The Signs of the Sermon
Notes
Transcript
Signs in the Book of Jonah
Signs in the Book of Jonah
Biblical signs are miracles - That is what the Pharisees in Matthew 12 are actually asking for and Jesus points them to the sign of Jonah.
The first sign is that of Jonah’s very commission, it was very unique that Jonah was called to a gentile nation.
Second was the sign of the miraculous storm that stopped Jonah in his tracks. A sign of God’s longsuffering chastisement.
Then there comes the whale, a sign of God’s salvation. Jonah is saved from sure destruction and like Jonah was saved in that whale, we are saved in Christ. Through his burial and resurrection. we will be passed from death to life, delivered safe on the shores of heaven.
There are more signs, there is just one verse of traditional prophecy but really the entire book is prophecy. Jonah himself is a sign of unrepentant Israel who abandoned their mandate to share salvation with the gentiles. They have faced extinction, but God has time and time again preserved their existance and given them chance after chance after chance.
The Sign of Restoration
The Sign of Restoration
Jonah was restored to the Word of God v.1-2
Jonah was restored to the Word of God v.1-2
“And the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the second time”
Praise God for second chances!
Peter's Restoration - “Feed my sheep”
John Mark’s Restoration - “Profitable”
The Prodigal - Restored as a son not a slave
The presence of God’s Word in your life is an indicator of God’s presence in your life.
Jonah was restored to the Will of God v.3
Jonah was restored to the Will of God v.3
“So Jonah arose and went unto Nineveh”
One step toward Nineveh placed Jonah right back in the will of God.
He lost time, perhaps years off his life, but in one step of obedience he was back.
There was significant distance to be covered.
Nineveh was a journey of around 500 miles, similar to walking from Owosso to Washington D.C.
There may be some distance between where you are and where God is calling you to go or do.
Are you willing to do that work? Young people it may be college, others may need to change careers or reduce debt or get some Bible training whatever it is, take that first step.
Jonah was restored to the Work of God v.4
Jonah was restored to the Work of God v.4
“And Jonah began to enter into the city a days journey, and he cried,”
Jonah here is motivated by more than duty, more than responsibility. Jonah is motivated by gratitude.
We who have been forgiven so much
Forgiven all our iniquities
Forgiven all our failings and falling
We who have been given so much
We have been given eternal life
We have been given the Spirit of God
Ought to be the greatest givers and forgivers.
The Parable of the unmerciful servant
Matthew 28:18
“To whom much is given, much shall be required.”
What a blessed encouragement we have in Jonah’s restoration. No matter how far you are from God not only can you be saved, but you can have opportunity to serve God.
The Sign of Repentance
The Sign of Repentance
Jonah’s Reproof
Jonah’s Reproof
v.4” Yet 40 days and Nineveh shall be overthrown.”
v.4” Yet 40 days and Nineveh shall be overthrown.”
A message of destruction
“Nineveh shall be overthrown”
This was a reproof “cry against”
Jonah: The Parochial Prophet 4. His Warfare
To “cry” against sin requires great spiritual energy, something few people have. Most folk can walk into a desperate spiritual situation, look around, and at best mumble a few words of concern. “Cry against it,” however, requires a lot more spiritual action than that
The same word used for Sodom and Gomorrah
What is being threatened here is divine destruction for wickedness.
In ch 1 vs 2 God says “cry against it for their wickedness is come up before me.” Nahum 3
Like the kid who gets sent to the pastors office. their wickedness made it all the way to the top.
The wickedness of cities ripens them for destruction, and their wealth and greatness cannot protect them from destruction when the measure of their iniquity is full and the measure of their vengeance has come. Great cities are easily overthrown when the great God comes to reckon with them.
What is God’s threshold?
He flooded the world when it was said that “And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”
He examined the wickedness of Sodom , “ And the LORD said, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous; 21 I will go down now, and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it, which is come unto me; and if not, I will know.
He was willing to spare the city for just 50, 45, 40, 30, 20, 10 righteous peoples sakes.
A hope of deliverance.
“yet 40 days” - God did not have to grant 40 days or grant any warning at all, Nineveh certainly deserved destruction.
40 days is a sign of God’s testing
Nineveh is given a space of grace in which to repent and turn to God.
How much time do you have?
Know that it will come - judgment is certain.
Ninevah wisely responded immediately - did not try God’s patience.
