Text: Jonah 2; Matthew 12:38-41
Title: Two Pictures of Salvation
Jonah 2:1-10 Jonah 2:1 Then Jonah prayed to the LORD his God from the stomach of the fish, 2 and he said, "I called out of my distress to the LORD, And He answered me. I cried for help from the depth of Sheol; You heard my voice. 3 "For You had cast me into the deep, Into the heart of the seas, And the current engulfed me. All Your breakers and billows passed over me. 4 "So I said, ’I have been expelled from Your sight. Nevertheless I will look again toward Your holy temple.’ 5 "Water encompassed me to the point of death. The great deep engulfed me, Weeds were wrapped around my head. 6 "I descended to the roots of the mountains. The earth with its bars was around me forever, But You have brought up my life from the pit, O LORD my God. 7 "While I was fainting away, I remembered the LORD, And my prayer came to You, Into Your holy temple. 8 "Those who regard vain idols Forsake their faithfulness, 9 But I will sacrifice to You With the voice of thanksgiving. That which I have vowed I will pay. Salvation is from the LORD." 10 Then the LORD commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah up onto the dry land.
Matthew 12:38-41 38 Then some of the scribes and Pharisees said to Him, "Teacher, we want to see a sign from You." 39 But He answered and said to them, "An evil and adulterous generation craves for a sign; and yet no sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah the prophet; 40 for just as JONAH WAS THREE DAYS AND THREE NIGHTS IN THE BELLY OF THE SEA MONSTER, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. 41 "The men of Nineveh will stand up with this generation at the judgment, and will condemn it because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.
1) Two Pictures of Salvation
I. The Salvation of Jonah
i. From Death
ii. From Sin
iii. From Himself
II. Salvation Through Jesus
i. From Death
ii. From Sin
iii. From Ourselves
In our culture we use animals to symbolize important qualities or to identify certain organizations. Whenever we see these animals they bring to mind certain character traits. Let me give you a few examples…
- Eagle- In our country the eagle is a symbol of freedom.
- Dove- The dove is the symbol of What? Peace.
- Lion- The lion is often used as a symbol of bravery or strength.
- Donkey- Here is the symbol for the Democratic party.
- Elephant- and the one for the Republicans.
- Fish- This fish has been a symbol of Christianity for hundreds of years. I’m sure that most of you have seen this symbol, and some of you probably have one on your car right now. It is known as the Jesus fish or the Ichthus fish. In Greek Ichthus simply means fish. But it is also an acrostic. Each letter stands for something.
I- Iota is the first letter of Iesous (Ἰησοῦς), Greek for Jesus.
X- Chi is the first letter of Christos (Χριστóς), Greek for Christ.
Θ- Theta is the first letter of Theou (Θεοῦ), Greek for of God.
Y- Upsilon is the first letter of Huios (Υἱός), Greek for Son.
Σ- Sigma is the first letter of Soter (Σωτήρ), Greek for Savior.
So now you know why a stick figure fish is the symbol for Christianity. Now you can impress your friends with your extensive knowledge of the Greek language and church history. Apparently this symbol was used early on in Christianity as a secret identification marker.
Using animals to symbolically teach us things or remind us of things is not something new. As we will see today, the story of Jonah and the whale are a symbol of salvation. Obviously the whale, or the big fish, served as salvation from drowning for Jonah. But we will also see how Jesus identifies His own work of salvation with Jonah and the fish.
We see these two illustrations of salvation. Each picture tells us something about how God works and how we need to respond. We will continue on into chapter 2 of the book of Jonah and talk about the salvation of Jonah, and then look over at a passage in Matthew 12 and talk about salvation through Jesus.
Let’s start by taking a look at chapter 2 of Jonah. Please turn there in your Bibles. Again, it is a small book and easy to miss, it is in the OT, right between Obadiah and Micah.
While you are turning there, let me do a quick review of chapter 1 for those of you who missed last week.
