Discerning the Signs
Wednesday, February 3, 2021
Question #1: “How is it you do not discern this time?” (Luke 12:56)
The context for this question from Jesus is very interesting. I’m reading out of the NKJV:
49 “I came to send fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! 50 But I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how distressed I am till it is accomplished! 51 Do you suppose that I came to give peace on earth? I tell you, not at all, but rather division. 52 For from now on five in one house will be divided: three against two, and two against three. 53 Father will be divided against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.”
Discern the Time
54 Then He also said to the multitudes, “Whenever you see a cloud rising out of the west, immediately you say, ‘A shower is coming’; and so it is. 55 And when you see the south wind blow, you say, ‘There will be hot weather’; and there is. 56 Hypocrites! You can discern the face of the sky and of the earth, but how is it you do not discern this time?”
So, we note that these passages are divided into two topics—the disunity and trouble the coming gospel of Christ would bring, and the crowd’s inability to understand or discern what God was doing through Christ in their time.
So, let’s look at the first one—the gospel would bring trouble. “Not peace,” said Jesus, “but a sword of separation.” He literally says, “I came to send fire on the earth.”
What is this “fire?” Well, it’s not the fire of the Holy Spirit like we see at Pentecost. And it’s not the fire of zeal we see resting on the disciples in the Book of Acts. No, it’s the fire of judgment, persecution, division, and trouble.
From the moment the disciples were filled with the Spirit and began preaching on the streets of Jerusalem, the FIRE was released. Persecution raged. Families separated. Trouble exploded.
The battle between good and evil, light and dark, Satan and God exploded.
In verses 51-53, the Lord predicts to His disciples the separation and hardship that will come to domestic relationships due to some in a family turning to Him for salvation, while others reject Him—3 against 2, and 2 against 3.
Trouble, division, and betrayals will be experienced by families and close relationships due to His gospel!
NEXT, it is from this vantage point that Jesus turns to the vast crowd following Him and chastises them for not discerning the times—what is about to go down prophetically and spiritually all around them.
Some commentators believe that Jesus talks to the crowd this way due to their ‘que sera sera’ attitude about what He’s just said about the coming troubles.
He uses the illustration of first century weather forecasting to make His point. In those days they knew that a dark cloud rising in the west was a good predictor of coming rain.
And that when a south wind blew, hot weather was on the way.
But, said Jesus, though they could discern what the weather was going to do, they were totally blind to what was happening around them on a spiritual plane.
They did not discern the spiritual gravity of the time, nor the season, nor the crisis they were fast approaching. He had told them elsewhere, “The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side. They will crush you into the ground, and your children with you. Your enemies will not leave a single stone in place, because you did not recognize it when God visited you” (Lk. 19:43-44).
What a powerful passage! Look at the catastrophe that came upon them—the destruction of Jerusalem and of the Temple.
The slaughter of over 1 million Jews. The utter loss of their homeland.
The scattering of the Jewish people to the 4 corners of the earth for 20 centuries—all because they did not discern the times!
On the heels of His rebuke of them, Jesus asks the question: “How is it you do not discern this time?”
His point is—It should be clear to you! You should know the Scriptures well enough to recognize that I’m the predicted Messiah. You should realize through the prophets, like Isaiah, David, Ezekiel, Daniel, that I’m here to die for the sins of men.
Yet you are blind, and your blindness is going to cost you everything!
So the answer to Jesus’s question for us today is clear. We, too, are living in perilous, difficult days when prophecy is being fulfilled all around us. Rather than being caught off guard, we should KNOW the Word, and discern the times!
So what time is it PROPHETICALLY?
We’re living in the last days leading up to the 2nd coming of Christ. The Lord is saying, Have oil in your lamps, walk closely with Me, let your light shine, and live in earnest expectation that I’m about to return!
Question #2 “Why does this generation seek a sign?” (Mark 8:12)
The context for this intriguing question from Jesus is just after a confrontation with the Pharisees. In the preceding verse 11, it says “Then the Pharisees came out and began to dispute with Him, seeking from Him a sign from heaven, testing Him.”
The Pharisees didn’t believe He was Messiah. So they are goading Him to prove it by showing a miraculous sign. “Do a miracle for us, Jesus! Then we’ll believe You!”
But they had already seen Him perform many signs. He has already healed lepers, cast demons out of possessed people, healed a withered hand, healed the woman with the flow of blood, and so on.
They didn’t really want a sign. They were only being obstinate. It’s not that they COULDN’T believe, it’s that they WOULDN’T believe. We note that Jesus did not answer their request because it wasn’t brought in faith.
The Bible says, “Without faith it is impossible to please Him” (Heb. 11:6).
God doesn’t answer obstinacy, except with silence. So the Bible says that Jesus responded with a sigh. “But He sighed deeply in His spirit, and said “Why does this generation seek a sign?”
His heart was deeply affected by their wickedness and hypocrisy. The word “spirit” here is taken as the seat of the emotions, passions, affections. He groaned deeply in His inner man. Our Lord was deeply troubled and vexed by their unbelief.
Then He tells them in a strongly emphatic manner, “Assuredly, I say to you, no sign shall be given to this generation.”
Now, in Matthew’s account of this event, one thing is added: “No sign shall be given except the the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” (Matt. 12:39-40).
This reference to Jonah’s 3 day stay at the whale Holiday Inn while running from God, only to be coughed up and spewed out on the seashore on the 3rd day, is a type of Jesus being buried for 3 days and nights, then resurrected to walk out of the tomb alive and well.
His death, burial, and resurrection is the only SIGN these unbelieving Pharisees would be given!
So to answer Jesus’s question, “Why does this generation seek a sign?” is this. The generation that seeks a sign is the generation that doesn’t believe the claims of the gospel, and have refused to repent based on the Jesus presented to them.
So they claim that, if they can just see a miracle, they will believe. But the truth is—miracles are shown in the Bible to be ineffective time and again in bringing people to faith.
One thing brings about a person’s salvation: “If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved” (Romans 10:9-13).
See you next time!