Jonah: The Miracle of the Fish

Introduction

Introduction.

, a narrative rich with themes of rebellion, despair, sovereignty, and grace

Rather, the lessons we learn from Jonah should challenge us to examine our own attitudes about God’s mercy and grace and about his desire to accomplish his purposes through us.

When a main character in a movie faces imminent death before the movie reaches the halfway point,

the audience holds their breath anxiously,  all the while knowing that the character will survive since there is still another hour left in the movie.

The same anxious anticipation holds the audience’s attention between 1:16 and 1:17[2:1].

Jonah has been hurled overboard, and I left you on the cliff edge of Jonah sitting in the water.

He is there  to describe the immediate abating of the storm and the response of the sailors (v. 16).

“How does he survive?” question that has been at the forefront of everyones minds.

The main character of Jonah to most people is the fish.

Thomas Carlisle said, “I was so interested with what was going on inside the whale that I missed seeing the drama inside Jonah.”

The other extreme is to ignore the fish altogether.

the question ultimately comes down to whether one believes Yahweh is big enough to accomplish such an amazing miracle as having a fish swallow a human, with the human surviving inside for three days and being spit out alive. Accepting such a miraculous claim must rely on faith in Yahweh to do such an amazing thing

When Jonah sank below the waves, God sent a “great fish” (not necessarily but probably a whale) to swallow him.

He kept him alive in the fish’s stomach for three days and nights and then the fish vomited him up on dry land.

Jesus was constantly being asked for a miraculous sign. This was supposedly to prove that he was who he claimed to be—the Son of Man, the Messiah promised in the Scriptures. On at least two of these occasions, Jesus responded by telling the enquirers that the sign they would be given would be quite different from that which they had in mind—it would be ‘the sign of Jonah’.

Jonah 1:17 NIV

Now the Lord provided a huge fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.

Jonah chose to flee from God’s command, boarding a ship headed in the opposite direction.

His disobedience led to a violent storm, threatening the lives of everyone on board.

Jonah, in an act of desperate resignation, told the sailors to throw him overboard, believing his death would calm the storm.

As he plunged into the depths of the sea, it must have seemed to him that his life was over.

Yet, in this moment of utter despair, we see the first glimmer of God’s redemptive plan.

When Jonah was thrown into the raging sea, it was to all intents and purposes a sentence of death. His sins had found him out. God’s perfect justice had caught up with him.

Point 1: Understand the miracle of the fish

Point 1: Understand the miracle of the fish

Jonah chose to flee from God’s command, boarding a ship headed in the opposite direction.

His disobedience led to a violent storm, threatening the lives of everyone on board.

Jonah, in an act of desperate resignation, told the sailors to throw him overboard, believing his death would calm the storm.

As he plunged into the depths of the sea, it must have seemed to him that his life was over.

Yet, in this moment of utter despair, we see the first glimmer of God’s redemptive plan.

When Jonah was thrown into the raging sea, it was to all intents and purposes a sentence of death. His sins had found him out. God’s perfect justice had caught up with him.

Is it possible?

Point 1: Understand the Miracle of the Fish

Is it Possible?: With God, all things are possible. Historical and theological evidence supports the feasibility of Jonah's survival in the fish.

Scripture: Matthew 19:26 - "With God all things are possible."

Story: The parting of the Red Sea (Exodus 14:21-22), where God performed a miraculous event that seemed impossible.

Matthew 19:26 NIV

Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

Is it probable?

Point 1: Understand the Miracle of the Fish

Is it Probable?: Given God's history of using miracles at strategic times, it is likely He would use one here to deliver a powerful message.

Scripture: Exodus 7:3 - "But I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and though I multiply my signs and wonders in Egypt, he will not listen to you."

Story: The miracles of Moses, such as the ten plagues, used to deliver the Israelites from Egypt (Exodus 7-12).

I will harden pharoes hearts.

verse 12 they thre down their staffs and they turned into serpents but Aarons staff swollowed up their staffs.Point 2: Recognize God’s power over everything

Exodus 7:3 NIV

But I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and though I multiply my signs and wonders in Egypt,

Exodus 7:12 NIV

Each one threw down his staff and it became a snake. But Aaron’s staff swallowed up their staffs.

Point 2: Recognize God’s power over everything

Point 2: Recognize God's Power over everything:

God's Power to Preserve: The story illustrates God's ability to keep His people safe until His purposes are fulfilled.

