Matthew 12:33-50

“You must determine if a tree is good or rotten. You can recognize good trees by their delicious fruit. But if you find rotten fruit, you can be certain that the tree is rotten. The fruit defines the tree. But you who are known as the Pharisees are rotten to the core like venomous snakes. How can your words be good if you are rotten within? For what has been stored up in your hearts will be heard in the overflow of your words! “When virtue is stored within, the hearts of good, upright people will produce good fruit. But when evil is hidden within, those who are evil will produce evil fruit. You can be sure of this: when the day of judgment comes, everyone will be held accountable for every careless word he has spoken. Your very words will be used as evidence, and your words will declare you either innocent or guilty.” Then a few Jewish scholars and Pharisees spoke up and said, “Teacher, why don’t you perform a miraculous sign for us.” Jesus replied, “Only evil people who are unfaithful to God would demand a sign. There will be no sign given to you except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was in the belly of the huge sea creature for three days and three nights, so the Son of Man will be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights. The people of Nineveh will also rise up on the day of judgment to condemn this generation. For they all repented when they heard the preaching of Jonah. And there is one greater than Jonah here preaching to you today! Even the Queen of Sheba will rise up on the day of judgment to condemn this generation for its unbelief! She journeyed from a far and distant land just to hear the wisdom of King Solomon. Yet now there is one greater than Solomon speaking to you today.” “When a demon is cast out of a person, it roams around a dry region, looking for a place to rest, but never finds it. Then it says, ‘I’ll return to the house I moved out of,’ and so it goes back, only to find that the house is vacant, warm, and ready for it to move back in. So it goes looking for seven other demons more evil than itself, and they all enter together to live there. Then the person’s condition becomes much worse than it was in the beginning. This describes what will also happen to the people of this evil generation.” While Jesus was still speaking to the crowds, his mother and brothers came and stood outside, asking for him to come out and speak with them. Then someone said, “Look, your mother and brothers are standing outside, wanting to have a word with you.” But Jesus just looked at him and said, “Let me introduce you to my true mother and brothers.” Then gesturing to the disciples gathered around him, he said, “Look closely, for this is my true family. When you obey my heavenly Father, that makes you a part of my true family.”