So if you'd like to turn with
me to Luke chapter 11. Luke chapter 11, my text today is
centered on verses 29 and 30. And I'll be looking at the book
of Jonah as well. Luke 11.29 says, And when the
people were gathered thick together, he began to say, This is an evil
generation. They seek a sign, and there shall
be no sign given it but the sign of Jonas the prophet. For as
Jonas was a sign unto the Ninevites, so shall also the Son of Man
be to this generation. Lord willing I want us to consider
this curious saying of the Lord, what he means by the sign of
Jonah. I love to read these encounters
of our Lord Jesus Christ with his enemies, the enemies of the
Gospel, as they sought to test him. But I love more than that
to see how easily our Lord dismisses their entrapments and exposes
their evil. All the days of his earthly life
the Lord Jesus Christ had to deal with these religious people
who were ever trying to frustrate him and entrap him. ever attempting
to cause him to stumble in some way. And the Lord does not hold
back when he speaks to them, when he pronounces woe upon these
religious hypocrites. Look with me at verse 47 in the
book chapter 11. The Lord declares woe unto you,
for you build the sepulchres of the prophets, and your fathers
kill them. Truly, you bear witness that
ye allow the deeds of your fathers, for they indeed killed them,
and ye build their sepulchres. Therefore, also said the wisdom
of God, I will send prophets, send them prophets and apostles,
and some of them they shall slay and persecute. that the blood
of all the prophets, which was shed from the foundation of the
world, may be required of this generation. From the blood of
Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, which perished between the altar
and the temple, verily I say unto you, it shall be required
of this generation. Woe unto you, you lawyers, for
you have taken away the key of knowledge. Ye entered not in
yourselves, and them that were entering ye hindered. And as
he said these things unto them, the scribes and the Pharisees
began to urge him vehemently and to provoke him to speak many
things, laying wait for him and seeking to catch something out
of his mouth that they might accuse him. The Lord constantly
exposed the guilt and hypocrisy of these religious leaders and
they hated him for it. And their desire was to catch
him out in anything they could in order to accuse him of sin. One of the things they tried
to do was to get him to perform a sign. a sign from heaven that
they'd be satisfied with. In verse 16 of our chapter we
read that others, tempting him, sought of him a sign from heaven. Even though the Lord had done
many, many miracles, he'd healed a man full of leprosy, hadn't
he? Before their very eyes, he'd
healed a lame man after his friends, you might recall, lowered him
through the roof because there were too many people crowded
around the Lord Jesus. And he touched the coffin of
a young man who'd died, and they were taking him out of the city.
And when he touched the coffin, the young man sprung out of that
coffin, sat up and rose up and began to speak. And that miracle,
that miracle caused everybody to take great notice. And the
text says in Luke 7, there came fear on all, fear on all. And they glorified God saying
that a great prophet has risen up among us and that God has
visited his people. Miracle after miracle, sign after
sign, that this is the promised Messiah from long ago. You recall
how John the Baptist sent messages to the Lord Jesus. He said, Art
thou here that should come, or do we look for another? And the
Lord said, Tell John the things you've seen and heard, didn't
he? How the lame walk, how the lepers are cleansed, how the
deaf hear, how the dead are raised, and to the poor the gospel is
preached. And when all is said and done,
when all is said and done, it's always about the preaching of
the gospel. But men still seek a sign. They seek a sign. It seems whenever
I get asked about where I go to church, one of the first questions
is, how many people go there? How many people go there? It
seems as if That is some sort of sign or commendation by God
that God is there meeting his people. I'm so glad that the
Lord addressed his people as little flock. Believers, for
the most part, are scattered throughout this world in little
flocks. He says, fear not, little flock,
fear not, for it is your father's good pleasure to give you the
kingdom. Some asked, Do you have someone
bringing a word of prophecy? And we do indeed, but not the
type you're talking about. Friends, we have a more sure
word of prophecy right here in this book. It's an infallible
word. I want to hear a man open this
book and declare what God says. Go outside this word and everything
becomes unsure. Some say, I want to go to church
that makes me feel welcome. I hope everybody here feels welcome.
