The Sign of Jonah (Matthew 12:38-50)

[Music] [Music] [Music] well turning your Bibles to Matthew chapter 12 or continued of course our study the Gospel of Matthew Matthew presents Jesus of course as the Messiah the king of the Jews and we've been seeing this as we've gone through a lot so in the background we saw it at his birth we saw his baptism we're seeing it now as he goes through his life in his ministry as he carries out the ministry he does science in fact we call it the signs and miracles associated with Messiah if you go back to the Old Testament it talks all about this and he fulfills the Old Testament pointing to the Messiah now the religious leaders reject it they they do not want to admit that Jesus is the Christ is the Messiah so as they seem doing these signs and miracles they have rejected him and so they've been actually saying and we saw it last week and even another time before that that the power that he is doing these miracles by is actually the power of Satan so this morning the scribes and this is what's weird that's right this morning we're gonna see the scribes and the Pharisees come to Jesus thinking of something that we know from the context they're not really looking for a sign they just want to see what he's gonna say they're pretending to come and say show us a sign that you really the Messiah he's already done all the signs that show that he is a messiah so Jesus given the answer he talks about his death and resurrection there's a whole bunch in the passage even the part about the unclean spirit going out of a man we'll talk more about that as we get to it there's a lot there when you think about signs they are important there's traffic signs and Direction signs and information signs and warning signs the signs tell us where to eat and what to eat those kind of things signs give us the message you know they do a lot of things first of all signs are really give a message of authority I mean they'll tell you to do something they'll say stop or go and you know whether anybody's there or not you know you're supposed to obey that candy Cameron did a deal one time as they put in in a supermarket when some when people walked in the supermarket just big signs that please wipe your feet and everybody came into the supermarket and wipe their feet and went on in I mean because the sign told him to do that I just want to see how many people would do that there's a second thing about signs and they point the way like road signs or directions but when you think about the signs of Jesus Christ they're pointing out who he is that Jesus Christ is the Messiah and the Savior he is the king of the Jews he's the king of Kings and the Lord of lords there were sons connected with his life there were katana connected with his death and this morning Jesus as we look at Jesus gonna point out a sign connected with his death God does not want mankind to miss the Messiah when you go all the way back to genesis 3:15 and the seed of woman going through Abraham to Isaac to Jacob all the way through David all the way up John the Baptist and Jesus Christ or what we see is there there are signs that they were pointing out who the Messiah would be and we've seen signs are there signs when you think about Christ's life or the order to think about Christ there are signs of dealing with his birth his life and even the death of our Savior and we want to do is just right at the start I want to just touch on a couple of signs dealing with this his his birth and his life and then in this passage he actually deals with a sign dealing with his death so let's think about his birth for just a second when you think about Susie Isaiah 7:14 said that was a sign that a virgin would conceive and that was what the miracle Mary had a baby she did not have sexual relations and yet the Virgin conceived and that was I was a Oh 7:14 the Bible said in Micah chapter 5 verse 2 that he would be born in Bethlehem angels came and told the Shepherd's this will be a sign for you you will find a baby wrapped and closed and lying in a manger and so then the Magi came and when the magic hit there was a sign for them the star that went before him and then when you think about the life of Christ and the sons that were there when Nicodemus came to Jesus if you remember this is in John chapter 3 Nicodemus comes to Jesus and he says this he says we we figure that you're from God because of the signs you are continually doing those in John chapter 3 he was doing signs even at the beginning of his ministry at the end of the Gospel of John he says there were many of the signs that Jesus did that are that are recorded here there many other signs did but he said these are recorded so that the reader might believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God and by believing would have life what science did Jesus do well he did physical science Isaiah 35 would he heal the sick raise the dead and the lame lame could walk in the blanket see but he also did spiritual science when he forgave sins and he did all of those things and so when you look at Jesus in his life he is doing all these side well this morning the religious leaders they've rejected every one of them in fact they said he's from the devil and so this morning Jesus gives them a sign but it's not a sign of his birth and it's not a sign about his life it's going to be a sign dealing with his death and so we're gonna see the third aspect to the side and it deals with his death and resurrection and it's called the sign of gentleman and he gives them this final sign and and so it deals with his death it goes with his resurrection and we call it the sign of Jonah so let me let me raise some questions and just did Jesus do the signs of Messiah of course we know that already the answers yes what are the consequences of rejecting Jesus we're going to see what he says in this passage who are the ones that are in God's family because at the end they raised the question they say your mother and your brothers are outside and Jesus said who are my who is my mother and who are my brothers and then what is because he says whoever does the will of the father what is the will of the father so let me break down the passage for you in verses 38 through 40 we see the sign of Jonah and then 12 verses 43 42 he talks about rejection brings judgment and then there's an allegory this this weird little story where he says when this unclean spirit goes out of a man it goes through waterless places