WEBVTT 00:00:00.560 --> 00:00:03.120 Jonah 1, verse 17. 00:00:03.919 --> 00:00:08.560 And Yahweh appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah. 00:00:08.880 --> 00:00:15.199 And Jonah was in the belly of the fish for three days and three nights. 00:00:15.599 --> 00:00:21.440 This is one of the most simple and straightforward verses in the book of Jonah. 00:00:21.600 --> 00:00:22.879 It's simple and straightforward. 00:00:22.960 --> 00:00:24.559 You understand immediately what happened. 00:00:24.800 --> 00:00:30.399 Jonah, as we saw in the beginning of chapter one, was thrown overboard by the sailors. 00:00:30.559 --> 00:00:33.119 He thought he was going to be left for dead in the water. 00:00:33.200 --> 00:00:37.439 It was his goal to leave this world and to end his life. 00:00:37.600 --> 00:00:51.679 And instead, he was swallowed up by a great fish that was sent, appointed, is the word in the SV, by the Lord, and the fish held Jonah for three days and for three nights. 00:00:52.079 --> 00:01:03.520 The reason I want to spend one sermon just looking at this verse is because this is the verse that Jesus chose as the text for one of his most significant and influential sermons. 00:01:03.679 --> 00:01:11.359 It's a sermon that was in his wilderness time, where Jesus had just done a series of miracles in Matthew 8 and in Matthew 9. 00:01:11.439 --> 00:01:20.480 He had healed scores of people, and the crowd had begun to follow him and congregate around him, and the Pharisees had turned against him. 00:01:21.040 --> 00:01:25.519 If you remember the context of this, Jesus had healed a leper. 00:01:25.680 --> 00:01:29.200 He had healed the servant of the centurion. 00:01:29.359 --> 00:01:32.400 He had healed countless people, including a demoniac. 00:01:32.480 --> 00:01:36.799 He had crisscrossed around the Sea of Galilee, healing people every which way. 00:01:36.959 --> 00:01:41.359 He had fed the five thousand in this part of his ministry. 00:01:41.840 --> 00:01:50.799 And after all of this, the crowd began to focus on him, and the Pharisees begin to turn their hostility towards him. 00:01:50.959 --> 00:02:04.239 And it came to a head on a particular Sabbath when Jesus was walking through the wilderness towards Capernaum for the synagogue that he often attended, and his disciples were plucking grain with their hands and rolling the grain in their hands. 00:02:04.319 --> 00:02:06.319 And the Pharisees demanded answers from Jesus. 00:02:06.480 --> 00:02:13.599 How is it that his disciples could do that and so flagrantly violate the Sabbath restrictions in their mind, of course? 00:02:13.919 --> 00:02:22.159 Jesus rebukes them and he proclaims to the Pharisees that his disciples could do whatever they wanted on the Sabbath, because the Sabbath was his day. 00:02:22.240 --> 00:02:23.759 He is the Lord of the Sabbath. 00:02:23.840 --> 00:02:33.120 And those to the Pharisees were very provocative fighting words that Jesus was declaring that he is the Lord of the Sabbath, the one whom the seventh day was supposed to honor. 00:02:33.199 --> 00:02:38.240 Remember, the Sabbath is the most critical, essential part of the Jewish calendar. 00:02:38.400 --> 00:02:41.120 Their whole life revolves around the celebration of the Sabbath. 00:02:42.240 --> 00:02:44.879 Many of the Phariseal restrictions were about the Sabbath. 00:02:45.039 --> 00:02:48.719 And here Jesus comes in and says that the Sabbath is his day. 00:02:48.879 --> 00:02:50.960 It's for worship of him. 00:02:52.400 --> 00:02:55.039 And this shocked the Pharisees. 00:02:58.800 --> 00:03:05.759 And then Jesus goes from there to the synagogue, and in the synagogue, on the Sabbath, is a man with a withered hand. 00:03:07.120 --> 00:03:15.360 And Jesus then puts the Pharisees in the ultimate dilemma when he heals the man with a withered hand just by a look. 00:03:15.520 --> 00:03:20.639 And then he asks the Pharisees, Is it lawful for me to heal this man on the Sabbath or not? 00:03:20.800 --> 00:03:31.840 Remember, the Pharisees had prohibited any in their definition of working on the Sabbath, and they taught that, you know, turning dirt was working or lifting something of a certain weight was working. 00:03:32.080 --> 00:03:36.960 Well, certainly Jesus is a miracle worker, healing a man with a withered hand in their mind was working. 00:03:37.120 --> 00:03:40.879 But if you notice, Jesus exerted no energy in doing so. 00:03:41.039 --> 00:03:44.560 He didn't lift his own hand to heal the man's hand. 00:03:44.960 --> 00:03:50.960 And so the Pharisees couldn't very well accuse him of working on the Sabbath because he didn't move a muscle. 00:03:51.120 --> 00:03:52.560 And what were they going to say after all? 00:03:52.719 --> 00:03:57.360 That it is unlawful to heal with a look a man with a withered hand on the Sabbath? 00:03:57.439 --> 00:03:59.199 I mean, how do you critique that? 00:03:59.439 --> 00:04:02.080 Obviously, Jesus was a miracle worker. 00:04:03.360 --> 00:04:11.360 Instead, the Pharisees deduced that Jesus must be able to cast out demons by the power of the devil. 