Chapter 1 begins with God calling Jonah to go to a city called Nineveh and preach against it. Jonah was a prophet of God who served as a mouthpiece for God. God spoke through prophets like Jonah, today God speaks through the inspired words of the Bible.
Nineveh was an evil, wicked, rotten place. It was a pagan town in the heart of a pagan nation. God had taken notice of t heir evil ways and wanted Jonah to go and let them know that they were about to be wiped out.
It was a simple request, but Jonah didn’t want to have any part in it. He hated and feared the people of Nineveh and he wanted to see them get zapped. So instead of obeying God, Jonah ran for it. He hopped on a boat and headed in the opposite direction.
But he quickly learned that you can’t run from God. There is no place we can hide from Him. He created us and this world and everything in it. He knows where we are. Even when we try to ignore Him, He has a way of getting our attention.
Well, God got Jonah’s attention by creating a huge storm on the sea. The other sailors are freaked out, but eventually it becomes obvious that Jonah is the cause of the problem. So in order to save the other sailors, Jonah tells them to throw him overboard.
Jonah is thrown into the sea and the storm immediately stops. The sailors on the boat recognize that they had just seen God and they worship Him. As Jonah is sinking down to what he expects will be his grave, he is swallowed whole by some kind of large fish or whale.
We left off last week with Jonah inside that fish. Chapter 2 is a record of Jonah’s prayer from inside that fish. Follow along…
This prayer isn’t so much about Jonah asking God for help, no it is more of a prayer where Jonah is praising God for saving him. Jonah understands that God could have simply let him die, but instead God has mercy on Jonah in a miraculous way. Let’s look at the salvation of Jonah.
First of all, God saved Jonah from death. The language of this beautiful, poetic prayer is full of praises for how God saved Jonah from a certain death.
Jonah says, I cried out from the depth of sheol. Sheol is another word for the grave. He says, you brought my life up from the pit. I was dead and you saved me.
Jonah knew that he deserved death, but that God has spared his life. Jonah was completely helpless. There was nothing that he could do at that point to save himself. He didn’t swim really hard and aim for the mouth of the fish. He didn’t live such a good life that he deserved to be saved. All he did was let go. All the work of salvation was done by God.
God provided the fish, God put that fish in the right place at the right time, and God preserved Jonah inside that fish. All the hard work was done by God, all Jonah had to do was trust Him and hold on tight.
Not only was Jonah saved from sure death, he was saved from his sin. Jonah says…
4 "So I said, ’I have been expelled from Your sight. Nevertheless I will look again toward Your holy temple.’
8 "Those who regard vain idols Forsake their faithfulness, 9 But I will sacrifice to You With the voice of thanksgiving. That which I have vowed I will pay. Salvation is from the LORD."
Jonah says, I don’t want to be like those who worship idols or act unfaithfully. I will renew my commitment to you God. I will worship you. I will offer sacrifices with thanksgiving because of your faithfulness to me.
Jonah deserved to die and he knew it. He had run from God, blatantly disobeyed, rebelled. Throughout the OT God had punished people for a lot less. Sin against God, no matter how big or small, is still sin against God. It still puts us at odds with Him. It still leaves us separated from Him and ultimately deserving of death.
God gave Jonah a second chance. A reprieve from the punishment that he deserved because of his rebellion and sin. Ultimately God saved Jonah from himself.
In this story Jonah is clearly his own worst enemy. His attitude is wrong, his actions are wrong, his heart is all wrong. If it were up to Jonah he would have died in his state of rebellion and sin. He would have drowned in that sea and spent an eternity separated from God’s love. That is where his choices would have taken him.
Fortunately God is gracious. He didn’t give up on Jonah. He offered more than one chance to do the right thing. Jonah finally accepts God’s grace. But as we will see at the end of this story, Jonah’s attitude is still rotten. But God remains faithful.
