He Is Greater

Matthew 12:38-41 (NKJV)

“He is Greater”

The Seeker (Teacher, we want to see a sign from You)

The “Seeker Sensitive” Church (God does not hide – If you seek you shall find)

Romans 3:11 quotes Psalm 14 “There is none who understands; There is none who seeks after God.”

John 6:26, Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves.” (I know why you are here for the fish and the loaves)

The feeding of the 5000 was more a lesson for the disciples than a picnic for the crowd! Mark 6:52 says the reason why they were shocked at Jesus walking on water was that “they had not understood about the loaves, because their heart was hardened.”

God seeks man John 15:16 “You did not choose Me, but I chose you…”

John 6:44 “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day.”

The Sign (This generation looks for a sign but there will be no sign except the sign of Jonas)

Methodist scholar Adam Clarke, was one of my favorite Bible commentators in Bible school. I had thought I knew enough of Clarke’s commentary until I was shown this quote from this noted scholar’s notes on Genesis 12.11: Thou art a fair woman to look upon - "It appears that Abram supposed they would not scruple to take away the life of the husband in order to have the undisturbed possession of the wife... We may add to these considerations that strangers and foreigners are more coveted by the licentious than those who are natives. This has been amply illustrated in the West Indies and in America, where the jetty, monkey-faced African women are preferred to the elegant and beautiful Europeans!”

From this and other racist notes concerning the Jews you can get an idea of how fallible a widely read Bible scholar can be, or how even a sage’s thoughts on other people can be circumscribed by his time. This is a good reminder to all Bible students and preachers out there about not anchoring their positions on certain doctrinal issues on the works of their favorite scholars. The story of Jonah in chapter 4 tells of his prejudice (Jonah was a racist). And there no indication that Jonah ever learned from his awful experience or repented! But Jesus still used the life of His prophet Jonah as an Illustration of His Resurrection! Jonah was not a heroic prophet. He was a complicated man with some serious prejudice and anger issues. Nevertheless, God chooses Jonah for a mission. Jonah, the son of Amittai is called by God to go to Nineveh and testify to the people so that they might turn from their wicked ways. Jonah responds by fleeing the opposite direction and heading to sea. Apparently, Jonah believes that God’s power is limited to land. He is wrong. God’s power extends to the sea as well. At sea, a storm blows up and threatens to sink the ship. While Jonah sleeps the sailors pray to their own individual Gods. Finally, the sailors decide their ship is cursed and decide throwing Jonah overboard is the only way to save their ship. They are right. The storm settles as Jonah hits the water and is swallowed by a Big Fish. In the belly of the Big Fish, he prays for deliverance, so after 3 days and 3 nights God causes the Fish indigestion and it vomits him out on shore. Only then does Jonah realize he should probably do what God told him to do. So, he heads to Nineveh to preach Repentance and about God’s Judgement. He goes the center of town. He declares “If you don’t turn and repent of your evil way, God will utterly destroy you and your animals.” Within 40 days, they turn around! It turns out this complicated man is the effective preacher in Biblical history because the Ninevites listen to Jonah, turn their lives around and save themselves and their animals from the wrath of God.

Rather than rejoice at the turned around Ninevites, Jonah gets angry. He is mad that God has accepted the repentance of the Ninevites, even though that is exactly what he was sent on God’s mission to demand! He is so mad about the Ninevites turning to God that Jonah goes out of the city, takes refuge under a shade bush and pouts. God destroys that shade bush under which the prophet is pouting. And God challenges him, “You are angry when I destroy a shade bush that I created. But you don’t care at all about the 120,000 Ninevites and their animals who didn’t know right from wrong whom I saved?” In the end, God prevails and Jonah misses the point. The book ends with our graceful and merciful God reconciled with the city turned around and our not so heroic prophet still angry. BUT Jesus still calls him, His Prophet!!