00:04:12.479 --> 00:04:32.480 This is after Jesus had calmed the storms, after Jesus had healed the demoniac, after Jesus had healed the leper, after Jesus had healed the man with a withered hand, after Jesus declared he was the Lord of the Sabbath, after all of this and so much more, the Pharisees say, He must heal people by the power of the devil. 00:04:32.639 --> 00:04:44.160 And this was so outrageous that Jesus sort of pulls the car over when it comes to dealing with the Pharisees here, and he preaches a sermon directed at their thoughts. 00:04:44.959 --> 00:04:55.279 It's described in Luke 11, it's described later on or after Matthew 12, and it is one of the most significant and influential sermons of Jesus' ministry, I think. 00:04:55.439 --> 00:05:00.000 It's noteworthy because Luke betrays it after a day of teaching in the wilderness. 00:05:00.160 --> 00:05:02.560 It's the good fruit, bad fruit sermon. 00:05:02.639 --> 00:05:12.079 It's where Jesus lays out for everybody that you can tell the power and the veracity of a teacher by the fruits their ministry produces. 00:05:13.279 --> 00:05:17.519 What he means by that is that the ministry of Jesus has produced repentance. 00:05:17.680 --> 00:05:19.519 The ministry of Jesus has produced life. 00:05:19.680 --> 00:05:23.040 The ministry of Jesus has produced literally resurrection. 00:05:23.279 --> 00:05:27.680 In contrast, the ministry of the Pharisees has produced burdens. 00:05:36.319 --> 00:05:42.079 Meanwhile, the Pharisees are bringing darkness and death and burdens wherever they go. 00:05:43.600 --> 00:05:47.040 Now, how did the Pharisees respond to that? 00:05:48.079 --> 00:05:54.800 They responded by telling Jesus, really asking Jesus, can you give us a sign? 00:05:57.040 --> 00:05:58.000 Certainly. 00:05:58.240 --> 00:06:02.879 This is one of the most outlandish questions in the Bible. 00:06:03.519 --> 00:06:09.680 After having watched Jesus, he has raised dead people back to life by this point. 00:06:10.000 --> 00:06:11.519 He has healed the blind. 00:06:11.680 --> 00:06:15.920 He has multiplied fish and loaves for thousands of people. 00:06:16.160 --> 00:06:18.720 He has rebuked the wind and the waves. 00:06:18.959 --> 00:06:26.639 And after all of that, including the healing of the man of the withered hand, that had just recently happened in Capernaum. 00:06:27.120 --> 00:06:34.079 After all of that, they say, you know, we would entertain this if only you gave us a sign. 00:06:35.120 --> 00:06:39.040 That is such an amazing display of recalcitrance. 00:06:40.160 --> 00:06:47.040 And Jesus' reply to them, he says, Oh, you are a wicked and adulterous people. 00:06:48.079 --> 00:06:54.560 You will get no more signs, he says, except for the sign of Jonah. 00:06:56.240 --> 00:07:00.800 Now, truth be told, there are other signs in the future of Jesus' ministry after this point. 00:07:00.879 --> 00:07:02.800 He's going to raise Lazarus from the dead. 00:07:03.040 --> 00:07:08.879 In fact, the last sign he really gives the Israelites and his life directed at the Pharisees was the sign of the fig tree. 00:07:09.040 --> 00:07:12.560 Remember, he cursed the fig tree, and the next day it had withered. 00:07:13.600 --> 00:07:19.839 But in this rebuke to the Pharisees, he says, You will get no other sign other than the sign of Jonah. 00:07:20.000 --> 00:07:23.199 He's zeroing in on what their problem is. 00:07:23.439 --> 00:07:30.079 The Pharisees would not believe Jesus no matter what he did, because their hearts were hard. 00:07:30.240 --> 00:07:33.519 They did not see themselves in need of repentance. 00:07:35.360 --> 00:07:37.360 And so Jesus takes them back to Jonah. 00:07:37.519 --> 00:07:45.680 Now we have covered this many times in our series through the book of Jonah so far, but the Pharisees really rejected Jonah as a prophet. 00:07:46.399 --> 00:07:50.480 The whole Jonah affair was scandalous in their mind. 00:07:50.720 --> 00:07:54.879 It was scandalous because, remember, the Pharisees wouldn't even identify with Jonah. 00:07:55.040 --> 00:08:01.360 Jonah was sent to the Gentiles because Israel wouldn't receive him, Israel wouldn't repent at his preaching. 00:08:01.519 --> 00:08:05.519 So God sent the prophet of Israel to the Gentiles. 00:08:05.759 --> 00:08:07.920 Jonah preached to the Gentiles. 00:08:08.079 --> 00:08:16.639 The Gentiles converted and received forgiveness and a display of God's kindness that was available to Israel, but they had continually rejected it. 00:08:17.839 --> 00:08:24.240 And because of that, the Israelites and the Pharisees, they perhaps would have identified with Jonah, but not with his ministry. 00:08:24.399 --> 00:08:41.200 They would have identified with Jonah with his attitude at the end of the book, where he was bitter about what was happening to Nineveh, because there was no revival coming to Israel, bitter at what was happening with the pagans and the those that were brutal to each other. 00:08:41.360 --> 00:08:46.159 The Ninevehs were the most brutal people in the world, and yet they were receiving forgiveness. 00:08:51.519 --> 00:08:57.279 And the Pharisees will not turn and believe the message of Jesus. 