Read Matthew 12:38-50
This passage starts and Jesus is still engaging with these same guys. With the scribes and these Pharisees. The same guys that have been trying to cause all of these problems for Jesus as we have seen in the last few chapters. These are the very same guys who at the beginning of this chapter began the plot to kill Jesus. So obviously these guys are still hanging around, but what happens in verse 38? Let me read this again.
Read Matthew 12:38
We see these guys, in kind of a weird turn, seemingly trying to be nice, like, OH TEACHER! Like when did you guys recognize Jesus as a teacher? You have been trying to destroy His reputation and ultimately trying to end His life. But now they are like TEACHER! Show us a sign! Obviously, this is some sort of new scheme from these guys, they weren’t actually interested in Jesus and what His power really meant. And really, let’s think back now, haven’t these guys already seen plenty of signs? Haven’t they already been there for all of these different circumstances that they tried to turn against Jesus?
They have seen Him cast out demons, heal the man’s withered hands, heal blindness, muteness, He healed paralysis, He brought a young girl who had died back to life, He healed the bleeding woman, He healed leprosy, He healed so many people of all types of stuff. And the Pharisees weren’t there for this one, but man, Jesus spoke to a literal storm out on the sea, where all of His friends thought that they were going to die, and the storm listened and stopped. And after all of this and SO MUCH MORE, these guys have the nerve to walk up to Jesus and be like “we want to see a sign from You”.
REALLY YOU GUYS? Now you want to see a sign. All the signs in the world have been in front of you, but you’re just choosing to ignore them. These guys weren’t really interested in Who Jesus was, and I don’t think they actually cared about the sign. They were just trying really hard to make Him do something that they could try to spin and turn against Him. But Jesus isn’t going to be played for the fool. He knows better, He knows what’s going on, and so we see verse 39:
Read Matthew 12:39
He’s like, OH REALLY, this evil and adulterous generation, which is you guys, oh, now you want a sign? But He says that no sign is going to be given to you, except for one. The sign of Jonah. And maybe we’re like, and maybe they were like, what in the world does He mean by this? But look at what He says in verse 40:
Read Matthew 12:40
Jesus is making a prophecy here. He said Jonah was in the belly of a great fish for three days and three nights, and just like that, the Son of Man (which is Jesus) is going to be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights. He’s talking about the fact that He is going to be buried at some point. To be buried, He would probably need to die before that point, but then He says that He’s only going to be there for three days and three nights. So obviously He’s going to be down there for a little bit, but doesn’t three days and three nights have an ending point? He’s going to be in the heart of the earth, He’s going to be buried for these three days, but then what? Well, most of us probably know what comes next. We know that Jesus is going to die, that He is going to be buried, and then we know that Jesus comes back to life. We’re going to see all of this play out in Matthew 27 and 28.
So, Jesus is like, you’re not going to get the sign you are looking for right now, but you’re going to get one, and it’s going to be a big one. And then Jesus does the same thing that we have seen a few times before, even last week, and makes the point that where there is greater light, there is more responsibility to respond to the light, and there is more judgement when we don’t. That’s what He talks about in verses 40 through 42.
He says that the people of Nineveh responded to the truth when Jonah showed up and I AM GREATER THAN JONAH. He says that the Queen of Sheba responded to the truth when King Solomon shared it with her, and I am GREATER THAN SOLOMON. He’s like those people and those places are going to stand above you, because they listened to the truth from mere men, but the Greater One is here, and it’s Me, and you just aren’t listening. You basically just want me to perform some magic trick for you, but that’s not going to happen. There’s a huge sign coming, but unfortunately a lot of these people are going to miss it.
And as Jesus is considering where these people are at, He says what we see in verses 43 through 45.
Read Matthew 12:43-45
Jesus speaks of evil, unclean or evil spirits, going out and seeking people to inhabit. Obviously, Jesus has already cast demons out of people and dealt with peoples accusations that He Himself is demon possessed. Which He most definitely is not. It’s not something that we talk about all that much maybe, but there really is evil, Satan is real, there is an actually spiritual war taking place on this earth. Thankfully for us, as Jesus clarified earlier in this chapter, that Satan is strong, he’s like a strong man in a strong man’s house, but a STRONGER MAN (or Jesus) is breaking into his house and taking all of his stuff. Which is talking about us. Jesus came down to this world to rescue people out of sin and Satan’s control, but that doesn’t mean that there isn’t still evil here.
Jesus is talking to these guys, and actually talking about these guys here, He speaks of evil wandering around and looking for a place to call home. Evil finds a person, and maybe they are all swept up, or cleaned up, and maybe everything is put in order, maybe they look good, maybe they’re all put together, but what does it say there? It says that evil finds the place empty. The person is empty inside. And so even more evil is gathered together in verse 45 and decides to call that place or that person home.
