In the sermon 'Jonah in the New Testament' by Robert Bosley, the speaker explores how the Old Testament story of Jonah prefigures and points to Jesus Christ in the New Testament. The sermon emphasizes three main points: specific parts of Jonah's story serve as types or patterns that are fulfilled in Christ, the broad narrative of Jonah aligns with the life and work of Jesus, and the story's application to the church today. Bosley stresses the importance of reading the Old Testament through the lens of the New Testament, recognizing Jesus as the central figure throughout scripture. He discusses typology, explaining how Old Testament events and figures foreshadow Christ. The sermon references passages from Matthew, Luke, and John to illustrate how Jonah's time in the fish is a type for Christ's death and resurrection. The speaker also highlights the broader narrative of Jonah as a sign of God’s wrath and mercy, paralleling Christ's role. Bosley calls upon Christians to apply these lessons by preaching the gospel and extending God's mercy to others, akin to how Jonah was sent to Nineveh.

As was said earlier, we are finishing our series in the book of Jonah this afternoon, and if you are confused thinking, didn't we finish Jonah last time? You're not wrong. We did get to the end of the book of Jonah. We finished chapter four. We saw God's compassion on grand display, both toward the Ninevites and toward his disgruntled, rebellious prophet, Jonah.

And in the end of that book we saw that Jonah and the audience, us as the readers and the hearers, are left speechless without any words to say at the overwhelming grace of God. However, the end of the book of Jonah is not the end of Jonah in our Bible. What we're going to look at this afternoon is we're going to look and see how the New Covenant and the documents of the New Covenant, our New Testament, use and handle the story of Jonah. And we will see, particularly in the Gospels, how this story is a reminder that ultimately all of Scripture has one story, God glorifying Himself by showing mercy to sinners. And we will see that all of Scripture ultimately has one hero, the Lord Jesus Christ.

And so we're actually going to look at a sample of verses in the Gospels this morning or this afternoon that will help us to grasp this idea that Jonah, both the story and the person and what he did in that book that we finished last time, all point forward to something greater, the person and work of our Savior. So Let's pray and we will continue. Oh father, we thank you that we can take this time this afternoon to look at your word. And Lord, may we just marvel at what you have done in inspiring the scriptures and giving your all-sufficient, infallible, and inerrant word to us. God, what a gift it is, what a treasure it is to have your word in our hands.

God, may we not take it for granted, but may we treasure it for the gift that it is. And Lord I pray that you would help me to speak clearly and to help us to understand what you have done in weaving this grand narrative together. And God, may you be glorified by our time this afternoon. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. All right, so we are going to look at a couple of verses under three essential headings, three essential points.

So first, the first point that we will consider is that the specific parts of the story of Jonah point to Jesus. The specific parts point to Jesus. Secondly, we'll look at the broad narrative. The broad narrative points to Jesus. And then finally, how it all applies to the church.

It all applies to the church. And so as we look at these verses in Matthew and in Luke, I'm hoping and I'm wanting to give us a crash course in how we should read and understand our Old Testament. We must read the Bible, all of it, as Christians. We must read our Old Testament as Christians. If we come to the book of Jonah or the Psalms or the prophets or the law and we read it as if Jesus has not come, we are not reading our Bibles properly.

We are not reading our Bibles properly. We are not reading our Bibles as Christians. Yes, we begin our work of interpretation by asking the question of What did the human author mean 3, 000 years ago when he initially wrote these words? What did Moses mean when he wrote this? What did David mean when he wrote this Psalm?

Yes, so we start there, but we cannot stop there. We have to take the next step and then ask, what did the divine author, because Scripture has two authors, the human and the divine, We must take the next step and ask what did the divine author intend for us to see looking back 3, 000 years later through the lens of the person and work of Jesus Christ? And So this is why I'm personally somewhat bothered when I read in commentaries or I hear someone say, well the the rabbis today they read this passage and interpret it this way. So it doesn't really mean anything to me. They may be able to add some insight of grammar or history or anything like that, but I'm not terribly concerned about what the rabbis think about scripture because why should I be overly concerned with how unbelievers interpret the documents that God gave his church?

Why should I be? Why should I desire to interpret the Bible in a non-Christian way? So we have to go to the Old Testament as Christians and read it as Christians. So we've gone through the story of Jonah, but we have to also look at it not how merely a Jew during the reign of the kings in Israel would have understood it, but how do we understand it today looking back through the lens of Christ and the New Covenant. Now the Lord gives him, the Lord Himself gives us the foundational presupposition that we need to assume, the thing that we need to assume when we come to the Old Testament, this core principle that we have to have in our minds when we read the Old Covenant scriptures.

