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Matthew 12:38-45
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We are in a series called Wisdom and Wonder, walking through Matthew chapter 12 to Matthew chapter 20. Matthew was an outcast Jew who lived in the first century AD, worked for the Roman government, and was converted to Christianity by Jesus himself. He became one of the chief Apostles and wrote the Gospel that bears his name. The purpose of his gospel was to prove to Jews that Jesus was the Son of God.
We approach the scriptures line by line, verse by verse. I want to be clear: I am fed up with entertainment in the church, especially in the Black church context. I'm tired of feeling like we have to perform and do backflips off the stage to make people pay attention. The scripture says in Revelation, "Blessed are those who read and those who care and do." I want you to be in awe of Christ, not of men. Stop worshiping men and propping them up like idols.
Read the scriptures for yourself and stop believing everything men say. Hold ministers accountable. Read the New Testament letters, come up for air, and ask: does this sound like an American preacher?
Today we will walk through verses 38-45 of Matthew chapter 12. Let me title this message: "Give Me A Sign."
In the previous section of Matthew 12, Jesus was in a grain field and in a synagogue, healing and teaching while the Pharisees opposed him. Then he confronted another group of Pharisees about their accusations. In verse 38, Matthew records what happens next:
Then some of the scribes and the Pharisees answered him, saying, "Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you." (Matthew 12:38)
They answered him about everything he had just taught them—about kingdoms being divided, about the power of the Holy Spirit, about fruit from the tree. And then these scribes and Pharisees said, "Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you."
Notice how they call him "Teacher." But they don't really mean it. They are being respectfully disrespectful—sarcastic. You have to have discernment; not everybody who smiles in your face and calls you "sister" or "brother" really likes you. Some people are right there on your Instagram, but they really don't like you. They're hoping for your downfall. These Pharisees hate Jesus, they're jealous of him, and they want to kill him. Yet they call him "Teacher."
They say, "We want a sign from you, Teacher. We're not convinced. Never mind that you've been doing miracles all this time. Never mind your fame and all the things you've been doing in different cities. We've been seeing and hearing all of that, but it's not good enough for us. We want another sign." What they're really asking is: Prove to us that you are the Son of God.
But here's the tragic reality: nothing Jesus did would have been good enough for them. Some people you simply cannot help. There are people determined to be anti-Christ. Jesus was not unfamiliar with this language. In Matthew 4, when Satan came to him in the wilderness, he said: "If you are the Son of God, turn these stones into bread... jump off the platform." The devil was trying to provoke Jesus about his identity, trying to make him perform tricks outside of the Father's will.
You can do good things outside of God's will, but that doesn't make it Godly.
The language "give us a sign" is satanic behavior. And notice: Jesus' identity is being attacked. That's why you must know who you are in Christ. If your identity is wrapped up in your title, your position, your Instagram following, your platform—then your identity is on shaky ground. But if your identity is in Christ, nothing can shake you.
Now Jesus responds:
But he answered them and said, "An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah." (Matthew 12:39)
Listen carefully. Jesus says that demanding God to perform miracles to satisfy your unbelief is evil. Miracles are not performed to prove who God is or to satisfy your unbelief. The Lord performed miracles out of need—for people in dire straits. But God is not going to perform just to satisfy your unbelief.
Then he says something even more penetrating: "The root of your issue is not that you really want a sign. The root is that you are adulterous. Your love for everything other than me is what's blocking you from seeing who I am without my miracles."
This is convicting. He's saying: I am your mistress, not your Lord. You don't put me first. You love your business more than me. You love your husband or wife more than me. You love your reputation more than me. Because I'm not number one in your life, you try to make me perform for you—to prove myself to you, to convince you that I'm the Son of God. But that's not how faith works.
Can you believe in who God is based on his character, or does he have to perform to impress you?
I know there are people right here, right now, who are angry at God—mad at him for something he did not do. You've been praying for something, and he didn't answer. Maybe he didn't heal your father of cancer. Maybe he didn't open a door you wanted opened. Maybe he didn't move the way you prayed. And now you're wondering: Does God love me? Is he faithful to me?
