Now, I'm going to read together from Luke's gospel, Luke chapter 11, and we're reading verses
! Luke chapter 11, I think in the church Bibles, if you're following there, it's page 870.
Luke chapter 11, reading from verse 29. Let's hear and read together in God's Word.
Luke chapter 11, when the crowds were increasing, he began to say,
this generation is an evil generation. It seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except
the sign of Jonah. For as Jonah became a sign to the people of Nineveh, so will the Son of Man be
to this generation. The Queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with the men of this
generation and condemn them. For she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon.
And behold, something greater than Solomon is here. The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with
this generation and condemn it. For they repented at the preaching of Jonah. And behold, something
greater than Jonah is here. No one, after lighting a lamp, puts it in a cellar or under a basket,
but on a stand, so that those who enter may see the light. Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your
eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light. But when it is bad, your body is full of darkness.
Therefore, be careful, lest the light in you be darkness. If then your whole body is full of light,
having no part dark, it will be wholly bright, as when a lamp with its rays gives you light.
It says, the Word of God, and to His name be the praise and the glory.
There's a particular kind of conversation that most of us have probably had at some point in our lives,
maybe with a skeptical friend, or maybe with a member of our family who used to go to church,
and who's kind of fallen away. Or maybe it's a conversation that you've had by yourself,
on a dark night, inside your head, a conversation that you've relayed maybe several times. And it
goes something like this, God, if you would only give me a sign, something big and undeniable,
and then I'd believe, then I'd follow you, then I could be your disciple. But you're not, God. You're
not being obvious enough. Well, in some ways, maybe that sounds a little bit like a reasonable request.
It kind of sounds humble. I'm not asking for much, just for evidence so that I can believe God.
Show me something real, and I'm all in. Well, Jesus has a lot to say in response to a question
like that, and it's maybe not what we might first expect. So in our passage that David read for us in
Luke 11, the people are pressing in around Jesus, and they're looking for that very thing,
shows a sign, they're saying. And Jesus doesn't say, okay, fair enough, here goes, here's something big.
He says something much more searching, something much more uncomfortable,
something that turns the question around on these people, and asks them,
is a lack of a sign actually the issue here? Well, tonight, if you or somebody that you know
is considering the claims of the Bible, if you're thinking, God, if only you would give me a clear sign,
clear, big, undeniable, that's all it would take for me to believe. Well, then this passage is for you.
And we're going to look through this passage together. We're going to do it in three parts.
The sign seekers, the unlikely responders, and the light bearer. Okay, so first, the sign seekers.
So what's really going on when we demand a clearer sign, when we demand more evidence? Well, the crowds
have been coming to see Jesus as we've been going through Luke, and they're getting bigger and bigger.
They're getting more and more pressed in on him. And the people want to hear what Jesus has to say.
But Jesus tells them not what they want to hear, but what they need to hear. Because the first thing
he says in verses 28 and 30 is, this generation is an evil generation. It seeks for a sign, but no sign
will be given to it except for the sign of Jonah. So that pretty blunt opening gambit, this is an evil
generation. And this is a generation that hasn't simply made a mistake or missed the truth. The word
that he uses for evil in the original language is an intentional, deliberate wickedness, knowing
and doing it anyway. It's a word for when something's actively corrupt. So these people are not just weak
or misguided. And the evidence that Jesus gives for his claim that these people are actively, intentionally
choosing evil. That's not what we might expect either, because he doesn't point to their moral
failures, the things that they do or the things that they fail to do. He points to their sign seeking
itself. So why is looking for a sign evil? Well, these people have seen plenty of signs. By now, Jesus has
healed a man with a withered hand. He's raised a widow's son from the dead. He's healed 10 lepers. He's
given sight to the blind. And then just before this exchange, he's cast out a demon and has left the man
unable to speak. And the crowds have responded with absolute wonder. The religious leaders even accused him
of being of Beelzebub, of being of the devil, in order to cast out demons. In fact, if we just jump back a
little bit, in verses 14 and 15 of this chapter, Jesus casts out a demon. And then in the very next verse, some
people, to test him, were seeking from him a sign from heaven. So these people are always looking
for something more. This is really important, because these people aren't asking for a sign
because they haven't had one. They're asking for a sign because they haven't seen yet the particular
sign that they themselves want. You see, they want the conditions. They want to decide
what is a good sign and what isn't. What is a sign that Jesus is bringing in the kingdom of God?
Well, the sign that they want is one that would take faith out of their hands, that would force them
to believe on their own terms. They want the kind of evidence that they can control because they want
something spectacular and undeniable so that belief becomes unavoidable. They want a sign that's
so irrepressible that it takes away the need for repentance and for faith. They want to be
compelled to come to Jesus. But Jesus says, the only sign you're going to get is the sign of Jonah.