In Luke 24, starting In verse 25, Luke records for us Jesus' conversation with the disciples on the road to Emmaus. He says, Jesus speaks to these disciples, then he said to them, oh foolish ones, in slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken, ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into his glory? And then listen to what Jesus did. And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. Jesus explained to these disciples how all of scripture beginning to end, Moses to the prophets, was all about himself.

And just a few verses later in verse 44 in Luke chapter 24 to the 11 Jesus says, these are the words which I have spoken to you while I was with you, that all things must be fulfilled which are written about me in the law of Moses and in the prophets and in the Psalms concerning me. And then in John chapter 5 these words are recorded Jesus rebuking the Pharisees. You search the scriptures and obviously what scriptures is Jesus talking about. He's talking about the Old Testament, the Old Covenant scriptures. Because you think that in them you have eternal life, and it is they that bear witness about me.

Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. There is one who accuses you, Pharisees, Moses, in whom you have set your hope. For if you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me." So these words that the Lord Himself says give us the foundational presupposition that we have to keep in mind if we're going to rightly understand the Old Testament. And so what is that foundational presupposition? We come to the Old Testament, understanding the Old Testament is all about Jesus.

The book of Jonah is about Jesus. And if we miss that, we have not done all the work that we need to as proper interpreters of Scripture. And so when we come to the Old Testament, we see that it's all about Jesus. This can happen in two ways. We can see how the Old Testament points to and speaks of Jesus in two different ways.

Sometimes it's very explicit prophecies, right? The serpent crushing seed of the woman in Genesis 3, or the suffering servant in Isaiah 53 who dies yet has his days prolonged and sees his seed, or in Micah the son coming from Bethlehem whose origins is from everlasting. So we have very particular prophecies that are clearly fulfilled in Jesus. But more often when we look at the Old Testament, we are going to see the person and work of Christ in a more subtle way through pictures and shadows of the Old Covenant. The things that God did in the Old Covenant that pointed to Jesus in what are called types and this hermeneutical principle is called typology.

So types and typology may not be terms that we're all very familiar with but we need to understand it And it's actually a very simple concept, once you get it. We're all familiar with the word prototype, right? We know what a prototype is. A prototype is the first model or the first example of a new product or a design, a prototype of a car or a machine or whatever, we're used to that language. So prototype, it's a compound word.

You've got proto first, protos Greek is first, and then type coming from another Greek word, tupos, meaning form or model or pattern. That second word in prototype is what we're considering here today, a type. A type, it's a form, a pattern, a model, an example. And the idea here is that there are these patterns, there are forms, there are these examples in the Old Testament that find their fulfillment, or what is often called the antitype in the New Testament. And that antitype is typically and ultimately Jesus.

And we see this language used explicitly in the New Testament. This isn't just the imaginations of scholars and theologians. This is explicitly New Testament language. Paul says in Romans 5, 14 that Adam was a type of him who was to come, meaning Jesus. In Hebrews 8, we are told that Moses built the tabernacle following the pattern or the type of what had been showed to him on the mountain.

And then the writer of Hebrews then goes on to say, well and then that was actually a type for Jesus. The tabernacle pointed to Christ. And then in 1st Corinthians 10 6, Paul writes, now these things, talking about the events of the Old Testament, these have become our examples, our types, the Greek is the same there, to the intent that we should not lust after the evil things that they also lusted after. And so we have this principle, the Old Covenant is filled with types, patterns, examples that point towards Jesus and are for our instruction. And This is how we need to look at the Old Testament if we're going to understand it as Christians, and how we need to ultimately understand the book of Jonah if we're going to understand what all of what God has for us in this book.

So firstly, the points I mentioned earlier, the specific parts point to Jesus. Open your Bibles to Matthew chapter 12. Matthew chapter 12. And in this section, Jesus has been healing, he has, according to the Pharisees, done works on the Sabbath, he has cast out demons, he is doing all these things as well as teaching and Jesus has made quite the name for himself at this point. He's healed the blind, he's cast out demons, he's even raised the dead already.

Verse 38 though, then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered saying teacher we want to see a sign from you In other words everything you've done so far has been great, but we really wanted to get kicked up a notch Can we see something even greater raising the dead was great, but can you do something even better?" Which is a ridiculous request. What more do you want? The dead are raised, the blind receive their sight, demons are cast out. What greater sign could you possibly get? Verse 39, but he answered and said to them, an evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.