I really do. But if the gospel's not preached
faithfully, feeling welcome is irrelevant. People look for signs,
don't they? Signs that might resonate. And churches are scrambling,
aren't they? The churches are scrambling to be relevant. Always
trying to think up new things to sell themselves. There's a
church up the road with a banner draped across the front of the
building, and the banner says, Climate Change Act Now. That's
a sign, all right. It's a sign to run the other
way. I want to know, I want to know what they preach concerning
Christ. Do they echo the gospel of Jonah? Jonah said salvation is of the
Lord in its entirety. Did they preach the sign of Jonah,
the gospel of Christ and him crucified? It's the only sign
that matters. No matter how humble the circumstances,
when gospel is preached, that's all that matters. They tempted
him. Show us a sign. Show us a sign. You know, when they sought a
sign, any time they sought a sign from the Lord, he never gave
it to them. Not once. God is not directed or moved
or influenced by the will of man. He sits in the heavens and
does whatsoever he pleases. But I will show you a sign. I
will show you a sign. A sign will be given in due time
and at the time appointed according to his will, according to the
will of God and according to his purpose. This is an evil
generation. They seek a sign, and there shall
no sign be given it but the sign of Jonas the prophet. For as
Jonas was a sign unto the Ninevites, so shall also the Son of Man
be to this generation. And the Lord goes on in those
verses, read with me verse 31. The Queen of the South, which
was the Queen of Sheba, shall rise up in the judgment with
the men of this generation and condemn them. For she came from
the utmost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon,
and behold, a greater than Solomon is here. greater than Solomon
is here. Even the Queen of Sheba, an unbelieving
Gentile, had travelled thousands of kilometres with her entourage
to hear the wisdom of Solomon. Even she would be a condemnation
to this evil generation. Why? Because a greater than Solomon
is here, the Lord of Glory, wisdom personified, standing right before
them, and they want more evidence. Shall we And the Lord says in
verse 32, the men of Nineveh shall rise up in the judgment
with this generation and shall condemn it. For they repented
of the preaching of Jonas, and behold, a greater than Jonas
is here. A greater than Jonas. Even the
men of Nineveh, who were strangers and aliens to the commonwealth
of Israel, even they repented of their sins at the preaching
of Jonah. And here the Lord is speaking
to these religious men, men who were given the prophets, men
who were given the oracles of God, men who would be judged
by the repentance of the Ninevites. Why? Because a greater than Jonah
is here. A greater than Jonah is here.
I've entitled this message, Jonah, our great Jonah, the prophet
Jonah is a wonderful representation of the greater one, isn't he?
Our Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord says this is an evil
generation, they seek a sign. Paul declared in 1 Corinthians,
he said, for the Jews require a sign and the Greeks after wisdom. In essence these people did not
believe the testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ concerning
himself. They required a sign. They wanted
more evidence. They wanted more evidence. The
Jews require a sign and the Greeks seek after wisdom. But what did
Paul preach? Paul said further on in that
chapter, he said that we preach Christ and him crucified. Christ crucified unto the Jews
a stumbling block and unto the Greeks foolishness. The problem
is that they could not conceive, they could not conceive that
this lowly man, this man from humble circumstances who kept
company with sinners, could be who he claimed to be. In 1 Corinthians 1 we read, But
unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the
power of God and the wisdom of God. There he was, the power
of God and the wisdom of God was right before their very eyes.
But they perpetually pressed him in order to catch him out
to accuse the Lord Jesus Christ. You recall when the devil himself
took the Lord Jesus at the beginning of his ministry to tempt him
and he spent 40 days in the wilderness without food and the devil used
everything at his disposal to make the Lord Jesus make an error. He used the weakness of his flesh
against him in an effort to cause him to doubt and to cause him
to distrust the goodness and care of his Heavenly Father. They sought to entrap him. to
do or say something by which the devil could accuse him. And the Lord declares to him
that command, doesn't he? Thou shalt not tempt the Lord
thy God. I'm so thankful that it was impossible
for our Lord to stumble in any way. God declared it, didn't
he? God declared he would not fail
in his work. The prophets declared he would
not fail in his work. He accomplished the work that
the Father gave him to do in the most perfect and complete
manner possible. You see, the thing we need to
remember, and we say it over and over, our God never tries
to do anything The Lord Jesus Christ didn't try to be perfect.
He was perfect. The Lord Jesus Christ didn't
try to be holy. He is holy. He didn't try to
be sinless and he didn't try to be God. He is sinless and
he is God. We, on the other hand, are the
complete opposite. We don't have to try to be sinful.
