ENOUGH: SIGN OF JONAH

ENOUGH: SIGN OF JONAH Matthew 12:38-42 With grateful acknowledgement of these sources of direction and inspiration: the Holy Spirit; the Word of God; Colin Brown, Miracles and the Critical Mind; Alfred Edersheim, The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah;  Donald Hagner, Matthew 1-13 (WBD, vol.33A); C. S. Lewis, Miracles: A Preliminary Study, God in the Dock;  John MacArthur, Matthew 8-15; J. Oswald Sanders, Studies in Matthew’s Gospel March 6, 2005 Given by: Pastor Rich Bersett [Index of Past Messages] Introduction Here are word-for word messages taken from actual signs: In an office: WOULD THE PERSON WHO TOOK THE STEP LADDER YESTERDAY PLEASE BRING IT BACK OR FURTHER STEPS WILL BE TAKEN In an office: AFTER TEA BREAK STAFF SHOULD EMPTY THE TEAPOT AND STAND UPSIDE DOWN ON THE DRAINING BOARD Outside a secondhand shop: WE EXCHANGE ANYTHING - BICYCLES, WASHING MACHINES ETC. WHY NOT BRING YOUR WIFE ALONG AND GET A WONDERFUL BARGAIN? Sign outside a new town hall which was to be opened by the Prince of Wales: THE TOWN HALL IS CLOSED UNTIL OPENING. IT WILL REMAIN CLOSED AFTER BEING OPENED...OPEN TOMORROW. Outside a photographer's studio: OUT TO LUNCH: IF NOT BACK BY FIVE, OUT FOR DINNER ALSO Sign warning of quicksand: QUICKSAND. ANY PERSON PASSING THIS POINT WILL BE DROWNED. BY ORDER OF THE DISTRICT COUNCIL..... Notice in a dry cleaner's window: ANYONE LEAVING THEIR GARMENTS HERE FOR MORE THAN 30 DAYS WILL BE DISPOSED OF.. Sign on motorway garage: PLEASE DO NOT SMOKE NEAR OUR PETROL PUMPS... YOUR LIFE MAY NOT BE WORTH MUCH BUT OUR PETROL IS Notice in health food shop window: CLOSED DUE TO ILLNESS Spotted in a safari park: ELEPHANTS PLEASE STAY IN YOUR CAR Notice in a field: THE FARMER ALLOWS WALKERS TO CROSS THE FIELD FOR FREE, BUT THE BULL CHARGES Message on a leaflet: IF YOU CANNOT READ, THIS LEAFLET WILL TELL YOU HOW TO GET LESSONS Sign on a repair shop door: WE CAN REPAIR ANYTHING. (PLEASE KNOCK HARD ON THE DOOR - THE BELL DOESN'T WORK) Sign at Norfolk farm gate: BEWARE! I SHOOT EVERY TENTH TRESPASSER AND THE NINTH ONE HAS JUST LEFT Sign on subway wall: Life is one contradiction after another. Underneath sign is written: No, it's not. Once on a trip, I saw a sign in a village in England that read: 'Parking Restricted between 1st April and 30th September Each Year to Two Consecutive Hours at Any One Time Between the Hours 8:30 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. on Any Day.' I was glad I was on a bus. On a bulletin board outside a church, there was a sign which read: If you have troubles, come in and tell us about them. If you have none, come in and tell us how you do it. Dog for Sale: Eats anything and is fond of children. Ad: Weight Watchers will meet Tuesday at 7 p.m. at the Presbyterian Church. Please use the double door at the side entrance. Radio commercial: Ladies and gentlemen, now you can buy a bathing suit for a ridiculous figure. Sign on wall of Baltimore church: Trespassers will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. Signed -- the Sisters of Mercy. At the heart of our scripture study this morning is the idea of signs, what they are and are not. Let’s read the text in its entirety.  "Then some of the Pharisees and teachers of the law said to him, “Teacher, we want to see a miraculous sign from you.”  He answered, “A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a miraculous sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. 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. 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 one greater than Jonah is here.  The Queen of the South will rise at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for she came from the ends of the earth to listen to Solomon’s wisdom, and now one greater than Solomon is here." [webmasters note: Matthew 12:38-42] Let me speak to a couple of details first: 1. The word “sign” stands for any event which serves to prove that it is God who is at work in a current circumstance. In its purest New Testament meaning, a sign is evidence, but not proof. Signs never replace faith, though in a limited sense signs can strengthen faith. Experience proves it over and over again. Even if a miracle is performed before a crowd of people, though everyone is “wowed” by it, the majority appreciate it at about the level of a magician’s performance. Only a few are strengthened in their faith as a result of it, and very few actual begin to believe as a direct result of the miracle. And when it comes to sustained faith, the numbers are even less encouraging. 