For 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 the men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it because they repented at the preaching of Jonah and indeed a greater than Jonah is here. And so when we think of how the New Testament uses the story of Jonah, this is the easiest one to see. This is the easiest type and the easiest connection made between the book of Jonah and the New Testament. The sign of Jonah, the three days and three nights. If you're a Christian reading the story of Jonah, your mind immediately goes just by hearing that Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the fish.

We immediately think of Jesus. And Jesus makes that connection himself. The gospel writers make that connection. And so those three days and three nights that Jonah was in the belly of the fish was a pattern. It was a type that Jesus followed.

Just as the fish was a kind of death for Jonah, so Christ, in fulfilling his work as the one greater than Jonah, actually died and was in the belly of the earth in the tomb for three days and three nights. And this particular type, as I said, is the easiest connection for us to see between Jonah and Jesus. And this kind of typology is the easiest for us to make. We take specific points, events, things that happened, and see how Jesus fulfills them, or Jesus completes them, or Jesus follows the pattern. Three days and three nights, three days and three nights.

But even beyond Jonah, Adam was the first man and head of the human race. Jesus is the new Adam and head of the redeemed race. Moses was the lawgiver and brought the Israelites out of Egypt. Jesus is the law-fulfiller and brings his people out of slavery to sin. David was the anointed king over the nation of Israel.

Jesus is the greater Son of David who rules as King of Kings and rules over his kingdom in this world and gives the kingdom to his disciples. So this is the easy part of typology. This is the easiest one with Jonah. However, we can't stop here. I like what my professor from my Hebrew class said, Dr.

Michael Amati, He said about Jonah, if the fish is the only connection that we make between Jonah and Jesus, we really have missed the whole point of Jonah. There is so much more, not just the fish. Even another specific point in the story of Jonah that finds its fulfillment in Christ. What happened in Jonah chapter 1? Jonah hears the word of God and he flees.

He goes on the boat and God pursues him with the storm And Jonah is asleep and he's roused from his sleep by the captain saying, we're going to die. Get up. Call on your God. Maybe he'll hear. Jonah's thrown overboard and a kind of sacrifice and the storm has calmed.

We'll flip over to Matthew 8. Flip over to Matthew 8, and I was, and I believe we have here a type, well really the anti-type, Jonah chapter 1 being the type. Matthew chapter 8 and the parallel in Mark 4 is also very helpful. We may look at that. Matthew 8 verse 23, now when he got into a boat his disciples followed him And suddenly a great tempest arose on the sea, so that the boat was covered with the waves.

But he was asleep. Then his disciples came to him and awoke him, saying, Lord, save us, we are perishing. But he said to them, Why are you fearful, O you of little faith? Then he arose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. And so the men marveled, saying, Who can this be that even the winds and the sea obey him?

And in Mark's parallel, we don't have time to actually flip there, but in Mark's parallel, it says that the disciples, when they saw the sea become calm, They feared with a great fear. They feared exceedingly. The same language that describes the sailors in the first chapter of Jonah. They feared Yahweh exceedingly. The disciples, when they see what Jesus does, they fear with a great fear.

So there's so many similarities here. They're on the boat, Jesus is asleep, like Jonah was asleep. There's the storm, a great wind that has created the storm that's threatening to sink the ship. But look at the significant differences, though. The sailors asked Jonah to call on his God, but the disciples call on Jesus to save them himself.

And secondly, the storm in Jonah 1 is calmed only when Jonah is thrown overboard in an apparent attempt at sacrifice. But Jesus calms the storm with a mere word. So the sailors in Jonah 1, when they see the storm become calm, they know that Jonah's God has calmed the storm. It says they feared God, they feared Yahweh. They feared exceedingly and they worshiped.

The disciples are filled with a great fear and they stand in awe of Jesus saying, what kind of a man is this? Even nature obeys him. That's the only what, that's what only God can do. Who is this man? And that's the point of the typology.

In the type, in Jonah, Jonah revealed the power of God in the calming of the sea. But in the fulfillment in Jesus, Jesus himself revealed that he is God. That he is the one who calms the sea. And so these particular points, the fish, the story, the ship, or the, sorry not the story, the ship, the storm, these particular points all point to and find their fulfillment in Jesus. But secondly, not just the particular points of the story, but even the whole narrative, the broad story all points to Jesus.

Flip over to Luke chapter 11. Luke chapter 11, a very similar story. This is often regarded as a parallel to what we just read in Matthew. But here we see it's not just the particular points and details of the story, it's not just the three days and the three nights and the fish, it's not just the storm on the sea, but the whole story about Jonah finds its fulfillment in Jesus. Luke chapter 11 beginning in verse 29, and while the crowds were thickly gathered together, he began to say, this is an evil generation.

