The Greater Jonah

Transcript

Welcome to this week’s sermon from Trinity Church in Portland, Oregon. We hope this message inspires you, roots you down deep into the Lord, into His Word, and may His Spirit be your guide as you enjoy this teaching. Thanks for joining us. Here’s the message. Our text this morning is actually several texts. So let’s begin by turning first to the book of Jonah. And once you’ve arrived at Jonah, we’ll be at Jonah 1.17. Keep your finger there when you get there. Jonah 2.10 and Matthew 12, verses 38 to 41. And the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish. And the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah out upon the dry land. Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered him, saying,

Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.

But he answered them, An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For just 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. The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah. And behold, something greater than Jonah is here.

— Matthew 12

(ESV)

This is a word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Well, he has risen. That is a pretty provocative statement. I mean, a statement he has risen indeed is an absolute truth claim. And this morning we as a church declare it. As Bible-believing Christians on Resurrection Sunday,

living in a post-truth world, it doesn’t get any more provocative than that. And not only do we declare it joyfully, we also declare it boldly and enthusiastically. That’s why we say indeed with an exclamation point at the end of it to really drive home the fact that Jesus Christ, the Son of God who suffered, died, was buried, and indeed was raised from the grave. And we should declare that confidently, not just because we believe it by faith, though we do, but because it’s true. Verifiably true. Absolutely true. In fact, there is overwhelming evidence concerning the reality of the resurrection, whether it’s through historical accounts, biblical prophecy, or even eyewitness testimony. In fact, the more you dive into the claims of the resurrection, the more compelling the evidence becomes. So my question for you this morning is, do you believe the resurrection of Jesus to be absolutely true?

The Evidence of Resurrection

If, however, you are one of those who choose to deny the reality of the resurrection, then my question to you respectfully this morning is, on what basis can you make such a radical claim of certainty? What kind of evidence do you appeal to dismiss it as untrue? Do you use the same methods to measure the evidence of the resurrection as you do other truth claims? And if so, how do you determine what is or isn’t absolutely true? And I only ask this question this morning because we live in a world where most people really don’t care about truth, certainty, or evidence. We live in a world where no amount of evidence will be sufficient enough to persuade you of the truth if you really don’t want to believe the truth. To make it quite simple, you will believe only what you want to believe.

In fact, one of the biggest issues living in a post-truth world is that most people filter truth, certainty, and evidence through their own personal predetermined perspectives or opinions. This is one of the reasons why our world is in such a chaotic place right now. Listen, this issue concerning the certainty of truth isn’t just an issue in our contemporary world. It’s been an issue that has existed ever since the Garden of Eden. Cynthia alluded to it in the confession. Ever since sin entered our world, humans have made every effort to become wise in their own eyes, determining what is true and filtering what is true to get what they want, to feel how they want, and to live how they want. And this reality is actually made explicitly clear in the text that we’ll be looking at this morning. As a church, we’ve been going through the book of Jonah

Mysterious Mercy

in a sermon series entitled Mysterious Mercy. And last week, we got to the very middle of that book. And so on Resurrection Sunday, we’re going to continue going through that sermon series while dealing with the resurrection at the same time. And we’ll do that by looking both at the book of Jonah as well as the book of Matthew to see how Jesus, in Matthew’s gospel, points us to the book of Jonah to see the sign of Jonah. And so I’ll be breaking up our sermon this morning really into two simple sections. And we’ll break those up into the books. So we’ll look at the book of Jonah to see how the Lord provided rescue for Jonah. And then we’ll look at the book of Matthew to see how the Lord provided the sign of Jonah. And so just to give some of you who are visiting with us this morning

some context concerning where we left off in the book of Jonah, I’m going to give us just a brief 30-second overview to catch you up to speed. Jonah is a prophet. The Lord called Jonah to go to the city of Nineveh to call the enemies of God to turn from their evil ways. But Jonah refused to bring the message of kindness and mercy to the Ninevites. Instead, Jonah ran from God, jumped on a ship headed in the opposite direction of where God told him to go. But the Lord sent a supernatural storm to stop Jonah from running. The storm was not only an act of God’s mercy to stop Jonah, it was also a demonstration of God’s judgment being poured out on Jonah because of his blatant disobedience to God. And through a series of events, the sailors on the ship come to find out

that it’s Jonah who is responsible for the supernatural storm. And so they asked Jonah, what should we do to you to stop God’s judgment from coming upon us and to stop the sea from raging? Jonah tells the sailors, throw me overboard. And so with no other options left, the sailors reluctantly toss Jonah into the sea. And when they do, the sea becomes calm. Jonah is left for dead and begins drowning in the depths of the sea. And this brings us to the first section in our sermon this morning where we see the Lord provided a rescue for Jonah. Now, last week, we dealt with this a little bit. As we walk through this rescue of Jonah’s deep dive into death by looking at these two historical narratives with these two poetic prayers sandwiched in the middle. Now, we spent most of our time dealing with those poetic prayers