So as we may well know, Jonah is a prophet in the Old Testament. He's called by God to go and preach
to people who are in trouble. Those people are evil and Jonah doesn't want to go. And so he takes off
as far as he can in the opposite direction until he finds himself inside a giant fish.
We're in Luke, but in Matthew's account, Matthew makes it really clear that the meaning of the sign of
Jonah is, as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the fish, so will the son of man
be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. Well, Jesus is calling himself the son of man.
That's himself he's referring to. And so the sign of Jonah, Jesus is saying, is the resurrection.
Jesus is going to die and he's going to be in the grave, dead for three days, and he's going to rise
again, similar to what happened to Jonah inside the fish. The one great, unrepeatable history-splitting
event that took place vindicates everything that Jesus said about himself, and it's coming.
But notice what kind of sign it is, because it's not a fireworks display and it's not a spectacle.
It's a dead man walking out of a tomb, visible only to those who had eyes to see, and dismissed
by those who were determined not to. The resurrection is not the kind of evidence that compels belief,
regardless of what your heart is like. It's exactly the kind of sign that requires a response of faith.
These people know the scripture. They know their traditions. They know the story of Jonah.
They know that Jesus is saying Jonah is a sign, a shadow of another resurrection that's going to come.
And this is where it lands, I think, with a jolt for us, because we live on the other side
of that other resurrection. The sign of Jonah has been given, and the tomb is also empty.
The evidence has been laid out. We've got the testimony of the eyewitnesses who saw Jesus after
he was risen. We've got the transformation of the disciples. We've got the explosion of the early church
from being a handful of people locked up in a room to a movement that turned the entire Roman Empire
upside down. And the question that Jesus is really pressing in verse 29 is not,
why haven't I given you more evidence? But what is it in you that keeps refusing the evidence that's
already been given? That's the question that Jesus is asking them. And if we're here tonight and
our faith is not in Jesus, well, we've been asked exactly the same question.
What is it that's keeping you from believing? Because the signs are all there.
So Jesus goes on to develop this idea a little bit further in the next two paragraphs, which takes us
to our second point tonight, the unlikely responders. Jesus calls on two witnesses to show us what a genuine
response looks like. So this is in verses 31-32. He says,
the queen of the south will rise up at the judgment and the men of this generation
with the men of this generation and condemn them. The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment
and this generation and condemn it.
So these are two deliberately dramatic
verses from Jesus.
Deliberately dramatic in the ears of these first century
hearers because he reaches into
history and he pulls out
two highly unlikely
witnesses.
And he holds them up to the people
and he says,
he's called these people an
evil generation and he
says, they got it.
These people far from
us, far from God, they got it.
But you don't.
So the first witness, the queen of the south.
So we can read about that in the Old Testament
in 1 Kings chapter 10.
She hears about this man in Jerusalem
who's incredibly wise
and she travels over a thousand miles
to hear Solomon's
wisdom.
And Jesus says she came from the ends of the earth.
She actually came from
southern Arabia. I think that's
roughly where Yemen is today.
But that phrase, the ends of the
earth, is a reference to
Gentile foreigners, people
outside of the
religious tradition, people who are
firmly outside of Israel.
She's no Jewish heritage.
She's no covenant background.
She's no long-standing
theological tradition
to rely on.
She heard a rumor.
She heard about this man
and she came to find out more.
And when she arrived and she
heard Solomon speak, she responded
with wonder and worship
and outpouring of generosity.
She came, she heard,
she believed.
And then the punchline
Jesus delivers
is devastating.
He says,
something greater than Solomon
is here.
The one standing in front of the crowd
isn't just a wise teacher.
He's the eternal
son of God.
Wisdom incarnate.
1 Corinthians
1.24
says that Jesus
is the power of God
and the wisdom
of God.
Solomon was given
wisdom,
but Jesus
is wisdom.
And while this
queen was humble enough
to travel all this way,
to hear Solomon,
to hear Solomon speak,
to hear his wisdom,
this evil generation
that Jesus is addressing,
they can't make
the short journey
from unbelief
to faith.
The second witness
or group
of witnesses
are probably even
more striking
than the queen
of Sheba.
Nineveh
was the capital
of the Assyrian
empire.
Nineveh
is where
God sends Jonah,
which is mentioned.
It's also mentioned,
Nineveh
is also mentioned
in the book
of Nahum,
who's another prophet.
And the city's
called the bloody city.
They were cruel
and bloodthirsty
and they were an enemy
to Israel.
When God told Jonah
to go and preach
to them,
Jonah ran
in the opposite direction
precisely because
he knew
they were Israel's enemies.
He wasn't just afraid
of what they might do,
but he didn't want
them to be saved.
Jonah didn't want
to go,
didn't want to preach,
but he did
via a great fish
and he delivered
what's probably
the most reluctant
sermon in the whole
of the Bible.
