Matthew-003

Jesus is the “sign” from God, to convey a visible but inaudible message

It is Christmas time, so we will look at a passage appropriate to this season. Let us read Luke 2:34 [RSV].

Unfortunately, the Chinese version is not an accurate translation. If you have an English translation, you would have a more accurate picture of what is being said. It says here that Jesus will be a sign that is spoken against. This word “sign” is the key to this passage. If you look at a concordance, you will see the word, “sign” is used frequently in the Gospels. The important point is that Jesus came into the world—which we will remember during this Christmas time—to be a sign from Yahweh God.

A sign is to communicate a message. The sign language for people who are deaf and dumb communicates a message by giving various signals or signs. This passage says that Jesus is God’s sign, and this means that God is sending Jesus to communicate a message. A sign is inaudible language; you see it but you cannot hear. Jesus is God’s sign conveying a visible but inaudible message to us, and by this sign, many will fall or rise. Therefore, Jesus is a very important sign because he determines your future, whether you will fall or rise, or both.

Jesus, sign of the salvation of Israel – yet opposed by many

This is the beautiful story of Joseph and Mary coming into the temple with the baby Jesus, and they meet this old saint, Simeon in the temple. There is nothing unusual about a baby coming into the temple, and this is not the only baby in the temple. After all, they did not have babysitters in those times, and so if they wanted to worship in the temple, they brought their baby with them. Simeon stayed in the temple a great deal of the time, and he must have seen a lot of babies, but when he sees this baby, he has something to say. He says, “My eyes have now seen the salvation of God.” We say, “Old man, this is just a baby. Why are you talking about salvation?” But he has a lot more to say than that, among which he says, “This baby is a sign of God.” This is a visible message from God. This baby will determine the future of the people, whether they will be saved or not. This depends on how they relate to him. What he says regarding the sign is very puzzling: this baby—this sign from God—will be spoken against.

Jesus’ death on the cross would bring Mary exceeding agony, even death!

When people read the Bible, they are not listening to what is being said. They are not noticing what exactly the sign is. The sign is not saying that everyone is going to welcome him with open arms. On the contrary, the message is saying that although he is for the salvation of the world, he will be rejected by most people. They are going to oppose him. This is very strange because all Israel was waiting for the Messiah, the Savior of Israel, the King of Israel. What Simeon is saying is that he will be rejected and opposed. Everyone is going to say bad things about him. To what extent will they oppose him? Try to picture that scene in the temple. At this time, the old man is holding baby Jesus in his hands. He turns to Mary, the mother, and says in verse 35, “Mary, a sword is going to pierce right through your own soul.”

Greek has multiple words for “sword” to depict various types of swords, but only two are utilized in the New Testament. Luke uses one word for “sword” five times, but here, he uses another unusual word for “sword.” This word hromphaia is used once in this context, and six other times in the book of Revelation. So it is used a total of seven times in the New Testament. I tried to determine why a different word for “sword” is used here. It may be because this is a broad, double-edged sword, and its hilt makes the sword look like a cross.

Simeon seems to be hinting at the cross. I think you have seen a sword, and you can see that it does look like a cross. Simeon is saying to Mary, “The sword will pierce through your own soul.” That is hardly a very comforting message! Mary is coming into the temple to worship God, and some old man starts talking to her about her baby. It sounds good that he is the salvation of Israel, and you would have thought that everybody would welcome this salvation, but in fact, this incident is going to cause Mary exceedingly great pain, and perhaps even her death!

Man will reject Jesus as God’s sign saying, “He cannot be the Messiah”

We can see that this sign is going to be spoken against. God gives a sign to all mankind, but does mankind welcome it? No, mankind rejects it! When we look at this word antilego translated as “spoken against,” or “rejected,” or “opposed,” antilogia is translated as “disputed,” that is, people argue against it in Hebrews 6:16. They say, “Jesus cannot be the Messiah, the Savior.” In Jude 11, antilogia is translated as “rebellion,” speaking of Korah’s rebellion. In Romans 10:21, antilego speaks of Israel as a people who is always “disobedient and contrary,” that is, talking back. The opposition against this sign is enormous! This point is of exceedingly great importance, and we must grasp it very well.

