Matthew 12:38-45

The pessimistic, insecure and negative thinking people are always seeking answers to the questions of ‘what ifs’.  The pessimistic-living people want more proof if they don’t get the answer they like to their ‘what ifs’.  They just go to the next question of ‘yes, but’ and for the most part you can never give them the proof of what they are seeking…because they don’t know what they are seeking or asking.

In our questions of faith, we can be very pessimistic and insecure seeking more proof that Jesus is who he said he was and what he came to do.  During the time of Jesus’ time on earth the pessimistic and insecure was not just the outsiders of the faith community, but were the teachers of the religious law and groups like the Pharisees. These people came to Jesus and said, “Teacher, we want you to show us a miraculous sign to prove your authority.”  These teachers and Pharisees knew about Jesus’ mission and message but they wanted more proof that Jesus had the authority to do the things he was doing.  They knew Jesus healed in a response to faith: like the woman that had suffered for twelve years the constant bleeding who came up behind him.   She touched the fringe of his robe because she believed she would be healed.  Jesus then turned around, saw her and said, “Daughter be encouraged!  Your faith has made you well!”  The woman was healed at that moment.  We see in the life of Jesus how he responded to true acts of faith. A leader of a synagogue came and knelt before him and said, “My daughter has just died, but you can bring her back to life again if you just come and lay your hands on her.”  When Jesus arrived at the official’s home, he saw the noisy crowd and heard the funeral music. “Get out!”, he told them, “The girl isn’t dead.  She’s only asleep.”  But the crowd laughed at him.  After the crowd was put outside, however, Jesus went in and took the girl by hand, and she stood up!  The report of the miracle swept through the entire country.

When the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees came seeking more proof that Jesus had the authority and He and God were one, they already knew of the many miraculous things that Jesus had done.  They knew he had healed a paralyzed man, healed a man with leprosy, healed two blind men, and he had raised several people from the dead.  He had healed people with all kinds of sickness and yet these leaders wanted more proof from Jesus that he had the authority from God to do these things.

But Jesus replied, “Only an evil adulterous generation would demand a miraculous sign; but the only sign I will give them is the sign of the prophet Jonah.  For as Jonah was in the belly of the great fish for three days and three nights, so will the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth for three days and nights.”

Jesus also said, “The people of Nineveh will stand up against this generation on judgment day and condemn it for they repented of their sins at the preaching of Jonah.  The Queen of Sheba will also stand up against this generation on judgment day and condemn it for she came from a distant land to hear of the wisdom of Solomon.  Now someone greater then Solomon is here but you refuse to listen.”

At the called 2019 General Conference of the United Methodist Church the majority of delegates voted to keep the book of Discipline rooted in the scriptures that is God’s word for the church.  It was a defeat for the people who want to live life without repentance and belief that God’s nature is only love, without God’s nature to be the judge on our human evil.

Jesus rejected the teachers of religious law and Pharisees when they came seeking more proof of His authority.  We can’t be Christian unless we repent of our sins and live our lives guided by the scriptures.  We have the teachers of religious law and Pharisees with us today.  Some of these are some professors and teachers in our seminaries.  Some of these are our Bishops, our Elders, our deacons and some of our laity that believe that you can live as you want to live and still have a life in God’s kingdom.

In our baptismal covenant in the renunciation of sin and our profession of faith, there are three questions asked of us: “On the behalf of the whole church, I ask you, do you renounce the spiritual forces of wickedness and repent of your sin?”  We answered, “I do”.  We were asked “Do you accept the freedom and power God gives you to resist evil, injustice, and oppression in whatever forms they present themselves?”  We answered “I do”.  God’s power enables us to resist phony leaders and that includes professors, Bishops, elders and deacons that do not accept God’s plan for our salvation.  God’s plan never changes for His salvation plan is Jesus and the cross and resurrection.  The third question of the covenant makes this clear, “Do you confess Jesus Christ as your Savior, put your whole trust in his grace and promise to serve him as your Lord in union with the church which Christ has opened to people of all ages, nations, and races?”  We answered, “I do”.

Jesus said to the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees, “When an evil spirit leaves a person it goes into the desert seeking rest but finding none it says, ‘I will return to the person I came from!’  So it returns and finds its former home empty, swept and in order.  Then the spirit finds seven other spirits more evil than itself and they all enter the person and live there.  And so that person is worse off than before.  That will be the experience of this evil generation.”

God’s spirit moved on our church at the General Conference and gave us the opportunity to fill our lives with amazing grace and love that by faith in Jesus we can fill our empty lives.  In our repentance God swept away our sin.  He set our life in order with his love and forgiveness.  But if we turn our backs on God’s plan for our salvation the evil phony leaders will return and our church will experience the power of evil and what it can do to us or a church that rejects these teachings in God’s Holy word. “Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus and to take Him at His word.  Just to rest upon His promise and to know, thus saith the Lord.  Jesus, Jesus, how I trust him!  How I’ve proved him o’er and o’er!  Jesus, Jesus Precious Jesus!  O, for grace to trust Him more!”