My primary ministry must take two major tracks. Before the general world, I lift up Christ – the Saviour. Our message must be – “Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is none other name under Heaven, given among men, whereby ye must be saved.” And then as we see here in Matthew, and in the writings of Paul, and of Peter, and of James….. I must help the Christian to know the Saviour better than you knew Him last week. To know His sacrifice; “to know the love of Christ which passeth all understanding.” That ye “might be filled with all the fulness of God.” To know Christ’s will for our lives; to know His commandments; to know HIM. In these two things God is glorified in His church. This morning, it is primarily with our first objective that we look at this scripture.
As we try to learn of Christ, one thing of extreme importance is to see His resurrection. I know that in the chronology of Matthew that resurrection is still a long way off. But, because of its importance, the Lord introduces it to us rather early in His ministry. And later we shall see that the resurrection was a primary theme of the Apostles.
In order to understand what Lord tells us here, we have to know little about the Book of Jonah. 850 years before Christ, Assyria, with Ninevah as its capital, was an up and coming nation. And in those days, Jehovah chose to display His marvelous grace upon those people. When the child God reaches Heaven he may find hundreds, if not thousands, of Assyrians there. Each one them will have been saved from his sin by God’s grace, received and understood through faith. Those Assyrians will have been saved in exactly the same way as anyone is today. There is absolutely no other way of redemption. But God doesn’t save and forgive sinners against their will – He changes their will. In Ninevah’s case, that meant that a preacher was necessary to tell those heathen about their sin and about deliverance. The evangelist which God chose to send to Assyria was Jonah. But in Jonah we see a bigoted Israelite, who was not really willing to be God’s missionary to those people. And that man in trying to flee from God’s commission was swallowed by a huge sea creature. Don’t let the world tell you that this was impossible, because “with God all things are possible.” And don’t think that there has to be a scientific explanation, because that is not necessary. For three days Jonah was carried about in the belly of that whale, fish or whatever. He was protected, yet punished by the Lord, for his terrible attitude and rebellion against the divine will. But after he repented of his sin, God ordered that fish to spit out the prophet onto the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea.
In addition to understanding all this, we must also understand Jesus’ audience that day in Matthew 12. Some troublemakers were wanting Christ to entertain them with more miracles. They were not interested in Jesus the Messiah, but only Jesus the miracle worker. They wanted Helen Keller more than they did the Son of God.
And finally, in order to understand this scripture, we must understand just a little about Jesus Himself. For example we note that He fully accepted the story about Jonah. Whereas some critics laugh, calling Jonah the largest fish story ever told – a lie – Jesus teaches us that it is true; therefore it must have actually occurred as described. Secondly we must realize that Jesus knew full well that He would soon be crucified. And, too, he knew that death would not be able to hold Him The grave would be forced to release His body, and He would live again even after His death.
Christ said, Jonah and the whale are an illustration, a picture, a “type” of me. As Jonah was three days and three nights inside the dark belly of that whale, so shall I be three days and three nights inside the dark confines of a tomb. But, as Jonah came out of his tomb, so shall I. As Paul will later write, Jesus was “declared be Son of God with power, according to spirit of holiness, by His resurrection from the dead.”
The illustration was really very simple, but at same time spectacular. No doubt thousands of great sermons have been preached from this very text. But am not going to follow the same path as most of them, pointing out how Jonah and Jesus are similar.. I want to twist things around in order to teach else about Christ and about salvation. My thoughts are predicated on this – how can anything on earth illustrate the perfection found in Christ? The picture of Jonah is marvelous and somewhat accurate, but he falls far, far short of my Saviour. The picture of Ninevah is good, but not good enough for the Jewish Pharisees, or even for us. In what ways does Jonah NOT illustrate Jesus?
First, Jonah DID NOT WANT to be a sign at all.
I assume that you have read and studied the Book of Jonah. I don’t know about you, but when I read of that heathen city repenting of its sins – I am amazed. I praise God for opening up those wicked, depraved hearts, and I ask Him do it some more. It wasn’t just the preaching of Jonah which sank into the minds of Nineveans. Do you suppose that someone had seen the miracle of Jonah’s resurrection from the fish? Did the word precede Jonah into the city – “this was that prophet who was clinically dead.” Not only did he bear the message of God, but Jonah was himself a sign to his hearers, just as Christ is sign to us today. Luke 11:30 says, “For as Jonas was a sign unto the Ninevites, so shall also the Son of man be to his generation.”
