An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign and there shall no sign be given to it but the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the whale of a belly so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. (Matthew 12:39-40).
When it is evening we check the weather, look at the sky; in the morning we look at the sky and check the weather--if it's cloudy we assume that it is going to rain. Hypocrites. You can discern the weather but you cannot discern the signs of the times.
........then Jesus reminded his disciples how He fed five thousand with five loaves of bread and fed four thousand with seven loaves of bread....as he spake about the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees which was not really about bread at all. (Matthew 16:9-11)
On more than one occasion in the New Testament, it is written that Jesus said He would be raised from the dead on the third day. Likewise, in the New Testament, the emphasis on the sign of Jonah is in the wrong place--"like Jonah in the belly of the whale three days and three nights." The emphasis should be on Jesus rising from the dead. Who cares what day it was--second day, third day, or fourth day. The point is that like Jonah who came up out of the belly of a whale where he could have been digested and exited the body as vomit or excrement, came out as a whole, living, breathing, human being. So as it is with Jesus who will and did rise from the dead as a living, whole, breathing, seeing and talking human being.
What shall a man profit if he gains the whole world and loses his soul? What shall a man give in exchange for his soul? (I need to pause right here. I am so happy that Christ has set me free. He who the Son has set free is free indeed. In spite of turmoil, hardships, struggles, and despairs, I am free and happy. I am free because Jesus lives in me, works in me, on me, and through me. Think Shadrack, Meshach and Abednego in the fiery furnace. When Nebuchadnezzar told the guard to turn the fire up seven times hotter (Daniel 3), and later looked in and found that there were four standing in the fire--and one was the Son of God. Glory to God! Hallelujah Jesus! No matter how hot it gets, no matter the trial, the trauma, or the tribulation, God is in it with you.
There will be many who shall not believe until they see the Son of man coming in His Kingdom. There will be some who do not accept Christ as Lord and personal Savior until they taste of death. Flesh and blood did not reveal Jesus to you. Only God can reveal Himself to you.
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Exercise your authority to tread on serpents and to cast out demons. You are the head and not the tail. Greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world. Exercise your holy boldness.