You're holding him in contempt because he didn't give you the sign you wanted, the proof you demanded. But faith with conditions is no faith at all. Obedience with conditions is no obedience at all.
You either obey or you don't obey—in comfort and in discomfort. Does God really want you to join that team, to be faithful in your giving, to forgive someone who hurt you, to talk about Jesus on your platform even if someone might get offended?
If your answer depends on getting a sign first, then your faith isn't real.
Now Jesus reveals what sign will be given:
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. (Matthew 12:40)
Who was Jonah? Jonah was a Jew who lived before the time of Jesus. Jesus quotes about Jonah with absolute historicity—treating him as a real person. Some of you think the account of Jonah surviving in a fish's belly is fiction, a bedtime story. But Jesus talks about it as history.
Jesus talks about Adam and Eve, Noah and the flood, Jonah and the fish with complete historicity. Either Jesus is a liar, or these things happened. The last time I checked, the only person around billions of years ago was God. But scientists tell us dinosaurs died billions of years ago. Read the math of Genesis. You can calculate the age of Adam and trace it down to where we are now. You don't get an earth that's billions of years old; you get human beings on earth for 10 to 15,000 years.
Jonah was a prophet. In 2 Kings 14, Jonah is first mentioned as a faithful prophet during the reign of Israel. He preached to his own people—they were his comfort zone. But then God called him to do something harder.
God said to Jonah: "I want you to go to Nineveh," the capital of Assyria. The Assyrians were enemies of Israel—ruthless, brutal, pagan, ungodly. They raided Israel and took crops and people. God was saying: You know how to be faithful in your comfort zone. But now I want you to step out of your comfort zone and preach repentance to your enemies.
Jonah refused. He went the opposite direction. He went to the seaport, paid a fare, and boarded a ship going away from Nineveh—away from God. When you're in sin, it takes you down. Jonah paid money (which he wasted), boarded the ship, and tried to run from a sovereign God.
Why did he run? Maybe he was racist. Maybe he didn't want to preach to Nineveh. But God was testing his obedience. Faith with conditions is no faith. Obedience with conditions is no obedience.
Then God caused a great storm. The sailors, panicked and superstitious, threw cargo overboard. But the storm didn't stop. They realized this one man on the ship was different. "You're the only one different here," they said. "You have to get off the ship, or we all die."
They grabbed Jonah and threw him overboard.
Then the scripture says:
God prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah. (Jonah 1:17)
This is powerful. Jonah was running in rebellion, and God wouldn't let him go. God wouldn't let Jonah's rebellion ruin what he called him to do.
Has anybody here ever made a mistake, been in rebellion, been ashamed of something you did—and God still wouldn't take his hand off you? That's the mercy of God. Some of you don't realize that God's hand on your life is so strong that he won't even let you mess up your calling.
I have to pause here. My entire life—my ministry, my family, everything I have—is a second chance from God. I can't tell you the story right now, but I blew it when I first came into the kingdom. I came into Bible College convinced I was done, that God was finished with me. I was too hardened and hard-headed. But they asked me to preach at chapel, and the Spirit of God fell in that room. God said to me: "Who told you I was done with you? I ain't never looking back."
I need you to know: if you thought God was done with you, if you messed up and fell, if you blew it—God's mercy is real. I'm sorry, God. I'm sorry. And his response is mercy.
So God preserved Jonah in the belly of the fish for three days and three nights. Then God commanded the fish to go to Nineveh and vomit Jonah up on the shore. God speaks to animals. Some of the circumstances you've been through, some of the storms in your life, some of the hell you've suffered—you don't even realize God was using it to put you on the correct path, the path of obedience.
Jonah walked into Nineveh and preached repentance. And the entire city—the whole city—turned to God. One man's faithfulness changed an entire nation.
But here's what matters: The sign of Jonah is not that a man survived in a fish's belly. The sign is that somebody was preserved in a place of death for three days and three nights and came out alive.