00:08:57.600 --> 00:09:03.200 Meanwhile, the centurion servants, some Roman the Roman centurion is following Jesus. 00:09:03.279 --> 00:09:07.039 A demoniac Gentile is believing in Jesus. 00:09:08.879 --> 00:09:19.679 And yet the Pharisees are hard-hearted, and Jesus exposes their rampant hypocrisy by driving them to what he calls the sign of Jonah. 00:09:20.159 --> 00:09:23.679 Now there's an interesting chronological problem in Jesus' statement, isn't there? 00:09:23.840 --> 00:09:26.639 You will get no other sign other than the sign of Jonah. 00:09:26.799 --> 00:09:30.799 The sign of Jonah happened 800 years before Christ. 00:09:32.399 --> 00:09:39.759 But notice in Jesus' rebuke to the Pharisees, the whole analogy really hinges on Jesus connecting himself to Jonah. 00:09:40.159 --> 00:09:43.200 Jonah was not connecting to the Pharisees in Jesus' mind. 00:09:43.440 --> 00:09:45.360 Jesus is connected to Jonah. 00:09:46.320 --> 00:09:49.759 The Ninevehites are connected to the Israelites, then. 00:09:50.399 --> 00:09:53.600 If they will repent, they will be forgiven. 00:09:54.240 --> 00:10:03.360 Again, this is very provocative towards the Pharisees, very provocative towards the Israelites, because they would not want to identify with the Ninevites. 00:10:04.000 --> 00:10:06.080 They despised this whole affair. 00:10:06.240 --> 00:10:15.279 And now Jesus is identifying himself with the prophet to the Ninevites and telling the Pharisees, if you identify with the Nineveh, perhaps there will be forgiveness for you. 00:10:15.440 --> 00:10:18.240 They wanted a sign from Jesus after all they saw. 00:10:18.399 --> 00:10:21.039 Instead, they get a rebuke from Jesus. 00:10:22.159 --> 00:10:25.360 And in that rebuke, Jesus connects himself to Jonah. 00:10:25.600 --> 00:10:27.360 Now, how is Jesus like Jonah? 00:10:27.440 --> 00:10:28.720 I mean, there are so many ways. 00:10:28.879 --> 00:10:31.600 Both were sent by God to Israel's enemies. 00:10:32.159 --> 00:10:39.840 Both were sent by God to Israel's enemies with a message of destruction and yet also a message of hope. 00:10:40.320 --> 00:10:43.440 The hope is predicated upon repentance and faith. 00:10:43.600 --> 00:10:46.240 Nineveh would be spared if they repented from their sins. 00:10:46.320 --> 00:10:48.080 We'll get to this in Jonah chapter 3. 00:10:48.159 --> 00:10:51.120 And if they placed their faith in the truth of the message. 00:10:51.360 --> 00:10:55.759 The same thing is true for the Israelites under the light under the preaching and the ministry of Christ. 00:10:55.919 --> 00:11:01.360 If they repent from their sins, this is what John the Baptist had told them repent from your sins and you can have forgiveness. 00:11:02.159 --> 00:11:06.000 Both Jonah and Jesus came bringing a message of grace. 00:11:06.399 --> 00:11:07.600 A message of grace. 00:11:07.840 --> 00:11:11.200 There was no effort, there was no works to be done. 00:11:11.600 --> 00:11:13.840 It was a gospel of grace. 00:11:28.879 --> 00:11:33.360 But the key parallel between Jonah and Jesus is one we haven't looked at so far. 00:11:33.600 --> 00:11:40.639 The key parallel between the two of them is that the truth of their message hinges on the sign. 00:11:41.919 --> 00:11:43.679 It hinges on the sign. 00:11:44.320 --> 00:11:54.480 The sign of Jonah, that he would be swallowed by a whale and would be buried in the ocean for three days and then resurrected on the shore. 00:11:54.639 --> 00:12:03.200 That is what gives Jonah's preaching ministry its power, its authenticity, and the same will be true for Christ. 00:12:04.000 --> 00:12:12.720 And so because Jesus drew his attention to Jonah chapter 1, verse 17, I want to draw our attention there this morning as well. 00:12:12.879 --> 00:12:15.200 And I want to give you this outline in this way. 00:12:15.360 --> 00:12:18.559 I want to describe it as the sign that is on the door. 00:12:19.200 --> 00:12:23.440 Sign that is on the door for the gospel for the Gentiles. 00:12:23.600 --> 00:12:28.159 I want you to picture the Gentiles having to walk into the gospel. 00:12:28.879 --> 00:12:32.320 The gospel becomes a door for them to walk into salvation. 00:12:32.480 --> 00:12:35.919 They have to walk in through this door. 00:12:36.080 --> 00:12:38.159 And this door has three words on it. 00:12:38.399 --> 00:12:39.519 It has three words on it. 00:12:39.679 --> 00:12:43.600 Those three words are death, descent, and resurrection. 00:12:43.759 --> 00:12:46.799 Now that door is how the Israelites will access the gospel. 00:12:46.960 --> 00:12:49.279 That door is how the Gentiles will access the gospel. 00:12:49.519 --> 00:12:52.320 And that door is how you and I will access the gospel. 00:12:52.480 --> 00:12:59.519 We will walk into the gospel through a door that has the words death, descent, and resurrection on it. 00:12:59.600 --> 00:13:08.159 It is with the death and the descent and the resurrection of God's messenger that we, like the Ninevites, will encounter the grace of God. 00:13:08.320 --> 00:13:10.720 Let's look at these three one at a time. 00:13:11.279 --> 00:13:16.320 First, that we'll look at is the death of the messenger, the death of the messenger. 