The Sign Of Jonah And It’s Connection to Christ
Shared on November 24, 2024
If you are looking for a sign from God, there is one sign from God you can’t afford to miss. Join Pastor McCrary for this week’s lesson as Jesus points to the sign of Jonah. Pastor McCrary teaches us what is the sign of Jonah and its importance to all people.
Introduction
If you’re looking for God to give you a sign in order for you to have faith, then you should know that He has already given the sign. What is the sign that the Lord has given to us? In our lesson this week, Jesus points to Jonah — does that mean that Jonah is the sign?
Who Is Jesus?
This week’s lesson opens with one who was demon-possed, blind, and mute (Matt. 12:22). By this point in scripture, Jesus had performed many miracles and people would bring the sick to Him to be healed. As He had been doing, Jesus healed the man and the man began to speak and see. Those who witnessed this healing began to wonder if Jesus could be the Son of David (Matt. 12:23)?
The Son of David
Now, there was no way that they could have been wondering whether or not Jesus was literally David’s son. The reason being that David was long dead by the time of Jesus. So, what did they mean by the “Son of David”?
“Son of David”, by their meaning, is a very significant title and role. In 2 Samuel 7:1-17, the Lord spoke to David and made a covenant with him. The Lord promised David that when his days were fulfilled, He would establish his kingdom through the seed coming after him. That seed would build a house for God’s name and the Lord would establish the throne of his kingdom forever.
Now Solomon, who did eventually become king after David, did go on to build the temple that David desired to build for God. However, Solomon was just a mere man who eventually grew old and died. Solomon’s temple was even destroyed by the Babylonians. So, there’s just no way that God’s promise to David was about Solomon who literally was David’s son.
The covenant that God made with David was about Jesus. Matthew opened his gospel by tracing Jesus’ lineage all the way back to David to show that Jesus came through the seed of David. Why is it important that Jesus’ lineage could be traced back to David? Because the Messiah (Christ) – the one who would establish the throne of David forever – was promised to come through David’s seed.
So, when the people began to wonder whether or not Jesus was the “Son of David”, they were wondering whether or not He was the Messiah. The people were certainly on the right track in their thinking. However, we’ll see that Jesus’ biggest fans, I say that sarcastically, had different thoughts in mind.
A demon of Beelzebub?
When the Pharisees heard what the multitudes were saying, they could not stand for such thoughts. Here is where I remind you that the Pharisees, most of them anyway, weren’t in this out of faith. As Jesus said, the religious leaders loved being greeted in the crowds and sitting in the best places at events (Matt. 23:5-7).
So, to extinguish any notion that Jesus was the Messiah, the religious leaders accused Jesus of being a demon of Beelzebub (Matt. 12:24). Beelzebub was the ruler of the demons. The ruler of demons being the devil, or Satan. Of course they wouldn’t have known that Satan had failed in getting Jesus to bow and worship him (Matt. 4:1-11).
If one truly believed that Jesus was an agent of Satan, they would have to blatantly miss the obvious and throw all logic out of the window. All of the miracles that Jesus had done were for good – they healed and uplifted people. When has the devil ever did anything that ends with one being uplifted to glory?
Their logic made no sense – they were blatant lies – to which Jesus quickly pointed out in Matthew 12:25-29. I used to think that people couldn’t ever be so foolish to believe such obvious nonsense. Sadly, we know that people are willing to throw all logic out the window and believe anything that suits their narrative. This is why sincere believers are constantly encouraged to be diligent in studying the word of God so as not to be deceived by utter nonsense.
Working Against the Lord
The Pharisees failed to see the danger in what they were doing. However, the religious leaders were quickly approaching a line that nobody should dare approach. In fact, the religious leaders were nearing the point of crossing that line that nobody should dare to cross.
Jesus said to them, “He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters abroad (Matt. 12:30).” Those who are with Jesus will walk with Him and will gather with Him. When Jesus called on the disciples, He said that He would make them fishers of men (Matt. 4:19).
