PEOPLE WHO SEEK MIRACLES

Matthew 12:38-50

Key Verse: 12:39

Verse 38 says, "Then some of the Pharisees and teachers of the law said to him, 'Teacher, we want to see a miraculous sign from you.'" In the preceding passage, the Pharisees committed the unforgivable sin of blaspheming against the Holy Spirit. In this passage they came to Jesus and asked him to perform a miraculous sign. How did Jesus reply? Verse 39 says, "He answered, 'A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a miraculous sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah." The Pharisees were miracle-seeking people and to those kind of people Jesus says that no miraculous sign will be given them except the sign of the prophet Jonah. Jesus opposes miracle-seeking people because they are wicked, self-centered, and lazy people who have no desire to do the work of God. They think that miracles are a circus act for their own entertainment. I think that America is full of these kind of people. We can see this when we look at the kind of movies that come out of Hollywood every year. There are movies about people who can fly, movies about people who have all kinds of supernatural powers, movies about dinosaurs, and movies filled with all kind of awesome mind-boggling special effects. Movie-making technology has advanced to such a degree that the movies we see look startlingly realistic. So when we go and see a movie we are actually witnessing all kinds of miracles that are happening on the screen. But these are cheap counterfeit miracles that didn't cost us anything except perhaps the price of the ticket. And in our hearts all of us know that they are nothing but cheap counterfeit miracles, that is why I often feel bored and I yawn even after witnessing the most spectacular special effects. Those kind of miracles do nothing for our souls.

God's miracles however are not cheap. They are very precious and beautiful events and they are very beneficial to our souls. Before the Lord opened my heart through Bible study, I prayed with all my heart for many weeks, days, and hours. It was only after I poured out my heart to him in this manner that God answered me by sending me Sh. Kiyoshi who invited me to Bible Study; and it was only after engaging in a very fierce battle against the 6000 or so demons that possessed my soul that I began to witness God's healing touch in my heart. When we pour out our hearts to God in prayer and we struggle to truly obey him then he performs many miracles in our lives. Jesus promised his disciples, "If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer." (Matthew 21:22) But Jesus makes this promise only to those who are his disciples and who ask things that are in accordance with the will of our Heavenly Father. We ourselves experience many of these miracles around conference time when the most unlikely people all of a sudden decide to come and listen to the Word of God. Or we experience them when after going through a long dry spell, we bring all kinds of people to the worship service. On a smaller scale I think that I experienced these kind of miracles on Monday, when for once I decided to attend the early morning daily bread meeting. After that I went out on the campus to invite students to Bible study three times that day, and God enabled me to catch three students who said yes. But I realize this only happened after I decided to struggle a little bit. So I see that the miracles that God performs are not cheap because they come after much prayer and after we have shed many tears.

So after studying this passage, I realize that miracle-seeking people do not want to struggle. Instead they want to see all kinds of miracles like the kind they show in the movies because they want to escape. They want to forget about their problems even if only for a short while. But Jesus does not want people to escape. Jesus wants me to face myself, to look at myself in the mirror and realize who I really am; realize that I am nothing but a sinner who needs God's grace; realize that there's a judgment coming and that I desperately need Jesus to save me from God's wrath. In my past life, before I became a Christian, I used to daydream a lot. I would imagine myself in exotic places, or I would daydream that I could fly and I would imagine all kinds of other things. I did this to escape reality. But when I became a Christian, reality came crashing down on me like a ton of bricks. God showed me who I really was and he showed me that, unless I repented, I was hell-bound. He also showed me that my only hope is to believe in Jesus Christ His Son who died on the cross for my sins. This reality that pierces through all my darkness has remained with me from the day I first believed. A few years ago, I tried to escape from this reality by leaving God's church but I couldn't erase those things that my heart and my mind had already learned. So I came back.

Now I know that I have to face God's reality everyday, that is I must repent everyday, but it's better for me to live like this right now, than it is to wait for later when it will be too late to change anything. For a day of judgment is surely coming and anyone who is not found washed in the blood of Lamb will be cast out of the Father's kingdom and into the fire of hell. So I come to God as I am and because I'm a horrible sinner, I often come to Him with much fear and trembling, knowing that I deserve to die. It is a scary sight, seeing ourselves as we truly are, with all of our inner dirt and unrighteousness. Nobody wants to truly face who he or she really is. So one of my friends once told me that she doesn't want to study the Bible because she fears that if she does, she will see herself as she really is and she's afraid. So instead of facing herself, she prefers to go through life taking anti-anxiety medication and pretending that everything is alright. But sadly, by living this way she is wasting all of her God-given potential. What a terrible tragic waste.

I, however, am no better than she is. As a matter of fact, I'm worse because I have been given all the opportunities to do many good works for the work of God but I have rejected them. I rejected them and often continue to reject them because I'm lazy. I know that God can perform great miracles in and through me, but I'm unwilling to let him do so because I'm unwilling to struggle. And it is a very sad thing to find yourself doing nothing when the work of God is going on all around you and when all kinds of miracles are happening in the people around me. Sometimes I feel the jealousy of Cain in my heart or even worse, a sense of apathy and indifference. So I pray that God may help me to repent at this time, and I pray that he may help me to persevere until I can reap a good harvest for him. I sometimes think of myself that I'm not lazy. At least I'm not as lazy as I used to be. I have a full time job and I love to spend my free time reading many things. But when it comes to doing the work of God I suddenly become super lazy and unable to move a finger. So I am actually very lazy and I need the mercy and the help of God. Please pray for me that God may help me to work hard not for myself but especially for his glory, I ask in Jesus name, Amen.