Five words
in the original Hebrew,
40 days
and Nineveh
will be overthrown.
But what happened?
The whole city
repented
from the king
on the throne
to the cattle
in the field.
They fasted,
they mourned,
they put on
mourning clothes,
they responded
to a half-hearted
message
from a reluctant
preacher
with complete,
immediate,
and total
repentance.
And Jesus says,
something greater
than Jonah
is here.
Jesus is not
a reluctant prophet.
He's not been
dragged into this
mission.
The son of God
who dwelt
in glorious
perfection
came willingly
into the world
to preach
with perfect
authority
and compassion
to perform
many miraculous
signs
in front of
their eyes.
And the generation
that's seen this,
all of this,
stands unmoved
while the evil
Ninevites
repented
at the message
that barely got out
of the preacher's
reluctant mouth.
I mean,
can you feel
the weight
of what Jesus
is saying
to these people?
He's not
mocking them.
He's being urgent.
The comparison
with the Queen
of Sheba
and the Ninevites
is not primarily
condemnation.
It's a wake-up call.
He's saying,
look how little
it took for them
to respond.
Look how much
it's taken
for you.
Look how much
you have got
and how little
you've moved.
So,
how is that?
What's going on?
How can these
ignorant outsiders
go from
a place of
unbelief
to faith
and the people
right in front
of Jesus
aren't?
Well,
God says in Jonah
that the Ninevites
didn't know
their left hand
from their right hand.
They were ignorant
but they accepted
the message.
The people
he's speaking to
have had generations
of benefits,
teaching,
tradition
and they failed
to hear
an even clearer
message.
in the 18th
century,
the philosopher
David Hume,
Edinburgh boy,
he wrote a paper
called On Miracles
and in that
he mounted
what he considered
to be a decisive
argument against
the possibility
of miracles
taking place.
Essentially,
he argued
that it's never
rational to believe
in miracles
because the evidence
for violation
of natural law
can never
outweigh the
uniform experience
against it.
So Hume
always maintained
that it's more
probable that
witnesses are
mistaken or lying
than it is
for a miracle
to take place.
But here's the thing,
his objection
isn't about
evidence,
it's about
his prior
commitment.
He's already
decided before
looking at any
miraculous claim
that no evidence
can be good
enough.
The conclusion
that he comes
to is already
built into
his premise.
He wasn't
engaged in
open-minded
inquiry.
He wasn't
letting the
evidence fall
where it might
lie.
He was
protecting a
predetermined
verdict that he
decided in his
head.
And Jesus is
saying,
this is what's
happening with
this generation.
Jesus is saying
that the signs
he can,
it's not
genuine
openness,
it's a request
for the kind
of overwhelming
resistance
bypassing
proof
that would
make faith
unnecessary
and repentance
unnecessary as
well.
So why
can Jesus
make this
claim?
Why are
these people
looking for
a sign
when so
many signs
have been
given?
Jesus is
connecting
sign-seeking
to an inner
condition.
And he's
going to go
on to say
that in
point three.
Jesus says
in point three,
sorry,
I've lost
my place.
That the
reason that
this generation
can't see the
signs that are
right in front
of them is
not due to
a lack of
light.
It's not
because there's
not sufficient
evidence,
but it's
because their
capacity to
receive that
evidence is
broken.
Well,
Jesus says,
your eye is
the lamp of
the body.
So in the
ancient world,
the eye was
understood not
just to be the
receiver of
light, but a
transmitter of
light.
So through
your eye you
see, but
through your
eye you also
receive light,
which then
lights your
whole body.
And in the
original language,
the words that
are used to
describe the
eye in our
passage, we've
got bad in
English.
but actually
it's the same
word that he
uses to
describe the
evil generation.
He's talking
about an
evil eye.
This evil
generation has
an evil eye.
It seeks a
sign because
its eye is
evil, clouded,
distorted, aimed
at something
wrong, serving
divided masters,
not seeing
clearly.
Jesus uses an
interesting word
for a healthy
eye too.
Because the
word that he
uses for the
healthy eye is
single or
undivided.
So Jesus is
connecting, sign
seeking, looking
for more and
more evidence,
when plenty
evidence exists,
to an inner
condition.
It's not really
about the eye,
but it's about
the heart.
The light's on.
It's their
capacity to
receive it that's
broken.
God's
trying to
evaluate Jesus.
They're looking
at Jesus and
trying to make a
decision about
whether he's
telling the
truth, whether
he is in
fact the
light of the
world as he
tells us that
he is in
John.
But they're
doing it with
eyes that
can't see
clearly.
Their
priorities are
already distorted.
Their will is
already set
against repentance.
And here, I
think, at the
end of this
part, it
becomes the
most searching
line in the
entire passage.
Jesus says,
therefore be
careful lest the
light in you
be darkness.
