Eagles Nest Church
Resurrection Sunday (Easter)

      • 2 Corinthians 9:7ESV

      • Colossians 1:19–20ESV

      • Matthew 28:1–10ESV

  • Christ Is Risen He Is Risen Indeed
  • Crown Him With Many Crowns
  • How Vast the Love
  • Christ Our Hope In Life And Death

      • Jonah 2ESV

      • Matthew 12:38–41ESV

      • Jonah 2:1-3ESV

      • Jonah 2:4-6ESV

      • Jonah 2:7-9ESV

      • Jonah 2:10ESV

  • Every once in a while, you hear an illustration that is just too good to pass up.
    And this past week, a pastor friend had one on Jonah that was spot on.
    And it’s about celebrities and marriage.
    “Marriage is a dying institution and something I will never be associated with”
    Those were the words of Hollywood movie star and actress Cameron Diaz.
    A while back she was being interviewed,
    and she not only swore off marriage for good,
    But went on to say:
    "I don't think we should live our lives in relationships based off of old traditions that don't suit our world any longer."
    Then there’s actor George Clooney,
    who everyone wondered when he would finally settle down.
    But in response to being continually asked this question:
    He said:
    “I keep telling everyone I’m never going to get married.”
    “I am never going to have children… But people just don’t believe me.”
    In a 2013 interview, Maroon 5 lead singer and star of The Voice Adam Levine said,
    "If you don't get married, you can't get divorced."
    Those are just three celebrities out of many who have swore off marriage.
    And they aren’t the only ones.
    But would anyone like to guess what all of these celebrities have in common?
    They are all married today!
    So what happened?
    I thought marriage wasn't for you.
    I thought marriage was just some “old tradition that's outdated.”
    Do you know why all of those celebrities who swore off marriage are married today?
    The answer is very simple.
    The answer is: they met someone.
    See, before…
    marriage was this intellectual category that had all kinds of skeptical reasons to avoid.
    I don't want to give up my freedom.
    I want to protect my money.
    I'm afraid of commitment.
    What if I marry the wrong person?
    But then, all of that suddenly changed…
    The intellectual category changed through a personal experience.
    And here’s the thing…
    That happens all the time, in more ways than just marriage.
    And this morning,
    I want to show you the one place it matters most.
    In Matthew 12,
    the religious scribes and pharisees, who are the most theologically educated men Israel,
    come to Jesus and say:
    Matthew 12:38–39 ESV
    38 “Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.” 39 But he answered them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.
    The most religious men in the nation ask Jesus for proof of who He is.
    And Jesus says:
    the only sign I'm giving you is Jonah.
    Not Moses.
    Not Elijah.
    Not the parting of the Red Sea.
    or the fiery furnace.
    or the valley of dry bones.
    Jonah.
    Why?
    Out of every story in the Old Testament,
    why does Jesus pick this one?
    Well, that's what we're going to answer this morning.
    When you think of the story of Jonah,
    you probably think of the fish.
    That’s what everyone remembers - the guy who got swallowed by a fish.
    Now, I know this isn’t a traditional Easter passage,
    and I’d guess probably none of you have ever heard an Easter sermon on this passage.
    But if we understand what Jesus is saying here,
    it will change how we hear the entire Easter story.
    To truly understand the story of Easter, we must:
    1. Recognize the depth of our condition (vv. 1-6a)
    2. Remember the God who saves (vv. 1, 4b, 6b-7)
    3. Rest in the salvation only He provides (vv. 8-10; Matt. 12:38-39)
    Jonah was a prophet of God who was called to go and preach to the pagan city of Nineveh
    His mission was to warn and call them to repent before God judged them.
    But Jonah doesn’t want to do it.
    Because Nineveh was the capital city of Assyria,
    who was Israel’s most brutal enemy.
    So God says: “Go” but Jonah says: “No!”
    And the reason Jonah says, “no.” is because he knows something about God.
    and we see that in chapter 4, verse 2.
    He prays to the Lord and says:
    “This is why I fled to Tarshish.”
    “This is why I didn’t want to preach to the Ninevites!”
    “It’s because I know you’re a gracious God.”
    “you’re merciful”
    “Slow to anger”
    “And abounding in steadfast love.”
    “And you relenting from disaster.”
    “And honestly, I HATE THAT ABOUT YOU!”
    “I’m totally fine with me grace for me,”
    “but not grace for thee,”
    because these Ninevites DO NOT DESERVE IT!
    See, Jonah knew about God’s grace intellectually,
    But he hadn’t yet come to fully experience God’s grace personally.
    And in God’s great love for Jonah,
    He goes after him
    in order to teach His prodigal prophet this soul-saving lesson.
    So Jonah catches a ship in Joppa headed for Tarshish,
    which was the opposite direction of Nineveh,
    And God sends a massive storm to block Jonah’s way.
    The sailors cast lots to try to figure out who is causing their troubles,
    it lands on Jonah - who’s sleeping in the bottom of the boat.
    Jonah tells them the storm is his fault and to throw him overboard,
    And so after doing everything they can to try to get out of the storm,
    the sailors reluctantly agree,
    and Jonah is cast into the sea.
    Jonah 1:17 ESV
    17 And the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.
    And I know what some of you are thinking right about now,
    you’re thinking…
    “but could this have really happened?”
    “Could Jonah really have been swallowed by a whale?”
    Well that I say two things:
    First off, it was a fish, not a whale.
    And secondly, you mean to tell me that you’re not sure that the God
    who spoke the universe into existence.
    Who created us from the dust of the ground.
    And who parted the Red Sea and made the sun stand still,
    can appoint a fish to swallow a man.
    That’s the part you’re struggling with?
    Of course he can do it!
    And Jesus’s words tell us that He did!
    The question isn’t “can do it,”
    the question is “why did he do it,”
    And the answer to that question is the answer that unlocks the Easter message.
    I said a second ago that Jonah was God’s prodigal prophet,
    and that’s true.
    Because Jonah is a man on the run from an all-present God…
    Think about how silly that is.
    But even the language of the text shows us that Jonah is running from God.
    Look at how it describes it:
    Jonah went down to Joppa.
    Down into the ship.
    Down below deck to sleep.
    Down into the sea.
    Down toward the realm of the dead.
    All of this language is showing us Jonah’s trajectory.
    And the point couldn’t be any more clear.
    when you turn your back on God
    the only direction you can go is down.
    That is the hidden logic of sin.
    Every act of rebellion against God is functionally a request for distance from Him.
    But what sin promises as freedom always delivers chains.
    Jonah wanted autonomy.
    But he got Sheol - which is the realm of the dead.
    Because when you try to disconnect your life from God,
    that’s the result - Death!
    I like how one preacher put it,
    he said when you unplug your cell phone from the charger,
    what immediately starts happening?
    It starts to die.
    Why?
    because you’ve unplugged it from the life source.
    And when you unplug from God,
    death is the inevitable result.
    Sure… you might get by on the battery for a few decades,
    but physical and spiritual death is ALWAYS the inevitable result.
    As we saw this last Friday.
    This is why Paul says:
    Romans 5:12 ESV
    12 Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned
    That is the trajectory of every person,
    Sin against God leads to physical and spiritual death.
    It did Adam.
    It did for Jonah.
    And it does for us.
    In verses 1-6,
    Jonah is using language that describes his downward decent.
    And the commentators are torn over whether or not Jonah experienced a real death here.
    But either way,
    the point is the same.
    Jonah was experiencing God’s disciplining hand upon him.
    Jonah 2:2–3 ESV
    2 “I called out to the Lord, out of my distress, and he answered me; out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and you heard my voice. 3 For you cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the flood surrounded me; all your breakers and your waves passed over me.
    In Jewish thought,
    Sheol is the realm of the dead,
    which was believed to be in the center of the earth.
    And in Jewish thought,
    the sea was a terrifying place that represented the uncontrolled chaos of this world.
    But notice Jonah’s language here.
    “YOU CAST ME INTO T”HE DEEP”
    “YOUR BREAKERS AND YOUR WAVES passed over me.”
    That’s PSALM 42 LANGUAGE!
    “DEEP CALLS TO DEEP AT THE ROAR OF YOUR WATERFALLS!
    Jonah is echoing David’s language,
    but it’s not a metaphor for Jonah,
    it’s a literal, lived experienced!
    But the point is clear.
    The waves are not random,
    the billows are not by chance.
    All of this, Jonah sees,
    is God’s firm, disciplining hand upon him.
    But Jonah’s downward descent isn’t through yet.
    Jonah 2:4–6 ESV
    4 Then I said, ‘I am driven away from your sight; yet I shall again look upon your holy temple.’ 5 The waters closed in over me to take my life; the deep surrounded me; weeds were wrapped about my head. 6 To the roots of the mountains I went down, to the land whose bars closed upon me forever. Yet you brought up my life from the pit, O Lord my God.
    All of the language here is describing a watery grave.
    The waters were closing in over him..
    The weeds were wrapping around him like chains.
    The roots of the mountains are the lowest possible point.
    The bars of Sheol were shutting, with no hope of escape - EVER!
    That was the downward direction of Jonah,
    and that is the downward direction of you and I!
    Romans 6:23 ESV
    23 For the wages of sin is death
    Do you feel the weight of your sin?
    Do you see the down, down, down direction it takes you,
    and your desperate need for a Savior?
    Do you UNDERSTAND what it is you’re being saved from?
    It’s the wrath and judgment of God!
    Jonah realized this,
    and in a hopeless and helpless situation,
    he remembers the Lord,
    and cries out to the only God who can save.
    To truly understand the story of Easter, we must:
    1. Recognize the depth of our condition (vv. 1-6a)
    2. Remember the God who saves (vv. 1, 4b, 6b-7)
    Throughout these verses, we see Jonah’s downward decent without God
    contrasted with his upward ascent with God.
    It’s a sandwich of despair and hope!
    In verse 1, Jonah calls out to the Lord and is answered.
    In verse 4, Jonah knows that he will once again look upon God’s holy temple.
    And in Verse 6,
    Jonah says God is the one who brought his life UP out of the pit.
    Jonah was going down, down, down — and now God brings him UP.
    It's the same pattern we saw over and over again in Esther.
    God reverses the trajectory.
    Because He’s the God of great reversals!
    The point is, as Jonah mentions in verse 7,
    God HEARS HIS CRY!
    Jonah recognizes that his prayer went all the way from the bottom of the sea to the temple of heaven!
    The point is, Jonah was going down, down, down - but THEN HE LOOKS UP!
    And the Lord,
    in His mercy and grace saves Him!
    But why?
    Look at the temple language here.
    The earthly temple was place where day after day,
    there was bloody sacrifice after bloody sacrifice,
    carried out by priests who were who in many ways more like butchers.
    And why?
    Because of “PROPITIATION.”
    That’s word that means “payment.”
    it means “atonement.”
    It’s the blood cost required by a Holy God for sin!
    And so Jonah is recognizing what we all must recognize,
    which is this:
    IF GOD IS GOING TO REVERSE OUR DOWNWARD TRAJECTORY,
    If there is salvation AT ALL,
    Then it must come from HIM.
    Jonah 2:6 ESV
    6 … Yet you brought up my life from the pit, O Lord my God.
    There's that word again.
    “YET.”
    And notice:
    YOU brought my life up.
    Jonah is saying that the same God who cast him into the deep in verse 3
    is the same God who brings him up in verse 6.
    God is the actor in both directions.
    He brought Jonah down through discipline.
    He brings Jonah up through grace.
    Jonah contributes nothing to his own rescue.
    The God who sends you down is the only God who can bring you up.
    Which is BOTH terrifying and tremendously wonderful!
    Jonah 2:7 ESV
    7 When my life was fainting away, I remembered the Lord, and my prayer came to you, into your holy temple.
    “I remembered the LORD.”
    That's the turning point.
    Notice what Jonah does NOT say.
    He doesn't say:
    “I cleaned up my life."
    He doesn't say:
    "I made a decision."
    He simply says
    “I REMEMBERED THE LORD.”
    “And He heard my prayer…”
    This is the language of HOPE!
    As Jonah is going down into the pit, he doesn’t say: “I now see your holy temple”
    He says: “I will SHALL AGAIN SEE IT!”
    That’s hope spoken from inside the grave!
    That’s the language of the thief on the cross who turned to Christ and said:
    “Remember me when you come into your kingdom.”
    Both are spoken by men who have NO evidence for deliverance,
    But are are RELYING ON THE CHARACTER OF GOD AND GOD ALONE!
    And don’t you see that
    Jonah’s hope is our hope!
    The thief’s trust is our trust!
    As we just sang:
    WHAT IS OUR HOPE IN LIFE AND DEATH?!?!
    CHRIST ALONE!
    CHRIST ALONE!
    What is our only confidence?!?
    THAT OUR SOULS TO HIM BELONG!
    And today on this Easter Sunday, our confidence isn’t:
    “I see the empty tomb”
    But
    “I TRUST THE GOD WHO CAN EMPTY THE TOMB!”
    Our greatest need isn’t to know ABOUT Jesus,
    It’s to KNOW JESUS!
    Look at Jonah for case and point.
    He was a prophet of God!
    A man who knew the Scriptures better than anyone in this room!
    He didn’t have his Bible in the bottom of the fish,
    and yet in these 10 verses,
    he quotes from Psalms 3, 18, 31, 42, 69, 88, 107, 116, 120, and 142!
    But still…
    he was dead & lost in his trespasses and sins.
    Salvation does not come from merely thinking in God’s direction.
    It is not the mere acquisition of spiritual knowledge!
    Salvation is GOING TO GOD!
    FROM THE DEPTHS
    FROM THE DEEPS
    And in complete and utter desperation CRYING OUT TO HIM and saying:
    GOD SAVE ME!
    LEST I PERISH!
    For that is the only way to rest in the salvation that He alone provides.
    To truly understand the story of Easter, we must:
    1. Recognize the depth of our condition (vv. 1-6a)
    2. Remember the God who saves (vv. 1, 4b, 6b-7)
    3. Rest in the salvation only He provides (vv. 8-10; Matt. 12:38-39)
    After remembering the Lord and calling out to Him,
    Jonah realizes what his running from the Lord really was.
    And what it was, was idolatry.
    Jonah 2:8 ESV
    8 Those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love.
    This is a really difficult verse to translate,
    But the point isn’t hard to understand.
    The point is, those who cling to anything other than God for their hope in life or death
    will discover their idols are powerless to save them.
    And in that moment,
    they will come to see that they have forfeited the grace that could have been theirs.
    And Jonah knows this firsthand.
    Because that’s exactly what he did.
    He traded God’s mission for comfort.
    He traded God’s will for his own judgment.
    And where did it take him?
    Down, down, down to the bottom of the sea,
    to the gates of death itself!
    Jonah realized that if you unplug from God,
    and try to plug into anything else besides Him,
    Your life WILL eventually drain down to ZERO!
    For idols CANNOT save you
    they can only drain you.
    Jonah 2:9 ESV
    9 But I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you; what I have vowed I will pay. Salvation belongs to the Lord!”
    And with that,
    verse 10 tells us the Lord spoke to the fish,
    and it vomited Jonah out upon the dry land.
    After turning in repentance towards the Lord,
    And vowing to serve Him,
    Jonah gives us the key verse of the entire book,
    and probably the key verse of the entire Bible!
    “Salvation BELONGS TO YAHWEH” - and YAHWEH alone!
    The Hebrew word Jonah uses here for "salvation" is yeshuah:
    Which means Yahweh saves.
    And so in Matthew 12,
    When the religious leader come to Jesus saying:
    We need a sign.
    We need some more proof.
    SHOW US!
    Jesus… who’s name is YESHUA
    points them to Jonah…
    Matthew 12:39–40 ESV
    39 But he answered them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. 40 For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
    Jesus is saying, “you’re looking for a sign…?”
    “WELL I AM THE SIGN!”
    “For I AM the salvation from the Lord!”
    “I am what Jonah was pointing to!”
    “And if you don’t repent!”
    Matthew 12:41 ESV
    41 The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.
    Do you see what Jesus is doing?
    He is picking up Jonah's story and saying: “it was always about Me!”
    That’s why Jonah is an Easter story!
    Because Jonah’s story is our story!
    We have all unplugged from God!
    We have fled from Him!
    We have rebelled against him!
    We’ve gone our own way, trying to live our own life,
    For as the Bible says, “all we like sheep have gone astray.”
    “EVERYONE ACCORDING TO THEIR OWN WAY!”
    BUT GOD!
    Has laid upon Him… the iniquity of us all.
    The temple that Jonah looked to,
    with its priests and sacrifices
    Was BUT A SHADOW of the greater sacrifice by YESHUA, our great high priest!
    And His sacrifice is not like the one of the bulls and goats,
    needing to be repeated year and year,
    For His was the PERFECT and FINAL sacrifice of GOD
    that takes away the sins of the world.
    Which is why SALVATION BELONGS TO THE LORD!
    This is why Jesus can say:
    “behold something greater than Jonah is here…”
    Because Christ is the new and greater Jonah!
    Jonah slept thruogh a storm in the bottom of boat, Jesus slept through a storm in the bottom of the boat.
    Jonah descended into a sea - but Christ descended into the grave.
    Jonah was 3 days in the belly of the fish - but Christ was 3 days in the earth.
    Jonah sank because of his own sin - Jesus sank for ours.
    Jonah was brought up from the pit - Christ was brought up to resurrected life!
    Jonah cried out “I am driven from your sight” - Jesus cried out “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”
    Jonah reluctantly brought a message of salvation to one city - Jesus willingly brings a message of salvation for the world!
    Jonah hated his enemies - Jesus DIED for His enemies, praying: “Father, forgive them. They know not what they do.”
    Jonah ran from God’s mission - But Christ COMPLETED God’s mission, crying out “IT. IS. FINISHED!”
    Something far greater than Jonah is here.
    And His name is Jesus!
    And if you truly meet him,
    instead of merely knowing about Him.
    It… will... change… your… life.
    Just like He did for a Samaritan woman.
    She was a woman who had all her categories firmly in place.
    Then one day, she met a man named Jesus.
    And they talked about everything from:
    marriage,
    to God,
    to worship,
    to even the coming Messiah.
    And then Jesus turns to her and says:
    “I who speak to you, am He…”
    And in that moment her life was forever changed.
    Why?
    Because she met someone.
    Who told her everything she ever did.
    And yet, He loved her anyway.
    Church, this is what Easter is all about.
    it’s about Jesus Christ - Yeshua
    Which is why the story of Jonah is the story of Easter!
    Because it’s about GOD saving a whole bunch of prodigals,
    Like Jonah,
    Like the thief on the cross,
    and like the Samaritan woman,
    who were hell-bent on unplugging from God.
    Out of all the stories Jesus could have picked from the Old Testament.
    Why does he pick Jonah?
    Think about who’s asking him for this sign.
    It’s the religious leaders who missed the truth that salvation that belonged to the Lord,
    And why?
    Because they knew about God’s salvation intellectually.
    But they never experienced it personally.
    And if you never experience it personally and continue to reject the sign of Jonah,
    If you continuing living your life unplugged from God,
    knowing about Him,
    but not KNOWING Him personally.
    Then the men of Nineveh will rise up against you too on judgment and rightfully condemn you.
    For they repented at the preaching of Jonah.
    So what excuse do you have for not repenting at the preaching of Jesus - the new and better Jonah?
    The one who died to rise triumphantly over the grave.
    Those celebrities changed because they met someone.
    The Samaritan woman changed because she met Someone.
    And this morning, that Someone is alive and here,
    and he’s far greater than Jonah.
    His name is Yeshua.
    And salvation belongs to Him!
    Prayer

      • Matthew 12:38–39ESV

      • Jonah 1:17ESV

      • Romans 5:12ESV

      • Jonah 2:2–3ESV

      • Jonah 2:4–6ESV

      • Romans 6:23ESV

      • Jonah 2:6ESV

      • Jonah 2:7ESV

      • Jonah 2:8ESV

      • Jonah 2:9ESV

      • Matthew 12:39–40ESV

      • Matthew 12:41ESV

  • In Christ Alone
  • Christus Victor (Amen)

      • Philippians 3:8–10ESV

Eagles Nest Church
pastorzach@eaglesnestmn.org
(218) 562-5252
http://www.eaglesnestmn.org
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