But again, Jonah didn’t want to be a sign.; He didn’t even want to be a preacher to those enemy idolaters. When the Lord first told Jonah to walk north up to Ninevah, he bought tickets on a ship heading west. In this, Jonah less a picture of Christ than is a cat squashed on the road.
Beloved, Jesus Christ was born into this world for one primary purpose; to be swallowed by death. He said, “ I am come to seek and to save that which was lost.” “For God sent not his Son into world to condemn, but that the world through through him might be saved. “This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners….” There was only one way for Christ to save those sinners – by taking their place in death. “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree.” “For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit.” He said, “I am the good shepherd, the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.” Not for single moment did the Lord Jesus try to hide from His eternal purpose – to die a most horrible for the salvation of His elect. Rather He steadfastly set his face toward Jerusalem, knowing full well what awaited Him there.
Jonah may picture Christ in His death and resurrection, but not in His purpose.
Another difference can be seen in Ninevah – THAT CITY was not seeking a sign from God.
Those scoundrel Pharisees came asking for more proof that Jesus was Who He said was. “Give us more signs and prove yourself with those delightful miracles.” That was certainly different from the spiritual climate in Ninevah. “Jehovah who? Oh, you mean the God of those troublesome Israelites. What need have we of Him. We have plenty of religion and gods up here in Assyria.” What prompted the sign of Jonah’s resurrection? Why was it sent? Why did God send His prophet with words of judgment and salvation to a people who wanted none of it? The people of Ninevah and the Pharisees were entirely different in so many ways, while still lost and hell-bound.
But praise God, the Lord is merciful and full of grace. Despite the image left by the hyper-Calvinist; God “takes no pleasure in death him that dieth.” There was not one Ninevite, nor Pharisee, who didn’t deserve to spend eternity in the fires of Hell. But God said, “I delight in the salvation and deliverance of those wicked, undeserving people.” Truly, “God is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and plentious in mercy.” That is still the motivation behind God’s salvation today – grace. “For my name’s sake will I defer mine anger, and for my praise will I refrain for thee, that I cut thee not off.” “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us.” The Saviour acted in grace towards thousands of unworthy, heathen, foreign sinners. I pray that He will again this day.
Another difference between the illustration and its fulfillment can be seen in….
What the sign DID for those who received it.
In Ninevah, when the raised-dead man preached coming judgment, the people listened and began to fear. Their reaction wasn’t natural; there isn’t any logical explanation. The people of Israel were a nation of sheep – with their culture, economy and lives in shambles, while Assyria was one of the greatest nations in history. Why should the people of Ninevah have any concern over one lone, half-hearted Israelite prophet? But the Holy Spirit, taking hearts like vacuums, filled them with grief, fear and repentance. Miraculous. Jonah 3 says, “So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them. For word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and he laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. And he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste any thing: let them not feed, nor drink water: But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God: yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands. Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not?” The people of Ninevah were truly broken and in anguish over their sins. They pleaded with God to forgive them – in other words – to save them from the promised wrath. And the Lord did exactly that – “God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not.”
But what about those Pharisees in Jesus’ day? Although a handful of their number later came to Christ, the vast majority died rejecting Him. “He came unto His own and His own received him not.” The Jews all saw the sign of Jesus’ resurrection, but they denied that it was true. They said that someone had stolen the body of Christ. They actually paid the Roman guards to say that they had fallen asleep letting thieves come along. They denied the testimony of over five hundred people who said that they had seen the Dead – alive. They denied the changed lives of the eleven timid disciples. In other words, despite the facts, they REFUSED to believe. “Don’t waste your time telling us the truth, we are determined to believe the lies.”
It is still that way today, despite the additional witness of hundreds of thousands of God’s saints. There is peace and joy; there is assurance of Heaven; there is forgiveness of sin in Christ. “How shall they escape if they negelct so great salvation?” There is no escape at all. But the sinful world would rather face that risk than to submit to Christ. In this case, the Ninevites are a better illustration than the people of Jesus’ day.
There is one sign which MADE THE PEOPLE MORE GUILTY than they were before.
Jonah had not become fish food because of anything that the people of Ninevah had done. None of them made him try to run from God’s commission. They didn’t toss him into the sea. They didn’t make him do anything that he didn’t really want to do. Ninevah was completely guiltless of any responsibility as far as Jonah’s pain or anguish was concerned.
