The Sign of Jonah

Matthew 12:38-42

The Sign of Jonah

If you are seeking a sign, see the Savior in the Scriptures

Transcript

An evil an adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given 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. The queen of the
south will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for she
came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold,
something greater than Solomon is here. The word of God. Would you pray with me
this morning? Father, thank you so much for this moment that we have together as
your people under the authority of your word. Lord, your word is life giving. It
is strengthening. It is purifying. And so we pray as the word goes forward that
your hand of blessing would accompany it, that you would build up your people
and give us a greater love for the Bible and for Christ as a result of our time
together. Lord, I pray for those who may not know you. I pray that you would
begin to work in their lives and draw them to the knowledge of Christ. In all
things we ask that you might be glorified in Jesus' name, amen. Doubt. It's a
struggle that we all face. What if the Bible, for example, or Christianity,
isn't true? What if Jesus isn't really who he claimed to be? Maybe he is, but
what if my faith isn't strong enough? And how can I really be 100 percent
certain that any of this is true? Now, it might be a fleeting thought. The truth
is, it might be a long, ongoing battle. But either way, all of us have moments
or times when we doubt. So the question is, when the doubts arise, and they
will, what do you do? Where do you turn to in order to find assurance or
confidence in the claims of Christ? Now, it's tempting to think that if God
could just show us a sign, like we would be set. Like, God, if you can just
prove to me that you are who you claim to be, just show me a belief, a trust. No
more struggle, no more doubt. No more questions. We wait for a sign. But the
truth is, God actually has already given us a sign. It's a sure and steady sign.
It's a sign that strengthens our faith. And for the Christian, it fuels our
sanctification. And that sign is right here in the scriptures. And so as we open
up Matthew 12, here's what we're going to see this morning. If you're seeking
for a sign, then see the Savior in the scriptures. If you're seeking for a sign,
see the Savior in the scriptures. And so this passage can be broken up into two
parts. First, verses 38 through 39, seeking a sign. Then 39 through 42, seeing
the Savior in scriptures. Let's begin Matthew Chapter 12, 38 through 39, seeking
a sign. The scripture reads, then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered
him, 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. So the scribes and the Pharisees answered him.
Who are these guys and what are they actually responding to? So all through the
New Testament, we read about this group called the scribes and the Pharisees are
not the same, but they're the kind of key influential religious leaders of the
day. So the scribes, they're scholars, highly educated experts in the Jewish
law. They interpreted, they taught the Old Testament. They actually copied and
preserved the sacred texts. And many times when it came to questions about the
law, they would function as judges or advisers, obviously an important group in
the life of the people of Israel. Now, the Pharisees were a strict movement of
individuals who prided themselves in being the protectors of the law and the
oral traditions that have been passed down from generation to generation. In
other words, these were guys who in theory knew their stuff. They knew the
scriptures, they studied the scriptures. Interestingly enough, throughout the
New Testament, these were the very same people who consistently opposed Jesus,
even though there were men of the word that continued to reject. The man that
the word pointed to. So that's who these guys are, but what are they responding
to? What are they answering here? So earlier on in Matthew, Chapter 12, we see
that Jesus is teaching. Jesus is working miracles. And this is, of course,
problematic to these key leaders, because the people, the crowds are shifting
their allegiance away from the scribes and Pharisees onto this itinerant
preacher. And so Jesus has just performed a miracle, casting out a demon out of
a man. And the Pharisees rebuke Jesus and they say, well, you know, he's just
casting this demon out through the power of Satan. This is a strong accusation.
And so then Jesus in turns rebukes them for condemning him as working in the
power of Satan. And he urges in the crowds to evaluate him and the Pharisees on
the basis of the fruit or outcome that's being demonstrated in their lives. He
says, by their fruit, you will know them. Look and see who's truly teaching the
truth. And so the scribes and Pharisees, obviously offended and very
uncomfortable by Christ's words, try to shift the focus away from the fruit of
Christ by demanding a spectacular sign from Christ to prove once and for all
that Jesus is who he claims to be. And so they come to him and they say. In a
diplomatic way, teacher, we want a sign. Something spectacular, something
miraculous sign on demand. And if you just show us a sign. That'll be enough.
We'll believe we'll follow. Notice how Christ responds. But he answered them.
Verse thirty nine, an evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign. But no
sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. Now, when you
read verse thirty nine, you might think, whoa, wait a minute. Like, is Christ
just like going off on these folks who are asking to see a sign to to know the
truth? Is that how Christ responds when we have doubts and we have questions?
