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• “THE SIGN OF THE PROPHET JONAH”
• Some things about the Christ we should note.
• Matthew 16:1-4 “And the Pharisees and Sadducees came up, and testing
Him asked Him to show them a sign from heaven. But He answered and said to them,
“When it is evening, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky
is red’. And in the morning, ‘There will be a storm today, for the
sky is red and threatening’. Do you know how to discern the appearance of
the sky, but cannot discern the signs of the times? An evil and adulterous generation
seeks after a sign; and a sign will not be given it, except the sign of Jonah”
And He left them, and went away”.
• INTRODUCTION
• Jesus told His generation they would see the sign of Jonah.
• Luke 11:29-30 “And as the crowds were increasing, He began to say,
“This generation is a wicked generation; it seeks for a sign, and yet no
sigh shall be given to it but the sign of Jonah. For just as Jonah became a sign
to the Ninevites, so shall the Son of man be to this generation”.
• Let’s explore the comparison and contrast between Jesus and Jonah.
• BOTH WERE SENT FAR FROM HOME TO PREACH
• Jonah 1:2 “Arise, go to Nineveh the great city, and cry against
it, for their wickedness has come up before Me”.
• Jonah was sent from Israel to Mesopotamia (Assyria),
• It was a considerable distance when most land travel was done by foot,
in order to preach to them.
• Remember it took five months travel for a large group of Israelites to
return from that region with Ezra 7:9
• BOTH WERE SENT FAR FROM HOME TO PREACH
• Jesus traveled further, descending from heaven to earth, for the purpose
of bringing salvation to man.
• John 6:38 “For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will,
but the will of Him who sent Me”.
• Luke 19:10—Jesus came to seek and save the lost.
• BOTH WERE SENT FAR FROM HOME TO PREACH
• As both Jonah and Jesus were sent to far flung places to preach God’s
word, so, too, are Christ’s disciples sent into the world (Mark 16:15) with
His gospel.
• While the mission was accomplished within a generation (Colossians 1:5-6),
it is a need that is constantly renewed.
• ONE HATED HIS AUDIENCE
• Jonah 1:3
• He planned to flee as far west (Tarshish—modern day Spain) as he
could.
• Jonah so despised his audience that he fled in the total opposite direction
to avoid his duty.
• The Assyrians had done horrible things to his people, and he did not want
to preach to them which might bring blessings from God if they actually repented.
• THE OTHER LOVED HIS AUDIENCE
• The love of Christ is unfathomably wide, long, deep, and high. He loved
us enough to give Himself, and no height or depth can keep us from that love.
• Ephesians 3:14-19 “For this reason, I bow my knees before the Father,
from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that He would
grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power
through His Spirit in the inner man; so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through
faith; and that you being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend
with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to
know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to
all the fullness of God”.;
• THE OTHER LOVED HIS AUDIENCE
• Ephesians 5:2 “and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you,
and gave Himself up for us, and offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant
aroma”.
• Ephesians 5:25-32 –the comparison of the love of a husband wife
as to the church and our love for Christ
• Romans 8:38-39 “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life,
nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, not powers,
nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate
us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord”.
• John 13:34 --We ought to love as He has loved us.
• ONE WAS SACRIFICED BECAUSE THE SEA WAS RAGING
• Jonah 1:4-13
• Jonah was tossed overboard because he was the cause of the tempest.
• As soon as he was tossed overboard, the sea quieted down and the ship
and its crew was saved.
• THE OTHER WAS SACRIFICED BECAUSE THE HEATHEN WERE RAGING
• Jesus died because the nations raged.
• Peter prayed in Acts 4:25-28 “who by the Holy Spirit, through the
mouth of our father David Thy servant didst say, ‘Why did the Gentiles rage,
and the peoples devise futile things? The kings of the earth took their stand,
and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord, and against His Christ’.
For truly in this city there were gathered together against Thy holy servant Jesus,
whom Thou didst anoint, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles
and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever Thy hand and Thy purpose predestined
to occur”.
• If He was hated, so, too, will His disciples be hated.
• John 15:18 “If the world hates you, you know that it hasd hated
Me before it hated you”.
• ONE VOLUNTARILY SACRIFICED HIMSELF FOR THE LIVES OF THE SAILORS
• Jonah 1:12
• Jonah was thrown overboard by the mariners because he told them to do
it, knowing full well he was the cause of their grief.
• THE OTHER VOLUNTARILY SACRIFICED HIMSELF FOR THE SINS OF THE WORLD
• When Christ was crucified it was because He laid His life down.
• His death was His idea.
• John 10:17-18 “For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay
down My life that I may take it again. No one has taken it away from Me, but I
lay it down on My own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and I have
authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from My Father”
• THE OTHER VOLUNTARILY SACRIFICED HIMSELF FOR THE SINS OF THE WORLD
• Those for whom Christ died ought also to die for Him, figuratively speaking
– devoting their lives to Him.
• 2nd Corinthians 5:14 “For the love of Christ controls us, having
concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died;”
• Galatians 2:20 “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no
long I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the
flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and delivered himself up
for me”.
• ONE WAS SENT TO DEATH BY THOSE RELUCTANT TO BEAR HIS BLOOD
• Jonah 1:14-15
• To their credit, the mariners who jettisoned their accursed passenger
were more than hesitant to do so. It was only at Jonah’s insistence and
the persistence of the storm that they dropped him into the sea, all the while
begging God not to hold them accountable for his blood.
• THE OTHER WAS SENT TO DEATH BY THOSE EAGER TO BEAR HIS BLOOD
• In sharp contrast, those who pressed for Christ’s execution not
only welcomed His blood on themselves, but wanted their progeny to share in it,
as well.