In other words, how do you know that Jesus is the Messiah, the Savior of the world sent by God? The sign is so unexpected. If you see someone who is spoken against, opposed, contradicted, that is the sign. Have you ever thought of such a sign?

So many religious teachers are so well accepted. Think of Gautama Buddha. Everyone respects and honors him. He is the “Enlightened one.” He is the one who has light from above. No one is speaking against him. We can go through various religions. Who speaks against Muhammad? Muhammad is worshipped almost as a god, as he is the prophet of God. But you will say, “The same is true for Jesus today, isn’t it?” That is precisely the problem. Do you understand what I am saying? Maybe not.

Let us put it this way. If you meet someone or hear about someone whom everyone speaks poorly of, what would be your impression of that person? Let’s say, take me for example. Oh, believe me, the world is full of people who say bad things about me, and that is no exaggeration. I can’t even go to a place where someone doesn’t have something negative to say about me. It’s not because I want people to say bad things about me. Does anybody like to be unpopular? People have not met me yet, but they have already heard bad things about me. A few years ago, I went to Costa Rica. I went there because I thought surely nobody would know me, but I was mistaken. Soon, we discovered that there were those who had heard about me and were aware of my negative reputation. Immediately, two groups emerged: one group supported me to some extent, while the other group maintained their belief that I was a bad guy.

When you hear bad things about a church leader, would you say, “Oh, you are such a bad guy, but I would like to be your friend”? If you hear bad things about him, and even if you have met him, you would have suspicions, and say, “Hmm, there is no smoke without fire. I would have to be careful about this guy.” Do you understand what I am getting at?

New Testament faith is: Believing in the face of contradiction

Jesus would be a sign that people will speak against, reject, argue against, oppose. This raises a major problem for faith. If salvation depends on faith in Jesus, the Christ God has sent, and everybody says bad things about him, how are you going to believe?

It is easy to believe today, because who is speaking against Jesus? Hardly anyone! So we have a major difference between the situation in the New Testament and the situation today. But that raises a problem. If the situation is different today, then the faith is also different.

When I am a bad guy and someone says, “I hear all these bad things about you, but I trust you anyway.” Oh, that’s something! But when I become popular as someone important and everybody respects me, what faith do you need to believe in me? The opposition to me is fading away. The reason is that many of the church leaders in Hong Kong have begun to express that they don’t oppose what I teach. In fact, they express agreements on major points.

For example, a sister from Hong Kong went to Australia and attended one of our churches there. She was a member of a church where the pastor is very famous in Hong Kong. She wrote to her church and asked about our church and me. The reply she got was, “That’s a good church. By all means feel free to attend it.” That’s very surprising! It’s no longer difficult for her to attend our church because she has approval from her former church in Hong Kong.

What would have been different would be that no matter what her church in Hong Kong would have said, she came to our church and listened for herself, observed, examined the Scriptures and came to the conclusion: “This church stands on the Word of God, I will stay here even if others oppose.” The point is that we always like to see whether other people approve or don’t approve of this person or church. We cannot make our own decision. What has happened now is that people begin to become favorable to me for one reason only: the opposition against me in Hong Kong is dying down.

You know your true friends when you are under attack. When you are attacked and everyone runs from you, you also know what kind of friends you have. What happened when Jesus was seized to be crucified? Even his disciples deserted him. During times of adversity, one truly discerns the true nature of individuals and their loyalty. I have good opportunity to find out.

What I want to say is something exceedingly important regarding faith. It raises the question whether our faith is the “New Testament faith” or not. We are saved by faith, and Luther wanted to say that we are saved by faith alone. The question is: What kind of faith are we talking about? What we have here is of the greatest importance: if you believe in Jesus when he is being opposed, rejected, that is faith!

Why do you believe in Jesus? Because there are hundreds and millions of believers today! Everybody believes in Jesus, so what is so difficult about raising your hand and making your commitment?

