The Gospel of Luke 11:29-36 The Sign of Jonah
Luke 11:29-36 · Vern Peterman · Nov 1, 2015
Gospel of Luke, No. 46
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926519515870

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Good morning. I'd like to make a couple of comments. One is, we sang this song, He Lives, and it says, and just the time I need him is always near. By the way, eventually you figure out that that's all the time. Okay? So anyway, just thought I'd make a comment on that.

The other thing is, of course, I've been in different parts of the world. And I have to tell this from a farm story viewpoint, right? I've been in different parts of the world. Here we are in Denver, but I've been in Poland and Uganda, which is about eight hours ahead of where we are here. So you'll please excuse me if I answer your questions eight hours before you ask them. Okay. Next week, I'll try to catch you up with what happened on this trip. Phenomenal, amazing time in both Poland and Uganda. But anyway, we'll get it together for next week, hopefully.

So, in Luke 11, 29-36, as we continue investigating Jesus in the Gospel of Luke here, Last time, which was now a few weeks ago, we had Luke 11, 15, and 16, which said that some of them said he casts out demons by Beelzebul, the ruler of the demons, and others to test him were demanding of him a sign from heaven. And what we found is that last time he addressed the casting out of demons and the accusation that it was done by Beelzebul, which is a euphemism for Satan, the ruler of demons and then in this week's passage he addresses the those who are demanding a sign and So that's what we'll be venturing into here.

So Luke 11 29 as the crowds were increasing Okay, so there's actually more and more people coming This generation is a wicked generation, which is of course what they all wanted to hear, right? it seeks for a sign and yet no sign will be given it but the sign of Jonah and One of the things we want to ask is, does having more people come help? Help situation. The crowds were increasing. Did that seem to be actually a good indicator?

And what it turns out is apparently not. Because here Jesus had two different issues he was having to deal with, with these people. And more and more of an indication that they had some spiritual problems that were deep-seated, even though the numbers were increasing. So Jesus had addressed, in the last time we studied, the false accusation that he cast out demons by Baal-zebel, again a euphemism for Satan.

Now, with the crowd actually growing in numbers here, he would begin to address the demand by some for a sign. Give us a sign, right? The demand for a sign was actually not a good sign, as we hear Jesus say to the crowd. So we have a question to ask, do signs help? Are signs helpful? Apparently casting out a demon was not a big enough sign to qualify.

And besides, you might attribute that to Beelzebul. So we want to see something else, right? And so, no, signs just don't cut it, at least not you know, this kind of sign, and we need to see something that's more amped up, more impressive, and something that can't be attributed to some other source. So Jesus had done lots of miracles.

Not all those could be counted because some of those were done on the Sabbath, and of course that's bad, right? He did a lot of them on the Sabbath. As a matter of fact, the day he cast the demon out of a man at Capernaum, and then walked out of the synagogue, and then walked over to Peter's house and healed Peter's mother-in-law. He continued to do miracles, it seems like one and then another and another, all the way until the sun set. And make sure he broke the Sabbath, at least by their rules. Jesus had even raised the son of the widow of Nain. And he'd also raised Jairus' daughter. But those weren't enough.

He's got to do a little bit more, apparently. What signs have you done for us lately? That ends up apparently being the question. We want more signs, we want bigger signs, and we want signs that can't be attributed to Baalsable. So give us a sign, another one, some more, also.

Jesus called this generation that he was presenting the gospel of the kingdom to a wicked generation. Wicked generation. Miracles do not guarantee that people will respond as favorably as one might hope or expect they would. And I think that's a surprise as we read through the Gospels.

You'd think these people would have it dawn on them that, hey, this guy is doing one miracle after the next and of different kinds, and he's doing them at different places, and he doesn't seem to have a certain percentage success rate. Whenever he initiates one, it happens 100%.

But you would think that that would impact people. But it turns out, it doesn't. People want still more signs. There's sort of an inflationary fact here. Jesus performed miracle after miracle after miracle. He did them of great variety and magnitude. The response here was, do another one. And we're not sufficiently impressed yet.