Why was that so important? Because it was a foreshadow of another man—a man who would be dead on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday morning, and return back to life. The sign of Jonah is the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.
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.
The only sign you're going to get about Jesus' identity will be his resurrection. Muhammad is not alive. Confucius is not alive. None of these other sages and religious figures are alive. But Christ is the only founder of a world religion who was killed, crucified, buried, and then seen alive by hundreds of people in the first century.
The Jewish historian Josephus wrote about it. They saw a resurrected Jesus from the grave.
This is the only evidence you need: the Resurrection of Christ.
Then Jesus continues:
The men of Nineveh will rise at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here. The queen of the South will rise at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, something greater than Solomon is here. (Matthew 12:41-42)
Jesus authenticates a coming judgment. Nobody's going to escape it. When judgment comes, the men of Nineveh—Gentiles who repented—will condemn this generation, the Jews who rejected him.
Who is Jesus talking to? The Pharisees. The Jewish nation. People who had:
Yet they could not believe that Jesus was the promised Son of God. But these Gentiles, these non-Jewish people who had no covenant promises, who had no stories from the past, who were not covenant people—they believed faster than you.
The Queen of Sheba traveled over a thousand miles by caravan on camels for months just to hear the wisdom of Solomon. This woman had more faith than those who were on the doorstep of the Kingdom. The men of Nineveh repented at the preaching of Jonah. So when judgment comes, they will condemn this generation.
Now Jesus finishes with a powerful teaching on spiritual reality:
When the unclean spirit has gone out of a man, it passes through waterless places seeking rest but finds none. Then it says, "I will return to my house from which I came." And when it comes, it finds the house empty, swept, and put in order. Then it goes out and brings with it seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and dwell there, and the last state of that person is worse than the first. So also it will be with this evil generation. (Matthew 12:43-45)
Jesus is authenticating a spiritual realm that we cannot see but can see the manifestations of in our lives and society. Demons are real. They are fallen angels with personalities. They are not all the same.
Some of what we call "psychotic behavior" or "mental illness" is actually demonic possession. Some of the suicidal thoughts people have are demonic. Some of the crazy behavior we see in society is the manifestation of different demonic personalities. Some demons drive people to sexual sin. They have different personality types.
Demons like to inhabit people. When Jesus cast demons out of a man, they begged: "Send us into the pigs." They love being in bodies.
But here's the crucial teaching: A person can be delivered from a demon and still go to hell. Why? Because if that person is never saved, never filled with the Holy Spirit, the house remains empty. And what happens? The demon comes back to check on the house. It finds it clean, swept, and put in order—moral reform. But the Holy Spirit doesn't live there.
So the demon brings seven more demons with it, and the person's condition becomes worse than before. That person had good behavior, but no salvation.
This is why deliverance ministry without the gospel is dangerous.
You can't just cast out demons and leave people unsaved. You have to lead them to Christ. You have to tell them about Jesus. Otherwise, when those demons come back—and they will—they find a house that's morally improved but spiritually empty. And the last state of that person is worse than the first.
That's why whole deliverance ministries that don't have Christ at the center, that don't preach the gospel, that don't believe in soul-winning—I don't want any part of that. It's dangerous for human beings.
But the deeper application is this: Jesus is saying that the Jewish nation was in the same condition. Israel had:
But then the thing that was supposed to fill the house came—Jesus Christ himself—and they rejected him. So their condition became worse than it was before the revivals under John the Baptist.
Jesus' heart is broken over those who get so close to God but never actually get saved. You've been around church your whole life but never truly repented. You've been around the things of God but never put your faith in Christ. You love the traditions of your fathers and men more than you love God.
This is the most tragic group: those who were this close to the Kingdom and fell short. You had your hand on the knob. You heard the gospel so many times. You heard about the cross. And you hardened your heart. You said, "I'll get right next week. I'll believe God when... I need God to show himself to me first before I believe. I need him to do something first."