The Lord’s Rescue

to help us understand what Jonah was feeling and experience in his descent to death. But this morning, we’re actually going to spend our time taking a closer look at the narrative parts that we looked at briefly last week to see how this rescue was both historical narrative but was also biblical prophecy. And so in your Bibles, turn with me to Jonah 1.17 and then I’ll read 2.10 and I’ll put those together.

And the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. And the Lord spoke to the fish and it vomited Jonah out upon the dry land.

— Jonah 1

, 2

(ESV)

So as Jonah was drowning in the deep waters with his life on the brink of death, with no hope and no human help, the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow Jonah. And that word appointed here means provided.

And that’s a very important word because that word is connected to the most important theme that runs all throughout scripture. And that theme is this, that the Lord consistently provided rescue for his people. This is how God works. Now, the Lord has constantly rescued his people. He rescues them from a variety of different things, but most specifically, he rescues us from his own judgment for sin and from death. We see that in Genesis 7, when the Lord’s judgment was being poured out on the people for their sins and rebellion. But the Lord provided Noah and his family the instructions for building an ark. And of course, this was provided to Noah to rescue him and his family from the flood of God’s judgment. And then you see it again in Exodus 12. The Lord was sending his judgment on Pharaoh and the people of Egypt through plagues.

And the final plague of judgment was to kill all the firstborn of Egypt. Well, God’s people were in Egypt. But the Lord provided the Passover lamb so that all who placed the blood of the Passover lamb on the doorpost would be passed over. They would be rescued from judgment and death. This theme of rescue from judgment and death is all throughout scripture. And here again, the Lord provided for Jonah with this great fish who swallowed up Jonah and kept him in the belly of the fish, in the dark and deep pit to rescue Jonah from both judgment and death. And it’s interesting that Jonah uses the term swallowed up. I mean, yeah, it was a fish and fish swallow things. But to be swallowed up, that term is not by accident. You see it all throughout the Old Testament. In fact, in Psalm 21.9, speaking of God’s judgment,

it says, you will make them as a blazing oven when you appear. The Lord will swallow them up in his wrath and fire will consume them. So you see the swallowing is both judgment and it’s death. This term swallowing has long been a part of God’s word. But what’s interesting here is that being swallowed up for Jonah is judgment and death, but it’s also rescue from death at the same time. And it’s through this swallowing where we get a glimpse of the Lord’s rescuing work. This seemingly paradoxical work that God rescues from death by way of death. So God uses this great fish to swallow up Jonah from judgment, which ultimately would lead Jonah to death. But after three days and three nights, he is brought out of the belly of the fish, out of the dark and deep death into life. So when you look at this story of Jonah

in the fish for three days and three nights, it is historical narrative. It actually happened, but it’s also prophetic. Jonah through God’s judgment is experiencing a type of death, burial and resurrection. Now it’s not a one-to-one experience, but it is a prophetic type. Jonah’s death was a near death through drowning experience. Jonah’s burial was a deep sea in the belly of the fish burial. And Jonah’s resurrection was a vomiting up from the grave of the fish’s belly resurrection to the shore. So you see this story of Jonah some 800 years before the birth of Jesus tells this magnificent story with prophetic precision, precisely what would eventually happen with Jesus Christ, the son of God who died, was buried and resurrected from the grave. What happened with Jesus all happened according to the scriptures. You see the evidence concerning the resurrection of Jesus existed prior to the birth of Jesus.

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The Sign of Jonah

And that reality alone should be sufficient enough and compelling enough to cause for you to believe with certainty that the resurrection of Jesus is absolutely true. But despite the historic and prophetic evidence, people still choose to deny the truth of the resurrection. And we see that quite clearly in Matthew’s gospel in chapter 12 verse 38 through 41 as Jesus deals with these unbelieving religious leaders of the day. They’re religious people, but they still don’t believe despite the overwhelming evidence of his identity and his work. So turn with me in your Bibles to Matthew 12 and we’ll begin at verse 38 and we’ll see how the Lord provided the sign of Jonah.

And some of the scribes and Pharisees answered him saying, teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.