It seeks a sign and no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah the prophet. For as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so also the Son of Man will be to this generation." So here Jesus says it's not the three days and three nights that's the sign or the type, it's Jonah himself. Jonah is the sign. He was a sign to the Ninevites and in the same way, Jesus following Jonah's example is a sign to that wicked generation of the first century Jerusalem. Jonah was a sign to the Ninevites.

How was Jonah a sign to the Ninevites? That's what Jesus says. He was a sign to Nineveh. Well, he was a sign of God's wrath. He was sent to proclaim God's imminent judgment on the Ninevites, and Jonah himself got a taste of that wrath in the sea and in the fish because of his disobedience.

But Jonah was also a sign of God's mercy. He was a walking testimony to God's grace in that he had not been lost and destroyed in that sea. God could have wiped Nineveh out without a warning and he would have been just to do so. God could have wiped Jonah out and would have been just to do so. And so you have this prophet who's a recipient of grace, goes and preaches, and even the even hearing the preaching of a prophet is an expression of God's mercy.

God didn't need to send them a prophet. Countless cities have been destroyed throughout history and have never heard a prophet of God. But God sent them Jonah as an expression of His mercy, of His grace. And so in the same way, Jesus is a sign of God's wrath to first-century Israel. The cross reveals the wrath of God in the most stark display.

God's wrath against sin is so great that nothing less than the death of his own son could satisfy and appease his wrath. His son had to bear our sin and take it away because we could never satisfy God. We needed that perfect sacrifice to stand in our place. So if you want to see the wrath of God on display, look to the cross. God crushed his son for sinners.

But Jesus is also a sign of God's mercy because the work of the gospel, what Christ accomplished on that cross is preached and salvation is available to all who repent and believe So look to the cross to see God's wrath, but look to the cross to see God's mercy God crushed his son in his anger but so that he could forgive sinners. Wrath and grace meet at that cross. And so Jesus is that sign following in the footsteps of Jonah. And the whole story of Jonah is a type or a pattern which Christ followed. Jonah himself was a sign.

He received the divine commission to go to Nineveh. He suffered his three days and three nights in the watery grave of a sorts and was raised from that watery grave by God's command to the fish. Jonah did not save himself. And now the gospel, sorry, and he preached to the Gentiles and shockingly they repented and they were spared. In the same way Jesus received the divine commission to go and receive the people the Father has given him in the eternal covenant of redemption and he was commissioned to go fully in time at his baptism.

He went to proclaim the gospel of the kingdom and he was killed. He spent three days and three nights in the belly of the earth in his tomb and Was raised from the grave by God's power and now the gospel is preached to all nations and the Gentiles repent We This church itself is a testimony to how Jesus is the greater Jonah. These Ninevites cut off from the covenants of promise. They had never even heard of Abraham, but they were shown mercy. And all of us here, Gentiles brought into the covenant by the one who is greater than Jonah.

Jesus perfectly fulfilling and expanding that example of Jonah. Nineveh repented at the preaching of Jonah and they were spared and the city continued for about a hundred more years. First century Jerusalem did not repent. They crucified the Lord of Glory. And that city and that generation were wiped out in less than 40 years when the city was destroyed in 8070.

And so Jesus says that the people of Nineveh will rise up and condemn that generation because they repented and Jerusalem did not even though the one who is greater than Jonah had come to them. And so we see this whole, the whole narrative of Jonah finds its perfect fulfillment in Jesus. The whole story, the whole example. And thirdly, it all applies to the church. It all applies to us.

If you're in Christ, it applies to you. Just as it applied to Jesus, the type pointed to Jesus, the type also finds a sort of fulfillment in you if you are in Jesus. Again, 1 Corinthians 10 verse 6 says that the Old Testament events are types or examples for our instruction that we should not lust after the evil things that they lusted after. So in that way Jonah is a negative type for us. We should not be like Jonah.

None of us can read the story of Jonah and think he's the hero. He's not the one to mimic. In the same way, Paul says in Romans 15 for that whatever things were written beforehand talking about the old covenant scriptures were written for our learning, our instruction, so that through the patience and comfort of the scriptures we might have hope. We see the story of Jonah. Jonah, this rebellious prophet who goes to this city and preaches and the Gentiles repented amazingly, more than Jonah could have ever expected more than he even wanted.

