Greater Than Jonah Or Solomon Series

GREATER THAN JONAH OR SOLOMON

PPT 1 Series Title (JESUS)

Pray without ceasing eyes of your understanding be opened... Explain what Paul prayed for without ceasing.

Ps 27:4 One thing I have asked from the LORD, that I shall seek: That I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, To behold the beauty of the LORD, And to meditate in His temple.

One thing conference set up around that theme.

Goal of this series is that God would peel back the curtain and show us Himself. He shows many His outergarments, and many are blind even to that. For example: The heavens declare the Glory of God, but they ascribe it to evolution.

Bombardier Beetle -- This lowly creature defends itself in a very interesting manner; its body has two sacks of chemicals that explode when added together, but are benign when kept separately. Thus, the first capability is that this beetle has two separate sacks that keep the chemicals separate until the beetle needs the chemical to protect itself.

The second capability is that the beetle has an asbestos type lining in his "firebox" in which the chemicals are added. This "firebox" lining keeps the chemical explosion from destroying the body of the beetle when it explodes outward. There is no way that evolved, that is design, not evolution.

The heavens declare the glory of God, but most don't see it. The heavens are the hinderparts of God, in that in a small way they reveal Him. But God doesn't show more than that to everyone. You have to press in to see more. Stay thirsty my friend.

PPT 2 Message Title

In this message we will see a woman who was so intrigued by the things she heard of a king in a far off land, that with great effort, and great expense, she travelled to find out if all she heard was true. She left enamered and awed by the wisest and richest man who ever lived. Yet Jesus unequivocally states, "A greater that Solomon is here." How and in what ways was Jesus greater than Solomon, and what practical applications does that have for us? Also what lessons can we learn from Jonah about evangelism.

PPT 3-4 Text

Lu 11:29 And as the crowds were increasing, He began to say, "This generation is a wicked generation; it seeks for a sign, and [yet] no sign shall be given to it but the sign of Jonah.

Lu 11:30 "For just as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so shall the Son of Man be to this generation.

Lu 11:31 "The Queen of the South shall rise up with the men of this generation at the judgment and condemn them, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and behold, something greater than Solomon is here.

Lu 11:32 "The men of Nineveh shall stand up with this generation at the judgment and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.

This passage of scripture blows away everything most preachers believe about church growth. If only I could preach better, if only I could fine tune the message, if only we had better facilities, if only we had a pre-school, or a gym, or whatever. Those things are not bad. But the ultimate truth is that its the condition of the hearers heart, and not the speakers ability or facilities that matter.

I am only going to deal briefly with this text itself, because I want to use it as a text that points us to another portion of scripture. First I want you to note that Jesus was doing all kinds of signs, He turned water into wine, He created food when he feed 5k+, yet He said He would do no sign. I think He said that because no matter what He did they still wouldn't believe. The story of His life and how they ultimately murdered Him bears that out. They saw signs, they just didn't want anything to do with Him, unless He fit what they wanted.

Jesus in the passage before us says the problem is not with Me, but you. He illustrates that two ways.

First with Jonah. Jonah was an uncaring, worthless preacher. He ran from the call of God, He preached one message and one message only. Yet 40 days and Nineveh will be destroyed. He preached a harsh judgmental message. He didn't have a food giveaway, he showed no compassion for the people he was sent to minister to, he didn't try to win them with love, he didn't give bikes away or candy away or school back packs if they would only somehow come to church. His message was harsh, rough, and delivered in an uncaring way, and yet the whole city state of Nineveh repented. To show you how bad and uncaring he was the scriptures say He got mad when they weren't destroyed. The men of that generation will condemn this generation, Jesus says, because they repented at the preaching of a terrible preacher, and you got the best one there has ever been and you aren't repenting.