The religious leaders should have certainly been walking with Jesus. Yet, every step of the way, the religious leaders were standing in His way. Therefore, the religious leaders were impeding Jesus from doing His work. Just take a look at what they were doing in this scene. Jesus had healed a man, people were beginning to see Him as the Messiah and believe, when the religious leaders were trying to get them to stop.
Jesus’ greatest rebuke against the religious leaders was about them hindering people from coming to God. In His rebuke, Jesus called them hypocrites! Jesus said, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither go in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in (Matt. 23:13).
In realtime, we literally have read an occasion where the Pharisees were trying to block people from entering the kingdom of heaven. They were doing a very dangerous work which Jesus even warned them about.
Jesus said to them, “every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven men. Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him (Matt. 23:31-32).”
This was a clear warning to the Pharisees. They had already spoken against Jesus being the Messiah. Such an error of doubting Jesus is the Messiah is something God will forgive. Not everybody believes in Christ right away and that doubt and disbelief won’t be held against them.
However, the line that the religious leaders were crossing over was preventing those who desired to believe in the Messiah. Therefore, they were hindering those that desired to be saved from gaining salvation. Such work is work moving against the working of the Holy Spirit who is God’s seal of salvation. To impede and move against the work of the Holy Spirit is a sin that God will not pardon.
Looking for a Sign
Jesus’ warning did nothing for the religious leaders. I say that because we will see in the next set of selected scripture that some of them asked to see a sign from Jesus (Matt. 12:38).
The fact that “some” of them asked for a sign would suggest that the others didn’t much care for Jesus’ warning so they walked away. We ought not think that those who asked to see a sign were doing any better because they were still playing a game. The majority of these leaders had already made up their mind about Jesus by this point in scripture. So, they were still trying to save face and disprove Jesus before the people.
Jesus, however, wasn’t about playing their games. Jesus called them an evil and an adulterous generation (Matt. 12:39). I believe that this group of religious leaders had already booked their ticket to eternal condemnation – they had turned from the Lord while thinking they were doing God’s work. They most definitely weren’t doing God’s work by hindering those who desired to believe.
The sign of Jonah
Jesus said that no sign would be given to them except the sign of Jonah (Matt. 12:39). Jesus’ works were sign enough for them to have already chosen to believe but we see how they treated His works. Why should Jesus heal or do any other miraculous thing for them if they were simply not going to believe? Had these men had a sincere heart then Jesus’ response would have likely been much different.
However, there was one sign that Jesus pointed to if they wanted to see one – the sign of Jonah. What is the sign of Jonah? Is Jonah the sign that proves Jesus is the Messiah. Well, in a manner of speaking, he actually is.
So, what was it about Jonah that points to Christ and for Christ to point back to him? As the scripture states, Jonah was in the belly of the great fish for three days and three nights (Jon. 1:17; Matt. 12:40). As I said in the lesson – Jonah Repents – it would be incredibly hard to not liken Jonah’s three days and nights in the great fish to Jesus’ death and resurrection.
So, when Jesus points to Jonah and speaks about the sign of Jonah, He speaks to the sign of who He is through His death and resurrection. Jesus often told the disciples of His death and that He would rise on the third day. However, this was not common knowledge to people like the religious leaders. That being said, they would have known the story of Jonah and could put two and two together.
In fact, the religious leaders did put it all together in the end. After Jesus died, the religious leaders went to Pilate to have him put guards at the tomb (Matt. 27:62-66). They remembered that Jesus spoke about His resurrection on the third day, but because they didn’t believe, they thought the disciples might try to steal Jesus’ body. So, even after He died, the religious leaders were still working against the Spirit.
Try as they might, there is no stopping the work of the Spirit. We know that Jesus rose early in the morning on the third day. He may have died a sinner but Jesus rose changed with all power in His hands.
So, if the works that the Lord does to this day isn’t enough for you and you’re looking for a sign from Him, Jesus points to Jonah. Faith begins for us at the cross with Jesus’ death and then His resurrection. There is no great sign, and yet, a stumbling block that one can find.
Other signs the Lord does have, for example, the sun is still rising in the east and setting in the west. However, one’s faith cannot truly begin until they see the sign of Jonah. After seeing the sign of Jonah, that will determine whether you believe in Christ or not.