When you are brought up in a Christian home, do you just follow your father and mother to become a Christian? Your friends at school may indeed oppose Christianity, but after all, your parents are more important than they. So as Christian parents, we are faced with a serious problem: How genuine is the faith of your children? My child may believe in Jesus because she respects and trusts me completely. Is that the New Testament faith? That is the problem here. My child doesn’t need to overcome any contradiction against Jesus in our home, because Jesus is always exalted as the Christ God has sent. It is not important even if other people contradict him, because the people she really respects uphold him. She doesn’t care about other people’s opinions, but her parents’ opinion holds great importance for her.

Unless you grasp this situation, you may not have a New Testament faith in Jesus. There are people in our church, or even in our teams who follow Jesus mainly because of respect for me. But if they change their opinion of me, they may change their opinion about Jesus. In other words, their faith is dependent on man. For example, recently, I got an email from a co-worker who told me how much the recent attack on me and the church in Montreal affected her. When she heard the contradiction, it shook her faith in God, and she nearly collapsed spiritually. So we come back to the question: On what is your faith founded?

God’s sign is the rejected Jesus Christ

At Christmas time, we are talking about Christ Jesus, the sign from God. What is your reason for coming to church? Did you believe and got baptized because you said, “I like these Christians because they are nice. They love one another and I would like to be one of them”? Is that New Testament faith?

The only faith spoken of in the New Testament is a faith that can believe in Jesus when everyone is contradicting and rejecting him. This is nothing short of a miracle! If you believe in Jesus because everyone believes, any psychologist can explain that. In a Christian country, everyone is a Christian. You just follow the crowd and don’t need to have faith. That is not the New Testament definition of saving faith, is it? True faith is to believe in the face of contradiction. That is the message here. We know Jesus Christ whom God has sent is true precisely by the fact that he is rejected. Here is the signal from God. If you want to know who to believe in, look around and see who is rejected.

Who was rejecting Jesus?

The other important factor that we have to bear in mind is, who was rejecting Jesus? Who was speaking against Jesus? When you read your Bible, are you seeing what is there? Today, we read it as a Christian book where everyone supports Jesus, but that is not what is said in the Bible. The Bible tells us that he was rejected by every­one. Did you notice that?

1. Exceedingly religious leaders opposed him

Let me give you evidence from one book alone, Matthew, to let you see who rejected Jesus and what they said about him. What they said about him was very, very serious. For example, the scribes who were lawyers, were experts in the Bible. They were lawyers because the first five books of Moses were described as the Books of the Law. Isn’t their opinion very important? What did they say? In Matthew 9:3 they said, “Jesus is blaspheming.” Now that is a very serious charge coming from people who are scribes, experts in Bible law!

The Pharisees were a group of very religious and devoted people. They were the major group of people who opposed Jesus. In Matthew 12:24, it says, “This man casts out demons only by Beelzebul,” the ruler of the demons. In fact, you see this again in Matthew 9:34. They actually said that Jesus himself is not only a demon but is the king of demons. Their opinion was very, very important in Israel because they formed a large category of people, who considered themselves to be very devoted to God. For you, the opinion of Pharisees and scribes may not be important, but their opinion was the most important among the people of Israel. The common people did not understand the Bible, so they had to look to their religious leaders to give them guidance. The scribes were the scholars, the religious leaders. These Pharisees were the spiritual leaders. It was not just one of them but the whole group was saying, “Whatever Jesus does is by the power of the devil!”

The people were certainly deeply influenced by this, and we can see that also in Matthew 11:19, where the crowd also speaks against Jesus, saying that he is a glutton, a drunkard, and a friend of tax col­lectors and sinners. But notice that they don’t dare to bring spiritual charges, because they are not experts in spiritual things, so they would have to leave that part to the leaders. But they accuse him of being a glutton, a drunkard, and that he mixes with all the wrong people.

That attack against Jesus goes even to the high priest, the highest person in the religious life of Israel. In Matthew 26:65, the high priest describes Jesus as a blasphemer. Whose opinion is more im­portant than the high priest’s? It’s like when the Pope says someone is a blasphemer, that is final for the Roman Catholics.

The attack goes further in Matthew 27:63. It says that the chief priests—all the priests under the high priest—together with the Pharisees, declare Jesus to be an impostor, a deceiver! What more is left to be said? Actually, you cannot think of something worse to say than he is the devil. It’s interesting that I was almost accused of exactly the same thing!