2. When Jesus speaks of a wicked and adulterous generation, the word adulterous is not to be taken literally as referring to the physical act of adultery or even to the sin of lust that precedes the act, as in the Sermon on the Mount. It is drawn from the prophets of the Old Testament who used the metaphor of adultery to refer to spiritual apostasy. When God’s people capitulated to the pressure of their surrounding culture and began to worship foreign gods and forsaking Jehovah they were accused of committing spiritual adultery. In Jesus accusation, then, He brings the implied charge of idolatry on the part of those who seek signs. 3. And thirdly, this minor but helpful note. Did you see that Jesus did not say Jonah was in the belly of a whale, but rather in the belly of a huge fish? Remember that detail next time you’re being ridiculed for believing that a man could survive in the stomach of a killer whale because there is scientifically no room for such survival even if the mammal could or would swallow a human being. There is only one question that needs to be answered: could God create a giant fish, say, ten times larger than the whales we know of today? Of course He can—and He did. And that’s precisely where Jonah spent the weekend one time in real history, because Jesus does not treat the Jonah account like a myth or legend. He speaks of it in very real and historical terms—and He was there, remember! Now, to our study of the rest of the text. My approach this morning will be a little different. First, I want to conduct two “fly-bys” and pick up on a couple of key issues addressed in this account. Then, we’ll make a landing on the runway of the passage’s central truth. Two Observations About Who Will Believe 1. Those who are responsive to the rumor of truth (Queen of South) (12:42) Jesus says this great queen who heard about the wealth and wisdom that Solomon’s God had given him just had to come and see for herself. And when she saw it, she gave glory to God, saying, "Praise be to the Lord your God, who has delighted in you and placed you on the throne of Israel. Because of the Lord’s eternal love for Israel, he has made you king, to maintain justice and righteousness." (1 Kings 10:8-9) 2. Those who believed the message of truth (Ninevites) (12:41) These lost Gentiles responded in faith and joy at the preaching of the reluctant prophet. "When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he had compassion and did not bring upon them the destruction he had threatened." (Jonah 3:10) These will “judge” those who don’t believe – what Jesus was saying to the Scribes and Pharisees was that the reason they didn’t believe was not because they didn’t have enough evidence, but because they didn’t want to believe. They had seen Christ’s miracles already and didn’t believe; in fact their recognition of His miracles only caused them to become more stubborn and ornery. This recalcitrant attitude grew worse the more “signs” they observed. The last miracle they witnessed did not lead them to faith—in fact, they let it lead them to blasphemy! And, now they wanted another “sign”! Illustration – Friday and Saturday I was with the Alpha Life Group on their mid-study retreat at the Lake of the Ozarks. We needed to rent a DVD player so we could present the video lectures, so Larry and I went to the local video store. The store manager (it said so on her name tag) first asked for my credit card; then she asked for my driver’s license. Next she wanted my home phone number, then my work number. I was ready to pull out my social security card and preparing for a retina scan when she finally sighed and agreed to let me have the video. We paid the $10 rental and left her a $50 deposit. By that point I felt were lucky to get out of there without being frisked and finger-printed! Suspicious people are never satisfied, are they? So when they asked Him for another sign, Jesus said, “You insolent, ingrates, what do you want? You’ve just watched the Lord of the Sabbath, the Son of Man, Son of God, Son of David, the Law-clarifying, sin-forgiving, burden-bearing, body-healing, Beelzebub-conquering King of the Universe in action! And you want another sign?!” When the final judgment comes, these cynical skeptics will stand alongside a pagan Queen from South Arabia who had faith enough to at least investigate what God had done, and alongside a rebellious, self-centered prophet who at least under duress did trust God enough to obediently preach, and alongside a city full of idol-worshipping sinners who, on hearing the message, believed God and repented. And when they stand up with them, these pious leaders won’t look so good! That’s just what Jesus meant when He said the Queen of Sheba, Jonah the prophet and the Ninevite converts would condemn this unbelieving generation. The queen had come to see Solomon, whom God had so richly blessed, but now One infinitely greater than Solomon was standing right in front of them. And they offered Him