Jonah is a picture of salvation. He is an object lesson for us about how God saves. His story is a historical picture of an even greater salvation that comes through Jesus Christ. Turn over to the book of Matthew 12:38-41.
In this passage some Pharisees are testing Jesus. Jesus has made some pretty significant claims about who He is. These Jewish skeptics ask for proof. They want to see some sort special sign as proof that Jesus really is who He says He is. They don’t just want to see another miracle. They have been witness to miracles already. They want something big. They want some kind of clear confirmation that God is at work. They want to see something along the lines of a fulfilled prophecy or fire from heaven.
Here is what Jesus gives them…12:38-41
Jesus sees right through these Pharisees. He knows that their motives are all wrong. He knows that they don’t really want to see a sign, they are just mocking Him. Even if they saw some sort of miraculous sign from heaven, they wouldn’t change. They refuse to believe in Jesus. They refuse to repent. They refuse to give their lives to God. They are comfortable with their man-made version of religion and they weren’t about to change.
So Jesus refuses to put on some kind of magic show for them. He refuses to give them the kind of sign that they wanted. But he does give them something. He calls it the sign of Jonah.
First of all, just like Jonah spent three days in the fish, the Son of man, which is a reference to Himself, will spend three days in the earth. The big fish is symbolic of the grave. Jonah spent three days in that tomb, and Jesus will also spend three days in a real tomb.
The Pharisees would not have had any real idea what Jesus was talking about here. Jesus spoke in parables and figurative language a lot. He spoke in such a way that really only his own disciples could understand Him at times. And sometimes even they had a hard time seeing what Jesus meant.
The reason the Pharisees had such a hard time understanding Jesus was because they weren’t listening. They were expecting something very different from the coming messiah. They didn’t take Him seriously because He didn’t fit their mold.
So they couldn’t understand that this reference to spending three days in the earth just like Jonah spent three days in the fish was a reference to His coming death, burial, and resurrection.
Jesus says that those men in Nineveh will stand up at the judgment and condemn this current generation. The men of Nineveh repented and believed, the Pharisees of Jesus day did not. Nineveh listened to Jonah’s message, but the Jews refused to listen to Jesus’ message.
Jesus’ is using the story of Jonah to try and teach the Pharisees something about salvation. Jonah not only experienced God’s salvation, but he preached a message of salvation to the Ninevites. I don’t want to spoil the ending for you, but after being spit up by the big fish, Jonah goes to Nineveh and warns them of God’s judgment. They respond to the message by repenting and so God saves them.
With the benefit of hindsight; we know what Jesus was talking about when he gave them the sign of Jonah. We know that what HE was telling those Pharisees was that He himself was the sign of life. Jesus life and death were going to be the most amazing sign that the world had ever seen. It would even be more impressive that the sight of a guy who survived in the belly of a whale.
This sign of Jonah teaches us about salvation through Jesus. Just like with Jonah, Jesus saves us from the curse of death. The first sin by Adam and Eve left all of humanity in a state of death. The curse of death not only applies to physical death, but more drastically, to spiritual death. Separation from God, an eternity faced with punishment because of that sin.
1 Corinthians 15:21-22 21 For since by a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead. 22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive.
Jesus died, spent three days in the grave, and then rose from the dead. He conquered the curse of death. Humanities greatest enemy has been beat. Jonah symbolizes death as he sank down into the sea. He symbolizes burial as he spent three days in the fish. And he symbolizes resurrection as he was spat back up onto the land.
Through Jesus Christ we no longer have to fear death. We too will one day be resurrected. We will live forever in that glorified body with Christ. We don’t have to worry about spiritual death either. The penalty and the punishment was paid for us by Jesus. He was a substitute for us, He took our place, He opened the door.