So I guess the question is, how many signs does it take? And of what magnitude? I think they were expecting something like Jesus coming up to the Sea of Galilee and parting the Sea of Galilee and having the Israelites come across the Sea of Galilee and then have the Romans come through and then the closes back up on them. Something like that. That would impress them sufficiently. But they weren't seeing that, so they demanded another sign. Some more.

So Jesus comes up with a couple of instances in the past. And one of the patterns we find there is that the Gentiles, in certain instances, have responded better than the Jews. Now, the Jews, of course, thought of themselves as better than Gentiles, generally speaking. They had derogatory terms for the Gentiles. There are two different terms for dog, and they called them the most derogatory term for dog. They figured they were automatically superior because of their lineage from Abraham. So as we're going to soon see here in the passage, Jesus is going to give them two instances in which the Gentiles, and they're from different sources, respond better, spiritually speaking, than God's chosen people, the Jews.

So here's Luke 11.30.

For just as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so will the Son of Man be to this generation." So how many signs does it take, we could ask? Jonah was miraculously preserved and delivered by the great fish, and that was a sign that the Ninevites actually didn't see directly. The Ninevites weren't there when Jonah was spit up by this great fish.

By the way, people use the word whale. The Bible doesn't actually say that. And as you look at where whales frequented and whatnot, the eastern Mediterranean was not a place where they frequented. So this was actually a miraculous event, not a natural event by all appearances.

So how many signs does it take? So far as we have any record, the Ninevites were not shown any authenticating signs. Yet they responded to Jonah's message in the call to repent. It at least postponed judgment against the Ninevites and the Assyrians. Jesus had already done hundreds of signs, and that may be an understatement. It may be numbering more in the thousands. He had already done a great many signs, but they still wanted more. How much is enough? I don't know. They apparently couldn't tell me either, but just more. So the Ninevites responded positively to Jonah without any signs that they could see visibly. The Ninevites at that time responded to the sign and warning of Jonah that postponed their judgment by God. It did come later on by the hand of the Babylonians. The Babylonians took over the Assyrian Empire. Nineveh was the capital. As a matter of fact, if I recall correctly, Matt Kirby has been there to what was Nineveh.

The Jews were mostly responding negatively to Jesus' warning. And later on, to the sign of his own resurrection, so their judgment by God was not to be postponed. They didn't respond favorably. Therefore, judgment came upon the Jews in 70 AD. Judgment came against them. July 1st was when the Romans brought on the battering rams against the gates.

They had other military instruments and forces and approaches that they were using. They eventually broke into the Antonia Fortress and shoved everything off the top of the Temple Mount. When we were over in Israel, we saw some of the remains of when the Romans shoved everything off. You can see off on the right, looking at what's called Robinson's Arch. The arch is all broken off. Why? Because of the Romans dumping things off the edge of the Temple Mount there.

So that judgment came against the Jews because they didn't respond favorably to Jesus bringing the gospel of the kingdom to them. Now Jesus and what he was doing and what was being done through him was certainly greater than Jonah. Here's Jonah, he is a prophet. He's a prophet who got good results with the Ninevites. after a three-day and sort of you know being facetious here interlude then appeared to the Ninevites and he threatened judgment if they did not repent of their sins 40 days okay guys have 40 days to turn this around or you're done and so but he was just a prophet right Jonah was even a reluctant prophet right he initially tried to do what Initially, instead of going to Nineveh, which is to head east, he went west to Joppa, and tried to head off to Tarshish, which was a very distant port in the opposite direction.

Jesus was the Son of God, and the Son of Man, and the Messiah, right there in front of them, right in their midst. And he was not being reluctant, unlike Jonah. And yet, very few were responding favorably. He is the Son of God, He is the Son of Man, and the long-promised Messiah. He is all those things. Jonah presented the need to repent to the Ninevites just as a prophet of God.

Jesus presented Himself as the issue to the people of Israel and the land of Israel for a period of about three years. Jonah didn't do any miracles so far as we have any evidence. No miracles. The sign of Jonah was not evident there, it was prior to his time in Nineveh. Just a prophet of God, and yet he gave them a warning, 40 days and you're done if you don't repent.

