you wisdom and endurance for everything that you face. Third, the resurrection is a sign of hope. So as people, our lives are marked by our expectations about the future, right? That's what motivates us. We work, we risk, we enter into relationships in hopes that they're going to result in something better for us.

14:41 And so Peter opens his letter with these words. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. And he unpacks that hope in chapter 1 where he explains that it's this future exaltation with Jesus for all eternity. The praise and glory and honor that God will give his people. An imperishable and undefiled and unfading inheritance kept in heaven for us.

15:14 It's this unimaginable glory that's coming. But that hope isn't just a lofty dream or a fantasy that Peter has. He says it's absolutely certain. It's a living hope because Jesus is living. He's conquered death and he's secured a future for his people. He's gone ahead of us. He's gone to prepare a place for us. He's promised to come back for us and he always keeps his promises. Fourth, the resurrection is a sign of calling.

15:48 What are you here for? What is your life supposed to be about? Well, if you're a Christian, the resurrection is the answer to that. So Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5, For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this, that one has died for all, therefore all have died. And he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves, but for him who for their sake died and was raised.

16:19 So as Christians, we're called to be Jesus' ambassadors. We're called to represent him in the world through our love. We're called to proclaim his message of reconciliation to the world around us. Paul says that sin was once our master, but now we've been transferred into Jesus' kingdom. And we present ourselves, our time, our energy, our skills for his purposes and for his glory. Those are four things we could talk about. Several more, you may want to spend some time this week reading through the letters of the New Testament, seeing how the authors relate the resurrection to the way that you live every day as a Christian.

16:55 You may want to meet up with somebody over coffee, not a latte. Romans 6, 1 Corinthians 15, Colossians 3. You can spend a good hour with a brother or sister thinking about what the resurrection means for you from those passages. Friends, we're surrounded by signs. street signs that we hardly notice because they're so familiar to us stop signs and speed limit signs that we better notice or we'll get in trouble landmarks like the st louis arch brands like the golden arches but there's one sign above all the others it's the resurrection of the lord jesus christ it's the preeminent sign of his reign and rule over all things of his future judgment of the world and of the salvation of his people So let's resolve every day, friends, to look at the sign, to understand the sign, and to follow the sign.

17:53 Let's pray together. Our Father in heaven, we thank you and praise you tonight for the work of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. For his perfect life, for his substitutionary death on the cross, for his triumphant victory over sin and death in the resurrection, and for his ascension and reign as our king, we thank you for the promise of his return. return and God specifically tonight we thank you that you have given us the opportunity to see the sign of the resurrection that you haven't hidden it from us or that we are a people gathered because Jesus has been raised and Lord we ask for your help that we would follow the sign that it would have all of the effects that it's intended to have on our lives day by day until he comes we pray this in his name amen