Read Matthew 16:1–4
Questions from the Scripture text: Who come to Jesus in Matthew 16:1? To do what to Him? Asking Him to do what? What illustration does He give in Matthew 16:2-3a? What does He call them? What does this imply about their “inability” to discern the signs of their times (Matthew 16:3b)? What two things does Jesus call their generation (Matthew 16:4)? For doing what? What sign would be given to them? What does Jesus do after saying this?
Why is it wicked to seek a sign from God? Matthew 16:1–4 prepares us for the sermon in the morning public worship on the coming Lord’s Day. In these four verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that God has already given His Son’s resurrection as a sign, so seeking for another one is evil and adulterous.
A Devilish Request. The verb for “testing” in Matthew 16:1 is the same as that behind “tempted” and “tempter” in Matthew 4:1-2. Jesus has performed multitudes of signs upon multitudes of people. But, just like the devil, these Pharisees and Sadducees want to control what kind of sign (“from heaven,” Matthew 16:1). This is a slightly bolder request than that in Matthew 12:38. But Jesus calls them both evil and adulterous (Matthew 16:4, cf. Matthew 12:39). We must never come to God demanding that He answer our challenges or fulfill our demands. This is exactly he posture of the devil toward God.
A Diagnostic Revelation. Their request didn’t show anything about Jesus, like they thought it would; instead, it exposed them themselves. The challenge of the Pharisees and Sadducees reveals how false, how two-faced (Hypocrites! Matthew 16:3), their religiosity is. Like many people today, they are far more interested in what the weather is doing than how their generation was relating to the Lord Himself.
A Dreadful Repetition. Now, in Matthew 16:4, the Lord Jesus gives the same answer that He had given before (cf. Matthew 12:39). Their request is evil. It represents unbelief and rejection of all that He has already said and done. Their request is adulterous. They professed to be the church of God, which He had betrothed to His Son. But now the Son is here, and they want nothing to do with Him (cf. John 1:11; Luke 19:13).
A Divine Resurrection. Just as Jonah did not perform signs, but was himself the sign to Nineveh, alive from the dead—so also, Jesus’s great sign is Jesus Himself, alive from the dead. This had been prophesied in Psalm 16:10, which ends up being part of the text of the first apostolic sermon (cf. Acts 2:25–32, Psalm 16:8–11). Of all the signs that the Lord Jesus performed, His resurrected Self is the great sign, by which He is declared to be the Son of God with power (cf. Romans 1:4). Jesus’s answer is punctuated even more strongly by His “mic drop” moment: “And He left them and departed.”
How have you been coming to Jesus: making demands or submitting to His words and actions? What sorts of things (including, but not limited to, the weather) do you spend more attention to than to the condition of your church/community before the Lord? What place does Christ’s resurrection have in your thoughts about Him? How are you responding to it and to Him?
Sample prayer: Lord, we praise You for the glorious resurrection of Your Son. Truly, He is one God, the second Person, with You, and with the Spirit, from everlasting to everlasting. And, You have saved us by the blood of God, Who died on account of our sins and was raised on account of our justification. Give us to care, most of all, about how we are responding to You in Your Son, our Lord Jesus, we ask in His Name, AMEN!
Suggested songs: ARP110B “The LORD Has Spoken to My Lord” or TPH16A “Preserve Me, O My God”
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