God's Sign to a Lost World

By Greg Laurie, Op-ed contributor Friday, January 28, 2011

One day some teachers of religious law and Pharisees came to Jesus and said, "Teacher, we want you to show us a miraculous sign to prove your authority."
- Matthew 12:38

My granddaughter Stella loves to pull pranks on people using a little box of tricks I bought for her. She hasn't learned the ways of deception very well, because people always know what she is doing. Even though they know what is going on, they go along with her anyway, and that makes her happy.

Sometimes we think that if we could do a miracle for our unbelieving friends, they would come to faith in Christ. We might be thinking, If I could just pray and this person was healed, they would believe right there. I know they would. If I could just do something dazzling. . . . But you know what? That wouldn't convince them.

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Even though Jesus raised people from the dead, and even after He was bodily raised from the dead and people saw Him with their own eyes, they still rejected Him.

When some religious leaders approached Jesus one day and asked Jesus for a miraculous sign, they were essentially saying, "Hey, do a trick for us, Jesus!" But Jesus told them, "Only an evil, adulterous generation would demand a miraculous sign; but the only sign I will give them is the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was in the belly of the great fish for three days and three nights, so will the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights" (Matthew 12:39–40).

In effect, Jesus was telling them, "Here is my sign to a lost world: I am going to a cross. I will die, and I will rise again from the dead. You can accept that and be forgiven, or you can reject that and not be forgiven. So that is your choice." And that is our choice as well.