he's going to talk about that it's an allegory about the nation and then he finally talks about the family of God so there's a lot in here and just because of time I'm gonna have to go frit me quickly but I want you to look at this because Jesus gives the sign and it's a sign to these unbelievers declaring who he is and there's a judgment coming now if we didn't know the context of the passage and we just started reading at verse 38 it would say this then some of the scribes and Pharisees said to him teacher we want to see a sign from you now if we didn't know the context we would think that they're coming up and saying listen we're just really looking at this thing and and we would you show us a sign so we can know that you're the Messiah we know that that's not what they want at all they don't care they're really challenging him they're hoping that they're gonna make him look bad and so notice again and this is this is what we're gonna see they're asking for the sign and notice it says then some of the scribes and Pharisees said to him teacher we want to see a sign from you now this is sarcastic it really is because they've already seen the signs they're basically saying show us something that proves you're the Messiah and he could say well I forgave sins I calmed the storm I heal the sick I raised the dead I made the blind see I made the lame walk I make a guy who couldn't talk talk what else would you want that's what he's done and they reject him and he's done everything from the scripture that the Messiah would do and they challenge him so he's gonna give him a sign he's gonna give him one more sign but it's not a sign of his life it's a sign of his death and look at verse 39 but he answered and said to them an evil and adulterous generation prays for a sign and yet no sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah the Prophet now he calls them evil and adulterous now that doesn't sometimes we don't that doesn't make sense he's saying the nation of Israel the people that should have been following him he's calling them adulterous and we know what adultery is it's someone who's unfaithful see because in the scripture the nation of Israel that Jesus Christ the Messiah was the bride or the wife of Jehovah now in the New Testament he's he's the Bride of Christ you know we're the Bride of Christ he's the he's that well in the Old Testament was called the wife of Jehovah and so he actually says when you go after false gods you're committing adultery on me that's what Jesus actually says and so he says I'm gonna give you a sign there will be no sign except the sign of Jonah the Prophet now let me just remind you Jonah was a prophet of God God told Jonah to go to the Capitol to a city of capital of the Ninevites a go to Nineveh capital of the Syrian Empire and to give a message to them Jonah didn't wanna go so he got in a ship went the other way and got through a big storm and Joey got in trouble and the only way that the people's lives could be saved Jonah said just throw me in the water let me drown they threw him in the water God had a big fish come up and swallow Jonah actually some kind of sea monster and and got him and kept him inside for three days and nice best we could tell he was alive in fact if you read Jonah chapter 2 Jonah is praying from inside the fit the belly of the whatever it is it causes sea monster some say it's a fear some say it's well we don't know anyway after three days and three nights he's three month on the shore just three month he got up dusted himself off went into the city of Nineveh which was a gigantic city in those days and he proclaimed a message and the message was not believing them a sigh and you'll be saved the message was in 40 days the entire city will be destroyed that was the message and everybody there went we don't want to be destroyed and so they all put on sackcloth and ashes turned to God didn't say that they believed in the Messiah or anything I said they turned to God and said we don't want to be bad anymore and so God saved him and so the sign of Jonah was he was in the belly of the great sea monster or whatever was three days and three nights look what he says he says for just here's the sign it will be no sign except given of the sign of Jonah for as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth by the way this is this is the side he said what's going to happen is I'm gonna die and I'm gonna be dead three days and three nights and then I'm coming back just like Jonah was in the belly of that animal that fish that whatever and and three days and three nights then he came back picture of death and resurrection he said I'm gonna die and I'm coming back and see that's the sign the last sign is the resurrection of Jesus Christ it's a powerful sign because Paul says in Romans chapter one verse 4 that it proves that Jesus Christ is the son of God by his resurrection of the dead I want you to think about something and I'm not gonna even talk about it today just once you think about it everybody teaches that Jesus died on Friday and was raised on Sunday and we call it Good Friday but if you take Matthew 12 38 through 43 days and 1 3 nights see if you can get 3 days and 3 nights if you die on Friday and come back on Sunday you cannot Jesus most likely did not die on Friday he most likely died on a Wednesday that's a get the three days and three nights we'll talk about that some other time but anyway I just want you to think about it because Jesus said as Jonah was in the belly of the sea monster three days and three nights so must the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights see the key for Jesus Christ is this resurrection he died on the cross to pay for sin and first Corinthians 15 says if he didn't rise from the dead we got nothing the resurrection is the key and so his final sign is his resurrection I mean let me remind you of something when Jesus died on the cross paid for sin and they put him in the tomb all of the disciples said wow this was so bad we thought he was the one the unbelievers went and said he said he's gonna rise from the dead after three days let's put a guard on the tomb unbelievers were thinking he was gonna rise and the believers weren't they got so confused jesus said if you reject me and I'm gonna die and rise again there are consequences look what he says in verse 41 because he's gonna give that rejection brings judgment and he uses two examples nineveh and Sheva look what he says the men