Signs

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We frequently hear people say the purpose of signs is to point to something. While this is true of road signs, I am not convinced it is true of the miracles referred to as signs in the Bible. To illustrate my point, let's start by looking at a few reliable sources of Koine Greek definitions:

• In Bill Mounce's online Greek dictionary, he provides a primary definition for the word σημεῖον as "a sign, a mark, token, by which anything is known or distinguished..."
• The Strongs' Concordance definition is "a sign (typically miraculous), given especially to confirm, corroborate or authenticate."
• Thayer's Greek Lexicon associates σημεῖον with the Hebrew אות and gives a primary meaning which, though lengthy, can be summarized by its opened clause: "universally, that by which a person or a thing is distinguished from others and known..."
• Lastly, BDAG (BDAG is the colloquial name for the third edition of A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature the preeminent New Testament Greek lexicon), gives a primary meaning of "a sign or distinguishing mark whereby someth. is known, sign, token, indication..."

What is noteworthy is that Mounce, Thayer, and BDAG all define a sign primarily as the a distinguishing mark by which a thing is identified. Only Strongs suggests a primary meaning of corroborating or authenticating something. None of the three suggest a sign "points to" something.

At the risk of offending many preachers, I'm going to suggest saying a sign "points to" something is the result of lazy thinking. It takes the common, contemporary meaning of the English word and superimposes it over the Greek word. This is the same kind of weak analysis that leads to making the observation that "Dunamis (δύναμις) is the word from which we get the English word dynamite." An observation that should, in my opinion, never find it's way into sermons or Christian teaching. You cannot derive a word's former meaning by studying its later meaning. (For a more complete discussion on this, see Pastor Mark Drinnenberg's blog titled "Dunamis Does Not Mean Dynamite")

Given the agrarian influence in Judea in Jesus' day, it is probably much more reasonable to think of σημεῖον in relation to the seasons of the year. When we speak of the first signs of spring, we are not implying that spring is still somewhere up ahead of us. We mean it is already here. We mean that we see  those distinguishing marks by which spring is identified. The trees are budding. Flowers are sprouting. Spring is here. In this sense, Strongs is also correct: the signs of spring corroborate that the season has arrived. 

In the same way, the signs of the Kingdom do not point to the gospel message. They are the gospel message. This is why Paul writes the following about presenting the gospel:

• And so it was with me, brothers and sisters. When I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power. (1 Corinthians 2:1-5)
• I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me in leading the Gentiles to obey God by what I have said and done—by the power of signs and wonders, through the power of the Spirit of God. So from Jerusalem all the way around to Illyricum, I have fully proclaimed the gospel of Christ. (Romans 15:18-19)

For Paul, the gospel without miracles was not the gospel. "For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power." (1 Corinthians 4:20)

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