Let's be clear. There's a big difference between sincere questions about matters
of faith and doubts and then just plain hard hearted unbelief and skepticism.
Big difference between these two. Needless to say, the sign that the Pharisees
sought after wasn't exactly a sincere request. These were individuals that had
heard Christ teachings. They had witnessed his miracles. They attempted, of
course, to discredit the miracles. But as students of scripture, they should
have known who Jesus was. In their presence is the Messiah, the promised one who
fulfills all of God's promises, the deliverer who will redeem and rescue his
people. He's standing right there. And it's not enough. It's not enough. You
see, the problem in their case wasn't a lack of science. They've got Jesus
standing right there. The problem. Was their proud, stubborn, self-centered
unbelief. A problem, sadly, that isn't just reserved. For these folks. It's a
problem that exists today. In fact, you might be here and you're not following
Christ. You've heard the preaching, you've heard the teaching, you have the
scriptures, but you're not convinced. You think, well, you know, I mean, this is
good stuff. And I mean, the way of Jesus is good. It's good to do good. But I'm
not really ready to commit to following Jesus. There's just not enough proof
that Christianity is 100 percent the only way. I just don't know if I could I
can do that. I think I need something more. You're going to have to really
convince me that Christ is the way. You may have sincere doubts. But maybe the
real problem isn't a lack of evidence. It's a lack of humility. The truth is
that pride, fear. The desire for control, the desire to live life, our own way
keeps people from following Jesus. Just like the Pharisees, you might be here,
you know the truth, you've heard the truth, you've seen the evidence of the
truth, and yet you're like, I don't think so. Friend. Don't let pride. Keep you
from coming to Jesus. Don't let the desire to control keep you from the one who
is sovereign. Overall. Jesus says that for those who know the truth and yet
reject the truth, they are an evil and adulterous generation, they're faithless.
They've turned away from the Lord and his word. They love life their way. And so
they seek a sign. But Jesus says they won't get one. Except the sign of the
Prophet Jonah. Fascinating. So in his response, he says, no, I'm not going to
give you this spectacular sign, but you actually already have a sign. It's a
sign that strengthens the faith of God's people, but it also helps the seeker
discover the truth. And so in verses 39 through 42, we move from seeking a sign
to seeing the Savior in scripture. Let's look at verses 39 through 42. He says
no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah, the prophet. 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. The queen of the south will rise up at the judgment with this
generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the
wisdom. Of Solomon and behold, something greater and Solomon is here. So you can
imagine the conversation. If you put yourself in the shoes here, you might say,
OK, Jesus, how can we be 100 percent certain that you're really the son of God?
How can we know beyond any shadow of a doubt that you are the Messiah sent by
God to rescue humanity and to renew all of creation? How do we know? Jesus says,
great question. Take your Bible and turn to Jonah. Now, that's probably not the
first place that I would have gone to, but Jesus is doing something here. Now,
of course, over the past few weeks, we've been working through the book of
Jonah. So we know the story of Jonah, a story that Jesus actually proves is a
historical event. You have the prophet called by God to warn the Ninevites,
these evil pagan people of impending judgment for their sin. And Jonah says, not
today or any day. I'm out. He runs away. He goes the opposite direction, away
from the presence of God. And we read that of the story in Jonah, how he
continues to go down, down, down, down, down. We find him down into the bottom
of the boat. And of course, God continues to pursue his prophet. He sends a
storm. The storm then, of course, is a sign that obviously God is doing
something and the sailors are terrified. They eventually go down. They wake up
Jonah and they say, Jonah, call out to your God. And eventually, of course,
Jonah is cast into the sea. And what happens after Jonah is cast into the sea? A
large fish, a whale swallows him up and he descends even further. Into the
depths of the sea. And three days and three nights, he's there. But then God
raises him up. The the whale or fish or whatever that thing was, it spit him out
right where he needed to be so that he could go and preach God's message to
God's enemies. And what did the people of Nineveh do? From the greatest to the
least, they repent. They turn to the Lord. Why? Because God had authenticated
both the message and the messenger by delivering him up from the whale,
delivering him from essentially death. Figuratively speaking, he was raised from
the dead. And Jesus says, And so it will be with me. God will authenticate his
divine messenger, the Lord Jesus, and the gospel message that he preaches by
raising him from the dead. Not figuratively, but literally. And so God says, or
Jesus says here in this passage, hey, the sign that you seek is actually found
right here. In the book of Jonah, because Jonah isn't just about Jonah. It's
actually a sign of Christ. Now, to be clear, there's obviously some big
differences between Jonah and Jesus. Jonah is a unwilling messenger of mercy.
