Luk 11:27 And it happened as He spoke these things, a certain woman of the company lifted up her voice and said to Him, Blessed is the womb that bore You, and the breasts which You have sucked Luk 11:28 But He said, No; rather, blessed are they who hear the Word of God and keep it. Luk11:29 But the crowds pressing on Him, He began to say, This is an evil generation. It seeks a sign, and no sign will be given to it, except the sign of Jonah the prophet. Luk 11:30 For as Jonah was a sign to the Ninevites, so also shall the Son of Man be to this generation. Luk 11:31 The queen of the south shall rise up in the Judgment with the men of this generation and condemn them. For she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon. And behold, One greater than Solomon is here . Luk11:32 The men of Nineveh shall rise up in the Judgment with this generation and shall condemn it. For they repented at the preaching of Jonah. And behold, One greater than Jonah is here.
We have for many years used many ears to hear the word. In a sense, Messages, songs, studies, testimonies are the many hearing aids used to enable us to hear the word. In the passage above Jesus says that it is more blessed to hear and obey the word than have the privilege of being his mother. This emphasis on cultivating the art of hearing and obeying is something that the Lord had always emphasised with his disciples. In the gospel of Mark Chapter 4, he says the ability to hear increases with practice. Mar 4:23 If any man has ears to hear, let him hear.Mar 4:24 And He said to them, Take heed what you hear. With that measure which you measure, it shall be measured to you. And to you who hear, more shall be given. Mar 4:25 For he who has, more shall be given to him; and he who has not, from him shall be taken even that which he has.(KJV)
These words of Jesus are placed contextually immediately after he explained the parable of the sower that has to do with hearing and productivity. Mar 4:9 And He said to them, He who has ears to hear, let him hear. Hearing includes the faculty of understanding and that happens when we ask questions. In response to the disciples enquiry he responded, Mar 4:11 And He said to them, To you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God. The disciples that welcomed hearing with inquiry were the soil that would become 100 percent productive.
There is hearing like you hear on the wayside which is casual hearing Mar 4:15 And these are those by the wayside, where the Word is sown. And when they hear, Satan comes immediately and takes away the Word that was sown in their hearts. There is hearing that has not gone in deep enough because we forget what we heard when we are under pressure Mar 4:16 And these are those likewise being sown on stony places; who, when they hear the Word. Then there is hearing that is partial because its implementation is partial, because the worries and cares of this world will not allow full obedience., Mar 4:18 And these are those being sown among thorns; such as hear the Word, Finally there is hearing with full obedience that is productive Mar 4:20 And these are those sown on good ground, who hear the Word and welcome it, and bear fruit, one thirty, one sixty, and one a hundredfold.
The Lord said that unless the disciples could not understand any other parable without understanding the parable of the sower. Hearing is complete when you hear with understanding and act. Hearing with understanding is to meditate on what you hear. To ask questions and get answers. The quality of the soil is judged by its ability to hear effectively not by its ability to talk and ramble. Therefore the Lord follows up the parable and says " that to those who hear, more shall be given". Those who hear attentively to them shall be multiplied it's fruit a thirty fold, a sixty fold and a hundred fold but to those who hear in the other three forms what they hear shall also be taken away.
But the Lord says that this generation has a quality. They don't come to hear. They come seeking a sign as in.Luk 11:29 When the crowds were increasing, he began to say, "This generation is an evil generation. It seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah.
The crowds increase because they seek for a sign. The Lord says that the only sign that would be given would be the sign of Jonah.We need to distinguish our meetings whenever and wherever Christians meet that we don't meet to seek a sign. Let us hear and understand what is the sign of Jonah that the people would receive from the Lord.
1. Jonah was a sign for "Repentance" from sin. Jon 1:2 Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their evil has come up before Me. Jonah was Gods response to the evil of Nineveh. Evil deeds cry out to God. When Abel was murdered, His blood called out to God. The evil deeds of Sodom and Gomorrah called out God.Genesis 18:20-21 (MKJV)20 And Jehovah said, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous,21 I will go down now and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it, which has come to Me. And if not, I will know.