of Nineveh will stand up with this generation at the judgment and will condemn it because they repented at the preaching of Jonah and behold someone greater than Jonah is here now he says the people that Nineveh Nineveh was the capital of the Syrian Empire that's where Jonah went they believed the message the message was 40 days and the city's gonna be destroyed they said we don't want the city to be destroyed they turned to God put on sackcloth and ashes and said Oh God don't destroy our city and God said okay I won't they believed the message of Jonah Jesus says that generation of Ninevites will stand up at the judgment and judge you because they believed it Jonah and I'm here and you're not believing me I'm the Messiah he basically says somebody notice what he said behold something greater than Jonah is here he said they believed Jonah you don't believe the seiyya and then he gives another one and he says and the Queen of the South will rise up with this generation that the judgment and will condemn it because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon and behold something greater than Solomon is here the Queen of the South is Sheba the Queen of Sheba she came to Solomon if you go back in Kings solomon was the richest man wisest man in the world and the queen of sheba we're not sure where it is probably somewhere in Egypt she heard how wise he was she made this long journey with all of this stuff she got there she said I wanted to meet with Solomon I heard how wise he is and how rich he is and how great his and she got there and saw him he met with her he gave her stuff and she said I haven't even seen the half of of what I heard about how great this man is Jesus said the Queen of Sheba made the big trip to see Solomon because she heard of how wise he is and I'm greater than Solomon and you're not listening to me you're not listening to me they this nation has the Messiah and they reject the Messiah there's judgment coming now the men of the the generation of Ninevites Jonah was to them Solomon was the Queen of Sheba who is the sign to this generation that we live in today you know it is it's us we get to proclaim into our community the message of Jesus Christ we get to do it we don't take it we we don't take it seriously we say you know I go to church and I do this I do this but do we actually say Lord there are people all around me that do not know the message of Jesus Christ I have the message I have the gospel the good news it is my responsibility to take it into this community we are ambassadors for Christ as though God did beseech through us we get to bring the good news each one of us in this room we are the sign to this generation that we live in just like Jonah was - is just like Solomon was - his and even Jesus and that's what he's talking about now this next one is a little bit hard because we're gonna see an allegory and he's going to talk about what the nation is like and he's gonna use a story and let me read it to you okay listen to this he says when the unclean spirit goes out of a man that means when a demon leaves a person it passes through waterless places seeking rest and does not find it then it says I will return to my house from which I came and when it comes it finds it unoccupied swept and put in order then it goes and gets seven other spirits more wicked than itself and they go in and live there and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first no let me stop for a second and then here's what he says at the end this is the way it will also be with this evil generation he's talking about the nation of Israel he's using this example to saying this person was demon-possessed and and demon possession happens I did a study last year on angels and demons we went through all kind of things that's an amazing study sometimes people get demon possessed not believers unbelievers but he's used an example of saying here's an unbeliever who's got a demon the demon leaves the guy cleans up his life he doesn't trust in the Messiah the Savior he doesn't do that he just he just starts trying to be good and the demon comes back with seven other demons and gets back in and it's worse it's a picture of a person saying I'm gonna clean up my life and try to live a good life and never trust in Christ that's what he said and then he's saying that the nation of Israel what did they do they tried to keep all of the laws and yet they missed the Messiah they tried to clean up their lives and have all their rules that's what that evil generation was they tried to live good they tried to keep the mosaic laws and yet they missed the Messiah and he says it's not going to be good in the end for the nation of Israel because they've rejected the Messiah and that's what that story is about it's pretty hard now let me tell you there's some hard things in there listen to this when clean spirit goes out of a man it passes through waterless places seeking rest what does that mean I don't know nobody knows I think it's waterless places it almost appears that demons don't like water that's almost what it says now you remember when all the pigs were on the side of the hill and Jesus went there and that guy had Legion had all of the demons inside of him and Jesus cast the demons out and then what the demon said let us go into the what the pigs remember what happened to the pigs where did they go they went running and went into the Sea of Galilee and drowned I don't think the pig I don't think the demons wanted to go into that water there's something about that says demons seeking waterless places then he says I'm going to come back and I'm it's going to be unoccupied and swept cleaned up and he brings seven other demons and it makes it worse Jesus is saying listen when an empty person person who cleans up his life lives and tries to do good but they're empty because they don't have the Messiah the Savior there are a lot of people in this world that think if you just try to live a good life you're gonna get to God I thought that I thought you if you could live good do more good than bad you'd go to heaven I'll never forget a story I had a seminary professor he was also a missionary he would take mission trips in the summer he took a mission trip to Haiti and he found a lady who was a nun and she had been in Haiti for 35 years doing ministry as a nun and he talked to her and he talked her about Christ and he said if you were to die would you go to heaven he asked the nun that and she said I