Here's Your Sign Series

We are going to look this morning at a passage where Jesus is confronted by a group of unbelieving Pharisees and Scribes. They came at a moment when the crowds were showing overwhelming praise toward Jesus.

They came demanding what many in our day are likewise demanding.

Then some of the scribes and Pharisees said to Him, "Teacher, we want to see a sign from You." Matt 12:38

One of the wrong assumptions through the ages is that a person’s willful rejection of God in their life will be turned around if they can simply see a sign.

If this is true then:

1) Why wasn’t Pharaoh(10 signs) the most dynamic servant of God in the Old Testament?

2) Why did his soldiers who just witnessed a sea open still follow the Israelites with the intentions of killing them?

3) Why did the children of Israel continually grumble at Moses, especially in the shade of the cloud by day or by the light of the pillar of fire by night?

Many in the NT saw sign after sign, miracle after miracle and yet the crowds still gathered before Pilate to shout, ‘Crucify Him, Crucify Him’.

Jesus gave an account in Luke 16 of one who found himself eternally lost but wanted to have a sign given to his five brothers lest they end up where he was.

Story of two men, one rich and one poor.

The rich man was just known as ‘the rich man’ while the poor man was named as Lazarus. Lazarus ended up in a place of comfort while the rich man ended up in a place of torment. In his agony the rich man first asked to be comforted but when he found out that was not possible he asked this question…

LUKE 16:27-31 'Then I beg you, father, that you send him to my father's house - for I have five brothers -in order that he may warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.'

"But Abraham said, 'They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.' "But he said, 'No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent!'

"But he said to him, 'If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead.' " He thought a sign would do but was told that no sign could replace the revelation that God had already given.

This passage reminds us of Paul’s declaration in Romans 10 where he states that 'Faith comes by hearing(not by signs) and by hearing the Word of God.

God has revealed Himself in many ways so that no kind of sign we might see today could be any more compelling.

HIS CREATION – OUR CONSCIENCE – HIS WORD – HIS SON

1) Romans 1 says that His CREATION is enough evidence of Him that we are ‘without excuse’ if we do not accept that there is a Creator we should worship.

Romans 1:20 ‘For since the creation of the world God’s invisible attributes , His eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse’.

Astronomer HUGH ROSS: CREATOR AND THE COSMOS

Spoke at a prestigious American university to 40 scientists about the proofs of God. He shared many of the proofs science has shown for the existence of God.

'No holy book or scientific theory taught the beginning, expansion and decay of the universe, except the Bible for thousands of years, until Albert Einstein came up with the Theory of General Relativity in 1917'.

1995: 41 design features in which the probability for all to be met was less than 1 in 10(31).

2000: 128 features with probability of 1 in 10(144)

2002: 202 at 10(217) 2004: 322 at 10(282)

2006: 676 at 10(556) Just for bacteria life and not even human.

Probability evidence increases at 1 million times per month that the God of the Bible is responsible for the design of the universe.

PS 19:1 ‘The heavens are telling of the glory of God and their expanse is declaring the work of His hands’.

2) The Bible also indicates that each person has been given a CONCIENCE which should lead us to know that we fall short of some level of right and wrong.

Romans 1:19 “That which is known about God is evident WITHIN THEM; for God made it evident to them’. God has put evidence of Himself within each one of us.

a) There is a moral code written on each heart placed there by the One Who created man in His own image.

James 4:17 ‘Therefore, to the one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin.’