In the gospel of the kingdom, the need for the people was for the people of Israel to accept and embrace Jesus as the Messiah. But in the gospel of substitution, two gospels, that he died for our sins, substitute, was buried and rose again is a need for each one to believe. So that is the interesting thing that's a difference between the two Gospels. Everyone in Israel needed to respond favorably in order for the gospel of the kingdom to have been fulfilled and embraced and to have its way. In the gospel of substitution, Christ died for your sins, was buried, and rose again. That, people need to believe one at a time. And it doesn't matter whether you've got a small number or a large number. It's still one at a time.

Here is Luke 11.31.

The Queen of the South will rise up with the men of this generation and at the judgment and condemn them because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon. And behold, something greater than Solomon is here." And by the way, the Queen of the South is not from Alabama, just so you know. Okay, so this Queen of the South identified as 1 Kings 10, 1-13, in a parallel passage, 2 Chronicles 9, 1-12, is known otherwise in those passages as the Queen of Sheba. She came to Solomon to hear and to see directly of his great wisdom and his wealth. Those two things had become well-known, famous, and so she traveled a distance in order to reach that.

Both biblical and archaeological scholars have identified that this Queen of Sheba, the Queen of the South, that's Jesus said there is a queen of the Sabaeans. We would identify that with about where the country of Yemen is now in the southern part of the Saudi Arabian Peninsula. So that's the identification.

Camels would have been the only pack animals that could have survived this trip because they're fairly long distances between water sources there and camels have a particular rare ability to survive during those long stretches between water sources. So all the indications here support the actual trade of goods that are described there in 1 Kings 10 and 2 Chronicles 9. and and back up this account in terms of what what transportation was used what the Queen of Sheba brought But what Jesus says something greater than Solomon is here, okay?

Solomon was the king of Israel. It wasn't he was the last king of the United Kingdom and before it broke up into Israel in the Northern Kingdom and Judah in the Southern Kingdom. His wealth and wisdom, both, became internationally famous, even to the point where this queen would come from some distance and with some obstacles and discomfort to come and see for herself. Jesus, however, a descendant of Solomon, as out of Matthew 1, 6, and 7, Came to the people of Israel as the son of God as the son of man That's out of Daniel 7 13 and 14 and the long-promised Messiah is revealed in the scriptures. It was those promises of his Messiah ship and even later of his resurrection that Jesus talked with the disciples on the road to Emmaus about and Now, the Queen of Sheba traveled this great distance to see and hear Solomon, but the Jews have Jesus standing right there in front of them.

No discomfort, you don't have to come some great distance. So here, the Son of God and the Son of Man is standing right there in their midst, and they don't believe it. They don't believe it. The Queen of Sheba did not ask for any authenticating signs. But the Jews ask for more authenticating signs, after Jesus already did hundreds of them, and possibly even thousands. We want some more, and higher magnitude.

So here's Luke 11.32.

The men of Nineveh will stand up with this generation at the judgment and condemn it. This generation right here with the time of Jesus and those who are right there in the land of Israel because they repented at the preaching of Jonah and behold something greater than Jonah is here. The resurrection is implied but not stated quite so clearly as it is in Matthew 1240 and I think you've got that quoted on the top of your bulletin there. where that talks about the sign of Jonah, three days and three nights, and the belly of the great sea monster, the great fish. What's directly stated here is that there is responsibility for responsiveness. Have that? Responsibility for responsiveness to the truth revealed to a person and to a people. And this is a general principle, it's specific in Christ's case, to the Jews responding to the fact that He is the Son of God, the Son of Man, and the long-promised Messiah. So we're not Jews living in that early first century. We're not Ninevites. We're not Sabians.

But the principle that we are responsible to respond to the truth revealed to us is still valid. Still valid. And I think that's something for us to look at. Here at Holly Hills, we have a lot of truth presented. We present a lot of truth. It is actually a problem if we just pack our heads full of it, and don't apply it, and don't assimilate it, and ask the Lord to work it into our lives. But if it just stays as head knowledge, that's not what God has in mind. So that's a part of responding to the truth presented. Something else to point out is while this passage here talks about a judgment, this is not our judgment.

The judgment for us in the body of Christ will be at a different time and place and a different character than the judgment that Jesus refers to here. When we get to Luke chapter 16, about five chapters out, When we get to Luke chapter 16, we'll take a look at several different things because we'll look at different resurrections. And there are different resurrections of different bodies at different times. So different resurrections with different judgments.