don't know and he said it's just faith in Christ and she said no no no no no you think all this that I've done for 34 years is for nothing now what was she trusting she wasn't trusting in our Savior and see sometimes this is like people who do good things and think by trying to live a good life or do good things or keep the law or do something somehow that's gonna merit them salvation salvation is a gift by faith alone and Christ alone and this is what the religious leaders were doing they were obeying the rules in order to get to God they were clean but they were emptying the only way to get to God is by faith in Jesus Christ he is the way the truth and life and no one comes to the Father except through him so that little story is basically saying the nation of Israel tried to live good and missed the Messiah and it's gonna end badly well we'll finish up real quickly and we're gonna see this last part and just talking about the family of God who is the true family look what it says while he was still speaking and by the way the best we can understand from some of the others when you when you look at the other Gospels he's in a house he's in some place and his mother and brothers come to see him but they can't get in to see him because there's so many people so look what it says while he was still speaking to the crowds behold his mother and brothers were standing outside there outside the house seeking to speak to him they actually come up and say could somebody go inside and tell Jesus his mama's out here and his brothers we'd like to talk to him so it says that somebody went in so somebody said to him behold your mother and your brothers are standing outside seeking to speak to you now do you know I mean brothers Jesus had he had four brothers mark chapter 6 verse 3 gives us the four brothers he also had sisters we don't know how many it says plural sisters he may at least had two sisters and so Joseph we don't know much about Joseph but he was named after his dad and we know who Jude is Jude is the book of Jude we know who James is James is the book of James the one who wrote the book of James he was also the first pastor the basically pastor in Jerusalem and we don't know anything about Simon and that's the four brothers so the four brothers and mama are outside waiting to talk to Jesus and look what it says but jesus answered the one who was telling him and said who is my mother and who are my brothers now you you if you were standing there you might think does he misunderstand the question what may I just told him is what do you mean he who is my mother and who are my brothers and then he does this he stretching out his hand toward his disciples voules he said Behold my mother my brothers whoever does the will of my father who is in heaven he is my brother and sister and mother who was in the family of God its whoever does the will of the Father now when some people get concerned about that and they go oh what is the will of the Father simply put John chapter 6 verse 40 this is the will of my father that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life and I myself will raise him up on the last day the will of the Father is to believe in Jesus Christ when people say you got to do God's will yeah God's will is to believe in Jesus Christ for eternal life and whoever believes in Him he gives eternal life and he will raise us up that's the will of the father and so Jesus looks and says you only want to talk about family anyone who believes in me as part of my family we talked about it and grow group this morning about the fact that when you trust in Jesus Christ you become a child of God you're in the family of God John 3:16 you he loved us and whoever believes in Him has eternal life John 11 basically 25 says and the resurrection of life he who believes in Me will never die he is the resurrection and the life what a passage this morning let me give you some application just some things to think that because it's a lot in this but the first one has less proclaim Christ as Savior let's do it he is the way the truth and life understand that Jesus death and resurrection proved he's the messiah and the king he gave the sign of Jonah the sign of Jonah was he's gonna die and rise again it is that simple we always look at the Gospel of John and the Gospel of John has seven signs that Jesus did but there's actually eight the last sign is his resurrection from the dead so understand that second is rejection brings general judgment the nation of Israel rejected the Messiah even though he's better than Jonah he's better than Solomon he's better than anything they rejected him works cannot save us that's why a person who says I'm gonna clean up my life I'm gonna have people come to me and say that you know for a person to be saved they need to get their act together I said what do you mean by that is it where they got to turn away from their sins I guess I said so in other words usually going to be you gotta quit saying you got to get your act together yeah no no that's like that's like cleaning up the house and leaving it wide open for the demons that's what it's like and that's that story salvation is not my works it's by faith alone in Christ alone and just remember that God's family to do the will of the Father to be in God's family is to believe in Jesus Christ so let's never forget that finally yeah let's be faithful as a sign to this generation now we we must know the Gospel message and let me tell you let me just say this almost everybody in our church if you've been here any length of time you should know the gospel we teach it all the time first Corinthians 15 the death and resurrection of Christ the responses to believe in Him we the message is so clear take John 3:16 you can tell anybody that message if you said I don't feel that confident on sharing my faith then you come see me I will either teach you I'll get somebody else to teach you or you can take Brian's class this fall just in a couple of weeks you'll be teaching what we call the four twelve foundations it's a great class that teaches you how to share your faith and those kind of things you should know you must know the gospel and be clear on it and we must make the gospel known let me go out this room we have to tell other people [Music]

Channel: Stillwater Bible Church

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Id: mNFFtsJxDoQ

Length: 25min 57sec (1557 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 01 2019