That's what comes naturally to us. We are sin. But here's the
wonder of the gospel, isn't it? The wonder of the gospel is that
all he is, we are And so the Lord Jesus Christ,
all the days of his walk amongst us, was simply being himself,
wasn't he? He was simply being himself, true to his nature,
true to himself, and being the Lamb of God, the substitute of
God's people. Every step he took, he took as
an us. All his deeds, all his deeds,
all his actions, all his words, all his thoughts, he performed
as an us before God. Satan constantly accuses the
brethren. And if God were to look at me
and all the accusations would be undeniably true. But of course
the brethren are in Christ. There is no case for us to answer. No case. Show us a sign, but
the sign for the most part is not the word. Signs. They are People run after signs,
don't they? But the problem is that people
don't believe through signs. John 12 says that though he had
done so many miracles before them, yet they believed not on
him. He hath blinded their eyes and
hardened their heart that they should not see with their eyes
nor understand with their heart and be converted and I should
heal them. The problem is not with the signs
and miracles. The problem is that people are
not saved by signs and miracles. People are saved by the preaching
of the gospel. Faith cometh by hearing, and
hearing by the word of God. The miracles confirm the message. The miracles themselves were
an illustration of the message. Leprosy is a picture of us as
sinners, isn't it? We are leprous by nature, sinners
by nature. And by nature, we're blind. We're
blind to the goodness of God. We're blind to his salvation
until he touches us and opens our eyes. And by nature, we're
lame. We're lame. We can't stand in
the presence of God. This corrupt flesh wouldn't stand. By nature, we're dead, dead.
Death and trespasses and sins, and we need God to quicken us,
quicken by His Word, because His Word is life, life eternal. The miracles were always about
the message and the object of the message is always the Lord
Jesus Christ. You remember in Acts chapter
3 Peter and John had performed a miracle for that lame man who
had always sat at the gate begging for alms and the man got up and
leaped for joy, so happy, and the people marveled at them. And Peter said, why are you looking
at us? Why are you looking at us? As
if this man was healed by our power of holiness. This man was
made well by faith. This man was made well by faith
in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. The miracles. pointed to the
message, and the message is always the Lord Jesus Christ. We recall
Nicodemus said to the Lord, we know thou art a teacher from
God, for no man can do these miracles that thou dost accept
God be with him. A true statement. But the Lord doesn't speak of
the miracles in response, does he? The Lord said, Verily, verily,
I say unto you, except a man be born again, he cannot see
the kingdom of God. These outward miracles are not
what is needed. The real miracle is that miracle
which God performs on the inside, the miracle of regeneration. Except a man be born again, he
cannot see the kingdom of God, the miracle of the new birth. The miracle of new birth takes
a man dead in trespasses and sins, it takes the spiritually
dead and makes them alive to God. The work of the Spirit of
God upon chosen sinners according to His good pleasure, according
to His will and purpose. If God performs that work in
you, you won't run after signs and miracles, you'll run after
Him. We don't walk by sight, do we? We don't walk by sight,
we walk by faith. We're not looking for signs.
If you've found the Master, you don't need a sign. When the Lord
speaks of the sign of Jonah, What he's actually saying is
this. He's saying, I am the fulfillment of that sign. He is speaking
of his work as the redeemer of his people. He is speaking of
his work as a substitute for his people. He's speaking of
the death he would accomplish at Jerusalem on behalf of his
people, and he's speaking of his resurrection glory. Turn with me, if you will, to
the book of Jonah. Turn with me to Jonah so we can have a
closer look here. Amos over Dio Jonah. If you've
got a church Bible, I believe it's page 1157. Lord willing, I want us to see
a little more deeply how this sign of Jonah is a wonderful
picture of our great Jonah, a beautiful type of our Lord Jesus Christ. Jonah chapter 1 verse 1, Now
the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the son of Amittai, saying,
Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it, for
their wickedness has come up before me. The prophet Nahum
describes some of what was happening in that place. There were murders,
there was witchcraft, and every kind of wickedness imaginable. And the Lord mercifully sends
these people a preacher. There's three, but Jonah rose
up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord and
went down to Joppa and he found a ship going to Tarshish. So
he paid the fare thereof and went down into it to go with
them unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. All he wanted to
do was flee from the presence of the Lord. This is a picture,
isn't it? This is a picture. It's a picture of us. Picture
of us. When sin came into the garden
in Adam and Eve, we cause us to flee away from him
and hide. But no one can hide from the
presence of the Lord. Verse 4, But the Lord sent out a great
wind into the sea, and there was a mighty tempest in the sea,
so that the ship was like to be broken. Then the mariners
were afraid, and cried every man unto his God. Notice lowercase
g. and cast forth the wares that
were in the ship into the sea to lighten it of them. But Jonah
was gone down into the sides of the ship. And he lay and was
fast asleep. So the shipmaster came to him
and said unto him, What meanest thou, O sleeper? Arise, call
upon thy God, if so be that God will think upon us that we perish
not. The sea had blown up into a mighty
tempest, so much that the ship was in danger of being lost.