So Jesus
says it's
possible not
just to be
in darkness,
but to
mistake your
darkness for
light.
So to have a
religious framework,
a set of
confident
convictions, a
well-developed
theology, and
to be so
thoroughly in the
dark that you
think you're
fine.
The Pharisees
thought that they
were the
custodians of
light.
They thought
they knew what
light was and
wasn't.
They were, by
every external
measure, the
most serious
religious people
in Israel.
And Jesus
says to them,
check whether
what you think
is light.
is actually
darkness.
Because if your
fundamental
orientation towards
God is wrong,
if your heart's
closed, if your
will's set against
him, if your
religious practice
is about being
seen by other
people, or to
make yourself feel
satisfied in your
own performance,
then your most
confident religious
light might be
darkness through
and through.
sin.
Since Adam and
Eve, in the
garden, since
they fell, our
capacity to
receive and to
respond to
truth, it's not
just intellectually
limited.
It's morally
compromised as
well.
So sin in us
means that we
are not
detached,
neutral,
neutral observers
of the evidence
about Jesus.
we're not
looking at it
all from
behind the
glass screen.
We're
fallen, and
our desires are
distorted, our
egos are
defensive.
We've got deep
instinctive
resistance to
surrendering control
to anyone,
including to
God.
Our eye is bad,
and a bad eye
doesn't know
that it's bad.
Darkness doesn't
announce itself as
darkness.
It announces
itself as
perfectly reasonable
skepticism,
as intellectual
rigor, as
legitimate, fair
questions, but
often right down
at root level.
It's our will
that's turned
away from God,
and we're
looking for
reasons to
stay that way.
Jesus says,
be careful,
lest the light
in you be
darkness.
It's one of the
most important
warnings in the
whole of the
Gospels.
It's a warning
addressed not
just to the
Pharisees, not
just to the
21st century
crowds that are
gathered around
Jesus, but to
everyone who
handles light,
religious light,
with confidence.
It's a warning
to preachers and
to elders,
it's a warning
to people who
have sat in
free church
pews their
entire lives,
who could
recite the
catechism from
memory.
It's possible to
know a great
deal about
light and yet
never be in
it.
So how can
we know?
How do you
check whether
your eye is
good or your
eye is bad?
Well, the
primary test that
Jesus gives us
here in this
passage is
repentance.
So the
queen of
Sheba came
and she was
changed.
The Ninevites
heard and they
were changed.
A healthy eye,
one that's aimed
at Christ, it
leads to genuine
transformation.
Have you been
sitting under the
word for years
and your
fundamental posture
towards God
remains unchanged?
If you're not
more humble,
more repentant,
more dependent
on God, more
loving towards
other people,
more desperate
for God's
grace, we
need to stop
and ask
ourselves whether
the light that
we're pursuing,
the light that
we're standing
in is actually
darkness.
But here's the
good news,
and it is
great news.
Jesus doesn't
just give us a
warning and
leave it at
that.
He also gives
us a promise.
He says in
verse 36,
if your whole
body is full of
light, having no
part dark, it
will be wholly
bright as when a
lamp with its
rays gives you
light.
So Jesus talks a
lot about lamps
and light in the
Gospels.
In Matthew 5,
he says that
we're to let our
light shine before
others so that
they can see by
our good works,
our Savior, our
Father who's in
heaven.
Bright people
point others to
Jesus.
But here in
Luke, we get a
slightly different
development, a
picture of
ultimate
illumination, a
whole person, no
dark corners, but
somebody flooded
with light.
You see, the
passage isn't just
a warning about
what we lack,
it's a promise
about what's
available.
Jesus is the
light of the
world, greater
than Solomon,
greater than
Jonah.
He gave us the
side of the
resurrection.
When he went to
the cross willingly,
died for our sins
in our place, took
the punishment that
we deserved, and
he's the one that
opens blind eyes so
that we can see it.
We call Jesus the
great physician.
Do you know how
great a physician he
is?
He can perform eye
surgery and heart
surgery at the
same time.
If you ask him, he'll
take your bad eye and
make it good.
He'll take your heart
that's turned away and
turn it back to him.
And in the end, he
will flood every
corner of you with
light.
Let's pray.
Father, we confess
that we are not
always honest
inquirers that we
imagine ourselves to
be.
We confess that our
resistance to you is
often deeper than our
questions.
Forgive us for the
times we've asked for
more light when what
we needed was open
eyes to see the
light that's already
been given.
Lord Jesus, you're
greater than Solomon,
greater than Jonah.
You're the light of
the world.
God, illuminate the
corners, the dark
corners of our
hearts.
Defend us from the
evil one.
Help us to stand in
your light.
Give us eyes that see
hearts willing to
repent for your glory
and for our good.
In Jesus' name.
Amen.