ONE GREATER THAN JONAH

November 2, 2011

The story of Jonah and the big fish is perhaps the most ridiculed story in the Bible. But now at long last absolute proof has been found by the archaeologist that Jonah was indeed swallowed by a fish of gigantic proportions. Perhaps you think I will tell you how the scholars have gone on a dig and found buried deep in the sands of Joppa the skeletal remains of a humongous denizen of the deep and that they have found twisted in his ribs and teeth several strands of hair, and tests have positively measured the strata of the depth and know that this creature had been there since over a thousand years before Christ. Furthermore, D.N. A. tests have indicated that the hair is the hair of a Hebrew of that time frame.
I said perhaps you think I will tell you that, but I'm not. The proof to which I refer is the spiritual archaeologist who has dug deep into the gospel story. They have dug up the words that Jesus said: "For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the whale so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh shall stand up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it for they repented at the preaching of Jonah and behold one greater than Jonah is here!" So if Jesus believes it that is good enough for me. After all, do you believe in the resurrection of Jesus? If you believe that, what's the big deal? If God can raise the dead bringing a man alive out of a fish's belly is a minor problem.
Now what kind of fish was it that the Lord prepared to swallow Jonah? Was it an enlarged minnow with a thyroid problem? Was it a Holy Mackerel? It could have been either one since God prepared it for the occasion. However it really doesn't make a whale of a lot of difference what it was.
The Lord also said that the men of Nineveh would stand up in The Judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah and behold one greater than Jonah is here. The men of Nineveh will condemn this generation for the following
reasons. For one thing Jesus was greater than Jonah in obedience.

GREATER THAN JONAH IN OBEDIENCE

The Lord told Jonah to go to Nineveh that great city and cry against it. 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.
A Church where I served decided to be the living link support for a preacher who had decided to go to Jamaica. People asked him how he could take his growing family and move to such a third world country. He said if he did not go he would feel like Jonah. There is many a Jonah in the Lord's work today trying to serve God in the wrong place. Like Jonah they are comfortable where they are and intend to stay.
The command that God gave Jonah threw him into a panic. What command of God today causes you to panic? Perhaps for some it is the matter of simple obedience to the plan of salvation. One lady in my community was taught that Peter and Paul and the Lord Jesus had taught that with faith and repentance it was also necessary to be immersed to be saved. I suppose we could say she panicked. She said I will go to hell before I will be immersed. Actually a message on the repentance that goes before the baptism would make most people, throw a fit. So Jonah went down to Joppa and found a ship bound for Tarshish.
Jonah made good connections at Joppa. The Devil was his travel agent. A boat was waiting for him. The Devil will always cooperate with you in any act of disobedience to God. He will supply a boat. He will supply drugs. He will supply a woman. He will supply a man. He will supply a bottle. You name it and the Devil will get it for you no problem.
He found a boat bound for Tarshish and he paid the fare thereof. The Devil does not give anybody a free ride. You will pay the fare thereof. Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit and they paid the fare thereof. Adam was the only man who ever lived who remembered what it was like to live in Paradise and he remembered it every day for over nine hundred years. He paid the fare thereof.
Smoke cigarettes and you will pay the fare thereof. It may be delayed for about thirty years, but you will pay. Shoot cocaine and you will pay the fare thereof. Shack up and you will pay the fare thereof. America can get soft on the death penalty and she will pay the fare thereof in increased violence on our streets. Pay no attention to these stupid people who tell you the death penalty will not deter crime. We have not used it to any great degree for the past forty years and people are getting more violent every day. America has paid the fare thereof.
When Jonah disobeyed God he ran into difficulty. 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. The person who does the will of God has the wind of the Holy Spirit behind his back. To walk through life against the will of God is like trying to walk against the force of a hurricane.
Notice the spiritual journey of Jonah. He went down to Joppa. He went down into the ship. He went down into the sides of the ship and fell asleep. When he was thrown overboard he said he went down beneath the mountains. Down, down, down, down. That is the spiritual journey of all who go against the wind; down, down, down, down, all the way down to hell.
Jesus was greater than Jonah in obedience. He told the Apostles when they inquired if He had eaten, "My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me and to accomplish His work." In the garden of Gethsemane He said, "Not My will, but thine be done." Behold one greater than Jonah is here. Now we notice that Jesus was also greater than Jonah as a preacher.

