Daily Devotional For Saturday, July 6, 2024

Congratulations. You made to the weekend. It’s time to rest and relax, and possibly get some needed things completed. Yesterday we were in Mark 8 looking at questions Jesus asked. Today we come to another question Jesus asked. Having sent away the four thousand, Jesus led His disciples west again, back across the Sea of Galilee to Dalmanutha, a place Matthew calls Magadan (Matt. 15:39) that was also known as Magdala. 

It is in Mark 8:12, “Why does this generation seek a sign? Truly, I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation” (ESV). Why did Jesus ask this question. Well, we have to go back to Mark 8:11-12, “The Pharisees came and began to argue with Him, seeking from Him a sign from heaven to test Him. (12) And He sighed deeply in His spirit and said, `Why does this generation seek a sign? Truly, I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation’” (ESV).

I want you to notice 3 words in verse 11 — argue, seeking, sign, and test. What a setup. When it came to these religious leaders and their opposition to Jesus, the same characteristics they exhibited can be found in people today who reject Jesus Christ. (1) First, they have a hatred for the Light. Matthew adds this in his version in Matthew 16:1, “And the Pharisees and Sadducees came, and to test Him they asked Him to show them a sign from heaven” (ESV). What does Matthew tell us here? Well, Pharisees and Sadducees were mortal enemies. They hated one another. Each group was bitter and resentful of the other. 

The Pharisees for example believed angels, God’s Spirit and the resurrection of the dead. The Sadducees did not — that is why they are sad-you-see! HA! The Pharisees believed in the Oral Law and chose to separate themselves proudly from others to prove their righteousness. Jesus said to prove their self-righteousness. The Sadducees did not accept the Oral Law and they were mainly priests who oversaw sacrifices in the Temple, many times corruptively. It was this group that Jesus turned the tables over in the Temple when He cleansed it of the money changers. Jesus had already once cleansed the Temple and so these two groups pair up to argue and test Jesus.

So, they ask Jesus for a sign because the Oral Law stated that when the Messiah would come, He would perform many signs. The Oral Law also said that demons could mimic earthly miracles (like the signs performed by the magicians in Pharaoh’s court in Exodus 7:11-12, 22. BUT only God and HIs Messiah could perform wonders in the sky. The religious leaders could not deny that Jesus performed miracles on earth. They personally had witnessed Him doing them. But they insisted that He did so through the power of Satan as see in Mark 3:22, “And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem were saying, “He is possessed by Beelzebul,” and “by the prince of demons he casts out the demons” (ESV). 

So, if Jesus was not able to do some kind of miraculous sign in the heavens, it in their mind, would prove their claim to the people that Jesus was no from God nor did He get His power from God. God had already proven Jesus was the Messiah at Jesus’ baptism. We read this in Mark 1:9-11, “In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. (10) And when He came up out of the water, immediately He saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit descending on Him like a dove. (11) And a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with You I am well pleased” (ESV). 

There were eyewitnesses to this including religious leaders. In Mark 4:39-41, Jesus calmed the storm to the shock and surprise of His disciples, who asked, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?” (ESV). So, the religious leaders did not need any more proof and even if Jesus had taken the bait and did one for the them, they will would not believed in Him. This point is made clear in John 12:37-40:

“Though He had done so many signs before them, they still did not believe in Him, (38) so that the word spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled: “Lord, who has believed what he heard from us, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?” (39) Therefore they could not believe. For again Isaiah said, (40) “He has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, lest they see with their eyes, and understand with their heart, and turn, and I would heal them” (ESV).

(2) Second, these religious leaders responded to the Light of Jesus with even more vigorous rejection. This sounds like Pharaoh in Exodus. The more miracles and signs God did through Moses, the more Pharaoh hardened his heart and rejected Moses, ultimately rejecting God. This was so sad for Jesus. Mark says that Jesus “signed deeply in His spirit.” In other words, this broke Jesus’ heart they continued to be so blind to the light. 

So Jesus rebuked the religious leaders with a question in Mark 8:12, “Why does this generation seek a sign? Truly, I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation” (ESV). Notice Jesus did not limit His rebuke just to these two different and opposite religious groups. Jesus indicted all Jews living in His day. In Matthew 16:4, Jesus said this, "An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah” (ESV). The Jews in Jesus’ day as well as their own religious leaders were so convinced Jesus was not the Messiah that no matter what He did, it would never convince them. This would only prove their guilt even more. This is why Jesus concluded with this in Mark 8:12b, “Truly, I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation’” (ESV).

In Matthew 16:1-4, we get another assessment of these religious leaders:

“And the Pharisees and Sadducees came, and to test Him they asked Him to show them a sign from heaven. (2) He answered them, “When it is evening, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red.’ (3) And in the morning, ‘It will be stormy today, for the sky is red and threatening.’ You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times. (4) An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah.” So He left them and departed” (ESV).