And yet Jesus willingly leaves heaven's throne. Jonah descends into the depths
of the earth because of his own sin. Jesus descended into the earth. Because of
our sin. Jonah hated his enemies, but Jesus redeems his. As a messenger of
mercy, Jonah was only a shadow, but Jesus is the substance. Of course, in the
story of Jonah, the people of Nineveh believe God, they repent. And Jesus says
to these Pharisees, there's someone there's something far greater that Jonah
right here. In your midst. So you see what Jesus is doing here? In essence, he's
stating that the sign that you seek. Is the savior in scripture. And so instead
of pointing up to a miraculous sign, he points back to the Old Testament. And in
doing so, Jesus is actually demonstrating that the Bible isn't just a collection
of random, disconnected stories. You know, I asked the kids this morning about
their favorite stories, got some interesting answers. We all have our favorite
stories. And oftentimes when we think of the Bible, we can kind of think about
these different stories and their moral application and forget that the Bible
isn't just a collection of random stories like Aesop's Fables with good lessons.
Dare to be a Daniel. Be more like David. Don't be like the bad guys. But
actually, the Bible is one unified divine book, a divine story that reveals the
glory and story of Jesus. It's really all about him. And so the sign that we
need is right here in scripture. Jesus told the Pharisees earlier on in John,
Chapter five, you search the scriptures, you know the Bible because you think in
the Bible there is eternal life. And that's true. But this book bears witness
about me. It's about me, Jesus says in Luke, Chapter 24, as Jesus is on the road
to Emmaus with his disciples who are who are wrestling with the fact that Christ
has just died. He proclaims to them that everything written about me in the law
of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms that covers all the genres, if you
will, of the Old Testament, must be fulfilled. And he opened their minds to
understand the scriptures. And when he did that. The disciples commented later
that their hearts burned within them, they knew that what he was saying was true
and that they could place their confidence and trust in his word. And so Jesus
is saying here that if you're looking for a sign. Just see the savior. In
scripture. Now, the question becomes, how do we see the savior in scripture,
especially from the Old Testament? I mean, when I'm reading the Book of Jonah,
is it really about Jesus? Well, the answer is, yeah, it really is. And we see
the savior in scripture, at least based on Christ's pattern here in three
distinct ways. Number one, the scripture shows us our need of a savior. The
scriptures show us our need of a savior. You see, the Pharisees and scribes
thought they needed a sign like that would be enough. But Jesus shows them. That
he is enough. And that he's greater than any sign that they could seek. What
they really need isn't more evidence. They need the one who fulfills the law and
the prophets, who is the promised one. They need Jesus. And like the Ninevites,
they need to believe God and repent because the greater messenger of mercy is in
their midst. And so as we read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, it becomes
painfully evident that we need a savior. Because when we read the scriptures, we
see God's holiness. We see his perfection. That he is distinct and set apart. He
is pure and righteous. And the more we see who God is, the more than we see who
we are. We're sinful, proud, fallen, corrupt. We see the stories of scripture
and time and time again, we see how prone we are to wander from our creator, how
our hearts are naturally rebellious to him. That even our righteous deeds in
comparison to God's holiness are like filthy rags. So we see that we are undone,
unable to do anything to make ourselves acceptable to God. Even as we read of
the heroes of the faith, we see that we need a better prophet. We need a better
priest. We need a better king. We need, as Jesus said to these scribes and
Pharisees, something greater. And that something greater is Jesus. And so when
we read the scriptures. It ought to show us our need of a savior, but secondly,
it reveals God's saving plan and promises in the savior. It reveals from Genesis
to Revelation that it's actually a book about how God is pursuing and redeeming
fallen sinners for his glory through Jesus. That's the unifying thread that ties
all the scripture together from the promise that God gave all the way back to
Adam and Eve in the garden, to the covenants that he makes with Abraham, David
and the prophets, from Jerusalem. To Nineveh, we see that our God is a God who
is on mission. He's a savior. He makes plans, he makes promises, and all of
these promises. His great saving plan finds its perfect fulfillment in Jesus,
and it's all working toward that great end. And then thirdly, we see that the
scripture testifies to the Savior's character and work. We're talking
specifically about the Old Testament here, but the scriptures bear witness about
him. They reveal who he is and what he's come to do by way of comparison,
contrast or analogy. In Luke chapter 24, when Jesus is on the road with his
disciples to Emmaus after they had observed and witnessed the death of Christ,
not knowing of the resurrection of Christ. They're perplexed, they're confused,
they're discouraged, they're downtrodden. They said, we were waiting for the
Messiah and we thought that Jesus was the one, but he's dead. But then there's
these ladies who are talking about the fact that he rose again and we just don't
know what to believe. We've got doubts. We've got discouragement. And then Jesus
graciously ministers, and he reminds them that it was necessary that the Christ
should suffer and enter into glory. And then beginning with Moses and all the
prophets, he interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning
himself. I mean, that would have been a doozy of a sermon. Like if that's one
sermon that I could sit under and listen to, that would be the one where Jesus
just takes this book and he says, I'm going to show you how it's all about me.
