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Matthew 16:1-4 (NIV)
1 The Pharisees and Sadducees came to Jesus and tested him by
asking him to show them a sign from heaven.
2 He replied, "When evening comes, you say, 'It will be fair
weather, for the sky is red,'
3 and in the morning, 'Today it will be stormy, for the sky is red
and overcast.' You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you
cannot interpret the signs of the times.
4 A wicked and adulterous generation looks for a miraculous sign,
but none will be given it except the sign of Jonah." Jesus then left
them and went away.
Luke
16:27-31 (NIV)
27 "He answered, 'Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my
father's house,
28 for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will
not also come to this place of torment.'
29 "Abraham replied, 'They have Moses and the Prophets; let
them listen to them.'
30 "'No, father Abraham,' he said, 'but if someone from the
dead goes to them, they will repent.'
31 "He said to him, 'If they do not listen to Moses and the
Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the
dead.'"
"I just cannot believe without some
help,." was the reply one student made as the reason he rejected Christ.
He continued, "If God wants me to believe in Him then he will have to
perform some miracle in order to get me to believe."
This conversation sounds so honest on the
surface. It sounds as if the student really desires to believe, he only lacks
one thing and that is just one more sign, one more miracle. Surely God would
accommodate such a request in order to bring this person to true repentance.
So the church does her best to bring in one
more sign and miracle worker, one more program designed to appease the
multitudes who really desire to believe. But the question must be asked,
"Do they really desire to believe in God as he reveals himself?"
Take for instance the two different groups
of people in the texts for today. First there was the group of the Pharisees.
They had already witnessed several signs and miracles that Jesus performed
but apparently they were not convincing enough so they asked for just one
more.
Jesus replied rather harshly to this group
by calling them a "Wicked and perverse generation." Why so harsh
with a group who appear to be truly wanting to believe?
Who is it that is making the demands and
issuing the commands? It is not Jesus, God in the Flesh, it is fallen, sinful
humans making demands of God to fit into their own fallen and cursed
conceptions of just what God should look like and act like.
Why did Jesus speak so harshly to this
group? Because they really did not want to believe in Jesus, they already had
their god that they had created in their own minds. This is why Jesus called
them adulterous. Their true husband and come to their home and caught them in
the act of committing adultery with some false god they had made.
They were attempting to manipulate Jesus to
fit into their own concept of God and he refused as he will always. It is not
your view of God that will rescue you, it is God's self revelation in Christ
that rescues us from our sin.
So the question must be asked, "How
shall we believe in Jesus. In what way has he chosen to reveal himself to us
today?
The answer is in the next text that we have
in front of us. The rich man was asking for some one to go back from the dead
to convince his five brothers so they would not come to the place of eternal
torment. Hear the words of Abraham well, "They have Moses and the
prophets, let them read them. If they will not believe Moses and the Prophets
they will not believe even if one rises from the dead."
Those who are waiting for signs in the
skies, or audible voices in the night to tell them what to do, will either
wait in vain, or be deceived by some miracle, or sign. Let us be among those
who hold fast to the truth of Scripture as it has already been revealed to
us.
Holding fast to the Word of Truth,
Pastor Phil
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