Jonah was asleep in the ship and the mariners woke him up
in fear of their lives. Do you remember when the Lord
and his disciples boarded that ship and a great storm came up
and they threatened to sink them? And where was the Lord in that
commotion? He was asleep on a pillow, wasn't
he? He was asleep on a pillow in
the hind part of the ship and they came and woke him up. Don't
you care if we're going to perish? Of course we know how the Lord
rose up and rebuked the wind and the waves and then there
was peace. Jonah too was asleep in the ship
and they woke him up. Let's read on verse 7 and there,
and they said everyone to his fellow, come and let us cast
lots that we may know for whose cause this evil is upon us. So
they cast lots and the lot fell upon Jonah. Then said they unto
him, tell us we pray, for whose cause is this evil upon us? What is thine occupation, and
whence comest thou? What is thy country, and what
people art thou? They wanted to know why this
calamity had come upon them. And the Lord God in his mercy
has given us these scriptures which explain from the beginning
why this evil, this evil world is upon us. But we're also given
a knowledge of the Savior, aren't we? We know his origin, we know
his people, he came from the Father, and his people, as verse
28 says, are those who hear the word of God and keep it. Verse
28 of our passage in Luke. And he said unto them, I am a
Hebrew. And I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, which hath
made the sea and the dry land. Then were the men exceedingly
afraid." Exceedingly afraid. Suddenly there's a realization,
isn't there? There's a fear, a true fear,
a fear of the true and living God. Imaginary gods that they
were worshipping. They had proved powerless, absolutely
powerless, and they feared what Jonah had said. I am of Hebrew,
and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, which had made the
sea and the dry land. The very sea that you're floating
on right now was made by him, and the dry land which you seek
after so desperately, that's his handiwork. And they said
unto him, why hast thou done this? For the men knew that he
fled from the presence of the Lord, because he had told them.
Then he said unto them, what shall we do unto thee that the
sea may be calm unto us? For the sea wrought and was tempestuous. And he said unto them, take me
up and cast me forth into the sea, so shall the sea be calm
unto you. For I know that for my sake this
great tempest is upon you. Jonah had given them one way
of salvation, but they thought surely there has to be another
way. Verse 13, nevertheless, the men rode hard to bring it
to land, but they could not, for the sea wrought and was tempestuous
against them. They tried to save themselves,
didn't they? They tried to save themselves, but they could not.
And this is what works-based religion does. It tries to do
the impossible. It tries to do what it cannot
do. Jonah said there is only one
way. There is one way only. The Lord Jesus Christ said, I
am the way. I am the door. No man cometh under the Father
except by me. You see, the gospel we preach
is a narrow way. There is no other name under
heaven by which men can be saved. Simon quoted that earlier. And
that name is the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ
of Nazareth. Only one way of salvation. One sacrifice for sin, one offering
to God. God is not looking to us and
our doing is looking to the substitute and his doing. But men by nature
will look every other way, won't they? Other than the one way
of salvation. They tried to turn things around,
didn't they? They tried to turn things around by casting all
the wares of the ship overboard but to no avail. It's a blessing. It's a blessing to be brought
to that point of complete and utter inability. And when we
are finally brought to the end of ourselves and made to see
that all our best efforts are filthy rags, that all our best
efforts are vanity, then we are caused to cry out, aren't we? And in the mercy of the Lord,
these mariners were caused to cry out to the true God. Verse
14, wherefore they cried unto the Lord, and said, But we beseech
thee, O Lord, we beseech thee, let us not perish for this man's
life, and lay not upon us innocent blood, for thou, O Lord, hast
done as it pleased thee. So they took up Jonah, and cast
him forth into the sea, and the sea ceased from her raging. It must be a sacrifice. because
the wages of sin is death, because the soul that sinneth, it must
die. Death is the righteous judgment
of God upon sin. We're not innocent victims in
this. We sinned in Adam and we sin willingly every day. We drink
iniquity down like drinking water and this flesh will continue
to sin until our last breath. If we say we're without sin,
we make God out to be a liar. If God doesn't punish sin, God
ceases to be righteous. He ceases to be just and God
ceases to be God. But thanks be to Merciful in his Son. Ephesians
2. We read, We were by nature the children of wrath, even as
others. But God, who is rich in mercy,
for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were
dead in sins, he hath quickened us together with Christ. By grace
ye are saved. Jonah embarked with the ship's
company, didn't he, with all those sailors and so too did
the Lord Jesus Christ enter this world in order to save his people
from their sins. Not a single soul was lost on
that ship and not a single soul for whom Christ died can be lost. What did our Lord say? He says,
And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all
which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise
it up again at the last day. That storm, that storm bore down
on the ship, it sought to destroy them and the wrath of God is
likened to that storm. Wrath of God, much like the deluge
that came down on the Ark of Noah, bearing down on them with
fury and anger, but God made a way. He provided Himself a
sacrifice. The offering of the Son to the
Father is a sacrifice that must be accepted. This is the sign
of Jonah. The Lord Jesus Christ gave his
life for ransom for many and he did it willingly. He wasn't
forced to do it. The Lord said no man taketh my
life from me but I lay it down of myself. One sacrifice for
the lives on that ship, one sacrifice for the sins of all God's elect. They took up Jonah and cast him
forth into the sea and there was peace. The sacrifice had
been made and the sea ceased from her raging. The sacrifice
was consumed by the wrath of God, but the wrath of God was
consumed by the sacrifice. Our great Jonah made peace for
us. Colossians 1, thank you Simon,
tells us he made peace through the blood of his cross. Our great
Jonah made peace with God on our behalf. So many wonderful
parallels of our saviour are seen here in the song of Jonah. Let's read on just a little way
more. Verse 16, and the men feared the Lord exceedingly and offered
a sacrifice unto the Lord and made vows. Verse 17, now the
Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah, prepared
beforehand. I love that. You recall when
the Lord Jesus' body was taken down from the tree, his body
was laid in a tomb, a new tomb, which had been prepared beforehand.
