EASTER 2025 | The Sign of Jonah | Matthew 12:38-42 & 28:1-
10 | April 20, 2025
Introduction:
Signs and symbols play an important role in our lives. They help
us to interpret the world around us by representing meaning and
significance. Sometimes symbols see their meaning change
dramatically. For example, in our culture, a rainbow tends to have
a very different meaning than it was originally given.
Another symbol whose meaning has undergone radical
transformation is the cross. Many wear these as jewelry or on
clothing. People use them as décor in their homes and we find
them all over cemeteries from Normandy, France to Arlington,
Virginia and around the world. It wasn’t always this way. For the
first few centuries of our calendar, the cross was a symbol which
had stood for oppression and agonizing death. It was a symbol
that no one wanted anything to do with because of its association
with such horror.
The Roman Empire made the cross famous by using it as an
implement of torture and humiliation throughout its vast territory,
but their people found it distasteful. Historian Tom Holland writes
that the Romans refused to take credit for introducing such a gory,
cruel punishment into the world. Instead, they attributed it to
powers known for excessive violence and cruelty like the
Persians, the Gauls, or the Assyrians. Roman citizens and elites
did everything they could to separate themselves from association
with something so terrible. Like Germans living outside
concentration camps, they pretended such things were not
happening.

So how did this symbol of excruciating death (do you hear the
word crucifixion there?), how did this symbol go from being a sign
of the supremacy of Rome, striking terror into the hearts of any
who would dare oppose them, to a sign of hope for millions upon
millions? How did it become something many wear as jewelry and
on clothing?
It's because, after one God/man hung on one of those crosses on
a hill outside Jerusalem He didn’t stay dead. He’s alive today! His
name is Jesus. He took the cross made it a sign of life instead of
death. He used the cross to give us another symbol: the empty
tomb. To help us understand the meaning of that cross and empty
tomb, Jesus pointed back to events that took place 800 years
before involving a Jewish prophet and the great city of Nineveh.
Before going to the cross to die for the sins of the world, Jesus
told the people of His day that if they wanted to understand what
He was about to do, they would need to look back to the prophet
Jonah’s experience being swallowed by a great fish and living to
tell the tale.
Please Stand for Scripture Reading / Matthew 12:38-42 (CSB):
38 Then some of the scribes and Pharisees said to him,
“Teacher, we want to see a sign from you.”
39 He answered them, “An evil and adulterous generation
demands a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the
sign of the prophet Jonah. 40 For as Jonah was in the belly
of the huge fish three days and three nights, so the Son of
Man will be in the heart of the earth three days and three
nights. 41 The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment
with this generation and condemn it, because they repented
at Jonah’s preaching; and look—something greater than

Jonah is here. 42 The queen of the south will rise up at the
judgment with this generation and condemn it, because she
came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of
Solomon; and look—something greater than Solomon is
here.
What are Signs? Why Are They Given? (Matthew 12:38-42)
One Bible dictionary defines a sign as, “a marvelous event
manifesting a supernatural act of a divine agent; often with an
emphasis on communicating a message.” Signs are meant to
signify something. Signs are given to point to something
important.
Remember the Star of Bethlehem? Jesus is that guy. He’s the
One whose birth was marked with a sign in the heavens
themselves.
God used signs many times in Scripture:
- Genesis 9: The Rainbow isn’t a political logo or symbol of
sexual immorality. It was given to humanity as a sign (or
promise) from God that He would never flood the Earth
again.
- Exodus: Moses performed many signs to Pharoah including
those ten plagues God used to force Pharoah into releasing
the Israelites. Each plague was designed to demonstrate
God’s power over the false gods of the Egyptians in addition
to serving to convince Pharoah to let his people go.
- Gospels & Acts: the Apostles performed a variety of miracles
that served as signs of their unique authority delegated
directly to them by Christ.