And so we'll look at that in the larger scale. And even we will look at the structure of the spiritual realm. So anyway, we'll be looking at more of that in detail when we get there. But just to point out, this is not our judgment here that the Ninevites are talking about.

1 Corinthians 3.10-15 is a good place to start regarding our judgment in the body of Christ. It's certainly not the only place. We'll be looking at others when we get to Luke 16. But it's important to recognize this is not our judgment.

Our judgment will be carried out for a different purpose and in a different way. It's a judgment of reward for us, rather than condemnation. There will be accountability, but the accountability will also be for a different purpose. Regarding condemnation, there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. So our judgment will not be a judgment of condemnation, even though there will be accountability.

The judgments differ. There will be judgment for everyone. And that's one thing that needs to be made clear. There are different judgments, but nobody bypasses it. Nobody bypasses it. It's a question for us. It's a question of evaluation for rewards.

For those who are unbelievers, it is a question of condemnation. So we're in a different spot here. This is what the Bible teaches so far as the crowns and rewards. And we have five crowns that are promised in scripture and three rewards. Could there be others? Yeah, there could be. These are the ones that are revealed.

This particular instance, the crown is the victor's crown in athletic competition. Sometimes you will see pictures of political or military leaders who also get shown with this crown. So I'm not saying that that's exclusively the case, but that is how most people would typically see it during that time. Here is Luke 11, 33. No one after lighting a lamp puts it away in a cellar or under a basket, but on the lampstand so that those who enter may see the light.

And so Jesus is transitioning here from dealing with the Ninevites and the Queen of Sheba and dealing with the issue of signs. He's now transitioning into another passage dealing with lamps and light and darkness. So lit lamps in Israel's land. Lamps typically burned olive oil. And it was, as we pointed out previously, the third press that was used for the lighting of lamps. The woman of the house was responsible for keeping the lamp lit all the time.

One of the things I talked with the guys in Uganda about was they had differences in culture from, for example, the American culture. There are certain things that specific genders are responsible for and and for gathering firewood and for carrying water that is specifically the woman's responsibility add to that during New Testament times at least and likely before the women were responsible the woman in the house responsible for keeping that lamp lit all the time at no time was the lamp placed under a basket or hidden they would place it however on a shelf or on a stand where it would shed its light, and you'd get the value of the light.

Not terribly bright. Some of the lamps that you'll find will have seven or twelve wicks coming off one lamp, right, in order to make for more light. Occasionally three I've seen as well. Spiritual light was to be visible to others. That's the reason for Jesus bringing this all up. We'll talk about what's the culture and custom regarding lamps. In the end, it's to make an illustration about spiritual light. It's to be visible to others, to God's glory, not the glory of a man or not the glory of a person.

One of the things that comes out of the book of Isaiah, God had Isaiah write these words about the people in the land of Israel in the coming millennial kingdom. Isaiah 61-3, Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you, and deep darkness to the Gentiles. the judgment against the Gentile nations. But the Lord will rise upon you and His glory will appear upon you. Nations, that is Gentiles, will come to your light and kings to the brightness of your rising. So Israel will be the light of the world in the coming time. And so as he speaks to these Jews, this would come to mind for them.

But in the body of Christ we also have light as an instructional example for us. So we in the body of Christ are also light in Christ who is the light. Ephesians 5, 6-9, Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore do not be partakers with them, for you were formerly darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light. So you are light in the Lord, and it's because you're positioned in the Lord that you are light.

For the fruit of light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth. The fruit of the light of the Lord himself in us. So here's Luke 11, 34. The eye is the lamp of your body. When your eye is clear, your whole body also is full of light. But when it is bad, Your body also is full of darkness.

What does he mean by that? Hmm. So this passage has a lamp and light and darkness and eyesight theme from verse 33 to verse 36. And now we've stepped into the second of those verses. Jesus isn't just being an amateur ophthalmologist or telling people to take good care of their eyes here. This is not a physical statement. Verse 34, Jesus is telling them about how one views the world spiritually speaking, contrasting light and darkness.