And Jonah was in the belly of that fish three days and three
nights. You might recall that the Lord
Jesus spoke about this at an earlier time. You remember when
he went into the temple and he drove them all out with a whip
and he overturned the tables of the money changers. And in
John 2 we read, the Jews said unto him, what sign showest thou
unto us, seeing that thou doest these things? What reason, what
cause have you got, what sign? Jesus answered them and said
unto them, here's the sign, destroy this temple and in three days
I will raise it up. Then the Jews said 40 and six
years was this temple in building and wilt thou rear it up in three
days? And here's the essence of what
the Lord was saying. But he spake of the temple of
his body." They had no clue. They had no idea what he was
talking about. The Lord spoke truth to them,
but the meaning was lost on them. The sign of Jonah is another
one. Let's read on into verse chapter
2. Then Jonah prayed unto the Lord
his God out of the fish's belly. And he said, I cried by reason
of mine affliction unto the Lord, and he heard me. Out of the belly
of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice. Jonah cried from the
belly of hell. The Lord Jesus as my substitute
suffered the hell that I fully deserve. How thankful ought we
be? Chapter 2 verse 3, For thou hast
cast me into the deep, in the midst of the seas, and the floods
can pass me about, all thy billows and thy waves pass me over. This
is the Lord Jesus, isn't it? Then I said, I am cast out of
thy sight, yet I will look again toward thy holy temple. The hands
of those sailors picked up Jonah and cast him into the sea, didn't
they? But we know, don't we? We know. Our Lord Jesus Christ
was delivered by the determinant counsel and foreknowledge of
God, cast from the side of his father when the sins of God's
elect were found on him. And our Savior cried out, didn't
he? He cried out, my God, my God,
why hast thou forsaken me? And our Lord gave up the ghost.
For three days, Jonah was miraculously kept in the belly of that fish. in the belly of hell, but now
we see the mighty power of God exercise in verse 10. Chapter
10, the Lord spake unto the fish and vomited out Jonah upon the
dry land. Psalm 16 describes this so wonderfully. The psalmist declares, Thou wilt
not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine holy one
to see corruption. And in Acts chapter 2, Peter declares to his hearers
that one whom you took and crucified God raised him up, having loosed
the pains of death, because it was not possible that he should
be holden of it. Death couldn't hold him. Impossible. And just as that Just as the
mouth of the great fish would be opened and would give Jonah
up, so too the mouth of that tomb would be opened and give
up the Lord Jesus Christ and he would go and appear to many
in that resurrection body. The life of Jonah, in closing,
the life of Jonah the prophet is no coincidence. It wasn't
as if the Lord God saw the life of Jonah and said, oh, that's
a good match for the life of our Lord Jesus Christ. No, the
Lord God raised Jonah up for this very purpose, to be a sign,
to be a demonstration of the mighty work of our great Jonah. The elements. signify these same things. They
speak of our saviour, they speak of our substitute and they speak
of him as our representative and as our mediator before God. Recalling that last supper, he
took bread and gave thanks and break it and gave unto them,
saying, This is my body which is given for you. This do in
remembrance of me. Likewise also the cup after supper,
saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood which is shed for
you. This do in remembrance of me. May the Lord cause us to discern
the body of the Lord in these emblems, and may we be caused
to rejoice in Him, in Him, in the Lord Jesus Christ, our great
Jonah. Amen.