God was always very serious about sin, that is the reason we see Ezra cried out confessing that Gods people had become unholy by not following his commands. Ezra 9:6 (MKJV)6 And I said, O my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to You, my God. For our iniquities have increased over our heads, and our guiltiness has grown up to the heavens.
The sins of the cities are a permanent concern to God, that is why we see in the book of revelation God speaks about the sin of the city of Babylon. Rev 18:5 For her sins joined together, even up to Heaven, and God has remembered her unjust deeds. God wanted Jonah to go in to the city and cry against it and make the city aware of its sins. He was to make a general proclamation against its sinfulness. He was to be a type of John the Baptist and a type of Christ. He was to scatter the seeds of repentance. Even today when the word is heard in our homes and fellowships whether through our family devotions whether through text, through song or through prayer it must contain the call to reflect and repent. If that were not the case we would not have Revelation 18:4 And I heard another voice from Heaven, saying, Come out of her, My people, that you may not be partakers of her sins, and that you may not receive of her plagues
Just like Jonah was a sign to the ninevites sent by God in response to the sin of the Assyrians Jesus was a sign sent by God in response to the sin of the world.
What God did for Nineveh through Jonah, God did for the world through Jesus Christ. God sent his lamb, his son , Jesus Christ in to this world because of the sins of this world. That is what is written in the book of John. Joh 1:29 The next day John sees Jesus coming to him and says, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!
However well meaning the whole world may look upon the life of Jesus, i.e. Students of philosophy may call him a teacher , political science students may call him a social reformer the centrality of the life of Jesus is that he was sent because of the reality of sin in this world. When Jesus started his ministry he took up the call of God. Mat 4:17 From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, Repent! For the kingdom of Heaven is at hand.
Jonah who obeyed Gods call the second time, heard and obeyed God in full. He became a powerful sign for repentance in Gods hand displayed before the ninevites.
2. Jonah was a sign for "Peace " to the Ninevites. Jonah meaning "dove" was sent as an emissary of peace. He was an ambassador with a white flag from God who did not want to destroy Nineveh.
The Lord calls him Jonah the prophet. The Lord really made a spectacle of his prophets. Jonah was a prophet who lived during the time of Jerobam 2. The word Jonas means a "Dove". He was Gods sign of Peace sent to a most heartless and Godless community of that time, the assyrians. Imagine Jonah walking in to Nineveh. It would take him three days to walk across Nineveh proclaiming Gods message. It was not a gentle message given by a well dressed man. This was a message given by man who was in the belly of a fish for three days. It was a message given by a man who would be covered with the digestive juices of the fish for three days. His clothes would be a sight and so would his skin. He would definitely stand out as a sorry face amidst the rich and successful ninevites when he shouted throughout Nineveh, " In forty days Nineveh would be destroyed"
Jon 3:1 And the Word of Jehovah came to Jonah the second time, saying, Jon 3:2 Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out to it the proclamation that I am declaring to you.
Jon 3:3 And Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the Word of Jehovah. And Nineveh was a very great city of three days' journey. Jon 3:4 And Jonah began to enter into the city a day's journey, and he cried and said, Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown! Jon 3:5 And the people of Nineveh believed God. And they called a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them.
The book of Jonah teaches that Gods message preaching repentance is not a message seeking death. It is a message seeking reconciliation and peace. It is a message setting out Gods terms for that peace. It is a message that comes from the creator of the world who is also its judge in whose hands is life and death. It is a clarion call of a compassionate and merciful God.
