“Then some of the scribes and Pharisees said to Him, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from You.” But He answered and said to them, “An evil and adulterous generation craves for a sign; and yet no sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah the prophet” (Matthew 12:38-39, NASB).

Jesus just a few verses before this had cast a demon out of someone, and shortly thereafter the Pharisees accused Jesus of casting out demons by Beelzebub, which endangered them of blaspheming the Holy Spirit! Blaspheming the Holy Spirit revolves around deeming a work of God as a work of Satan. It is why you must be careful not to speak against or condemn certain ministries. If you choose to join your little “religious” group and attack other churches because they worship different or their message is delivered differently from which you are accustomed, you can very well be endangering your soul. Where is the true fear of the LORD? Preference is not priority in the sight of God, and you better check your heart to make sure your openness to bashing another church or ministry is not rooted in a place of jealousy! Keep your mouth off of God’s people, and whatever the message is in their song or teaching, instead of automatically ruling it out, weigh it in the balance, study to show yourself approved, pray and allow the Holy Spirit to give you discernment according to the truth of the gospel! You have to ask yourself at some point, “What if they are right and I am wrong?” If you have not asked yourself, then you are revealing your own pride. Truth is not inherited through tradition, but it is given by the Holy Spirit! 

 

So, when these guys asked Jesus for a sign, He already had worked a sign by casting a demon out of this individual. The evidence that they were an adulterous generation was because they sought for a sign. They were in the presence of the King of Kings, and despite the power and authority He operated in, they wanted a sign proving who He was and claimed to be. Many in the church are part of an adulterous generation because they have fell more in lust with the sign than they have in love with the presence of the King! While they are hoping Christ comes back to save them from this cold, dark and sinful world, or for Jesus to come and fix the world, they are looking for signs for His return while missing the vital point that the kingdom of the LORD does not come by observing signs, but rather that the kingdom is within us (Luke 17:20-21). Jesus didn’t ever say to the disciples, “I am going to give you the part of the kingdom now and the rest later!” Instead, He has given you the keys to the kingdom (Matthew 16:19). It is time to use them! 

 

Jesus told them the only sign that He would give them would be the sign of Jonah. He was the prophet who was in the belly of the whale three days before life entered back into him, and he was vomited back out on land to preach repentance in Nineveh. While Jonah died, went to hell and cried out to God for forgiveness, Jesus died and went to hell to take the keys of death and hell. The sign that He was the only begotten Son of God was His own resurrection! We do not serve a dead Jesus, but He is alive and well, risen from the grace and has ascended to the right hand of the Father! What other sign do you need? Do not be part of that adulterous and sinful generation, but the generation who seeks the face of God Almighty!