2. Jesus’ followers left him, and Judas betrayed him

What about Jesus’ followers? It’s all right if only the outside people attack Jesus and say, “He has a small group of disciples who follows him blindly.” Unfortunately, that is not the case either. You see in John 6:66, that even when he said some things they could not accept, they rejected him, and left him. You can imagine that when they left Jesus and people asked, “Weren’t you following Jesus before? Then why aren’t you following Jesus now?” Do you think they will say nice things about Jesus? What kind of explanation would they give? They had to find some reason to give why they no longer followed Jesus, such as, “Well, I was deceived. I was cheated. Jesus did not live up to my expectation.” They would also have to speak badly about Jesus to justify their departure from him.

As though all this is not yet enough, one of his twelve handpicked men said bad things about him. That would not have been as serious as compared to what he actually did. He sold Jesus to his enemies for a very small amount of money to show how much he thought of Jesus. Jesus was only worth 30 pieces of silver! That was the amount to pay for a slave (Exo. 21:32). You can see all Jesus’ enemies rubbing their hands and saying, “What did we tell you? This guy is bad. Even his disciples abandoned him. One of his twelve handpicked men, his closest circle, not just any of the disciples, also rejected him and even sent him to his death.”

Everything Simeon said was true: he was a sign that everyone rejects, from the high priest at the top to the crowds below. Even one of the disciples who was living with him for about two and a half years, who knew him through and through, at least it was thought that he did, he sold Jesus!

3. Famous scholars, brilliant philosophers speak against Jesus

How can you believe in such a Christ when everyone rejects him? Is it because you have not really considered the fact? Did you not realize that Jesus is a “sign that is spoken against” and still is? It’s true that the opposition voice has become silent because of the majority of the so-called “Christians” around.

When I was in the United States recently, I saw a book in a book store, and its title immediately attracted my attention: Jesus, the Magician. That’s an interesting title! It’s written by a professor in Columbia University, and he says that Jesus did all his miracles through magic. Is your faith beginning to shake? Perhaps you don’t care about the Pharisees and the high priest, but you need to take seriously the words of a professor from Columbia: Jesus is just a magician. He attempts to demonstrate that the techniques used by Jesus were also employed by the Egyptians.

Recently, what do I see in another bookshop? Jesus, the Heretic! It is a big, thick book, not a small pamphlet. Do you dare to read such a book? Your faith will go down the drain!

Let me tell you the truth: some of the things we have to study in theology will astonish you. Many people who studied theology in England as I did, lost their faith. Why? It’s because we had to study the materials that speak against Christianity. Some of these are written by brilliant philosophers. Strangely enough, I quite enjoyed studying them, but some people lost their faith, while others lost their fire.

New Testament faith could mean your death

The hostility against the church is still there, although to a much lesser extent. There is still a lot of much suppressed hatred against the church, against the gospel. As you listen today, you may find my message very hard to swallow. Many years ago, leaders of the church said, “Your preaching makes the gospel very hard to swallow. You should preach something easier than that.” I preach the Word of God whether people like it or not, so there is a high level of resistance.

To be a Christian in the New Testament times could mean your death. Indeed, numerous Christians during the First Century, and even up until the Third Century, paid the ultimate price of losing their lives for their faith. During that time, Christianity faced widespread opposition, leading to a situation where people would express approval for killing Christians. Therefore, there were many martyrs in the Early Church, but very few today.

A deadly shooting in church

It is still possible to become a martyr in North America. On September 15, 1999, a man walked into a Baptist church in Texas and opened fire with his rifle. It is still dangerous to go to church these days. There is still a small chance of getting killed. The man fired 100 bullets into a 400-people congregation. The remarkable thing was that having fired 100 bullets, he only managed to hit 14 people. After that, he shot himself. Seven people were killed, and seven were wounded. The seven people who were killed turned out to be not only good, but completely committed Christians! These were the Christians who would gladly die for their faith. Of the seven wounded people, there was one young woman who shielded her disabled friend with her body when the firing started, and she was hit in the back with a bullet. Strangely enough, she had a curvature in her back, and her curved spine deflected the bullet from hitting her vital organs. In other words, if she did not have the curvature, she would have been killed too. The man also prepared a bomb, but the bomb did not go off.