00:13:16.480 --> 00:13:20.080 And Yahweh appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah. 00:13:20.240 --> 00:13:25.120 Now I know it doesn't say Jonah died there, but you need to appreciate this verse from Jonah's perspective. 00:13:25.440 --> 00:13:28.000 Jonah thought he was going to die. 00:13:28.480 --> 00:13:35.519 This sign hinges or begins when the prophet gets sovereignly swallowed up by a great fish. 00:13:35.759 --> 00:13:39.279 Now we know that Jonah doesn't die in the fish because this is Jonah chapter 1. 00:13:39.360 --> 00:13:40.799 There's still three more chapters to go. 00:13:41.120 --> 00:13:51.759 If you're watching a movie and the lead character is in some life and death peril, and the, you know, 20 minutes into the movie, you know he's not going to die because there's the rest of the movie still has to take place. 00:13:51.919 --> 00:13:53.360 In a sense, Jonah is like that. 00:13:53.440 --> 00:13:56.879 We know he's not going to die here because we got several more chapters to go. 00:13:57.120 --> 00:14:05.279 Nevertheless, I want you to appreciate this when Jonah is thrown overboard, he thinks he's going to his death, and then he gets swallowed up by a fish. 00:14:05.440 --> 00:14:09.039 That does not amount to a rescue from his perspective. 00:14:09.600 --> 00:14:12.720 If anything, that will prolong the agony with his death. 00:14:12.879 --> 00:14:21.840 If you're reading a story or a novel and the a person in the novel gets eaten by a shark, that doesn't mean like, oh, he got rescued. 00:14:21.919 --> 00:14:24.960 If he gets gobbled up by a fish, you don't think, oh, phew, that was close. 00:14:25.039 --> 00:14:26.320 No, it's over for him. 00:14:26.559 --> 00:14:27.919 It's over for him. 00:14:28.240 --> 00:14:30.639 Getting swallowed by a fish means you're dead. 00:14:30.799 --> 00:14:34.000 It's rather a worse means of death than merely drowning. 00:14:35.039 --> 00:14:37.120 And so this is what happens to Jonah. 00:14:37.200 --> 00:14:39.840 Don't get sidetracked by what kind of fish this is. 00:14:39.919 --> 00:14:42.399 I have a picture of a whale on the slide. 00:14:42.639 --> 00:14:43.919 Many people think that it's a whale. 00:14:44.000 --> 00:14:47.440 There are whales that are big enough, a sperm whale is what many books say. 00:14:47.679 --> 00:14:51.039 This could have been in the Mediterranean Sea at this time of year. 00:14:51.200 --> 00:14:53.120 Who knows what kind of fish it was? 00:14:53.200 --> 00:15:00.879 If it was a giant kind of shark, if it was a giant kind of whale, if it was some ginormous fish, it doesn't really matter. 00:15:01.039 --> 00:15:07.039 The reason people go with whale is the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament, calls it a whale in the New Testament. 00:15:07.279 --> 00:15:11.440 But it calls it a whale in this text, but that doesn't really matter. 00:15:11.519 --> 00:15:13.279 Don't get sidetracked by the kind of fish. 00:15:13.840 --> 00:15:21.840 Get sidetracked really by the miraculous nature of what happens here, that Jonah went overboard to his death and God sovereignly appointed a fish. 00:15:22.000 --> 00:15:29.919 God commanded a fish or a whale or what have you, and the fish went right on schedule and fetched Jonah from the sea. 00:15:30.480 --> 00:15:33.279 Would you rather drown or be eaten by a fish? 00:15:34.240 --> 00:15:40.480 Let me submit to you that if you find yourself having to make that choice, you have made some bad life decisions to get to that point in your life. 00:15:40.720 --> 00:15:42.559 And so it is with Jonah. 00:15:42.879 --> 00:15:49.039 You know, as I mentioned, Jonah's not going to die because there's more to this book, but his death will be prolonged, at least in his mind. 00:15:49.200 --> 00:15:54.480 Calvin writes, quote, the Lord drew Jonah, as it were, by force to his tribunal. 00:15:54.639 --> 00:15:57.919 And he must have suffered a continual execution there. 00:15:58.000 --> 00:15:59.840 And I love the way Calvin says that. 00:16:00.000 --> 00:16:03.759 This is God bringing his judgment to Jonah. 00:16:04.559 --> 00:16:07.039 Jonah had been fleeing from God's judgment. 00:16:07.200 --> 00:16:09.679 Jonah had been fleeing from God's appointed trial. 00:16:09.840 --> 00:16:11.440 He was on the run from the Lord. 00:16:11.519 --> 00:16:12.879 That's very clear in chapter 1. 00:16:13.039 --> 00:16:14.960 Jonah was trying to get away from God. 00:16:15.120 --> 00:16:23.039 If he thought he went as far away from Israel and as far away from where God told him to go as possible, that he would be spared God's judgment. 00:16:23.360 --> 00:16:25.759 The Lord pursued him, the Lord found him. 00:16:25.919 --> 00:16:31.519 Jonah thought, if I go overboard and die, the Lord can't get me, and the Lord fetched him even there. 00:16:34.399 --> 00:16:36.320 And that's the point we talked about last week. 00:16:36.480 --> 00:16:43.519 Remember that the sailors, when they cast Jonah overboard, thought they were sending him to his death because that was the means of their own salvation. 00:16:43.759 --> 00:16:50.240 The sailors were caught in the storm, they were caught in the wrath of God, and they knew to appease the wrath of God there had to be a death. 