GREATER THAN JONAH AS A PREACHER

Jonah was a great preacher. His talent as such must have been phenomenal. It would be sufficient to say that when the Lord would send a preacher for the task of preaching to Nineveh He chose the best He could get for the job. Notice what God told Jonah to do. "Arise, go to Nineveh, that Great City, and cry against it for their wickedness is come up before me."
A great preacher in the sight of the Lord is one who will cry against sin. There was plenty to cry against. Most preachers today don't cry against anything. It is considered insensitive to cry against the sexual deviate. It is considered insensitive to cry against the practice of being shacked up. If referred to at all we must choose our words carefully and call it a relationship or at least no worse than having an affair. The Bible calls it fornication and adultery. Unless we call it what it is they will not get the message. Preachers no longer cry against the sin of wearing denominational names. Does anyone cry against sprinkling as a scriptural form of baptism? There is no end of things and issues that need to be cried against.
After Jonah disobeyed the Lord and was vomited up by the big fish the Lord sent him again and said, "Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee." The preaching that he had been bidden to do was to cry against it.
Jonah cried against the city and told them yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown. It doesn't seem that the people told Jonah that he did not show any love in his preaching. They believed God and repented. Even the king got in on it. The king said, "But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God: yea, let them turn everyone from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands."
But Jesus is a greater preacher than Jonah. One time the chief priest and the Pharisees sent some officers to take Jesus. They came back empty handed. They were asked why did not ye bring Him. The officers answered, "Never man so spake."
Suppose George Washington had said, "I am the resurrection and the life." Suppose Abraham Lincoln had said, "He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal life." Suppose Thomas Jefferson had said, "In my Father's house are many mansions" How many people would take them seriously? But stand at the open grave and hear Jesus say, "I am the resurrection and the life." Stand at the Communion Table and hear Jesus say, "This is My body this is My blood." Listen to Jesus tell us that He has gone to prepare a place for us and our reaction is summed up in the words of the song.
Sing them over again to me, wonderful words of life,
Let me more of their beauty sees. Wonderful words of life.
Behold One greater than Jonah is here. Jesus is also greater than Jonah in evangelism.

GREATER THAN JONAH IN EVANGELISM

Jonah was a great preacher, but he had some weird ideas on evangelism. When he was told to go to Nineveh, he rose up to flee from the presence of the Lord and go to Tarshish. Jonah's idea of evangelism was to preach only to the Hebrews.
He tried to go to Tarshish. Tarshish was at the other end of the Mediterranean Sea. Joppa was in the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea and Tarshish was as far west as far as he could go all the way to the southern coast of Spain.
Perhaps most folk would not blame him for not wanting to preach to the Ninevites. They were a cruel and violent people. In the prayer of repentance of the king of Nineveh he mentioned their violent nature. Remember he said, "But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God: yea, let them turn everyone from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands." I have seen a sketch of the cruelty of these people in a history book. The sketch shows captive people lined up to pass before their captors and as they passed down the line their eyes were gauged out. This is the kind of people that Jonah had no desire to evangelize.
Jesus was greater than Jonah in evangelism. He even wants the violent people of America evangelized. In the Great Commission of Matthew, Jesus told the Apostles, "Go ye therefore, and teach ALL nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit." In the book of Mark He told them, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to EVERY creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned." According to Luke He said, that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among ALL nations, beginning at Jerusalem.
Jesus wants ALL nations according to Matthew EVERY creature according to Mark and ALL nations according to Luke to hear His gospel. Now how do you feel about evangelism? Do you feel like Jesus or Jonah? Do you want the gospel preached to all people everywhere or just to middle class white suburbia in their multi-million dollar buildings? The white folk are outnumbered. This is no time to circle the wagons and be on the defensive. Take the gospel and bust out of suburbia and go with God. Behold one greater than Jonah is here. Jesus was also greater than Jonah as a Savior.

