Seeking Signs

David W Palmer

(Matthew 12:38 NKJV) Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered, saying, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from You.”

In this encounter, the scribes and Pharisees brought up an interesting issue. They wanted Jesus to give them a sign from God to confirm his identity and authority. Their mindset was that strength was the proof of God’s work. The apostle Paul confirmed this Jewish aspiration when he said that the Jews seek a sign:

(1 Corinthians 1:22–25 NKJV) “For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom; {23} but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, {24} but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. {25} Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.”

Rather than condone seeking for signs and “wisdom,” Paul shows God’s ingenious plan: His objective is to seek and save the lost—those who prove to be suitable for his eternal kingdom. So he sent his Son to create the gospel message. Those who merely want proof from miraculous signs or “deep” wisdom and logic won’t be persuaded by the gospel.

The Jews were seeking strength and power to rule; Greeks were seeking intellectual proof. Both were motivated by pride and arrogance. But to counter their foolish pride and what they were seeking, Paul came in the opposite spirit of humility and weakness; he determined not to know anything among them except Jesus Christ and him crucified:

(1 Corinthians 2:1–5 NKJV) “And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God. {2} For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. {3} I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. {4} And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, {5} that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.”

God is looking for people who respond to love and humility, not merely strength and intellectual prowess: “The weakness of God is stronger than men.” Jesus’s death— “Christ crucified”—is more powerful in changing the hearts of those who respond to God than all the military might and power of man. So in light of this, our Lord’s response to the Pharisees’ request for a sign is fascinating and informative:

(Matthew 12:39–42 NKJV) But He answered and said to them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. {40} For 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. {41} The men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and indeed a greater than Jonah is here. {42} The queen of the South will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and indeed a greater than Solomon is here.”

Jesus said that the only sign he would give them was prefigured by the prophet Jonah: the sign of his death, burial, three days in “the heart of the earth,” and resurrection. (In Jonah’s case, his three days were in the “belly of the great fish,” and his release onto dry ground was a type of resurrection.)

Jesus was referring, of course, to the brilliant light that shines from the gospel message: it reveals God’s love, his heart and plan; it shows the way to salvation; and it gives the example to be followed by those whose hearts are truly changed by his humility, love, and reality. Unlike human wisdom or military might, the gospel is the power of God—the only force that can change hearts, and rescue people from sin’s death-grip.

Jesus went on to say that the men of Nineveh would condemn those for whom the sign of Jesus’s death, burial, and resurrection wouldn’t be enough. The men of Nineveh understood fully the meaning of Jonah’s sign and repented. Everywhere I go in our travelling ministry, I meet good, humble people like this—those who humbly love and serve; they follow our Lord in his amazing example—having his attitude (as outlined by the Holy Spirit in Phil. 2:5–11).

The men of Nineveh needed no greater show of God’s power and strength; they repented at the preaching of Jonah who endured three days in “hell,” and came back to preach to them. Jesus also referred to the “queen of the South”: “she came from the ends of the earth to hear the ‘wisdom of Solomon’; and indeed a greater than Solomon is here.” She was drawn by God’s wisdom. If Paul says God’s foolishness is wiser than men, imagine how exceedingly superior his wisdom is.

Praise the Lord, God’s wisdom is available to us:

(1 Corinthians 2:6–7, 9–10 NKJV) “However, we speak wisdom among those who are mature, yet not the wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. {7} But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory, ... {9} But as it is written: ‘Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.’ {10} But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God.”

I particularly love the last part of Jesus’s statement to the Pharisees: “One greater than Solomon is here.” (He is also greater than Jonah.) This is very very exciting for us, because the “greater” One is inside us:

(1 John 4:4 CSB) ”… the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.”

Inside you today is one that is greater than Jonah, Solomon, David, Moses, Joshua, Isaiah, etc. The very God who created the universe, walked on water, multiplied bread and fish, and who rose from the dead is inside you. His potential in you is infinite, his intelligence and wisdom is unlimited, and his power is completely unstoppable. You can begin to access and enjoy this potential today.

However, the way into this is first through the preaching of the cross—which is foolishness and a stumbling block to those who don’t respond to God’s love and humility. Then we need to imitate Jesus’s attitude: he was absolutely secure and assured as God’s beloved son; but from this place of security, he willingly laid his life down in service to others … to the point of complete self-denial and death. But he demonstrated for all time the surpassing superiority of this lifestyle by rising from the dead, and by being permanently promoted to the highest place of honour, privilege, and power by his loving Father—the one who sent him on his [very short-term] mission of suffering.

Today, I encourage you not to seek after signs, or on the other hand, to require conclusive logic. God may provide both, but he wants us to seek him. Let’s be like the apostle Paul to whom God revealed his heart and his truth:

(Philippians 3:10 NKJV) “That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death.”

(Romans 8:18 NKJV) For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

Signs should follow us as we imitate Paul’s objective. Let’s keep serving others in the same humility with which Jesus served. Greatness in God’s kingdom is found in being the servant of all. To this end, we have not only Jesus’s example and Paul’s explanation; we have the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ to empower us. That is why the Holy Spirit says, “Let this mind be in you” (Phil. 2:5 KJV); we can “let” (allow) Jesus’s attitude be ours. How? As we worship and love him, we imbibe his grace to be like him. We have received the Lord Jesus and thus become God’s children, now the greater one is in us, and his “mind” or attitude is available in the same package by his amazing grace:

(2 Corinthians 13:14 NKJV) The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.