INTRODUCTION:

1. Three times in the New Testament our Lord referred to "the sign of Jonah the prophet" (Luke 11:29).
2. In Matthew 12:39, 40, our Lord said, "An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth."
3. In Matthew 16:4, our Lord said, "A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given unto it, but the sign of the prophet Jonah."
4. It was wrong for the people of Israel to "seek after a sign" (cf. 11:16). Our Lord said they were evil and adulterous (Matthew 12:39) and wicked (Matthew 16:4; cf. Luke 11:29).
5. Why were they wrong? Why were they "evil"?
6. Our Lord had already given them plenty of evidence that He was the Messiah. You may recall that our Lord said to the disciples of John the Baptist, "Go your way, and tell John what things ye have seen and heard; how that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, to the poor the gospel is preached" (Luke 7:22).
7. W.H. Griffith Thomas said, "What they had seen already was sufficient...Frequency of miraculous destroys effect -- tendency is harmful because (it) excludes faith" (Outline Studies in Luke).
8. Our Lord told them that they would find all of the answers to their questions in the Bible, the Word of God.
9. Our Lord said in John 5:39, "Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me."
10. When the rich man in hell asked Father Abraham to send Lazarus to his father's house, Abraham said no.
11. Abraham said to him, "They have Moses and the prophets (the Old Testament scriptures); let them hear them" (Luke 16:29).
12. And then the rich man said, "Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent" (Luke 16:30).
13. To this, Abraham said, "If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead" (Luke 16:31).

1. THE SIGN OF JONAH
2. THE SIGN OF THE QUEEN OF SHEBA AND KING SOLOMON
3. THE SIGN OF THE GREAT REVIVAL IN NINEVEH

 

I. THE SIGN OF JONAH

1. Our Lord said, "Jonah was a sign unto the Ninevites" (Luke 11:30). What a sign he must have been! When the Ninevites saw Jonah walk into town, he had just been vomited out by a great fish.
2. After spending three days and nights in the belly of this great fish, he must have looked and smelled very bad.
3. Jonah chapter 2 says that after he was swallowed by the great fish, "Jonah prayed unto the LORD his God out of the fish's belly" (Jonah 2:1).
4. And Jonah 2:2 says, "I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the LORD, and he heard me; out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice."
5. Jonah described his experience in the fish's belly like being trapped in "the belly of hell."
6. Some Bible teachers have speculated that the gastric juices from the great fish altered Jonah's appearance, and perhaps even bleached his skin.
7. The Bible does not elaborate, but we can imagine that Jonah received a lot of attention when he walked into the city of Nineveh preaching, "Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown" (Jonah 3:4).
8. Our Lord said to His critics, "For as Jonah was a sign unto the Ninevites, so shall also the Son of man be to this generation" (Luke 11:30).
9. In Matthew 12:40, our Lord used the story of Jonah as a picture of His death, burial, and resurrection -- "For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth."
10. This is why the liberals and other skeptics despise the book of Jonah. By attacking Jonah they are attacking the truthfulness of the Lord Jesus Christ.
11. Our Lord said in John 14:6, "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me."
12. So when unbelievers attack the story of Jonah, they are also attacking the Lord Jesus Christ and they are attacking His Gospel.
13. Referring to the book of Jonah, J Vernon McGee said, “This book is the spot where the enemy has leveled his heaviest artillery” (Thru the Bible).
14. Our Lord said His critics were wrong to demand a sign. He said they were "an evil generation." The sign of Jonah was given to them. The men of Nineveh believed Jonah and they repented (Luke 11:32), but the men in Israel refused to believe and they refused to repent.
15. Therefore, Jesus said, "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, a greater than Jonah is here" (11:32).
16. In Matthew 12:39, 40, our Lord said, "An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth."
17. Our Lord died, was buried, and rose from the dead, just as He predicted. But the Jewish leaders refused to believe. After our Lord rose from the dead, the chief priests gave a large sum of money to the soldiers guarding the tomb.
18. The chief priests said to the soldiers, "Say ye, His disciples came by night, and stole him away while we slept. And if this come to the governor's ears, we will persuade him, and secure you" (Matthew 28:13, 14). In other words, they would make sure the soldiers would not get in trouble with the governor.
19. Matthew 28:15 says the soldiers "took the money, and did as they were taught: and this saying is commonly reported among the Jews until this day."
20. Because of their wicked unbelief, our Lord said to these hypocritical Jewish leaders, "The men of Nineveh shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it" (Luke 11:32).