nothing but disrespect. The Ninevites gladly left their idolatrous ways to humbly turn to the Lord, but they wouldn’t recognize the Lord, the one greater than Jonah, even though He was looking them in the eye. God disciplined Jonah by allowing him to be swallowed by a great fish, and Jesus explains to them that Jonah’s whole adventure was a prediction of the sacrifice He would make of Himself in a few short weeks. There’s no convincing the stubborn and willfully defiant. Fallon, Nevada, is the arsenic capital of America. According to the Chicago Tribune, the Environmental Protection Agency found that Fallon's water system delivers more arsenic to its customers than any other large town water system. Folks there even joke about it: "Arsenic? It only bothers you if you're not used to it." Tim Miller, who has lived in Fallon all his life, jests, "Arsenic is no biggie. I'll die of something. It's called life. Once you're born, you start dying." The arsenic levels remain high, not because people like drinking arsenic, but because they don't want to pay for the solution—a $10 million treatment plant. Said one official, "This is Nevada. They don't want to feel government is intruding in their lives." Sophocles said, “Stubbornness and stupidity are twins.” Ravi Zacharias tells the story of a little girl whose mother planned to celebrate her fifth birthday by impressing all the relatives. The mother dressed her daughter in fine clothes and said, "Now, here's what I want you to do. You're going to sing a song."  When it was time for the little girl to sing, her mother says, "Honey, what are you going to do?"  The child says, "Nothing."  The mother finds a convenient spot to pinch her and says, "Weren't you going to sing?" The child says, "No."  The angry mother takes the child upstairs and shuts her in a closet. About half an hour later, the mother goes up and says, "What are you doing up here?"  The child says, "I've been having a great time. I've been spitting on your clothes. I've been spitting in your shoes. I've been spitting on your walls. I've been spitting on the carpet. Now I'm waiting for some more spit." Two Observations about Why Believers Believe 1. True believers have the will to believe – they want to believe. The scribes and Pharisees had made up their minds. They hated Jesus because of their jealousy and religious prejudice, and so they were not about to listen to Him and believe what He said or who He said He was. They were also miffed at Him because He had challenged their way of thinking and behaving. So much of their reaction to Jesus was vindictive and retaliatory. It is quite simple, really. Jesus told the Truth, and they had long since quit valuing Truth. But those who want to believe, through their mere desire, have opened their hearts just wide enough to let the Spirit of God in. And He brings His convicting power and His convincing offer of reconciliation with God. When someone you are witnessing to makes it clear to you that they are not interested in believing, it’s time to stop pestering them and wasting your time and effort trying to persuade them. All you can do is step away from all debate and faith dialogue and pray. By contrast, if you are sharing your faith with someone who finally admits to you that they really do want to believe, hang in there with them. There is real hope. Pray for them to hear the gospel clearly. Keep showing them love and patience as you grab every opportunity to share your faith with them. Wanting to believe is an embryonic form of real faith. God honors even immature faith, just s Jesus blessed the man who said, "I believe—help me overcome my unbelief!" (Mark 9:24) 2. True believers are those who have learned to stop believing in themselves – What usually stands in the way of faith for people is their insistence that they are okay and they don’t need God. Now, deep inside there is the real conviction that they are sinners and out of favor with God, but they have somehow, so far calloused over that conviction with other feelings. These feelings can be an exaggerated sense of their own righteousness, or a pre-occupation with having fun, pursuit of wealth, fame or pleasure, or just a head-in-the-sand avoidance of the truth.  The most dangerous place for someone to be is: to be remarkably attractive, extremely intelligent or fabulously rich. Why is that? These attributes make it terribly hard for sinful people to think of anything beyond themselves and their “stuff.” We need not conclude, though, that all Christians are necessarily all poor, stupid and ugly! There are a great number of things that keep people from humble faith in Christ. Heaven and hell will be populated by those who were homely and handsome, wise and witless, opulent and oppressed on earth. But, to be what the world considers endowed in this life is to find it more difficult to trust in the Lord.  