The outcome of this apparent tragedy was that it received world­wide media coverage. And there were many opportunities for the pastor to speak on television and radio in North America and around the world, so 200 million people heard the gospel. The tragedy became a blessing! As a matter of fact, in Japan, a single gathering resulted in 35 individuals turning to God after being inspired by this incident.

Pastor shot at the pulpit

Some years ago, a man entered a Chinese church in the West Coast of the United States, walked up to the pastor, and shot him at the pulpit in front of the whole congregation! What kind of hatred, of opposition causes people to do this kind of thing?

Teenage student believer shot

As I was driving in the United States about two or three weeks ago, I was listening to the radio, and I heard a long discussion about the Columbine killings. As you may recall, two young people walked into the high school in Columbine and shot so many students there. In the school, the gunman pointed his gun at a young girl about 17 or 18, and asked, “Do you believe in Jesus?” She said, “Yes.” And he pulled the trigger and shot her. How much did he hate Jesus? Why? This young girl had nothing to do with him. So there is still a chance to become a martyr for Jesus!

True faith comes from revelation

Let us conclude for today. What is the point of our message? If every­one speaks against Jesus, from the leaders at the top to the common people below, how do you know that he is truly the Christ God sent? The Bible already gave one of the signs: he was the one spoken against. But is that enough for you to believe in Jesus? The conclu­sion of this matter is quite simple in the New Testament. There is only one way to believe in Jesus, and that is by revelation. When everyone rejects him, the only way to ascertain that he is truly sent by God is through a direct revelation from God. So the important conclusion is: True faith comes from revelation.

In Matthew 16:17, the Lord Jesus asked the disciples, “You heard all these people say bad things about me, who do you say I am?” And Peter comes up with an astonishing reply: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” How is it possible for Peter to know that this man in front of him is the Son of the living God? This Christ sent by the living God as confessed by Peter, is the same person that Judas was willing to sell for 30 pieces of silver. And what is Jesus’ reply? “Flesh and blood has not revealed this to you. Nobody could have told you this but only my Father in heaven.”

The interesting thing is that Jesus did not want them to tell anyone about what was revealed to them. His desire was for the Father to reveal this truth to others as well. Do you think only Peter needs the revelation from God to know who Jesus is? Of course not!

What happened to the apostle Paul on the Damascus road? God revealed to him who Jesus is. This is true of every true believer.

When Simeon was looking at this baby how do you think he knew who Jesus is? Only through revelation! There is no other way.

In the passage after this is Anna, an old saint over 80 years old. Again, God revealed to her who this baby is. Nobody will know Jesus—who is spoken against—except through revelation. Now I pray that God will open your eyes, otherwise your faith rests on the wrong founda­tion.

God revealed to me who Jesus is

Why did so many people either lose their faith or their fire when I went through theological college? It’s because their faith was resting on other people’s opinions. They came to Jesus because they heard other people saying good things about Jesus. What happens if the same is true of your faith? The bad things they hear others say about Jesus cancelled the faith that came from the good things they heard. Why did it not bother me? Because my faith did not rest on other people’s opinions. My faith rested on what God had revealed to me in my heart.

If you know what that means, you know what revelation is. You know that God has opened your eyes to see who Jesus is, no matter what everybody says. I am very fearful that if your faith rests on the wrong foundation, you are going to lose it one of these days. You are going to disown him when persecution comes.

Ask for revelation if you want it

The last point is this: If faith comes by revelation, then is it up to God to reveal himself and the Christ he sent? If so, it seems to be equivalent to predestination, that is, you cannot do anything about it. No, not at all! We cannot get revelation unless God gives it to us, but we can ask for it. What did the Lord Jesus say in Matthew 7:7-8? “Ask and it shall be given. Seek and you shall find. Knock and it will be opened to you.” If you want revelation, ask for it. We cannot open the door ourselves, only God can, but we can knock on that door until he opens it. When the door is opened, and we look inside, we will see wonderful things in the house of God. We will see his revelation there!