00:16:50.399 --> 00:16:52.240 There had to be a sacrifice. 00:16:52.559 --> 00:16:54.080 This is true throughout the Bible. 00:16:54.240 --> 00:16:56.960 Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins. 00:16:57.200 --> 00:16:57.919 Abel knew this. 00:16:58.000 --> 00:17:00.639 For Abel to have his sins forgiven, there had to be a death. 00:17:00.799 --> 00:17:02.080 Cain denied this. 00:17:02.320 --> 00:17:07.200 Cain rejected the demand for death, the demand for blood, and offered grain instead. 00:17:07.359 --> 00:17:11.359 The Lord was pleased with Abel's sacrifice and not with Cain's. 00:17:12.000 --> 00:17:24.160 The Lord requires the shedding of blood for the forgiveness of sins, and the Lord accepts in the Old Testament the shedding of the blood of a substitute for the forgiveness of sins. 00:17:24.319 --> 00:17:31.279 You put an animal forward in your stead, and that animal propitiates God's wrath for your sins. 00:17:31.519 --> 00:17:45.359 Now we recognize that the Old Testament animals did not actually in themselves atone for sins, but they were arrows pointing to the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ, who Himself would be the final and ultimate sacrifice to take away sins. 00:17:45.519 --> 00:17:51.599 All of the Old Testament sacrifices were merely indicating or pointing or prophetic of the sacrifice of Christ. 00:17:51.839 --> 00:17:54.160 And so it is with Jonah's sacrifice as well. 00:17:54.400 --> 00:17:57.440 He was thrown overboard as a sacrifice for sin. 00:17:57.599 --> 00:18:02.720 By his death, he is offered to assuage God's wrath, to propitiate God's wrath. 00:18:02.880 --> 00:18:06.400 God accepts the sacrifice and removes his wrath from the sailors. 00:18:06.559 --> 00:18:08.799 The storm immediately dies down. 00:18:09.119 --> 00:18:12.799 Immediately, the sailors are soundly converted. 00:18:12.960 --> 00:18:19.039 That's the point of this: that Jonah's death, Jonah's offering into the ocean, is a death. 00:18:19.119 --> 00:18:22.640 It's symbolic, of course, a big arrow that points towards the death of Christ. 00:18:22.720 --> 00:18:33.599 It's a sign, and listen to this: like all Old Testament sacrifices, Jonah going into the drink and then into the fish is a sign pointing towards the death of Christ. 00:18:34.559 --> 00:18:38.880 And that's why Jesus says, you get no more signs other than the sign of Jonah. 00:18:39.200 --> 00:18:48.640 He's tying his own death as the consummation or as the fulfillment as the intended object of the death of Jonah. 00:18:50.480 --> 00:18:52.640 Now we understand what a sign is. 00:18:52.880 --> 00:18:54.559 A sign isn't the actual thing. 00:18:54.720 --> 00:18:56.160 A sign points towards that thing. 00:18:56.319 --> 00:19:04.559 If you're on 395 and you see the 395 and the big green sign that says next exit Etsel Boulevard, you come to church and you see next exit Etsel. 00:19:05.279 --> 00:19:09.440 You don't mistake the sign that says Edsel for Edsel Boulevard. 00:19:09.599 --> 00:19:11.440 You don't think the sign is Edsel. 00:19:11.920 --> 00:19:14.000 You recognize it's pointing to Edsel. 00:19:14.319 --> 00:19:15.759 And that's the way it is with Jonah. 00:19:15.920 --> 00:19:18.400 Jonah's death, Jonah is not the Savior. 00:19:18.720 --> 00:19:23.599 In fact, he didn't actually literally die here, although he thought he was, and the sailors thought he was. 00:19:24.000 --> 00:19:29.759 His going into the water and into the fish is a sign that points you to the death of Jesus. 00:19:29.920 --> 00:19:31.599 Jesus calls it a sign. 00:19:32.000 --> 00:19:33.440 It's pointing towards him. 00:19:33.759 --> 00:19:45.200 Well, the truth behind this sign is that God's wrath must be propitiated by a death, by the shedding of blood. 00:19:45.920 --> 00:19:50.960 God is too holy to merely turn the other way and look away from sin. 00:19:51.279 --> 00:19:56.880 He must punish sin, and he does so through death. 00:19:57.599 --> 00:19:59.519 The wages of sin is death. 00:19:59.680 --> 00:20:02.319 And the soul that sins will surely die. 00:20:02.480 --> 00:20:04.480 When you sin, you deserve death. 00:20:04.720 --> 00:20:15.279 You will die physically because sin works its way out in the world in the form of physical death, and you will die spiritually as well, unless there is a substitute for your sin. 00:20:15.519 --> 00:20:18.400 This was the preaching of Jonah in Nineveh. 00:20:18.640 --> 00:20:22.240 This is the preaching of Jesus in Israel, and this is the gospel preaching today. 00:20:22.480 --> 00:20:29.680 If you are a sinner and you are a sinner, there is no hope of salvation for you unless someone dies in your place. 00:20:30.559 --> 00:20:33.839 And then God doesn't accept just any death either. 00:20:34.240 --> 00:20:37.200 The person who dies in your place must be sinless. 00:20:37.359 --> 00:20:38.559 They must be a substitute. 00:20:38.720 --> 00:20:42.559 They must be able to take the wrath of God from God onto themselves. 00:20:42.640 --> 00:20:46.720 And of course, the only substitute that is true of is Jesus Christ. 