Sharon Reformed Presbyterian Church · Sermon study sheet

The Sign of Jonah

Robert Uhlrich · April 22, 2023

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Summary

When scribes and Pharisees demand a sign, Jesus identifies their request as unbelieving mockery rather than a sincere search for truth.
Jesus does not perform miracles for entertainment; nevertheless, he graciously gives his opponents the decisive sign of his death, burial, and resurrection.
Jonah describes his descent into the sea as going down to Sheol and behind the earth's bars, an experience of being as good as dead until God saves him.
As Jonah spends three days and nights in the great fish, the Son of Man will spend three days and nights in the heart of the earth and then rise.
The religious leaders remember Jesus' prediction, secure the tomb, and later receive the guards' report, yet suppress the evidence by paying for a false explanation.
Seeing evidence does not create saving faith in a resistant heart; faith is God's gift rather than a human contribution to salvation.
Jonah's confession that salvation belongs to the Lord summarizes both his deliverance and the sinner's entire rescue by divine grace.
Christ truly died, remained under the power of death without corruption, rose bodily on the third day, ascended, reigns, and will return to judge justly; no sinner merits heaven, so hope rests only upon his perfect obedience and sacrifice received by faith.

Why does Jesus reject the request for a spectacular sign?
How does Jonah's prayer describe his descent as an experience of death and the grave?
In what sense does Jonah's deliverance anticipate Jesus' resurrection?
What did the religious leaders remember and do after Jesus was buried?
Why did the guards' report and the empty tomb fail to produce faith in the leaders?
What is the difference between receiving evidence and being given saving faith?
Why can the confession 'salvation is of the Lord' stand without qualification?
How do Christ's perfect obedience, sacrifice, resurrection, and reign provide the sinner's only hope?
What does it mean that Jesus will return to judge the earth with equity?

Sign of Jonah: Jesus' comparison between Jonah's three days in the fish and the Son of Man's death, burial, and resurrection on the third day.
Sheol: The Old Testament term for the realm or state of the dead, used by Jonah to describe his descent as though into the grave.
Resurrection: Jesus' bodily rising from the dead on the third day, the decisive sign validating his claims and saving work.
Eyewitness testimony: The report of people who directly encountered events, including the guards who experienced the opened tomb and reported what happened.
Saving faith: God's gift by which a sinner receives and rests upon Christ rather than merely observing evidence or contributing merit.
Grace: God's undeserved favor rescuing those who cannot save themselves, illustrated by Jonah's deliverance and fulfilled in Christ.
Equitable judgment: Christ's final judgment of each person with perfect justice rather than mechanical sameness.