Mankind is doomed for destruction because of sin. God does not want that any man should perish. That is Gods message in the story of Jonah. The people of Nineveh "heard" Jonah and "believed" God, they responded by calling a fast. They did this universally, all men and women and beasts. The movement started from the people and reached the King who also did the same thing. Nineveh believed the message carried by the dove. If the prophet sent to Nineveh bore the name Jonas, or Dove(both Greek and Hebrew), meaning peace the ultimate prophet , Jesus was saturated in peace.
Joh 1:32 And John bore record, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from Heaven like a dove, and He abode on Him.Joh 1:33 And I did not know Him, but He who sent me to baptize with water, that One said to me, Upon whom you shall see the Spirit descending, and remaining upon Him, He is the One who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.
Jesus Christ born in the flesh and filled with the Spirit is Gods peace offering to the world by which he reconciles a sinful world to himself. That is the essence of John 3:16, the expression of Gods love.
This Jesus is the one who was preached by the apostle Peter as narrated in the book of Acts. Act 2:22 Men, Israelites, hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by powerful works, and wonders and miracles, which God did through Him in your midst, as you yourselves also know,Act 2:23 this One given to you by the before-determined counsel and foreknowledge of God, you have taken and by lawless hands, crucifying Him, you put Him to death;Act 2:24 whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that He should be held by it.Act 2:36 Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God made this same Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.Act 2:37 And hearing this, they were stabbed in the heart, and said to Peter and to the other apostles, Men, brothers, what shall we do?
The Jesus whom we preach, the Jesus who can bring reconciliation is beyond a teacher who taught wonderfully and perfectly. He is beyond a social reformer whose thinking and life style matched perfectly. He is the lamb of God crucified and put to death by you and me. He is the lamb of God who God raised up and made him both Lord and Christ. He is Lord , he is King , he is messiah. That is why we preach Christ crucified because he brought us remission from sin and turned away the wrath of God. The person who does not see and believe in Jesus as the white flag from God, The household that does not see Jesus as the white flag from God The city that does not see Jesus as the white flag from God , the country that does not see Jesus as the white flag from God miss out on making peace with God.
An obedient Jonah became a powerful emblem of peace for the people when they heard him and believed on God.
3. Jonah and the people of Nineveh are a sign against a disobedient generation.
Luk 11:32 The men of Nineveh shall rise up in the Judgment with this generation and shall condemn it. For they repented at the preaching of Jonah. And behold, One greater than Jonah is here.
If Jonah in the whale and out of it was a powerful symbol that turned a vile Assyrian nation to God, Jesus Christ, Lamb and Lord crucified and resurrected is an even more powerful symbol for the whole world.
Jonah was a prophet, but Jesus said that John was greater than Jonah. John said that Jesus on whom he saw the Holy Spirit descend on as a dove and rest upon him would be greater than Him , because "he shall baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire". The people of Nineveh repented and were saved from destruction on the day they responded to Jonah. Something greater awaits those who hear and respond in obedience to Jesus Christ , the Lord and Messiah. He is the one who gives us power to have a meaningful life on earth and eternal life forever.The Holy Spirit indwells those who are obedient. That is what Peter preached, Act 5:29 And Peter and the apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men.Act 5:30 The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom you killed and hanged on a tree.Act 5:31 This One God has exalted to be a Ruler and Savior to His right hand in order to give repentance and remission of sins to Israel.Act 5:32 And we are His witnesses of these things. And so also is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey Him.
What is our index of obedience ? Do we sense a lack of working of the Holy Spirit in our midst? Can it be related to our failing to hear Gods word as we ought to hear it. The power of the spirit of God is made manifest in the obedient sons of God. Can we become hearers and doers of Gods word like the people of Nineveh. Good hearers who bear fruit in multiples of what they hear?. Obedience is about doing the things right the first time and most definitely the second time we are told by God.
Obedient hearers are the ones who carry the gospel in their hearts and in their hands. The biblical examples are many, those who obeyed like Mary, Zechariah (father of John), the apostles and all those who followed.They themselves become signs for the present generation and a reason and motivation for hearing and obedience.