 

II. THE SIGN OF THE QUEEN OF SHEBA AND KING SOLOMON

1. During the reign of King Solomon, Israel had reached its zenith among world powers. But to the proud Jewish leaders, Jesus said, "Behold, a greater than Solomon is here" (Luke 11:31).
2. Our Lord referred to a well-known incident in the life of King Solomon. First Kings 10:1 says, "And when the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the LORD, she came to prove him with hard questions" (cf. I Kings 10:1-13).
3. First Kings 4:39 says, "And God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding exceeding much, and largeness of heart, even as the sand that is on the sea shore."
4. But King Solomon's great wisdom was marred by foolish mistakes. The Lord Jesus Christ is "greater than Solomon" because He is the perfect, sinless Son of God!
5. Some one said, "If before the wise man who yet became a fool; if before the proverb-maker who himself became a proverb; if before the richly endowed man whose glorious abilities were lent to the utter folly of idolatry; if before the king whose kingliness became vanity, the 'Queen of the South' bowed herself: how much more should we bow before the unfading Wisdom, the unsullied Purity, and the eternal Kingship of the Lord of all?" (H.J. Horn, cited by W.H. Griffith Thomas, Outline Studies in Luke).
6. W.H. Griffith Thomas said, "Let us exalt Him (Christ) on the throne of our hearts, while He waits for the glorious day when, as Solomon did before Him, He shall sit on 'the throne of His father David' (Luke 1:32)."
7. Because of their wicked unbelief, Jesus said, "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 utmost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and, behold, a greater than Solomon is here" (11:31).

 

III. THE SIGN OF THE GREAT REVIVAL IN NINEVEH (11:32)

1. The revival in Nineveh makes even the day of Pentecost seem small in comparison. Three thousand souls were saved on the day of Pentecost, but there were a lot more saved in Nineveh.
2. Jonah 3:5 says, “So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them.”
3. Jonah 3:6 tells us that the king of Nineveh arose from his throne and covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.
4. In Luke 11:30, our Lord said, “Jonas was a sign unto the Ninevites.” They were familiar with the story of Jonah. The conversion of all those wicked Ninevites (including the king) was a greater miracle than Jonah being swallowed and spit out by the great fish.
5. Our Lord said, "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, a greater than Jonah is here" (11:32).
6. John Phillips said, "The Ninevites had no Bible, yet they repented by the thousands at the preaching of Jonah. Probably a million pagans were saved, repenting in sackcloth and ashes! This was probably one of the greatest revivals of all time. 'A greater than Jonas is here'! Jesus said."
7. The LORD told Jonah, "Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me" (Jonah 1:1, 2).
8. But Jonah tried to go in the opposite direction. The Bible says, "But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD" (Jonah 1:3).
9. The Lord Jesus Christ is far greater than Jonah because He left the splendor of heaven to come down into this wicked, sin-cursed world to die on the cross for our sins.

Out of the ivory palaces,
Into a world of woe,
Only His great eternal love
Made my Savior go.  -- Hen­ry Bar­ra­clough

10. Hen­ry Bar­ra­clough was playing piano for the great evangelist J. Wilbur Chapman. One night in the mount­ains of North Car­o­li­na, Chapman preached from the Messianic Psalm 45.
11. After the ser­vice, Hen­ry Bar­ra­clough was sit­ting in the front seat of a car, thinking about the mes­sage, and the four short phras­es of the re­frain be­gan to take shape in his mind. He quick­ly wrote them down on a "vi­sit­ing card,” the only pa­per that was avail­a­ble.
12. Re­turn­ing to the con­fer­ence hotel, he worked out the first three stanzas, us­ing the out­line of Chap­man’s message. The fol­low­ing morn­ing the brand new song was sung as a special before the preaching.

My Lord has garments so wondrous fine,
And myrrh their texture fills;
Its fragrance reached to this heart of mine
With joy my being thrills.

 

Out of the ivory palaces,
Into a world of woe,
Only His great eternal love
Made my Savior go.

13. The Lord Jesus Christ is far greater than Jonah because Jonah hated the wicked Ninevites, but the Lord Jesus loves sinners. Jesus is called "a friend of publicans and sinners" (Luke 7:34).
14. When the Ninevites repented, the Bible says, "But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry" (Jonah 4:1).
15. But Jesus is never displeased when a soul is saved. He Himself said, "For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost" (Luke 19:10).
16. The Lord Jesus Christ is far greater than Jonah because Jonah never wept over Nineveh, but Jesus wept for Jerusalem!
17. "Behold, a greater than Jonah is here" (11:32).

 

CONCLUSION:

1. In his commentary on the Gospel of Luke, H.A. Ironside says, "We are taught throughout the Word of God that our responsibility depends upon the light that God graciously gives us."
2. Ironside pictures lost sinners in the day of judgment standing before the throne of God. Ironside mentions how the Lord Jesus said that in the day of judgment the queen of Sheba will rise up against sinners who have had every opportunity to know God, and to know the truth, and to know Christ, but they did not avail themselves of their privileges.
3. He said, "In the day of judgment...how terrible it will be when you see standing beside the Son of God, the Queen of Sheba who gave so much to hear the truth. She will point her finger at you and say, 'If only I had lived when you lived and had your opportunities how gladly would I have availed myself of them.'"
4. Then Ironside refers to the men of Nineveh, and having them look at lost sinners and say, “You had so many privileges and opportunities and yet you spurned them. We believed the first message from God that we ever heard. We believed the first time a prophet came to proclaim the divine truth, and God had mercy on us and saved us; but you have heard the Word expounded over and over again, and you turned away because of your love for the world."
5. It is a terrible mistake to sin against the light that God gives us!