But here's the gospel: You don't need another sign. You don't need God to do a trick for you. The sign has already been given. The sign of Jonah—the Resurrection of Jesus Christ—is the only sign you need.
Listen to what Luke wrote in Acts 17:30-31:
The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.
There is your sign. God raised Christ from the dead. That is the assurance. That is the proof. That is the evidence that you need to repent and put your faith in him.
Do you want a sign that God is faithful? He raised Christ from the dead. Do you want a sign that God is powerful? He raised Christ from the dead. Do you want a sign that God is miraculous? He raised Christ from the dead. Do you want a sign that God loves you? He raised Christ from the dead. Do you want a sign that God is for you? He raised Christ from the dead. Do you want a sign that God is trustworthy? He raised Christ from the dead. Do you want a sign that you should repent today before judgment comes? He raised Christ from the dead.
I want to say something to all of my brothers and sisters in American Christianity: We need to stop trying to turn God into a genie.
My faith in God is not because of some house he gave me or some ministry he grew from me. My ultimate faith in God is in the sign of the prophet Jonah. Every time I see a cross, I think of the work of Christ on that cross. I think of his burial and his resurrection. My heart explodes with gratitude. My heart explodes with thanksgiving.
I am assured that I am loved. I am assured that I cannot be plucked from his hands. I am assured that my name is written in the Lamb's Book of Life. I am assured that inside me is the Spirit of God and the power of God to live out the calling of God under the anointing of God—to be faithful to God—not because of some trinket or toy, but because of the Resurrection.
The only sign you need is the sign of Jonah—to be faithful. The only sign you need is the sign of Jonah—to fully surrender. The only sign you need today—to stop playing Hokey Pokey, to stop dancing between the kingdom and the world—is the resurrected Christ.
If there's anything we can stand on in God—if he strips me of ministry, of my house, of my car, if he takes my wife and my children—the only sign I need that he is faithful and worthy of all my heart, all my prayers, all my surrender, is the sign of Jonah.
I refuse to be worse off. I refuse to have a house that's swept and in order but empty of the Holy Spirit. Morality is not enough. We need to be filled with the Spirit of God, saved, and fully repented.
So I'm saying to you, American Christians: Stop trying to force God to perform to prove his love to you. He proved his love. He proved his worthiness. He proved his faithfulness and his character. He proved that this Bible can be trusted by raising his Son from the dead.
I have faith because of the Resurrection. I believe because of the Resurrection. I pray over bearing wounds because of the Resurrection. I believe for signs, wonders, and miracles because of the Resurrection. You're not going to pluck me away from him because of the Resurrection. You're not going to stop me from being faithful because of the Resurrection.
I'm prepared to die for my Savior because of the Resurrection.
If you need anything more than that, it is evil. It is adulterous.
There's somebody listening to me right now. You already know who you are. I've been talking to you this whole time.
You've been around the things of God, but you're not saved. You've been around church, but you're not safe. You keep playing Hokey Pokey with God—one foot in the world, one foot in the Kingdom.
Here is the gospel: You are a sinner, and so am I. You have broken God's laws, and so have I. The scripture says that if anybody dies in their sin, you're going to be separated from God for all eternity. You're going to be damned.
But God, in his love, did not want you to perish. He sent his Son, the Lord Jesus, into the earth. If any man would turn from sin and put their faith in Christ, you can be saved. It's not a magic prayer. It's not pixie dust. It's real. God is saving you right now in your chair. Something is welling up in your belly. You're shedding tears. Something in you is feeling drawn right now to God.
This was your moment. He knew before the foundation of the world that you would be hearing this voice, sitting in this room, watching across this screen, listening to this message. And right now, Jesus is calling you to himself—to make you brand new, to make you a son or daughter, to save you, to transform you, to fill your house with the Spirit of God.
If I'm talking to you, I want to pray for you. I'm just going to ask you to lift your hand, saying, "Preacher, pray for me. I feel God doing something in me right now. I'm running from my sin. I'm throwing my life on the altar. I'm running towards Christ."
If this is your moment, lift your hand high.
