by Matthew W. Bassford<\/p>\n
Matthew 16:1-4 is one of the more off-putting passages in the gospels. Some Pharisees and Sadducees come to Jesus asking for a sign. A reasonable request, right? Don\u2019t you have the right to ask a self-proclaimed prophet to show that he\u2019s really from God before you believe in Him?<\/p>\n
However, Jesus does not accede to this apparently reasonable request. Instead, He condemns the sign-seekers as belonging to an evil, adulterous generation and then leaves. If Jesus were merely human, the exchange might leave us wondering if He woke up on the wrong side of the bed that morning!<\/p>\n
Of course, Jesus is not merely human, and His response clues us in to an important piece of spiritual wisdom. Contextually speaking, the Pharisees and Sadducees were not seeking a sign. After all, Jesus had just miraculously fed more than 4000 people! Instead, they were seeking another sign, not because they were looking for a reason to believe, but because they were looking for a reason to doubt.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/demanding.png\")
Jesus makes this point in Matthew 16:2-3. His critics were perfectly capable of assessing the atmospheric conditions and reaching a conclusion about the weather, but when it came to Jesus, they all of a sudden got dumb: \u201cWe don\u2019t have enough information yet! We need more!\u201d<\/p>\n
Really, though, their problem wasn\u2019t an information problem. They had all the information they needed. Instead, they had a heart problem, and all the information in the world wouldn\u2019t help.<\/p>\n
Today, Christians frequently encounter modern-day sign-seekers. These are people who already have made up their minds that they don\u2019t want to believe in the Bible, or that they don\u2019t want to believe something in the Bible. However, they hide their hard-heartedness behind reasonable-seeming requests for more evidence, and whatever evidence is supplied, it still won\u2019t be enough.<\/p>\n
Here, I\u2019m particularly reminded of a story that a sister in Joliet once told me. She was talking Bible with a friend of hers who belonged to a denomination that practiced baptism by sprinkling. Naturally, they started talking about the necessity of immersion.<\/p>\n
The friend asked to see a passage that showed that baptism was by immersion. The sister turned to Acts 8 and the story of the conversion of the Ethiopian eunuch. She noted that Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and came back up out of the water. Ergo, immersion.<\/p>\n
The friend replied, \u201cI want to see another passage besides that one.\u201d<\/p>\n
No, she didn\u2019t. She wanted to go on believing that sprinkling was an acceptable mode of baptism, and a whole Bible-full of evidence wouldn\u2019t have been enough to change her mind.<\/p>\n
In our discussions with others, it is useful for us to be able to recognize the \u201cone more sign\u201d pattern of behavior. If we make a solid Scriptural argument, and a friend immediately asks for more proof without engaging the proof we\u2019ve provided, that\u2019s a sign that they\u2019re not being honest. Nothing we say is going to get through to them, and we might as well stop wasting our time.<\/p>\n
Most of all, though, we need to watch out for such a spirit in ourselves. One passage is enough to establish a spiritual truth, and if somebody reasons from that passage to a conclusion, we are responsible either for rebutting the argument or accepting the conclusion. What we must not do is cry out for more evidence when the evidence provided is sufficient.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by Matthew W. Bassford Matthew 16:1-4 is one of the more off-putting passages in the gospels. Some Pharisees and Sadducees come to Jesus asking for a sign. A reasonable request, right? Don\u2019t you have the right to ask a self-proclaimed prophet to show that he\u2019s really from God before you believe in Him? However, Jesus…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[709,363,36,340],"class_list":["post-23263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-evidence","tag-miracles","tag-reasoning","tag-signs"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":9469,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-was-jesus-in-the-grave-for-three-days\/","url_meta":{"origin":23263,"position":0},"title":"Why was Jesus in the grave for three days?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 16, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: My 8-year-old grandson asked me a question and I didn't know how to answer him. Maybe you can help. Why was Jesus dead 3 days before He rose? Why not 1 day or 2 days? And what did he do in that time, if anything? Thanks for your help.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":69079,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/jewish-sects-sadducees\/","url_meta":{"origin":23263,"position":1},"title":"Jewish Sects: Sadducees","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 28, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by Fred A. Shewmaker Origin, Influence, and Theological Outlook via Truth Magazine, XVI: 10, pp. 6-8 January 13, 1972 The Sadducees were second in importance to the Pharisees of the five Jewish Sects. They are mentioned in the Bible far more than the remaining three sects. This sect emerged after\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":69073,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/jewish-sects-some-terms-considered\/","url_meta":{"origin":23263,"position":2},"title":"Jewish Sects: Some Terms Considered","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 28, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by Fred A. Shewmaker via Truth Magazine XVI: 6, pp. 9-11 December 9, 1971 Available sources of information on this subject are quite limited, and much of the information available is questionable regarding its accuracy. Nevertheless, I believe that studying this subject will be profitable. Those who pursue such a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9398,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-wont-god-heal-amputees\/","url_meta":{"origin":23263,"position":3},"title":"Why won’t God heal amputees?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 12, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Why won't God heal amputees? After all, Jesus said, \"If you ask anything in my name, I will do it\" (John 14:14). Why doesn't Jesus appear to us? Answer: The questions remind me of an event in the Gospels that we just studied last night. \"Then the Pharisees and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":53891,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-misunderstood-jesus\/","url_meta":{"origin":23263,"position":4},"title":"The Misunderstood Jesus","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 14, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"by Doy Moyer Understanding people is often difficult. What do they mean? How are they using phrases? Are they being literal or figurative, or both? In person, we can ask and clarify, but when we are reading what others said, we can easily misinterpret because we are not hearing the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13190,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/jesus-intolerant-confrontational-and-exclusionary\/","url_meta":{"origin":23263,"position":5},"title":"Jesus: Intolerant, Confrontational, and Exclusionary","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 14, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0by Dan Gatlin The typical denominational view of both Father and Son is that \"God is love,\" and only love. What is so easily forgotten is His severity (Romans 11:22) and wrath (II Thessalonians 1:3-10). Jesus is depicted as quiet, soft-spoken, harmless, almost a wimp (nothing could be further from\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/scan0001-13-300x256.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23263"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23263\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}