Embracing the Light: The Call to Obedience

“More than that, blessed are those who hear the Word of God and keep it.” While the crowds were thickly gathered together he began to say, “This is an evil generation. It seeks a sign and no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah the prophet. For Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites so also the Son of Man will be to this generation.” [00:30:36]

“The queen of the South will rise up in 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 indeed a greater than Solomon is here. The men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it for they repented at the preaching of Jonah and indeed a greater than Jonah is here.” [00:62:06]

“The lamp of the body is the eye. Therefore, when your eye is good your whole body is also full of light, but when the eye is bad, your body also is full of darkness. Therefore, take heed that the light which is in you is not darkness. If then your whole body is full of light having no part dark, the whole body will be full of light as when the bright shining of a lamp gives you light.” [00:99:06]

“Jesus gives an astonishing response to this oracle of weal. He said, ‘More than that. More than the blessing that was received by my mother. Greater than the blessedness visited upon Mary is the blessedness that is given for all of those who hear the Word of God and keep it.’” [00:462:46]

“Do you hear how radical that is? What Jesus is saying here is as blessed that Mary was to be His mother, you are even more blessed. You have received an even greater blessing than she did by being a recipient of the Word of God’s people or the Word of God incarnate.” [00:502:37]

“While the crowds were thickly gathered together he began to say, ‘This is an evil generation. It seeks a sign.’ Let’s pause there. Jesus now pronounces tacitly an oracle of woe; an oracle of doom upon the generation of His contemporaries. Now beloved, the scriptures tell us that all generations are evil, because all generations are made up of corrupt human beings.” [00:616:41]

“What Jesus is singling out is His contemporary generation as being peculiarly, especially evil and wicked. I think the reason for the higher degree of wickedness that Jesus pronounced upon that generation is because in contrast this was the most blessed generation that ever walked the face of the earth.” [00:650:56]

“This was the generation who experienced the visitation of God incarnate. This was the generation that was on the earth when divine light shone on the planet in an unprecedented manner. This was the generation because of that light, that extraordinary light had also with it a much more somber and sober obligation to respond.” [00:685:19]

“To reject the Messiah in the midst of this kind of extraordinary light accentuated the degree of evil of that generation. Now Jesus goes on to define why it is that He found that generation to be so particularly evil. He said, ‘You’re a generation that demands a sign. You want proof that I am who I say I am. You want to see miracles.’” [00:714:18]

“Jesus explained that elsewhere. Where He says that Jonah was in the belly of the whale for three days, so the Son of Man will be on the earth for three days. What He’s pointing to here is the ultimate sign. The supreme sign; the most significant of the things that God did in Christ by raising Him from the dead.” [00:940:26]

“Those of you who are still looking for signs, those of you who are still waiting to be convinced, and if you’re looking for more evidence from God that He’s already given, your hope is futile. You are on a fool’s errand that will get you nowhere, because the reality is God has already provided you with the ultimate sign.” [00:1018:37]

“God doesn’t invite people to come to Jesus. He commands them. It’s not an option. If you refuse that command you will perish, you will not be excused, no R.S.V.P. comes with the Gospel. Those days are over. In the former days, the God of Oliphat, but no more. Now he commands all men everywhere. Why, because of the resurrection, because He’s given the ultimate sign.” [00:1096:37]