The Ninevites, who by most measures were a prosperous and proud people, surrendered their pride and turned to God with humility and confession, from the king down to the peasants. And it pleased God. They stopped believing in their own goodness and righteousness.  Augustine said, This is the very perfection of a man—to find out his own imperfection. Augustine also said that our hearts are restless until they find their rest in Him. Blaise Pascal wisely wrote that there is a God-shaped vacuum in every person that only God can fill.  Two Observations About What Believers Believe 1. Here’s what the Scribes and Pharisees missed: Jesus Himself is THE sign - More than believing in orthodox teaching and doctrines of the faith (important as these are), true believers believe in Jesus Himself. He is, after all, the “Word” of/from God. He Himself is the "radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word." (Heb 1:3) Look again at what Jesus says as He chastises the religious leaders for lusting after signs. He says, "…now one greater than Jonah is here" (12:41)"…now one greater than Solomon is here." (12:42) You have the very Lord of glory in your midst! And you’re looking for “signs”?! It isn’t a sign God wants you to seek and love and obey—it is me! I AM GOD’S SIGN! 2. And now we come in for the landing. The main point of the passage: True believers believe will not only in Jesus Himself as the singularly glorious sign from God; they will also believe in the bodily resurrection of Jesus This is the meaning of the prophetic interpretation of the sign of Jonah. Look at it again, in verses 39-40: …”A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a miraculous sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. 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.” The resurrection is the essence of the Christian’s belief. I want to spend a couple of weeks teaching on several themes related to the resurrection of Jesus leading up to Easter Sunday, March 27. But for now, let’s lift from this scripture the one, all-important absolutely central truth of the historical resurrection of Jesus Christ. Did you know that the bodily resurrection of Jesus is the most thoroughly attested, historically substantiated event in all of human history? It’s true. We will study this further in the next three weeks, as we take a temporary excursus from our study of the book of Matthew. Bring your study Bible, your notebooks and your skeptical friends.  Did you know that without the bodily resurrection of Jesus our salvation is null and void? That’s right—the Word of God teaches that the suffering, death and burial of Christ is worthless without the vindicating resurrection on the third day! We’ll be looking at this truth more closely as well in the coming weeks. 1 Peter says it so clearly: we are saved "…by the resurrection of Jesus Christ" [webmasters note: 1 Peter 3:21]… Romans 4:25 – He "was raised to life for our justification." "…believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, [and] you will be saved." (Romans 10:9) "In his great mercy he [God] has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead." (1 Peter 1:3) I want us to rediscover and know with certainty the validity and the significance and the power of the resurrection for believers. That’s why we will devote the rest of this month’s messages to a mini-series on the resurrection. The death and resurrection of Jesus are the most critical truths in all of human history, and in our lives. The fact that the body of Jesus is alive today, and not fertilizing the flowers in a Jerusalem cemetery, is the most momentous truth ever encountered by our world. And the effect of the hope His bodily resurrection brings us is nothing short of staggering. Carlo Carretto wrote these powerful words in Blessed Are You Who Believed. When the world seems a defeat for God and you are sick with the disorder, the violence, the terror, the war on the streets; when the earth seems to be chaos, say to yourself, "Jesus died and rose again on purpose to save, and his salvation is already with us." Every departing missionary is an act of faith in the resurrection. Every peace treaty is an act of faith in the resurrection. Every agreed commitment is an act of faith in the resurrection. When you forgive your enemy When you feed the hungry When you defend the weak you believe in the resurrection. When you have the courage to marry When you welcome the newly-born child When you build your home you believe in the resurrection. When you wake at peace in the morning When you sing to the rising sun  When you go to work with joy  you believe in the resurrection.   [Back to Top]