00:20:46.960 --> 00:20:50.720 And that's why the first word on the gospel door is the word for death. 00:20:50.880 --> 00:20:52.400 You want to have your sins forgiven. 00:20:52.559 --> 00:20:55.599 The only way into that is through the door that is marked death. 00:20:55.759 --> 00:20:59.039 There must be someone who dies for your sins. 00:20:59.279 --> 00:21:02.000 The second word on that door is the word descent. 00:21:02.640 --> 00:21:04.160 It is the word descent. 00:21:04.960 --> 00:21:10.400 Jonah was in the belly, verse 17 says, of the fish for three days and three nights. 00:21:10.559 --> 00:21:12.880 Jonah descends into the water. 00:21:13.039 --> 00:21:14.799 He descends into the grave. 00:21:14.960 --> 00:21:20.880 He descends, to quote Psalm 116, into the belly of the earth, into the death. 00:21:21.039 --> 00:21:23.119 He's wrapped up in the seaweed. 00:21:23.200 --> 00:21:25.519 He goes down, down, down. 00:21:26.480 --> 00:21:30.880 When people die, the Bible describes them as going to a place called Sheol. 00:21:32.000 --> 00:21:34.079 Now, Sheol is the realm of the dead. 00:21:34.160 --> 00:21:35.519 This is Old Testament language here. 00:21:35.680 --> 00:21:38.000 Sheol is the realm of the dead in the Old Testament. 00:21:38.240 --> 00:21:45.599 Sheol is where every human soul dies before Christ, they go into Sheol, the world of the dead. 00:21:45.839 --> 00:21:51.519 When a person dies, their body goes into the ground and their soul goes to Sheol. 00:21:52.240 --> 00:21:59.839 Sheol contains, to use modern New Testament language, Sheol contains hell, and Sheol contains the realm of the righteousness. 00:22:00.160 --> 00:22:00.640 Righteous dead. 00:22:00.720 --> 00:22:04.160 When a righteous soul dies, it also went to Sheol. 00:22:05.759 --> 00:22:08.400 So Sheol is an all-encompassing term. 00:22:08.559 --> 00:22:11.119 Every soul who dies goes to Sheol. 00:22:11.359 --> 00:22:13.359 And they're speaking of before Christ here. 00:22:13.519 --> 00:22:16.799 Psalm 63, verse 9 calls it in the depths of the earth. 00:22:17.039 --> 00:22:21.359 Your body goes to the ground, your soul goes further to the ground, to Sheol. 00:22:22.160 --> 00:22:29.440 Jonah chapter 2, verse 3, looking ahead, Jonah describes his descent into the heart of the seas, he says in chapter 2, verse 3. 00:22:29.599 --> 00:22:34.640 The waters closed in over me to take my life, deep surrounded me, weeds wrapped around my head. 00:22:35.279 --> 00:22:36.480 I was at the root of the mountains. 00:22:36.640 --> 00:22:41.119 I went down to the land whose bars closed in around me forever. 00:22:41.599 --> 00:22:43.599 Jonah is describing his experience. 00:22:43.759 --> 00:22:51.599 He is descending, descending, descending, using language that the Psalms speak of to describe Sheol, the realm of the dead. 00:22:51.839 --> 00:23:00.720 In Jewish folklore, it took three days and three nights to journey to the underworld, to journey to Hades, the realm of the lost dead. 00:23:01.359 --> 00:23:11.759 Now, this is obviously what Jesus means in Matthew 12 when he cites Jonah 1, verse 17, that he will be dead for three days in the heart of the earth, he says in Matthew 12. 00:23:11.839 --> 00:23:17.119 That just like Jonah, Jesus will be dead for three days in the heart of the earth. 00:23:17.759 --> 00:23:22.319 As Jonah was in the belly of the whale, Jesus will go into the heart of the earth. 00:23:22.640 --> 00:23:25.359 For the Jews, to die was to go to Sheol. 00:23:26.240 --> 00:23:29.920 Thus a resurrection would be simply to return to this world from Sheol. 00:23:30.160 --> 00:23:32.240 That's the way Jews viewed the realm of the dead. 00:23:32.400 --> 00:23:36.799 Every dead person went to Sheol, the righteous would one day be resurrected. 00:23:37.920 --> 00:23:39.119 They hoped. 00:23:39.519 --> 00:23:46.960 Now, for Americans who generally do really bad with death anyway, we have a problem of Jesus when he dies going where dead people went. 00:23:47.039 --> 00:23:48.000 And Jesus certainly did. 00:23:48.160 --> 00:23:52.640 When Jesus dies, he says he goes into the belly of the earth, he goes down to the realm of Sheol. 00:23:53.839 --> 00:23:56.319 And we have a problem with that, generally thinking. 00:23:56.400 --> 00:23:58.720 Most of most Americans object to this teaching. 00:23:58.799 --> 00:24:01.839 I think it's a clear biblical teaching that Jesus descended into Sheol. 00:24:03.039 --> 00:24:04.880 The creeds declared it as well. 00:24:04.960 --> 00:24:07.119 We often take that sentence out of creeds. 00:24:07.839 --> 00:24:15.839 We say that Jesus was dead, buried, and descended into the grave or descended into Sheol, we often take that phrase out and said dead, buried, resurrected. 00:24:16.559 --> 00:24:19.039 You can't get to the resurrection until you go to Sheol. 00:24:19.680 --> 00:24:30.480 If human souls die and go to the realm of Sheol, then for Jesus to be truly human, he not only had to be born and then die a substitutionary death, his body was buried. 00:24:30.720 --> 00:24:36.480 For him to fulfill the human experience, he also had to go, his soul had to go to the grave. 