It's not just about Jonah. It's about Jesus. It's not about this person or that
person. It's about the greater prophet, priest and king, the greater messenger
of mercy sent by God who rises from the dead to offer eternal life, everlasting
life to any who repent and believe. And so the scriptures, as Jesus shows us,
give us a sign showing us our need of a savior, revealing God's plan and
promises in the savior, testifying to his character and to his work. Now,
friends, what happens? What happens when we begin to see the sign of Christ in
scriptures, when we begin to look at God's word through that lens? There's two
things that happen. Number one, it strengthens our faith. We have doubts. We
struggle at times. So the temptation is to say, we just need a sign. We need
something more, something bigger, something greater. Actually, what we need is
just to open the Bible and see the savior in scripture once again. And when that
happens, our faith is strengthened. That's exactly what happened to those men
who were on the road to Emmaus. When they heard Christ teach and showed them how
it all points to him, they said to one another, did not our hearts burn within
us when he talked to us on the road, when he opened to us the scriptures?
Friend, we all have doubts. We all have time to struggle. And we're tempted to
look here or there. We're tempted to perhaps even just quench those doubts. But
when the doubts arise, go back to the word. And when you go back to the word and
you begin to see how it all points to Jesus, you look and say, only God could
have done that. Only God could do that. Think about the Bible. We've got 66
books written by more than 40 human authors over a time frame of 1,500 years.
Like that's a long time. They don't have WhatsApp. They don't have Slack. They
don't have any of these different things that they can coordinate to make sure
they're all saying the same thing. And yet when they write, no contradictions,
perfect unity, it all comes together in Jesus. You can't do that. You can't make
that up. Perfect unity. Perfect fulfillment. Promises kept. Promises made.
Promises kept. And when you see that, you latch onto that, you can say, you know
what? That is enough. That is a sure and steady sign. And when you see it, it
just strengthens your faith. It really does. Number two, it also fuels your
sanctification. Sanctification is a big word. It simply means our Christian
growth, becoming more and more Christ-like in our character and in our conduct.
In 2 Corinthians, we read that when we behold the glory of Christ in Scripture,
the Spirit of God changes us to become more and more like the Son of God. That's
actually how we grow. It's how we change. When we begin to see the beauty and
the goodness of God's character as revealed in the person and in the work of
Jesus Christ, and we see it and we dwell on it and we think about it, and then
we respond in worship and praise and adoration, God changes us through that. He
changes us through that. This is why Jesus doesn't just show a sign. He says,
here it is. Right here. In the Word. And it's sufficient. And it will strengthen
your faith and it will fuel your sanctification. That's good news. Because it's
right here in the Scripture. You have it. I have it. Will we open it and read it
and believe it? The truth is that all of us have times of doubt. Maybe you're
here and you're a skeptic. Maybe you've got genuine questions. Maybe you're
following Christ and yet there's those moments, those nagging questions and
doubts that arise in your mind. Regardless of where you're at, you might be
tempted in those moments to just think, God, just show me a sign. Do something
great. But the truth is, He's already given you a sign. And so if you're seeking
a sign, just see the Savior in the Scripture. And when you do, it's going to
strengthen your faith. And it's going to fuel your sanctification. Let's pray.
Father, we thank you for your Word. We thank you how it all points us to the
Lord Jesus. We thank you for how great our Savior is. From Genesis to
Revelation, Lord, we see that you are a God who is on mission to redeem, pursue,
transform sinners through the Lord Jesus to the praise of the glory of your
grace. And we give you praise for that. Lord, help us day by day to open your
Word and pray the simple prayer, show us Christ. And Lord, as we do, I pray that
your Spirit would take your Word and the sight of your Son and strengthen our
faith and fuel our growth for your glory, for our good. We pray this in Jesus'
name. Amen.