But after Jesus spoke to the Pharisees about his death, they took him and gave Him to the Romans for crucifixion. They helped to produce the very sign for which they were looking and then ultimately rejected. What they did was to commit the most heinous sin and crime in human history. In other words, they became even more guilty when rejected Christ because of their role in producing the sign. The resurrection of Christ proved that some of the most religious people on earth were just hell-bound rebels. After Peter met the risen Saviour, he began to preach more earnestly to those same murderers. He declared, “You took Jesus, the One proven to be all that He ever claimed about himself. He was proven by miracles, and wonders, and signs which God did by Him in your very presence.” “Him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain. Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death; because it was not possible that he should be holden of it.”
What I am trying to say is that Israel was more guilty after the sign than before sign. That is not the way that it was in Ninevah. But still it meant nothing to most of those Jews – they simply didn’t care. And it is still the same way today. No, perhaps none of us are guilty of participation in the actual crucifixion. But we still live in the light of the sign of Jesus’ resurrection. And yet there are millions of people – including lots of church-goers – who stick their noses in air and say that just don’t care that Christ Jesus was crucified. Guilty – gulty, guilty, guilty; “Know ye not that the goodness of God, leadeth thee to repentance” and redemption? Oh, what ignorantly sinful people we are.
There is absolutely NO COMPARISON between what Jonah SUFFERED and what Jesus SUFFERED.
I’m sure that Jonah was cramped, uncomfortable, and, for a while, scared to death inside that fish. But he was miraculously maintained by the Omnipotent God. Again, don’t look for some natural explanation for his preservation inside that fishy stomach. Bible sceptics want to have an answer of which the scientist can approve – I don’t need or want one. I believe that Jonah was kept alive by the power of God, unto a very special salvation.
Jonah was unhappy inside that fish, but his suffering can’t be compare to Jesus’ suffering and death. First, Christ’s face was beaten almost beyond recognition. Many were astonished when the looked at him. “His visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men.” It is a medical fact that there are more nerve endings in the wrist and hand than anywhere else in the body. Somewhere into those hands were driven crude and ugly, spike-like nails. There were no nails in the hands of Jonah. Thorns penetrated the skin and flesh of Jesus’ head. The rough wood of the cross slivered into His shoulders. The tails of the whip had cut into the flesh of His back and sides. His tormentors ridiculed him and spit upon Him. Perhaps things were thrown at Him as He trudged along towards Golgatha. Jonah got to miss these sorts of things. Porbably Jonah must have been embarrassed about his plight, but no one saw him but the Lord. On the other hand, as Jesus hung on cross He was likely striped naked, or nearly so. And the whole world looked upon Him in disgust and utter shame. Then as our Saviour hung there for several hours, the pain of hell rippled through His body.
There is no comparison between the suffering of Christ and what little Jonah suffered. But Jesus endured it patiently, because through this pain the salvation of thousands would come. Through this death, Christ’s life could be passed on to all those who would repent and call upon the Lord. Sinners are saved through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And that leads to one other point….
There was an infinite difference in WHAT Jonah and Jesus ACCOMPLISHED.
When that prophet entered Ninevah, he preached that judgment was going to descend upon those people. All that he did was to preach of the wrath of God – and he apparently did it with joy. Other than that joy, that is the kind of ministry every prophet and preacher ought to have. My friend, “except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish.” “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord.” And you know, the Lord accomplished that eternal life, much to the bigoted anger of Jonah. After his preaching, the prophet of God can only step back and watch the Lord work.
But when Christ arose from the grave, He arose with healing in his wings. Jonah preached and then watched; Christ died and then applied – His own sacrificial blood. In another illustration Jesus said, “This is my blood which is shed for many for remission of sins.” “Christ was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities…” “For God hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.” It was Christ Jesus who said, “I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish….”
In several ways Jonah is a picture, or type, of Christ, and in some ways he could never be. But you could help him to be just what Jesus said that he was – If you would respond to the message of Christ, the way that Ninevah responded to the message of Jonah. Judgment is coming, just as Jonah said, but Christ has tasted that judgment on the cross. “Verily, verily, I say unto you He that heareth (His) invitation, and believeth on him that sent Him, he hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.” I plead with you to make Jonah a picture of Christ by repenting before God and putting your faith in the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ.