To lead a significant life

THE SIGN OF JONAH

Luke 11 29-30
“And when the people were gathered thick together, he began to say, “This is an evil generation: they seek a sign: and there shall no sign be given it, but the sign of Jonah the prophet. For as Jonah was a sign unto the Ninevites, so shall also the Son of man be to this generation.”

Whenever you hear about a character of scripture named Jonah, what do you think of?

Most will answer a man inside of a whale.
Many will scoff at the idea, but the bible says it to be so.

The whale was a vehicle by which God got the attention of a man who was sent on a mission and refused to go in the manner that he was instructed.

The vehicle allowed the man to see the error of his way and to repent from his rebellion and turn back to the task given to him by his God.

Lets examine the story of Jonah the prophet by comparing him to an entity that many claim to be part of.

Whenever we see the story of Jonah, we are looking at a story that is quite similar to the church today, by the way the name Jonah is the Hebrew word for “dove”.

Interesting isn’t it as we will see the prophet doing in his day what the church has been called to do in its day.

Jonah, one of Gods prophets, was given a message to take to a group of people in a far away place, the message of repentance.

Repent or else.

Repent or God will remove your peoples and your city from the face of the earth.

Jonah, hated the Ninevites, he hated them so much that he despised the fact that he had been chosen by God to deliver the message of repentance to them.

The Ninevites were very immoral as they practiced a type of idolatry and ritual human sacrifice.
Many in this nation say that they are religious and have formulated an idea of what God is to them, and yet they deny that God has stated that we will not make any graven image or bow down to such a thing.

Whenever we design a God in our hearts that is different from the God of the entire volume of scripture we have done just that , practiced idolatry.

The God of our vain imaginations doesn’t have to become a carved or graven image, it is vivid enough to create an image that we believe He is, and if that design doesn’t line up with all aspects of His word then we have created a false god.

The Ninevites also practiced a type of ritual human sacrifice.

Very detestable to anyone who believes in sanctity of life.

Whenever or wherever ritual human sacrifice is practiced, a certain type of human is sought out.
The youngest and purest of a population group.

There is no more innocent than the unborn, yes the unborn.

The killing of the unborn is ritual sacrifice, they are innocent victims of selfishness, victims of greed, and victims of a heart that thinks that God will see the murderer and accomplices as faultless.

Abortion is ritual human sacrifice.

The victims are both helpless and innocent.

They are offered to a god of someone’s vain and evil imagination.

A god that allows all.

Jonah was delivered by the whale a distance of three days journey, yet while he was still one days walk away, he began to preach the word that God had given him.
Repent or else in forty days Nineveh shall be overthrown.

Just that simple, Jonah delivered the message and God did the work of causing a heart of repentance to form in the leaders, and in the population.

Jonah had done his work yet he was still angry that God would spare such a group of sinners.
How much like the church was the prophet Jonah.

He was in good standing with a righteous God, yet there was no concern in his heart for the people that he had been sent to.

In Chapter 4 of the book of Jonah we see in verse 2 where Jonah is telling God how thankful he is that He is a God of kindness, merciful and willing to repent from the punishments that all mankind is due
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That mercy and goodness was a great gift to Jonah, yet he cared not to share it with others.

A couch potato prophet, a picture of a church that is satisfied with all that it has been given, and unwilling to share it with others.
After all they are sinners and will just scoff at the message and I will be scorned and embarrassed.
I will just let them die without knowledge of a Saviour.

Later in the chapter we see where God had prepared a type of shade to protect Jonah from the heat, see the relation to scoffing and scorning that we fear.

All for Jonah, and he was glad.

Spoiled is a better word.

Give me my comforts and do not expect me to suffer for the faith.
A very good picture of the church.

Luke 11 29-30
“And when the people were gathered thick together, he began to say, “This is an evil generation: they seek a sign: and there shall no sign be given it, but the sign of Jonah the prophet. For as Jonah was a sign unto the Ninevites, so shall also the Son of man be to this generation.”

Do you wish a quick judgment upon the un-righteous?

Do you despise those who do not live, think, act or worship as you do?

Do you consider that eternity in hell is just as long for them as it would have been for you if you had not repented from your iniquity and willingly received the sacrifice from sin, Christ Jesus.
Have you considered that someone told you about a Holy God, about sin, about judgment, and about the grace of God shown to us in His only Son?

God told Jonah and God has told the church, “And should I not spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than six score thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand;” Jonah 4:11

The inhabitants of Nineveh had never been told the truth.

Has your family, your city, your nation been told the truth?

Romans 10:14 “How then shall they call upon him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?”
Jonah, or Joe, or Bill, or Carol, or Nancy, go tell them that judgment is coming, for all of us.