— Matthew 12

(ESV)

So as we come to this narrative in Matthew’s gospel, we see right out of the gate that these religious leaders

approached Jesus asking him to perform a sign. They were seeking overwhelming evidence concerning the identity of Jesus. Now, without any context, this request to see a sign seems reasonable. It’s even genuine. Why wouldn’t we want to see evidence concerning Jesus’s identity? But when we understand the context a bit more, we actually get a better framework for the tone of their request. You see, Jesus’s popularity in the region had begun to increase with the people precisely because of these many miraculous signs that he had already performed. But as his popularity and his positive reputation began to grow among the people, so did the tension and hostility of the religious leaders. You see, up to this point, all the miracles and signs already performed were pointing to his identity and to his coming kingdom. The more the people witnessed Jesus performing these signs and miracles, the more they began to see clearly

that Jesus is who he says he is. Because in many ways, the people had an understanding and an expectation of a coming Messiah that just means a rescuer. The people of Israel had been waiting for the Messiah, the rescuer, to come and rescue them from political oppression, the one who would come to bring judgment and death to the enemies of God. So the people began to put the pieces together that this Jesus, through these miraculous signs, might very well be the long-anticipated rescuer that the scriptures have been telling us about throughout history. However, the Pharisees, who had also observed the many miracles and signs that Jesus performed, they did not view in any way that Jesus was the long-anticipated Messiah. In fact, they viewed him more as a threat to the religious institution. See, these Pharisees and scribes were looking for a sign to understand the identity of Jesus.

But they weren’t really looking for the truth. Their minds have already been made up. It’s interesting to note that the Pharisees and the scribes, who are actually two different groups in the religion of Judaism, the Pharisees being more of the kind of religious pastors of the day, the scribes being more of the theologians, the experts in the Old Testament scripture. Well, here, these two groups team up together against Jesus. As they approach Jesus to question his identity, outwardly, they appear polite and respectful. But inwardly, there was hostility, suspicion, and scrutiny. In fact, these men hated Jesus because Jesus was, in many ways, flipping the religious institution upside down. Jesus’s message of grace, liberation, forgiveness, and salvation was a threat to the moralistic, legalistic, man-centered religion of the Pharisees and scribes. So their posture and their tone was condescending. And furthermore, they had no interest in genuinely investigating the identity of Jesus.

They simply wanted to discredit the miracle-working of Jesus. Basically, they wanted to attribute the signs and miracles of Jesus to the work of the devil. Because if Jesus was not working for them, religiously speaking, then Jesus was obviously working against them. They weren’t asking for a sign because they wanted to believe. They were asking because they did not want others to believe. But Jesus, knowing their heart, knowing their motives, addresses them in verse 39. But he answered them, An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. It’s plain to see that Jesus will not be deceived by their outward pleasantries. He knows their intentions are to pull the crowd away from all that the signs and miracles were pointing to. So he calls out this generation of religious leaders as evil and adulterous.

Evil because they are playing into the plot of the devil. Pious in their inquiry, but wicked in their plans. And he calls them adulterous because their actions are proving them to be unfaithful to the God of the Scriptures. I mean, if anyone should know the God of the Scriptures and who the Scriptures point to, it should be the experts in the Old Testament Scriptures, the scribes. In fact, this is precisely why Jesus points them to the Scriptures concerning the sign they were looking for. He knows no matter what miraculous signs he would perform for them, it would not be sufficient for them to believe. He’s already performed so many signs and miracles, and yet they still don’t believe. So he points these so-called experts of the Old Testament to the Old Testament to see that the sign of Jonah points not only to the identity

of Jesus, but more specifically to the work of Jesus. And we see that work accentuated in verse 40. For just 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. So these religious leaders ask Jesus for a sign, but Jesus doesn’t give them the sign that they wanted. Instead, he forces them to the prophetic sign of Jonah. Now, why does Jesus point them back to the Scriptures? Jesus could have done whatever he wanted. Though he was fully man, he was at the same time fully God. He could have had the sky split open and a thousand angels shout from heaven to the earth, Jesus is the Son of God. But he doesn’t do that. Instead, he points them to the Scriptures. Why?