It’s an interesting thing, and there definitely is evil and demons and such out there. But the big problem that we see here is that evil finds the place EMPTY. Evil finds the person empty. There’s room to move in, and not just for the one, but the one brings seven others with it and it says that this man is now worse off than he has ever been. And that absolutely makes sense, we’re not going to be better off filled up with evil. And so, Jesus at the end of verse 45 says that this is what’s going to happen to this wicked generation.
These people were denying Him, denying the Messiah, denying God’s power, and they were empty inside. So, something came to fill that void, to fill the emptiness, and it was evil.
Jesus is dealing with these people; they basically want Him to just do some tricks so they can try to spin a bad story. Jesus looks at these people and is like, you guys are empty, this generation that is denying me is empty, and in that emptiness, evil is going to look for a new home. That’s scary, and we can deny Him and be caught up in that too, but that’s bad news, and please don’t ignore Him and go that way. And you don’t have to, because there’s an alternative.
Instead of that emptiness, instead of facing that evil alone. There’s the opportunity to turn to Jesus, and then with that, with Him, there’s also the family that He is building. There’s emptiness and evil, or there’s Jesus, and goodness, forgiveness, and family.
And we see that in these next verses. There’s kind of a hard break in this passage right here, because Jesus’ family shows up. And so, Jesus is in the middle of the talk that we have been going over, and someone interjects, and is like, Jesus, Your family is outside. Jesus’ mother Mary and His brothers had shown up. Jesus had four half-brothers. Let’s read these verses.
Read Matthew 12:46-50
So, we see that someone speaks up and says, JESUS, Your family is outside! And Jesus takes this moment to teach a really important lesson. He says, “Who is My mother and who are My brothers?” And this wasn’t some disrespectful comment to His family outside. Jesus wasn’t like, who are these people? But notice, Jesus didn’t put His earthly family on a pedestal, He didn’t elevate Mary or His brothers above other people.
They didn’t get some special status because of Him. Mary had the incredible opportunity to be used by God to birth Jesus into this world, but she wasn’t some special being that we’re supposed to worship or pray to or anything like that. The Bible absolutely never tells us to do that. Jesus doesn’t elevate her or His brothers here. And so Jesus wasn’t talking down about His family, instead when this interruption came, He took the opportunity to teach everyone the bigger picture.
The bigger picture being that Jesus was building a new family, the very family and household of God, which is ultimately His church, which is made up of all the true believers on Earth.
Jesus was building this new family, and so for us, instead of messing around, and messing up like these Pharisees, instead of the emptiness and the evil, we can know and be saved from our sin by Jesus and welcomed into the family. Jesus looked at His real followers that were around Him at that moment and said basically, this is My family! Then He says WHOEVER does the will of My Father in heaven, that’s my family. And that’s an opportunity extended to us to be part of this family. I want to look at a passage in Ephesians 2 together.
Ephesians 2:19-22
Before these verses, Paul talks about how Jesus breaks down the walls that divide people, and all of the problems and everything else, and says Jesus came preaching peace and gathering His people together. So that as these verses said, that we who were strangers and foreigners from the Kingdom and family of God. can now be fellow citizens, and saints, and members of the very household and family of God. It says that God used people in the process of getting here, but it’s all held together by the cornerstone, the most important stone in the building, and that stone is Jesus Christ. He’s the base, He’s the foundation, He’s the base of BASE CHURCH, and He’s building this building or building this family, as a temple or dwelling place of God.
And in contrast to the emptiness of people without Jesus, where evil can find a home, there’s no place for that evil in God’s house or in God’s people, because the Spirit of God has taken up residence here and He’s not sharing the space. That’s why we need Him, that’s why we need to be with His people, that’s why God has designed His church to a be a community of His people that are as Jesus said, doing the will of His Father in heaven.
When we think of that room that Jesus is standing in here in Matthew 12 this morning. I think of last week where Jesus said we’re either one hundred percent with Him, or we’re against Him. That separates all of humanity into two sets of people. There were two sets of people standing in that room that day. There were people that were against Jesus, like the Pharisees and scribes, who were empty and open for evil to come make a home in them. Things were not going to end well for these people. And then there were people that were absolutely for Jesus, real disciples, true believers. Jesus had just motioned to all of these people a moment ago and He said, these are my family.
All of humanity is still divided into those two groups right now, and you can try to ignore and remain against Him, and I promise you that there is nothing good at the end of that road. Or you can turn to Him, it’s not some exclusive club. He tells us to turn away from our sins, to believe in His death, burial, and resurrection. Turn our life over to Him as Lord. And then we’re made part of the family. His family.