One of the things that we see in Scripture, and we presented this also when we went through the book of Hebrews because it shows up there a lot, in the same way that we have five classical senses in the physical realm, in the spiritual realm we also have these five senses as Scripture uses them. We have sight, we have hearing, we have touch, we have smell, and we have taste, sometimes stated negatively, sometimes stated positively in the spiritual realm.

Here, for example, in Ephesians 1, 18 and 19, and there are several other examples we give out of Hebrews, 1 Peter 2.3, you have tasted, and by the way we could give more examples of that out of Hebrews.

And then Hebrews 5.11-14, dull of hearing, and that's not the only place it shows up there.

2 Corinthians 2.14-16, the sweet aroma of the knowledge of him.

And then Ephesians 4.19, a negative statement regarding the unbelievers, that they're past feeling. Past feeling.

One of the things that I think is helpful to see is in the physical realm, we've got a body and a part of that body is the brain. In the spiritual realm, we have a spirit and a part of that spirit is the human soul. On both the physical side and the spiritual side, we have mind, emotions, and will expressed there. And in both the physical realm and the spiritual realm, we have five senses. as we just showed previously.

Hebrews 4.12, which is the passage that talks about the Word of God is sharper than a two-edged sword, penetrating to where? To the dividing line between soul and spirit. Nothing goes that deep. Nothing else goes that deep.

So Ephesians 1.18, I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened. Actually, it's literally having been enlightened.

Ephesians 5 8 for you were formerly darkness, but now you are light in the Lord walk as children of light and Of course God is like first John 1 5 and one of the principles that we Will appeal to here is to be a child of or son of in the Bible unless it's a literal relationship means to be like in character and close in relationship to whether that's dated positively or We're in a negative sense like we saw sons of disobedience Now so here's Luke 11 35 then watch out that the light in you is not darkness and There's a Here a sense of responsibility To respond to the light given if we don't respond favorably to the light given us then what use is there to receive more light? Okay So this is a spiritual principle to respond to the light given in order to receive more. So Christians in the body of Christ have their spiritual senses turned on, but it's up to each believer to respond based on the light given or the revelation given and the expression of the Lord to respond to that and not to be as some have who become blinded or as some have who become dull of hearing as the ones in Hebrews referred to. There's a tendency for believers, there's an observation to either see more and more light or less and less light.

And so that's what he's talking about here. Be careful that your light doesn't become darkness. If you lose, because of unresponsiveness, the vision that you do have, that's what he's cautioning about. And verse 36 is now the opposite of that, the positive statement. Luke 11, 36, if therefore your whole body is full of light with no dark part in it, it will be wholly illumined as when the lamp illumines you with its rays. So this is the opposite of the warning in the prior verse. The prior verse gives a warning in the negative statement. This is the positive. And that makes good sense here. If the hazard is that the person is unresponsive, doesn't respond to the light given to them, then the opportunity is that he responds well and then is given more light.

In that case, the believer can grow into further and greater spiritual insight into all things spiritual. Light is given as a work of God in the believer with the active pursuit of the truth from God's Word. And I think that brings up a key point for us, and that is we are to actively pursue it, not simply just stand there passively and say, what can I soak up? We're to actually pursue the light, pursue the truth. and to actively do so, not just show up and not just assume we're going to absorb it, but to pursue the truth and respond to the light that's given to us.

Of course, in the end, we've been using this metaphor light. It's important that we recognize that in the ultimate, the light is personal. It's not simply a metaphor to be kept there. Jesus said in John 12 46. I have come as light into the world So that everyone who believes in me will not remain in darkness So it isn't just a matter of pursuing light to some sort of a hypothetical metaphor. It's pursuing him pursuing him This is why Peter would write but grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ the one who is the light Let's pray Lord, we thank you that as you have laid this out, we see examples of those who believe and are responsive, as well as those who simply say, show me more signs.

I want to be more impressed than I have been. And as we see this metaphor of light in this passage, we just we would pray for responsive hearts. We would pray for the understanding of the need to respond to the light that you've given us, which ultimately comes from you. And we just thank you for what you've revealed here, because you love us, because you care for us, and we just entrust everything to you. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.