• Matthew 27:22,25 “Pilate said to them, ‘Then what shall I
do with Jesus who is called Christ?’ They all said, ‘let Him be crucified”
(25) And all the people answered and said, ‘His blood be on us and on our
children’.”
• How quickly Jesus’ haters forgot!
• Acts 5:27-28—”bring this man’s blood upon us”
• BOTH WENT TO SHEOL/HADES
• Jonah 1:14-2:2
• From the belly of the fish, Jonah claimed to be in Sheol, which is the
Hebrew word for where the dead are.
• Of course this is figurative language. I’m sure Jonah considered
his life to be over at that time.
• BOTH WENT TO SHEOL/HADES
• Hades is the Greek way of saying Sheol, and it is where Jesus was between
death and resurrection.
• The comfortable side of Hades is called Paradise, or Abraham’s bosom,
and it is situated in Hades across a broad gulf from the place of torment.
• Acts 2:25-31—David spoke words, and peter assured them that David
died and is buried in a tomb nearby, but Jesus would not see decay and Hades could
not contain Him.
• Hades will eventually yield the dead to judgment.
• Revelation 20:13 –the sea, death and hades gave up the dead in them
for judgment.
• BOTH WERE PRESERVED MIRACULOUSLY
• Jonah 1:17; 2:6-10
• Jonah’s salvation from the deep came by way of a specially prepared
fish swallowing him whole, keeping him in its belly without digesting him and
with sufficient air to breathe, and then vomiting him onto land.
• Jesus likened His own burial to Jonah’s time in the fish’s
belly.
• Matthew 12:40 “for just as Jonah was three days and three nights
in the belly of the sea monster, so shall the Son of Man be three days and three
nights in the heart of the earth”.
• Although Christ had died and was buried, His body never underwent decay.
Hades could not prevail against the kingdom Jesus would build.
• It was through resurrection from the dead that Jesus Christ was preserved.
• BOTH PREACHED REPENTANCE
• Jonah 3:1-4;
• Although the word “repent” does not appear in the narrative,
the notion is clearly implied by the fact that God intended to destroy Nineveh
for her sins, but still sent Jonah to warn the Ninevites, which warning would
be unnecessary unless He expected them to repent.
• BOTH PREACHED REPENTANCE
• Jesus was very direct in his message of repentance.
• Mark 1:14-15 “And after John had been taken into custody, Jesus
came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, and saying, ‘The time is
fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel’.”
• Luke 13:3 “unless you repent, you will die in your sins.
• BOTH PREACHED REPENTANCE
• The Lord said that the Ninevites repented when Jonah preached. What they
did was to turn from their evil ways. Matthew 12:41; Jonah 3:10;
• Both John the Baptist and Paul the apostle taught that repentance must
bear fruit.
• Matthew 3:8; Acts 26:20
• The Ninevites’ repentance involved changing their clothes. Likewise,
turning to Christ involves putting off old, bad habits, and putting on Christ
Himself. Jonah 3:5-6; Colossians 3:8-10
• BOTH PREACHED REPENTANCE
• Our opportunity to repent is the only thing keeping God from destroying
earth now.
• 2nd Peter 3:9—the longsuffering of God is our salvation…
• Repentance is more than godly sorrow; it is change based on that sorrow.
It takes more than talk.
• 2nd Corinthians 7:10 “For the sorrow that is according to the will
of God produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation…”
• Matthew 21:28-32—parable of two sons each said one thing but did
the opposite.
• ONE WAS RECEIVED BY STRANGERS
• Jonah 3:5;
• Luke 11:32 “The men of Nineveh shall stand up with this generation
at the judgment and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah;
and behold, something greater than Jonah is here”
• Jonah was a foreigner to the people to whom he preached (and he hated
them), but they repented when he preached.
• THE OTHER WAS REJECTED BY HIS OWN PEOPLE
• Jesus is the son of David and Abraham, the Jew of all Jews, the fulfillment
of prophecy, but His own people rejected Him.
• John 1:11 “He came to His own, and those who were His own did not
receive Him”.
• Matthew 13:53-57—Jesus was rejected in His hometown. The people
could not believe that their homegrown carpenter’s son could have such wisdom.
• ONE WAS FILLED WITH DISPLEASURE BY THE GOOD RESPONSE TO HIS PREACHING
• Jonah 4:1-4
• When the Ninevites accepted Jonah’s word and altered their ways,
the prophet pouted.
• THE OTHER IS FILLED WITH PLEASURE BY THE SAME
• Jesus taught that all of heaven is filled with joy over one sinner repenting.
• Luke 15:7,10 –joy in heaven over one repentant sinner
• Luke 15:11-32—the parable of the prodigal son.
• ONE WAS SELFISHLY SORROWFUL
• Jonah 4:5-11
• While he sat, pouting over Nineveh’s great response to his message,
Jonah was given miraculous shelter by God that God then removed.
• He whined about that, too.
• THE OTHER IS SELFLESSLY SORROWFUL
• When Jesus lamented it was because people refused to listen and obey.
• Luke 19:41-44—Jesus wept over Jerusalem because He knew what sort
of people were there.
• Matthew 9:36—Jesus felt compassion because they were like sheep
without a shepherd.
• The salvation of others is Jesus’ one concern.
• Ephesians 5:25—He gave Himself up for her(the church)
• 1st Timothy 1:15—Christ came to save sinners.
• CONCLUSION
• So, what was the sign of Jonah?
• The most obvious reference is to the three days and nights in the belly
of the great fish which represents sheol.
• God did not need to give the unbelievers any other sign than one that
had already been given to them.
• It did not change God’s people then, so a new sign would not have
persuaded them in the time of Christ.
• Don’t let your unbelief keep you from accepting Christ into your
life.
By Carey Scott from an outline by Bryan Dockens
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