By the time of Jesus’ earthly ministry, many “demanded” signs of
Jesus. In John 6, AFTER Jesus fed over 5,000 women, men, and
children, those same people had the audacity to ask Jesus for a
sign! On several occasions, the Pharisees and others who
opposed Jesus walked up to God the Son incarnate and ordered
Him to produce signs. Our passage in Matthew 12 is one of those
times.
In v39, Jesus said no sign would be given except the Sign of
Jonah. Why not? Because they already had been given what
should have served as many, many signs. He had already healed
so many people (often on Sabbaths which drove the religious
teachers crazy). He had raised a few people from the dead. He
had healed people remotely. And those were just the things Jesus
had done publicly. We’re not even talking about the
Transfiguration where Jesus’ face and clothing turned into pure
light, or Him walking on the water, or Him calming the storm over
the sea of Galilee. Those took place only in front of His closest
followers.
We need signs. There’s a host of good reasons the Bible
compares us to sheep. The first step in addressing a problem is
often acknowledging it exists and as human beings we are broken
and we are limited. Our very existence screams for someone
bigger and more powerful to exist who can care for us and show
us the way. Jesus knew this and so…
The Sign is Given (Matthew 28:1-10, ESV)
Now after the Sabbath, toward the dawn of the first day of the
week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the
tomb.  2  And behold, there was a great earthquake, for an
angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and

rolled back the stone and sat on it.  3  His appearance was like
lightning, and his clothing white as snow.  4  And for fear of
him the guards trembled and became like dead men.  5  But the
angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that
you seek Jesus who was crucified.  6  He is not here, for he has
risen, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay.  7  Then go
quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead,
and behold, he is going before you to Galilee; there you will
see him. See, I have told you.”  8  So they departed quickly
from the tomb with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his
disciples.  9  And behold, Jesus met them and
said, “Greetings!” And they came up and took hold of his feet
and worshiped him.  10  Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be
afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there
they will see me.”
A few observations from Matthew’s account of the resurrection:
- The sign of Jonah was given on the first day of the week,
Sunday. This was the day after the Sabbath following
Passover. It was the third day Jesus spent in the tomb. He
died on Friday and was buried sometime early that evening.
His body remained in the grave all day and night on
Saturday. By early Sunday morning, His body was no longer
in the tomb.

- V8: the women left with “great fear” and “great joy”. How
refreshingly honest. The whole Bible is like this – it is very
real; very authentic. The heroes have flaws and weaknesses
just like us. Isn’t that how most of us would feel? Some
mixture of fear and thrilling exhilaration.

- This feels like an unveiling. I don’t think Jesus was in the
tomb when the angel moved the stone. I believe this was
done for the two women and the disciples that would come
late. As you may know, Jesus’ resurrection body was not
confined to physical spaces. He could pass through walls.
That stone couldn’t have held Him in there no matter how
solid and heavy it was.
- Matthew mentions that the guards were present when the
angel arrived to open the tomb. If I’m right, they were
guarding an empty tomb. Later in this chapter, we learn that
they were later paid to lie and claim that Jesus’ disciples had
stolen His body. Sound familiar? People paid to NOT tell the
truth and repeat a lie instead because the truth would be too
radical and undo the status quo?

- “Do not be afraid.” – v5 and v10 are just two of over 300
places where either God or Angels tell people not to be
afraid. Let that sink in for a moment. If you are afraid. If you
are anxious about the future or scared of the unknown, that
is not of God. His is not a Spirit of fear, but of power.
Bottom line: Jesus said that no sign would be given except the
sign of the prophet Jonah. As of Easter morning, something like
33/34 AD, it was given. That word “given” is important. A gift is
chosen by the giver. The giver chooses what to give and when to
give it. The sign was the sign that God had chosen for this
purpose. It was not supplied on demand. It was not given when
or where or how anyone expected it. This sign was not earned or
deserved. That is, it was not owed as though God was obligated.

It was given. This is a critical distinction: wages or paychecks are
earned, gifts are received.
Look at what Paul wrote in…
Rom. 6:23 / For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God
is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Death is the wages or paycheck of sin because we earn death
with every act of disobedience and rebellion against the One True
King. It’s the one paycheck taxes aren’t taken out of. You get
everything coming to you.
All of humanity is lost to this state and we cannot save ourselves.
We’re sheep remember? We get ourselves into trouble that we
cannot get out of. We need a Shepherd. We need a Savior.
Someone to rescue us from ourselves. That salvation is a gift and
gifts cannot be earned. They must be received and put to use.
In this case, Jesus said His death and resurrection would be
given as a sign. So…
What does the Sign of Jonah mean?
1) It Means History Matters.
The events of Jonah matter. The Bible is full of real people living
through real events at real places in real time. The story of Jonah
actually happened. Of course, that story isn’t really about the fish.
That fish (and the depths Jonah sank to) served as a metaphor
for death. Jonah’s survival and return to land served as a
metaphor for resurrection. Do you see it? God’s prophet. His
chosen representative “died” and was “raised”.