The curse of death comes because of our sin. So by conquering death, Jesus also broke the power of sin in our lives. He saved us from our sins. Because of our relationship to our first parents, Adam and Eve, we are all born with a sin nature. The first chapter of Romans explained that man isn’t basically good and will usually make the right choices, although that’s what a lot of people would like to believe. No, man is basically bent toward evil and will often make the wrong choice.
New age teaching tries to deny the reality of sin. It tries to downplay the seriousness of sin. But the Bible clearly teaches that sin is very real and it has disastrous consequences. It separates us from God. It leaves us in a state of complete helplessness. Because of our sin we are headed for the same fate as Jonah. When we run from God and try to do our own thing we will end up facing certain death.
And just like Jonah experienced an unexpected, undeserved salvation from God. We also experience an undeserved, unmerited, unexpected salvation through Jesus Christ. It isn’t about how hard we try, or how good we are, or how many rules we keep. No, salvation comes when we finally let go and allow God to take over.
Salvation from our sins comes when we hear the call to repentance, admit that we are sinners, and then simply pray and ask God for forgiveness. When we pray to accept Christ, we were telling God that we believe that Jesus was who He said He was and that we admit that we accept that free gift of eternal life that He offers. It’s such a simple thing, yet such a profoundly life changing event.
Just like with Jonah, Jesus ultimately saves us from ourselves. He saves us from the curse of death. He saves us from the guilt and punishment of sin, and he saves us from slavery to that old way of living. When we place our faith in Jesus He gives us a new heart and a new set of desires. He enables us to make the right choices.
The most amazing, unexplainable thing about salvation is the fact that we don’t deserve it but God saves us anyway. He is gracious and loving and protecting, even while we are rebellious and running the wrong way. It is simple a blessing from God.
The whole course of OT history is about God graciously and faithfully pursuing a relationship with His creation. Jonah is just one example of God’s desire to save humanity from sin and death. That desire never changes. God’s faithfulness to us never changes. And our responsibility never changes. The free gift of salvation has to be accepted to be effective. That was true for Jonah, true for the people of Nineveh, and it is true for us today.
There is a story of a man named George Wilson who, back in 1830 was convicted of robbing the U.S. Mail and was sentenced to be hanged. President Andrew Jackson issued a pardon for Wilson, but for some reason Wilson refused to accept the pardon.
There was some confusion as to what should happen to him. Should he be hanged as planned or did that pardon mean that he was free to go, even if we refused to accept it. The matter went to Chief Justice Marshall, who concluded that Wilson would have to be executed. "A pardon is a slip of paper," wrote Marshall, "the value of which is determined by the acceptance of the person to be pardoned. If it is refused, it is no pardon. George Wilson must be hanged."
The offer of life was extended, but he refused to accept it.
Please bow your heads and close your easy with me. I know that most of you here have already accepted that free gift of salvation. I know that most of you have a deep and abiding appreciation for what Jesus Christ has done for you. I know that most of you are walking by faith. But I just want you to give you a minute to quietly thank God for saving you. Thank Him for rescuing you just like he rescued Jonah. Thank Him for all that He has done in your life since that time. And pray for God to grant you the strength to continue to live a life for Him. Take a minute and have a one on one conversation with God…
Maybe there are some of you here today who haven’t had the chance to accept that free gift. Maybe you aren’t sure if you have ever really made that commitment to God. I want to extend an invitation and give you the opportunity to do that right now, right here. You don’t have to come forward or stand up or anything. Simple pray this prayer to God…
Dear God, I know that I am a sinner, and I ask for your forgiveness. I believe that Jesus died for me and rose from the dead. Thank you for the free gift of eternal life that you offer. I gladly accept and ask for you to be the Lord of my life.
In Jesus name, Amen.
Dear God,
Thank you for offering us a pardon from sin and death. Thank you that all we have to do is accept it. Thank you for reminding us today of the new life you have given us. Help us to live the way You want us to live. Thank you again for giving us this story of Jonah as a wonderful illustration of how much you love us and how gracious you are, and how freely you save.
Amen