Jesus’ point was the religious leaders were better meteorologists than they were theologians. They asked for a sign from Jesus to prove who He was and Jesus used nature as proof. (3) Third, these religious leaders in their hard-hearted stubbornness, because they rejected the Light, they doomed themselves to eternal darkness. Jesus shows He knew this based on Mark 8:13, “And He left them, got into the boat again, and went to the other side” (ESV). Knowing the Pharisees and Sadducees would never see the light, Jesus left them to exist in their own spiritual darkness. In the Gospels this is significant because this will be Jesus’ last conflict with the religious leaders until His arrest.

These religious leaders sought a sign from Jesus as proof. Pastor and author Chuck Swindoll writes this: 

“The Greek New Testament word is [σημεῖον, semeion]. It means “something that gives a true indication of something else.” A road sign accurately indicates what lies ahead for the traveler. The Greeks gave the term special meaning as a physical indication of divine will or a supernatural omen. For example, lightning was thought to indicate the will of Zeus, and thunder was a foreboding indication that he was about to speak through a “sign.” For the Jews, a “sign” was a visual confirmation that a prophet was authentically from God. This word also referred to a physical manifestation of God’s glory.” 

Jesus expressed a mixture of weary exasperation and empathetic sorrow for the people He called “this generation” (8:12), an indirect reference to His immediate audience as well as Israel at large. He lamented two difficulties among the Jews: the inability to see the truth on the part of some (most notably His own disciples), and the unwillingness to see the truth on the part of others. We might separate them into these two categories: those who did not see and those who would not see” (Source: Charles R. Swindoll, The Swindoll Living Insights New Testament, “Mark, “ pp. 213-124).

I like this illustration given my Chuck Swindoll as implication and application for us today:

“A young seminary student was given the responsibility to fulfill an assignment for his preaching class at school. He was to preach to a group of people. He didn’t have any experience in this, so he was already a little uneasy about it. When the opportunity came for him to preach, to his surprise, it was to a group of men at the Gospel Mission, down in the sleazy part of town. These men pretty much existed in the gutter and lived on cheap wine. Because they were cold during the day, were half-starved, and needed shelter at night, the only reason they would come into the Gospel Mission was to get a hot meal, which they could smell from the street. To receive a meal, however, they had to sit through the sermon.

Rev. Clean (who had never had a drink in his life) showed up in his three-piece suit to preach on the evils of alcohol. What he lacked in experience he made up for in creativity. He brought with him an object lesson consisting of two large mason jars of liquid. One was filled to the brim with fresh water; the other was filled with distilled “bathtub gin.” During his sermon, he pulled from his pocket a very healthy earthworm. “I want all you men to watch,” he said, and he dropped the worm into the water.

They watched for a few moments as the worm swam around, wriggled to the side, and began to inch his way back up over the top. Rev. Clean plucked it off the rim and said, “Now watch!” Immediately after being dropped into the gin, the worm began to quiver, started to disintegrate, and finally dropped to the bottom in pieces. “Now, what have you learned from what you’ve seen?”

Silence fell, and pangs of guilt covered the room as the men glanced at one another. Finally, a grizzled old man in the back said, “Well, Sonny, I learned that if you drink enough booze, you’ll never have worms.” Clarity and precision are an important part of communication, but they do not guarantee that the message will be received. The hearer bears a part of that responsibility. And some people simply will not “get it” because they have a strong desire to remain in their ignorance. In that case, you have no choice but to let them” (Source: Charles R. Swindoll, The Swindoll Living Insights New Testament, “Mark, “ p. 216).

Questions To Consider

1. Is there anything you “demand” or “expect” Jesus Christ to do to prove He is who He claims to be through some sign? Why or why not? Before you give the “church answer,” let me ask you this: has there ever been a time in your life you were angry with God? Why?
2. Seeing and hearing the truth is no guarantee anyone responds do it. The Surgeon General was warned us since 1964 of the dangers of smoking. In fact, it is printed on every package of cigarettes and cigars, but knowing that, people still refuse to accept this as truth even when they have lost loved ones to lung cancer and heart attacks caused by smoking. Who do you know is this way with Jesus Christ? How could you help them with this?
3. Giving a big sigh, Jesus left the religious leaders to their spiritual darkness. Does this mean with all the access to the Gospel today, should we just simply quit evangelism and missions and leave people to die in their spiritual darkness? Why or why not?
4. Is there anyone you know who used to be very involved in church, serving the Lord, and now isn’t? Why do you think the light the religious leaders knew from Old Testament Scriptures about the Messiah, they decided to choose the darkness instead of the real Light?

Scripture To Meditate On: Romans 10:17, “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (ESV).

Prayer To Pray: “Dear Jesus, I know so many people who are living in spiritual darkness. Some of these have been exposed to the Light but still refuse to accept as truth. Please use me in whatever way I can to be Your means to help them come to the Light. Help me to live the Light consistently so that my actions do not cause them to choose or continue in spiritual darkness. I love You Jesus. In Jesus’ name, Amen!”

I love you Southside!—Pastor Kelly