GREATER THAN JONAH AS A SAVIOR

During the great tempest when the ship was like to be broken, Jonah seemed to be oblivious to the danger. He had gone down below and was fast asleep. Jonah at this point is a likeness of the Church today. The world is breaking apart, dying and going to hell and there you are in bed. Asleep to the greatest opportunities one can have to make a positive impression on the world. Paul says it for us in Romans, "It is high time to wake out of sleep, the night is far spent and the day is at hand." So wake up!
They cast lots and the lot fell upon Jonah. They asked him what they should do to him. 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 was willing to die that others on the boat might come out of the storm and live.
Before they took him up on this generous offer, they tried to save themselves by works. Nevertheless the men rowed hard to bring the ship to land; but they could not: for the sea wrought, and was tempestuous against them. The action of the sailors is a microcosm of our experience in the storms of life. Row your boat. Row as hard as you can and you will never by your own power come out of the sin storm. Like these sailors, you need a Savior that can do for you what you cannot do. So they took up Jonah, and cast him forth into the sea: and the sea ceased from her raging.
Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. The fish that swallowed up Jonah had a hard time holding him down. The great fish probably told the other fish, "Boys I ate something rotten. It was the worst thing I ever tasted." He suffered with it three days and then threw it up.
I read a three-volume account of the various trips Columbus made to the New World. On one trip he sent a scouting party ashore. One of the men in the party was a priest. The natives happened to be cannibals and they killed him and ate him. Some of them got sick. Thereafter when Columbus sent a scouting party out he always included a preacher in the group because the cannibals who got sick on one preacher would never eat preacher again. A preacher who won't be faithful to the proclamation of God's word makes anybody sick.
Jonah was the savior of a few sailors on that one boat, but Jesus is the Savior of all those who book passage on the OLE Ship of Zion. Behold one greater than Jonah is here. Last of all Jesus was greater than Jonah in the sign.

GREATER THAN JONAH IN THE SIGN

 The real secret of the great success of Jonah was in the sign. Jesus said in Luke that Jonah was a sign unto Nineveh. He had no quartet, or hi-Tec sound system to preach to the masses at Nineveh. His power was the sign. People heard what happened to him and they were willing to listen to a man who had been swallowed by the great fish and vomited up alive. That sign gave credence to his message. The power of the message of Christ is in the fulfillment of that sign--the resurrection of Christ. A preacher's message today without the resurrection is a powerless message. A message without our own resurrection from the watery grave is a powerless message.
These days I hear a great many preachers court the popularity of the congregation by offering an insipid invitation like this, "If you have a decision come forward." Come forward for what? An invitation like that is enough to gag a maggot. If the great fish that swallowed Jonah could get a mouth full of preacher like that he would never be able to get him down.
In Romans Paul states it for us in words that cannot be misunderstood without professional help. Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
Jonah was a sign unto the Ninevites and Jesus is the fulfillment of that sign unto us. Jesus said, "An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of Jonah the prophet." Jesus is our sign of salvation and the only sign we will ever get. Behold, one greater than Jonah is here!

Don't Say It

If all that we say, In a single day; With never a word left out,
Were printed each night, In clear black and white; T'would prove queer reading, no doubt.
And, then, just suppose, Ere our eyes we could close We must read the whole record through.
Then wouldn't we sigh, and wouldn't we try A great deal less talking to do?
And, I more than half think, That many a kink Would be smoother in life's tangled thread,
If half that we say, In a single day, Were left forever unsaid.