00:24:37.200 --> 00:24:40.079 This is an essential part of believing in the resurrection, I think. 00:24:40.240 --> 00:24:44.240 To believe that Jesus really resurrected, you have to believe that he really did die. 00:24:44.960 --> 00:24:49.680 His body experienced death, his soul went to the world of death as well. 00:24:49.920 --> 00:24:54.559 There are 40 plus passages in the Old Testament that describe Sheol as the realm of the dead. 00:24:54.720 --> 00:24:56.480 They all point as it's down. 00:24:56.720 --> 00:24:58.079 Job 7, verse 9. 00:24:58.240 --> 00:25:01.200 Job writes, When one dies, their soul goes down to Sheol. 00:25:01.440 --> 00:25:05.440 Psalm 22, verse 29, all the prosperous of the earth eat and worship. 00:25:05.599 --> 00:25:11.440 Before him everyone bows down who goes down to the dust, even the one who couldn't keep himself alive. 00:25:11.759 --> 00:25:17.200 Your body returns to dust, your soul goes back down to the earth. 00:25:17.359 --> 00:25:18.160 That's the point. 00:25:18.319 --> 00:25:22.559 You live your life with sin dragging you down, dragging you down, dragging you down. 00:25:22.960 --> 00:25:28.480 Your sin finally wins and your body dies, your soul goes down into the earth. 00:25:28.640 --> 00:25:30.960 This is speaking of again before Christ. 00:25:31.359 --> 00:25:34.160 And Jesus would have experienced this as well. 00:25:34.559 --> 00:25:38.720 Peter hits this point in his Pentecost sermon, Acts 2, verse 27. 00:25:38.799 --> 00:25:41.680 Peter is quoting Psalm 16 and says it applies to Christ. 00:25:41.920 --> 00:25:44.400 Psalm 16 describes souls going down to Sheol. 00:25:44.640 --> 00:25:53.039 Peter quotes that passage in Acts 2, 27, and he says, You will not leave my soul in Sheol or abandon your holy one to corruption. 00:25:53.200 --> 00:26:01.359 So Peter claims that that verse describes Jesus' death, that Jesus' soul went down to Sheol. 00:26:03.039 --> 00:26:09.519 Psalm 16 becomes messianic because we know that Jesus' soul will not be left in Sheol, it will be resurrected. 00:26:09.680 --> 00:26:16.880 Paul says the same thing, Romans 10, verse 7, when he asks rhetorically, who can descend into Sheol to bring Jesus up from the dead? 00:26:17.039 --> 00:26:20.960 Where Paul describes the resurrection of Jesus as happening from Sheol. 00:26:23.599 --> 00:26:27.680 One of the reasons I think we have our time with this is because of what Jesus told the thief on the cross. 00:26:27.839 --> 00:26:29.119 Today you will be with me in paradise. 00:26:29.200 --> 00:26:31.359 And in our mind, paradise is up. 00:26:32.880 --> 00:26:34.880 If souls go down when they die, that's bad. 00:26:35.039 --> 00:26:36.079 Jesus certainly went up. 00:26:36.160 --> 00:26:39.119 He tells the thief on the cross, She'll be with me in paradise going up. 00:26:39.279 --> 00:26:42.000 But that is not the way the Jews understood paradise. 00:26:42.319 --> 00:26:48.319 In the Jewish mind, a soul dies, it goes down to the grave, down to Sheol. 00:26:48.640 --> 00:26:50.799 Sheol has two different areas. 00:26:50.880 --> 00:26:59.119 You could say compartments if you wanted to, but two different realms in Sheol, where you have the realm of the righteous, often called paradise or Abraham's bosom. 00:26:59.279 --> 00:27:02.319 That's where the soul goes who dies in faith. 00:27:02.480 --> 00:27:05.759 This is called by Job going to the land of rest. 00:27:05.839 --> 00:27:08.240 It's a land where you cease from striving. 00:27:08.319 --> 00:27:09.920 It's a land of mercy. 00:27:10.000 --> 00:27:13.119 And rest is the most common word for it in the Old Testament. 00:27:13.279 --> 00:27:18.160 The soul that dies and goes to the realm of righteous or to paradise is at rest from their striving and their labors. 00:27:18.400 --> 00:27:22.079 It doesn't mean soul sleep, it just means that they're no longer afflicted by sin. 00:27:23.200 --> 00:27:34.960 Meanwhile, those that die outside of faith in the Savior, outside of faith in God's promise, they die and they go to a realm, their soul goes to a realm of suffering and torment. 00:27:36.000 --> 00:27:41.440 When Jesus dies, he goes down to both of those places. 00:27:42.000 --> 00:27:46.880 And he proclaims the victory over sin that he achieved at the cross. 00:27:47.039 --> 00:27:52.799 He proclaims that in the realm of the lost dead, in the realm of those who are suffering for their sins. 00:27:52.960 --> 00:27:53.920 He proclaims victory. 00:27:54.000 --> 00:27:56.960 He proclaims victory to the angels that are there. 00:27:57.839 --> 00:28:00.079 This is hinted out in the New Testament as well. 00:28:00.160 --> 00:28:06.960 That's a different sermon, the angels that are there, but Jesus goes and proclaims victory to them, that he has conquered death. 00:28:07.039 --> 00:28:10.319 They've tried rebelling against God and rebelling against God's created order. 00:28:10.480 --> 00:28:16.319 And Jesus comes, the Son of God comes incarnate with a human nature who triumphs over death. 00:28:16.559 --> 00:28:21.279 And he goes and proclaims that over even the angels that are suffering. 