Those events really happened AND they happened so that they
could one day serve the purpose of giving the Son of God a sign
to give: His own death and resurrection.
History is like a novel with God as its author. He’s finished it. It is
written. Now we read it by living it. This gives God the opportunity
to craft events, persons, and the progression of history to serve
His purposes. In the case of Jonah, part of the reason he lived
through those events and made those choices was to create a
real-life metaphor to point toward the Messiah: how He would die
and rise from the grave.
2) Things Are Never as Bad as They Seem (Unless They Are)
Let’s take this in two parts:
1) Things are never as bad as they seem.
Jonah passes this lesson along to us in the book named
after him in the Old Testament. We can only imagine what it
would be like to be tossed overboard into a raging sea and
find ourselves sinking into the depths of the water into cold
darkness. Add to that being swallowed by some large fish
with the heat, stench, and darkness of that environment. It
would seem that life couldn’t get much worse for anyone.

But Jonah lived. He may have been vomited onto dry land,
but he did find himself back on land with the sun beaming
down on him and fresh air blowing his way. Things are never
as bad as they seem…

2) Unless they are.

The scribes and Pharisees who challenged Jesus in
Matthew 12 had the opposite problem. It’s a problem all of
humanity suffers with at least part of their lives. Their
problem, and our problem, was that they didn’t believe they
were in bad shape. They actually thought they were doing
pretty well. It was Jesus who needed to justify Himself to
them (not the other way around).
Except, things were far worse than they imagined. Things
are far worse than you imagine as well. This is an
inconvenient truth: we have all gone astray like, you guessed
it, sheep. We have all chosen to worship ourselves as our
own gods. By denying God the worship and glory He fully
deserves, we are in big trouble unless we repent of our sin
and turn to faith in who Jesus is and what He has done for
us.
We have a lot in common with those who hounded Jesus for
signs. We’re like Col. Nathan Jessup (that’s Jack Nicholas’
character) said of Lt. Daniel Kaffee (that’s Tom Cruise’s character)
in “A Few Good Men”: They couldn’t handle the truth. The truth is
we are toast (literally and spiritually) without Jesus.
Hold on, though, because there is hope. You see, the third thing
the sign of Jonah means is that…
3) We Have Proof of God’s Power over Death
I didn’t say we have proof of Jesus’ power over death. We have
proof of God’s power over death. Why not Jesus’ power over
death? It’s Easter! It’s Resurrection Sunday! Isn’t today all about
Jesus’ power over death? Isn’t Jesus God anyway? Yes, Jesus is

God the Son, but was raised to life by God the Father and God
the Spirit.
There are several verses that teach this. Here’s just one:
Romans 8:11 / And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from
the dead lives in you, then he who raised Christ from the
dead will also bring your mortal bodies to life through his
Spirit who lives in you.
When Jesus said “I will raise this Temple (meaning His body), it
was a “royal” I. God the Son, in union with the Godhead (that is,
the Father, Son, and Spirit within the One True God), was saying
God would raise Him. Here Paul says this was done through God
the Spirit. In other passages, He points to God the Father.
However you slice it, God has power over death and everyone
who has ever lived will be raised from the dead. Some will be
raised to eternal life. Many will be raised to eternal death. But all
will be raised.
That same Apostle Paul wrote about this in 1 Corinthians 15. I
should have put the whole chapter of 1 Corinthians 15 on the
Bible reading plan for today so sometime today go home and read
1 Corinthians 15. For now, here’s:
1 Corinthians 15:20 / But as it is, Christ has been raised from
the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.
Jesus is alive! He is just the beginning. One day all who die in
faith in Christ will live as He does. They will be raised to eternal
life. This is something our current bodies, burdened as they are
with the ravages of sin, cannot handle. We need new bodies.
Bodies that don’t get sick, or injured, or old. Paul continues
explain this in:

