The Resurrection
Knowing Jesus Through the Old Testament • Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 44:15
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Introduction
Introduction
3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,
Seeing the death of Jesus in the Old Testament is easy
He’s the suffering servant in Isaiah 53
He’s the Son of Man who suffers before inheriting the kingdom in Daniel 7
What passages show that he’s going to get up, and specifically on the third day?
Jesus connects his own resurrection to a famous figure in the Old Testament - Jonah.
39 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. 40 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 Death and Resurrection of Jonah
The Death and Resurrection of Jonah
Jonah flees from the presence of the Lord
The ship he’s on is about to be destroyed by God’s storm
Jonah tells his shipmates to save themselves by throwing him overboard
When in the water, he’s swallowed up by the great fish
17 And the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.
Only for three days and three nights.
10 And the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah out upon the dry land.
Did Jonah Die?
Did Jonah Die?
No, but hie might as well have.
As far as Jonah was concerned, where was he?
1 Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish, 2 saying, “I called out to the Lord, out of my distress, and he answered me; out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and you heard my voice. 3 For you cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the flood surrounded me; all your waves and your billows passed over me. 4 Then I said, ‘I am driven away from your sight; yet I shall again look upon your holy temple.’ 5 The waters closed in over me to take my life; the deep surrounded me; weeds were wrapped about my head 6 at the roots of the mountains. I went down to the land whose bars closed upon me forever; yet you brought up my life from the pit, O Lord my God. 7 When my life was fainting away, I remembered the Lord, and my prayer came to you, into your holy temple. 8 Those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love. 9 But I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you; what I have vowed I will pay. Salvation belongs to the Lord!”
Jonah Was in Sheol
Jonah Was in Sheol
2 saying, “I called out to the Lord, out of my distress, and he answered me; out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and you heard my voice.
The Old Testament doesn’t clearly define Heaven and Hell.
Instead we have the generic place of the dead - Sheol
Jacob was going there
35 All his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted and said, “No, I shall go down to Sheol to my son, mourning.” Thus his father wept for him.
It was underground Num 16:30
30 But if the Lord creates something new, and the ground opens its mouth and swallows them up with all that belongs to them, and they go down alive into Sheol, then you shall know that these men have despised the Lord.”
Jonah Was ‘Thrown’ Into the Grave
Jonah Was ‘Thrown’ Into the Grave
3 For you cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the flood surrounded me; all your waves and your billows passed over me.
We could read that as God being ultimately responsible for throwing Jonah into the waters
He sent the storm
The only way to calm it down was to throw Jonah overboard
But it’s also used a lot when talking about throwing bodies into the grave
29 And he hanged the king of Ai on a tree until evening. And at sunset Joshua commanded, and they took his body down from the tree and threw it at the entrance of the gate of the city and raised over it a great heap of stones, which stands there to this day.
19 With the burial of a donkey he shall be buried, dragged and dumped beyond the gates of Jerusalem.”
It fits with the idea of Jonah saying he’s good as dead
God dumped him into the grave
Jonah Was as Low as He Could Go
Jonah Was as Low as He Could Go
5 The waters closed in over me to take my life; the deep surrounded me; weeds were wrapped about my head 6 at the roots of the mountains. I went down to the land whose bars closed upon me forever; yet you brought up my life from the pit, O Lord my God.
Keep in mind the Sheol was ‘down there’
So is Jonah
At the roots of the mountains
The land whose bars closed upon him forever
Maybe Sheol again?
Makes me think of the gates of Hades
He’s brought up from the pit - another word for grave
9 “What profit is there in my death, if I go down to the pit? Will the dust praise you? Will it tell of your faithfulness?
So in a sense, Jonah died
He was in the belly of Sheol
God had buried him at sea
The bars of the underworld closed around him
Was Jonah Resurrected?
Was Jonah Resurrected?
Even in the midst of death, Jonah had hope for life
4 Then I said, ‘I am driven away from your sight; yet I shall again look upon your holy temple.’
Jonah doesn’t care how far away from God he is, he trusts that God is going to bring him all the way back.
10 And the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah out upon the dry land.
Reminds me of Matthew 16:18
18 And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
Summary
Summary
Jonah didn’t die - but he might as well have
Jonah wasn’t resurrected - but he still made an incredible journey from ‘down there’ to the land of the living
Jesus can look at the story of Jonah being saved from a near-death experience and say “That’s my resurrection”
Maybe we can find other near-death stories and see the same point?
The Death and Resurrection of Isaac
The Death and Resurrection of Isaac
1 After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” 2 He said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.” 3 So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac. And he cut the wood for the burnt offering and arose and went to the place of which God had told him. 4 On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from afar. 5 Then Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey; I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you.”
Did Isaac Die?
Did Isaac Die?
Note the third day
4 On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from afar.
In ANE thought it took the soul three days to travel to the underworld. It’s often associated with death or sometimes a return from it
Levi and Simeon slaughtered Shechem on the third day (Gen 34:25)
25 On the third day, when they were sore, two of the sons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi, Dinah’s brothers, took their swords and came against the city while it felt secure and killed all the males.
Pharaohs baker was executed on the third day while the cupbearer was lifted up (Gen 40:20-22)
20 On the third day, which was Pharaoh’s birthday, he made a feast for all his servants and lifted up the head of the chief cupbearer and the head of the chief baker among his servants. 21 He restored the chief cupbearer to his position, and he placed the cup in Pharaoh’s hand. 22 But he hanged the chief baker, as Joseph had interpreted to them.
Hezekiah would be healed of his sickness and stand in the temple on the third day (2 Kings 20:5)
5 “Turn back, and say to Hezekiah the leader of my people, Thus says the Lord, the God of David your father: I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears. Behold, I will heal you. On the third day you shall go up to the house of the Lord,
To be on the third day is to be on death’s doorstep!
That’s where Isaac finds himself
9 When they came to the place of which God had told him, Abraham built the altar there and laid the wood in order and bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. 10 Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son.
Was Isaac Resurrected?
Was Isaac Resurrected?
Figuratively!
17 By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, 18 of whom it was said, “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” 19 He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back.
Abraham trusted in God so much that even without any prior stories of the dead being raised, it’s what Abraham assumed.
It doesn’t matter if you’re knocking at death’s door - God will bring you back
It doesn’t matter if you’ve taken your first step into Sheol - God will bring you back
This kind of faith is found in a few other places in the Old Testament
Other Old Testament Examples
Other Old Testament Examples
8 I have set the Lord always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken. 9 Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices; my flesh also dwells secure. 10 For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let your holy one see corruption.
David isn’t expecting salvation from a near-death experience. He denies death itself.
He’s thinking “God is so faithful that he’s saved me from all of these near-death experiences. Surely he can save me from death itself!”
If God’s plan has been to get back to the Garden of Eden, or something like it, then he needs to deal with death - that wasn’t part of the plan.
6 On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined. 7 And he will swallow up on this mountain the covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations. 8 He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken.
Not just Israel, but all nations
2 And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.
Like God promised Adam, “from dust we came and to dust we shall return.”
There’s no distance you can go from God that he can’t bring you back.
20 But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21 For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. 22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. 23 But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. 24 Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. 25 For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. 26 The last enemy to be destroyed is death.