Scripture: Psalm 91:5-7 - "You will not fear the terror of night, nor the arrow that flies by day..."

God has the power to preserve

God's Power to Preserve: The story illustrates God's ability to keep His people safe until His purposes are fulfilled.

Scripture: Psalm 91:5-7 - "You will not fear the terror of night, nor the arrow that flies by day..."

Story: Daniel in the lion's den (Daniel 6:16-22), where God preserved Daniel's life against all odds.

Psalm 91:5 (NIV)

You will not fear the terror of night, nor the arrow that flies by day,

Psalm 91:6 (NIV)

nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness, nor the plague that destroys at midday.

Psalm 91:7 (NIV)

A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you.

Gad has the power to preserve you.

Reagrdless of your situastion or circumstance.

God can send a giant fish to your rescue.

If he can do that he can do anything!

God’s timing is perfect

God's Practice of Delaying:

God's deliverance often comes at the last moment to deepen our faith and dependence on Him.

Story: Fiery Furnace Daniel 3:17-18

Daniel 3:17–18 NIV

If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us from Your Majesty’s hand. But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.”

Point 3: We can learn to trust God more fully

Point 3: Learning from God's ways( To Trust Him Fully ):

God's Power to Purge: God uses unique and sometimes challenging methods to correct and guide His people back to the right path. Scripture: Hebrews 12:6 - "For the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes each one he accepts as his child."

One of the many things the book of Jonah forces us to consider is our theology of disobedience.

Yahweh allows Jonah to disobey. Why he allows this is unknown.

Yahweh could have stopped Jonah at any point along the way.

He could have stopped him in Joppa before he boarded the ship,

or even before he took that first step to flee.

Instead Yahweh chose to allow Jonah to get on the ship and begin his journey.

Perhaps one reason Yahweh allowed this is that he wanted to use Jonah’s disobedience to teach the sailors about himself (cf. Rom 8:28).

Or perhaps he knew Jonah needed to go through the discipline before he would be open to change.

Jonah’s rebellion shows that Yahweh allows disobedience, but he does not ignore it.

Our theology of disobedience also needs to include the truth that our disobedience can greatly harm other people

yet Yahweh can also use it for his glory

Point 4: See the contrast between Jonah and Christ

The contrast between Jonah and Christ

There are three points of contrast We are going to look at from Jesus Words

Jesus had just healed a demon possessed man.

This demonstration of divine power caused people to ask each other, ‘Could this be the Son of David?’ (i.e. the Messiah).

the Pharisees then declared Jesus to be demon-possessed himself:

Jesus immediately refuted this trumped-up charge and rebuked them

At this point, some of the Jewish theologians asked Jesus for a ‘miraculous sign’—ostensibly to settle the matter once and for all. Jesus’ response left them in no doubt as to what he thought of their request and their attitude.

He described them as a ‘wicked and adulterous generation’.

By implication he condemned their asking for a sign.

And he told them that the sign he would give them would be the ‘sign of Jonah’.

It is important to remember that these Jews were utterly insincere. They had already decided to kill Jesus (Matthew 12:14).

They were committed to discrediting him and destroying him and his movement. T

they were not even looking at the evidence, far less sincerely seeking further proof.

Matthew 12:39 NIV

He answered, “A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.

Knowing truth doesnt mean doing truth.

My kids tell me all the time they know something but it doesnt mean they are doing it.

Matthew 12:40 NIV

For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

Matthew 12:41 NIV

The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now something greater than Jonah is here.

They did not want to accept that he was the Son of God enfleshed. T

They wanted to prove he was just another impostor.

. They were offended by Jesus’ ministry and saw it as a threat to their own religion and their power as the ecclesiastical establishment.

;

And so Jesus said that no sign would be given, except that of the prophet Jonah

It would be a sign that would cut across all that they were looking for but point them unmistakably to the truth about Christ.

1. A different prophet

1. A different prophet

Jesus said, ‘And now one greater than Jonah is here.’ The whole doctrine of the person and work of Christ is comprehended in this expression.

Jonah was a man—like Adam, of the dust of the earth, a sinner who could not save himself, though a believer and a prophet of God.

But Jesus came

1 John 2:2 NIV

He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.

Lord of glory who would be crucified for the sins of the world, willingly and lovingly laying down his life for his enemies that he might give them eternal life and bring them into a saving relationship with himself.

the Lamb of God who would take away the sin of the world.