Because all of Scripture points to Jesus. And all of Scripture is sufficient to prove the identity of Jesus. You see, the Bible, though it is a collection of many books, it is one book inspired by one God that tells one glorious story of Jesus Christ. The whole of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation is moving towards one self-authenticating crescendo that God has come down from heaven in the person of Jesus Christ to rescue sinners from God’s judgment and death. Essentially, Jesus is saying, you know the Scriptures. I mean, you’re the experts, right? Well, then you obviously know what Jonah is all about. But you see, even though they’re experts in the Old Testament, even though they’re very religious people, even though the evidence is right before their eyes, Jesus must help explain to the experts what Jonah is actually pointing to. Just as Jonah was near death,

just as Jonah was buried in the belly of the fish, just as Jonah was resurrected onto the shore on the third day to be rescued from judgment and death, so Jesus, the Son of God, died, was buried, and rose from the grave on the third day to rescue us from judgment and death. Jesus, here with these scribes and Pharisees, unambiguously predicts his death, burial, and resurrection through the prophetic sign of Jonah, which would eventually be fulfilled, authenticating the claims of Jesus and validating the work of Jesus. You see, even though these so-called experts of the Old Testament knew the story of Jonah, they had studied it over and over again, even though the sign of Jonah hit them square in the face, they still will not believe. And Jesus knows they will still not believe. You see, the truth is, people will only believe the truth if they

want to believe the truth, no matter what the evidence points to. At the end of the day, evidence doesn’t really matter that much for people, especially if the evidence forces a response from you. If it confronts you in such a way where the evidence demands you to turn from the way that you’ve been living, to turn from the fake gods that you’ve been trusting in to make you feel happy, safe, and satisfied, they won’t do it. Those fake gods will ultimately fail you. They can’t save you from judgment, and they can’t save you from death because they’re imaginary gods. You see, Jesus knew no matter what sign he performed, whatever evidence he gave to them, the religious leaders, just like most of mankind, would not respond to it. In fact, despite the evidence, they would continue to reject him. Even before they had a chance

The Greater Jonah

to respond, Jesus knows that they’ll reject him. And we see that in verse 41. The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it. For they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here. Well, now, because we’ve only made our way halfway through the book of Jonah, this is a bit of a spoiler alert. We’ve not come to the point yet where Jonah, after being vomited from the fish onto the shore, is recommissioned by God to go again and preach to the Ninevites, but eventually, I’m giving you all my thunder for next week, eventually, Jonah does go and preach to the Ninevites. But Jonah’s message is weak. Essentially, Jonah tells the Ninevites, you’ve got 40 days to repent or God will destroy you. That’s it. Probably the shortest and

shadiest sermon on repentance. The least amount of love in this sermon, the least amount of care, and yet, the Ninevites turn. These pagans, these enemies of God, they hear the shady prophet’s words, no signs, no miracles, no evidence, no knowledge of the Old Testament scripture, no knowledge of prophecy. They hear the words of the prophet and they repent. That’s it. But here, the Pharisees and scribes, the religious leaders are in the presence of Jesus, the greater Jonah, the greater prophet, with greater love than Jonah, with an infinitely greater message than Jonah, a message of mercy to the people who deserve judgment and death because of their sin and rebellion against God. Even with all the signs and miracles that they’ve already seen Jesus perform, even with the Old Testament sign of Jonah presented plainly and clearly, they still reject Jesus. This is why Jesus tells them

the men of Nineveh will rise up and condemn them because the Ninevites repented with no signs. But you Pharisees and scribes who’ve already seen signs, who are asking for a sign, with your Old Testament expertise will never be satisfied. You’ll never respond to Jesus. And so God will use the generation of converted pagans from Nineveh to condemn the generation of so-called religious experts of the Old Testament. You see, the scribes and Pharisees failed to see that the sign of Jonah pointed to the fact that Jesus is the greater Jonah. Jesus, unlike Jonah, was perfectly obedient to the Father. Jesus, unlike Jonah, did not deserve the judgment and wrath of God. Jesus, unlike Jonah, literally died, was literally buried, and because of our sin, not his own sin, but because of ours, Jesus, unlike Jonah, bore the judgment and wrath of God. He lived

the life that Jonah failed to live, and he died the death that Jonah deserved to die. So that through this death, Jonah and us might be rescued from death and be brought to life. Jesus resurrected us from death by his death and raised us from the grave to both authenticate he raised from the grave to both authenticate his death, meaning his death actually paid the cost of our sins and to give us hope that just like he was raised, we also will be raised. You see, this is the gospel that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who died, was buried, and rose from the grave, paid for our sins so that we might experience victory over death. We read this morning in our call to worship 1 Corinthians 15 54 through 57. Death is swallowed up in victory. Oh, death, where is your victory?

Oh, death, where is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law, but thanks be to God who gives us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ through his death, burial, and resurrection. Again, my question for you this morning is do you believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ? Do you want to believe in the resurrection? It’s not a matter of insufficient evidence. The evidence is compelling, overwhelming, and verifiably true. But here’s the truth. In order for you to believe the truth, God must supernaturally open your eyes and ears to the truth. And this is a good thing because it means that salvation isn’t relegated to intelligent people, people smart enough to put the pieces together, people who’ve studied prophecy, people who have figured it out. You can be an expert in Bible prophecy. You could be an expert in church history.