00:28:21.680 --> 00:28:25.119 But the culmination of his journey is not in the realm of the lost dead. 00:28:25.200 --> 00:28:28.160 It's not in the realm of the angels who are in chains. 00:28:28.400 --> 00:28:34.559 His journey culminates in the realm of paradise, in the realm of Abraham's bosom, in the realm of the righteous dead. 00:28:34.720 --> 00:28:35.599 He goes to them. 00:28:35.759 --> 00:28:38.720 And imagine how they would have been longing for their Savior. 00:28:38.880 --> 00:28:44.799 They died in faith of the Savior, but they died not having received what was promised, Paul says at the end of Hebrews 11. 00:28:44.960 --> 00:28:48.960 They died in faith and did not receive what was promised, waiting for us. 00:28:49.200 --> 00:28:51.039 And so Jesus goes and gets them. 00:28:51.119 --> 00:28:52.559 He goes and gets those souls. 00:28:52.720 --> 00:29:04.640 And when he resurrects, he's going back up to earth and then back up to heaven, having liberated those souls, elevating those souls so that now he's exalted in heaven. 00:29:04.799 --> 00:29:12.240 Now he's exalted at the right hand of God in glory with the souls who have died in faith with him. 00:29:13.119 --> 00:29:21.680 And this is why when believers in the New Testament die, we do not go to Sheol, because Jesus has set those souls free. 00:29:21.839 --> 00:29:28.400 Believers in the New Testament who die, we go straight up to glory where we are with Jesus as well. 00:29:35.920 --> 00:29:40.160 In the Old Testament, before Christ, everyone who dies goes to Sheol. 00:29:40.720 --> 00:29:45.440 Some to the realm of suffering there, and those in faith go to a realm of rest. 00:29:46.960 --> 00:29:55.519 Jesus, when he dies, liberates those in the realm of rest, triumphing over the grave, and brings them up to glory. 00:29:56.000 --> 00:30:00.079 When Jesus resurrects, he goes to earth, then he goes to glory. 00:30:00.319 --> 00:30:07.680 And now when we die with faith in Christ, our bodies go to the ground and our soul. 00:30:07.839 --> 00:30:10.160 In the New Testament, it turns it, our soul goes up. 00:30:10.400 --> 00:30:12.319 In the Old Testament, the righteous dead went down. 00:30:12.400 --> 00:30:14.880 In the New Testament, the righteous dead go up. 00:30:15.119 --> 00:30:17.440 And we go and we join Jesus in the sky. 00:30:17.680 --> 00:30:18.480 We join Jesus. 00:30:18.559 --> 00:30:22.079 Our soul joins Jesus in heaven, even though our bodies go down. 00:30:22.720 --> 00:30:26.799 At the second coming of Christ, Jesus will descend. 00:30:27.599 --> 00:30:30.720 The souls who are in glory with him now will come with him. 00:30:31.039 --> 00:30:35.119 Our bodies will be raised from the earth and be joined together with our soul in the air. 00:30:35.200 --> 00:30:38.640 Our resurrected bodies, we will rule on this earth with Jesus. 00:30:38.799 --> 00:30:41.680 The souls of the lost dead will remain in Sheol. 00:30:41.920 --> 00:30:44.079 They'll remain down. 00:30:45.359 --> 00:30:52.319 Until ultimately after the kingdom, when Jesus will resurrect even those souls, they will get a new body and they will be cast into hell forever. 00:30:52.799 --> 00:30:57.680 That's the full scope of what happens to someone when they die. 00:30:58.160 --> 00:31:10.160 The point of the sign of Jonah, though, to get back to Jonah here, the point of the sign of Jonah is that as Jonah descended down to the grave, so Jesus will descend down to Sheol. 00:31:10.319 --> 00:31:12.240 That's the point Jesus makes in Matthew 12. 00:31:12.400 --> 00:31:18.079 He will descend to the grave to show that he is Lord even there. 00:31:18.400 --> 00:31:20.400 Notice how ironic this was to Jonah. 00:31:20.559 --> 00:31:24.640 Jonah thought he could escape God's judgment by escaping this world. 00:31:24.960 --> 00:31:29.359 He thought if he went far enough to the west, God wouldn't get him. 00:31:29.599 --> 00:31:32.000 He thought if he left this world, God wouldn't get him. 00:31:32.240 --> 00:31:33.920 Oh no, my friends. 00:31:34.240 --> 00:31:37.039 God is Lord even of Sheol. 00:31:37.839 --> 00:31:38.640 Even there. 00:31:38.960 --> 00:31:41.920 You can't escape Christ's lordship by dying. 00:31:42.160 --> 00:31:45.119 You can't escape Christ's Lordship by fleeing to Tarshish. 00:31:45.440 --> 00:31:48.319 You can't escape Christ's Lordship from leaving this world. 00:31:48.559 --> 00:31:50.319 First Corinthians 15, verse 3. 00:31:50.480 --> 00:31:54.319 Paul says, I delivered to you that which is of first importance, that which I also received. 00:31:54.480 --> 00:31:57.519 Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures. 00:31:58.240 --> 00:32:02.640 He was buried and he was raised on the third day in accordance with our scriptures. 00:32:02.799 --> 00:32:04.400 Don't miss the middle part of that. 00:32:04.559 --> 00:32:11.039 He died according to what the scriptures said, and he was buried according to what the scripture says. 00:32:11.279 --> 00:32:16.960 In Paul's mind, Jesus' triumph over Sheol is an authenticating part of his ministry. 00:32:17.119 --> 00:32:19.680 It fulfills the sign of Jonah. 00:32:20.400 --> 00:32:21.920 Deuteronomy 21. 00:32:22.160 --> 00:32:27.200