However amazing the ‘resurrection’ of Jonah and however revealing of the grace of God the sign of Jonah,

all is but the palest shadow of the revelation of God in the person and work of Christ, for he is ‘the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world’ (1 John 2:2).

2. A different response

Christians today sometimes feel that ‘if only Jesus were here’ then people would be more ready to listen to the gospel message.

But they imagine themselves into the position and privilege that the people of Jesus’ time had,

when they could hear him explain God’s Word and perform miracles of healing.

But the truth is that people were not more willing to commit themselves to Christ when they could see him with their own eyes and hear him with their own ears.

Seeing is not the same as believing!

n fact, the people he grew up among were the very people who were quickest to reject him! (Matthew 13:53–58.)

‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead’ (Luke 16:19–31).

We can now understand the significance of the contrast between the response of the Ninevites to Jonah and the response of the Jews to Jesus.

The Ninevites ‘repented at the preaching of Jonah,’ but the Pharisees and their ilk were so hard-hearted and spiritually blind as to reject Jesus completely.

All that the Ninevites had was a heathen background, a prophet who was not only a restored backslider but a foreigner and a message that was all doom and gloom.

A preacher like that in such a situation today might be expected to raise a few laughs, even assuming that anyone bothered to give him a hearing!

But Nineveh repented!

On the other hand, the Jews steadfastly resisted Christ, even to the point of nailing him to a cross!

They had all the privileges; they were the covenant people of God; they had the Scriptures and, most significantly of all, they had the Lord Jesus Christ among them, fulfilling the promises of the Word of God and revealing himself as the Saviour of sinners.

The eternal love of God was being poured out before them in the only-begotten Son. Yet they despised and rejected him. They crucified the Lord of glory.

Luke 16:31 NIV

“He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’ ”

3. A different destiny

3. A different destiny

Consequently, ‘The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgement with this generation and condemn it’ (Matthew 12:41a).

It will not be the Jews who will condemn these Gentile Ninevites in the Judgement Day, as the Jews liked to think.

The reverse will be the case. They had an inferior message from an inferior prophet but they repented.

The Jews had all the privileges and the promises but they rejected the enfleshed Word himself (John 1:14). Their response to the Word—the Scriptures and the Logos, Jesus Christ—would determine their eternal destiny.

And the utter waste of their covenant privileges, in their apostasy from the Lord, will be for ever set against the repentance of the Ninevites.

Point 5: Embrace the significance of the Resurrection in our own lives

Point 5: Embrace the Significance of the Resurrection in our own lives.

This means not just knowing about the resurrection. But living in new life, obedience, and power.

This means living by the Holy Spirit.

Sign of Jesus: Jonah's story is a foreshadowing of Jesus' resurrection, which is the ultimate sign of His divine authority and the foundation of Christian faith.

Sign of the Resurrection: Emphasize the importance of the resurrection of Jesus as the ultimate sign validating His ministry and message.

Scripture: 1 Corinthians 15:17 - "And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins."

Story: The resurrection of Jesus, which authenticates His ministry and claims (John 20:1-29).

The call to all people

1 Corinthians 15:17 NIV

And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins.

Romans 6:4 NIV

We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

Sermon Recap

Sermon Recap

Understand the miracle of the fish.

Recognize God’s power over everything.

Learning from God’s ways (to trust Him fully).

See the contrast between Jonah and Christ.

Embrace the signifcance of the resurrection in our own lives.

CONCLUSION

Embrace the significance of the resurrection in our lives.

Walk in it.

Jesus said if you know these things happy are you if you do them!

Not happy are you if you know them . If you do these things.

The joy is not in the knowing it's in the doing what you know.

We can study scripture that can challenge us emotionally, intelecturally, butit will never bless us spiritually unless we do what we know.

Jesus nsaid why do you call me Lord unless you do what I ask you?

The bible is an accurate map to get us to a great destination.

But a map won’t get you there unless you use it, believe it, and follow it.

People think if i go where christians go and talk like christians talk and sing like christians talk than I am one.

Because the Bible is true, doesnt garuntee our success and neither does our actions of coming to church and acting like a christian.

What garuntees our success is a true relationship with Jesus.

The resurrection of Jesus garuntees our success if we will just put our trust in him, be obediant to his call on our lives, and walk in the fulness of life he provides.

and even when we fail. Trust and know that God is still in control