Nineveh’s Response vs. 5-9
Nineveh’s Response vs. 5-9
A response of Faith “So the people of Nineveh believed God”
Faith is always the first step of obedience.
They believed that they deserved punishment
Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God -
A response of Fasting “and proclaimed a fast”
Fasting is a sign of seriousness and sacrifice.
A national fast for national sins
God judges nations
This was a failure of their leadership
Lincoln’s Declaration of a National Fast
Whereas, the Senate of the United States, devoutly recognizing the Supreme Authority and just Government of Almighty God, in all the affairs of men and of nations, has, by a resolution, requested the President to designate and set apart a day for National prayer and humiliation.
And whereas it is the duty of nations as well as of men, to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God, to confess their sins and transgressions, in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon; and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord.
And, insomuch as we know that, by His divine law, nations like individuals are subjected to punishments and chastisements in this world, may we not justly fear that the awful calamity of civil war, which now desolates the land, may be but a punishment, inflicted upon us, for our presumptuous sins, to the needful end of our national reformation as a whole People? We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven. We have been preserved, these many years, in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth and power, as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us!
It behooves us then, to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.
Now, therefore, in compliance with the request, and fully concurring in the views of the Senate, I do, by this my proclamation, designate and set apart Thursday, the 30th. day of April, 1863, as a day of national humiliation, fasting and prayer. And I do hereby request all the People to abstain, on that day, from their ordinary secular pursuits, and to unite, at their several places of public worship and their respective homes, in keeping the day holy to the Lord, and devoted to the humble discharge of the religious duties proper to that solemn occasion.
All this being done, in sincerity and truth, let us then rest humbly in the hope authorized by the Divine teachings, that the united cry of the Nation will be heard on high, and answered with blessings, no less than the pardon of our national sins, and the restoration of our now divided and suffering Country, to its former happy condition of unity and peace.
In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.
Done at the City of Washington, this thirtieth day of March, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty seventh.
By the President: Abraham Lincoln
Sackloth is a sign of humility
King James Version Chapter 5
God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble
King James Version Psalm 51
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit:
A broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.
A response of Forsaking “let them turn every one from their evil way”
True faith is always accompanied by works
Faith without works is dead
Here the man of Nineveh produce fruit meet for repentance.
Their outward turning is sign of their inward turning.
They individually took responsibility for their own acts of violence.
God hates hands that shed innocent blood and will judge violence against the innocent.
They did all this with no guarantee of God’s repentance - A pagan nation recognizing the God of heaven and his sovereign power.
What prompted this response? - Had they heard about the fish? Luke 11:30 seems to imply this - 30 For as Jonas was a sign unto the Ninevites, so shall also the Son of man be to this generation.
God’s Repentance v. 10
God’s Repentance v. 10
10 And 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.
God is right in his judgment and mercy.
God is right in his judgment and mercy.
King James Version Chapter 34
Therefore hearken unto me, ye men of understanding:
Far be it from God, that he should do wickedness;
And from the Almighty, that he should commit iniquity.
11 For the work of a man shall he render unto him,
And cause every man to find according to his ways
King James Version Chapter 34
Therefore hearken unto me, ye men of understanding:
Far be it from God, that he should do wickedness;
And from the Almighty, that he should commit iniquity.
11 For the work of a man shall he render unto him,
And cause every man to find according to his ways
Its not even murder when God destroys a nation.
God is consistent in his judgment and mercy.
God is consistent in his judgment and mercy.
He promises to respond in mercy towards repentance.
King James Version Chapter 18
O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the LORD. Behold, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel. 7 At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it; 8 If that nation, against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them. 9
If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.
King James Version Chapter 2
Therefore also now, saith the LORD,
Turn ye even to me with all your heart,
And with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning:
13 And rend your heart, and not your garments,
And turn unto the LORD your God:
For jhe is gracious and jmerciful,
jSlow to anger, and jof great kindness,
And repenteth him of the evil.
14 Who knoweth if he will return and repent,
Israel was given many prophets, many warnings but failed to repent. Nineveh was given just one warning and repented.
In Matthew 12:41 Jesus said to the Pharisees, 41 “The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: because they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here.”
We have been given a sign greater than Jonah - God himself came down and died and rose again - If that is not enough then God have mercy on your soul.
In conclusion:
Serve God out of Gratitude
Cry against the sins of our nation while taking responsibility for those done by our own hands.
Trust that God is always good and God is always right. Even in dispensing judgment.