1 Corinthians 15:50-55 / What I am saying, brothers and
sisters, is this: Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom
of God, nor can corruption inherit incorruption.  51  Listen, I am
telling you a mystery: We will not all fall asleep, but we will
all be changed,  52  in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at
the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will
be raised incorruptible, and we will be changed.  53  For this
corruptible body must be clothed with incorruptibility, and
this mortal body must be clothed with immortality.  54  When
this corruptible body is clothed with incorruptibility, and this
mortal body is clothed with immortality, then the saying that
is written will take place:
Death has been swallowed up in victory. 55  Where, death, is
your victory? Where, death, is your sting?
This changes everything!!! What did we sing earlier? Because
what? Because He lives, we can what? Face tomorrow! And
anything tomorrow can cook up.
Last Sunday, the Sunday after her husband Oscar died, by the
way, Nancy Hedrick came off the elevator to head down the hall
to attend the Sunday School class (or Bible study) she’s a part of.
We met face to face for the first time. Do you know what our
conversation quickly turned to? The amazing comfort we find in
the death of a Christian. Oh! It is NEVER easy to lose a loved one
to death! Hear that. As hard as it is, losing a Christian loved one is
so much easier than losing someone who hasn’t repented of their
sin and put their faith in Christ. Honestly, it’s easier than losing a
pet. I don’t know what happens to animals after they die, but I do
know what happens to people.

At my previous church, we buried 4-5 saints this winter. A young
couple lost one of their twins in the womb. Praise God they will
see her again one day. It was a hard winter. But each time, we
clung to the hope we have in Christ. In the Bible, hope isn’t code
for “wish” or “positive thinking”. In God’s vocabulary, hope is
holding what you don’t yet have as though you have it. It’s the
present reality of something that WILL BE fulfilled in the future.
For Christians death means “see you later” NOT “goodbye”
because He lives! This brings us to a…
INVITATION:
A Simple Choice: We have the same choice as those who
witnessed all Jesus did and saw Him alive: believe the sign or
don’t believe the sign.
Some who heard Jesus give the Great Commission doubted that
it was really Jesus giving that Great Commission!!! The Great
Commission is a standing order to all Christians to tell others
about who Jesus is and what He’s done for them. We don’t want
to keep Jesus to ourselves. We want everyone to know the
blessings we have in Christ. Still, returning to Matthew 28, he tells
us:
Matthew 28:16-17 / The eleven disciples traveled to Galilee, to
the mountain where Jesus had directed them.  17  When they
saw him, they worshiped, but some doubted.
It is important to note that those who doubted did not continue to
doubt. Those apostles endured great persecution, torture,
imprisonment, and almost all of them died as martyrs without
denying their faith in a risen savior.

Christians: Today we celebrate that blessed assurance – your
faith has saved you. For you (and for me) death is a form of
healing and release. We go to be present with Jesus and enjoy all
that is good about the presence of God forever. Some say we
should live like we’re dying. Resurrection Sunday reminds us;
challenges us to live like we’re dead already (dead to sin) and like
we will never die as we are alive to God.
Non-Christians: Today comes with a word of warning. Your time is
running out. God is incredibly patient and merciful, but He is no
fool and He will not wait forever. One day the Risen Christ will
judge us all. Don’t you want to meet Him as your Savior and
Lord? Don’t you want that meeting to be filled with joy and peace
and love instead of holy fear? As of this moment, it is not too late
and you are not too far gone. Just ask the people of Nineveh. Just
ask Jonah. God’s grace can handle your sin too.
Come:
We close our services with a time of invitation. I appreciate the
many words of encouragement I’ve received after reviving that
practice. Here’s how this works. Jesus said that if we are not
ashamed of Him before others, then He will not be ashamed of us
before His Father. So come:
- To pray anywhere along this platform…
- To pray with me and ask for help in putting your faith in who
Jesus is and what He has done for you…

- To express interest in joining this church family. That’s just
the first step, but my wife and I are just entering the process
of becoming members - let’s do this together.
- Respond from where you are and then contact or speak with
me or a pastor or elder later… don’t delay long though.
Let’s sing as the Lord speaks to us today!