You could be an expert in the laws of logic and still completely miss the truth of Jesus and his resurrection. You see, the biggest problem with sinful humans is that although the evidence is overwhelming, because of sin we are bent to not want to believe. Even though it’s true, we don’t want it to believe. We don’t want it to be true. Because the truth demands a response from you. To change the way that you live and to turn from those fake gods that you’ve been trusting in to make you feel happy, safe, and secure. All those things will ultimately fail you. They will ultimately lead you to judgment and death. And listen, this is a sober reality. There is nothing neutral about Jesus. You either believe the truth or you reject the truth. To be undecided is to reject Jesus and the truth. If you want to believe,

God must give you a new heart to want to believe. In fact, if you are here this morning and you want to believe, it is because God has already begun the work of turning your heart towards the truth. If you want Him, if you want to trust Him, turn from your sin and believe that He is who He says He is. Trust in Jesus, His death, burial, and resurrection, and you will be rescued from judgment and death. Romans 10.9 says, If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. There’s no other conditions here other than belief and trust. That means you don’t have to clean yourself up to come to Jesus. You don’t have to do all this religious work to be saved. God has done all the work

Celebrating the Promises

for you through His life, death, and resurrection. He has satisfied the legal demands for your sin to bring you into right standing with God. You don’t got to do anything except trust and believe, and you can do that right where you are this morning. Ask God to help you believe. Ask God to help you trust that He is who He says He is. The greater Jonah, the Son of God, the long-anticipated Messiah who came to rescue His people from judgment and death, and He will save you from death by His death, and He will raise you to life just as He has been raised to life. If you are here this morning, and you are a Christian, then this morning we celebrate all that the resurrection means for us. The resurrection is the great vindication of our Lord, and it is the great authentication of our faith. It means

that what we believe by faith has been proved by the reality of the resurrection. So when you doubt, and when you wrestle, which we are so prone to do, we can look to the resurrection and be reminded that God is who He says He is, that He is trustworthy, that He keeps His promises. It means, brothers and sisters, that when we suffer, when our bodies begin to break, when we are plagued with sickness, when our world looks like it’s falling apart, even when death is knocking at our door, we can look to the resurrection and find hope, because the resurrection reminds us that this life is not all that there is. That our suffering and our pain, the looming fear of death, will soon fade, because just like Jesus, we who trust in Jesus will be raised to life. We will experience no more suffering,

no more pain, no more sorrow. We will experience eternal life with resurrected bodies, but most importantly, we will experience Him fully, and finally, with our eyes, faith come to life for all of eternity. We celebrate the promises of God this morning through the resurrection, because the same power that raised Jesus from the grave is the same power to accomplish all the promises of God. Not just the promises to be rescued from judgment and death, but the promise that God will keep His children and carry His children home to be with Jesus where all things will be made new. This is what we celebrate this morning. In the power of the resurrection, we celebrate that God is a God who keeps His promises. He said He would raise from the grave, and He did it, and so we can bank everything on it. He’s trustworthy. That’s what we celebrate this morning.

Let’s pray. Our Father and our God, we do celebrate the overwhelming evidence of Your resurrection. We thank You, Father, that You have given us this evidence that is verifiably true so that our wandering hearts can rest in the certainty of Your resurrection. But we also recognize, Father, that evidence is not enough. And so, Father, we thank You for the Holy Spirit’s work who opened up our eyes to the truth, who brought us out of death. We were dead in our trespasses and sins. We could not know You. We could not believe the truth. But in Your grace and mercy, You opened our eyes to the truth. You caused for us to see this mysterious mercy that You chased down sinners and saved them, that You paid for our sin on the cross and verified it by raising from the grave. Oh, God, what a marvelous and

wonderful thing. Father, we pray that as we’ve surveyed Your Word this morning, that it would enliven our hearts, that it would give us a greater degree of confidence in who You are and Your promise-keeping, and that would compel us to worship You in greater ways. And, Father, we pray for those this morning who are here who don’t know You. We pray that the same power that raised Jesus from death to life would raise them from death to life, that Your Spirit would work in partnership with Your Word to cause for them to believe. We pray, O Lord and God, that they would taste salvation this morning. What better day to experience life than on this Resurrection Sunday where we celebrate Your life. Father, may today be the day of salvation. We pray in Jesus’ name.

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