We can see that power of God there in Jonah's preaching and we can have hope that God will do something like that when we go out and proclaim the gospel. We can have hope. We look at that story of Joan and see a beautiful picture of God's grace extending to the most unworthy. And that story anticipates the inclusion of the nations of all the Gentiles into the covenant community. The language applied to Nineveh at the end is the language used to refer to Israel in some places.

And the book ends with God's question, should I not pity them, Jonah? Shouldn't they get my mercy? Shouldn't I be free to extend my grace to whomever I desire? And that demands the answer, yes, Yahweh's covenant love should be extended to all nations. And the Old Testament tells us that that would happen, that you can't read the Psalms and not see the promise that God will extend his covenant to all corners of the globe.

And we look, We go from looking at this in Jonah and this hint and this anticipation of the Gentiles coming in and we then look to Jesus. The realization, the fulfillment of that hope, the fulfillment of that promise. The one who is bringing all nations in, the one to whom the Father said, ask me and I will give you the nations. We find that fulfillment in Christ. And we, like Jonah, have received the Word of God.

The Word of God has come to us. Not audibly, like it came to Jonah in Jonah 1, 1, but both in the person of Christ as the Word of God incarnate, the Word of God who took on flesh, but also in the written Word of the Scriptures, the Word of God has come to us and commanded us to go, To get up and go and proclaim the message which God has given. Not only to one city, but to all cities. Not just to one group of Gentiles, but to all nations. And while we go and we can preach, we know that is not within our power to do anything.

We cannot save a soul. But we can go knowing that we serve the same God that Jonah served. The God who caused a great turning and a great repentance in Nineveh is the God who still sends his church today and who could, if he wills, cause a great turning and repenting in Wake Forest, in Raleigh, in any city in our country or around the world. We send missionaries to Turkey knowing that our God can turn hearts of the Turkish people because he turned the hearts of the Ninevites. And so we see how this great story of Jonah applies even to us.

We shouldn't be like Jonah in running and disobeying, but we should be like Jonah in going and preaching. So what do we what do we do with all this? So first of all, as far as application, well what do we say at the beginning? Don't read your Old Testament as if you're not a Christian. When you open the Old Covenant Scriptures, look for Jesus.

He's there. It's all about Him. It all pointed to Him. It all finds its fulfillment in Him. It's all about Him.

He is there. Look for Christ and be amazed at what God has done in the history of redemption. He has created this great story, greater and more beautiful than any man could have made. How can the scriptures be anything but the Word of God and all of history, anything but the very work of God when It all comes together and unites in this one glorious person, Jesus Christ. So read your Bible, read your Old Testament as a Christian and be amazed at how God makes it all come to a head in Christ.

Ahead in Christ. Secondly, recognize that we needed that greater prophet. We needed that one who was greater than Jonah, that one who was greater than Moses, that one who was greater than David, that new Adam. If all the scriptures and all of history is about Jesus, if the whole universe revolves around this person, what will you do with him? Will you trust him with your life, with your soul, with your salvation, or will you stubbornly continue to refuse to come to Him?

Will you stubbornly continue to go your own way into more sin and misery? When we see this story and how everything comes to Jesus and it all culminates in him, how can we not come to him? How can we not turn to him? He is the savior we need. He is the prophet we need.

Turn and trust him. And thirdly, if you have turned and trusted the Savior, take his word to the Ninevites around you. Now Nineveh itself no longer exists, and I'm not saying you have to go to Iraq where Ninevah once existed, but there are countless lost souls all around us. And if you are a follower of Christ, you are commanded to go and preach the gospel to them. Share the gospel, proclaim the good news of what Christ has done because Jonah went to Nineveh and he told them they had 40 days.

There is no guarantee of 40 days for any lost sinner. There is no assurance that they have any time left before God's wrath falls on them. Each person in this world is commanded to repent and obey the gospel. It is an obligation laid on them by God their creator. But as Paul said in Romans, how will they call on him in whom they have not heard?

Go and make him known. Please pray with me. Father, we thank you for your word. God, we marvel at what you have done in the scriptures and showing how it all is united. It's all interwoven and connected and points to our Savior.

Oh God, thank you for the gospel. Thank you for giving your son God may we love him and be amazed at him more And God may we be moved with compassion on the Ninevites around us to not be like Jonah and want that grace only for ourselves, but may we be moved with compassion to make the gospel known to all who will hear. And God, may you bless our efforts. Wherever we go, God, may you be at work taking our small and frail and feeble efforts. And God, may you make them powerful.

May you make your word powerful. May you tear down strongholds and create faith and grant new hearts so that your kingdom, your house may be full. Oh God, may you do a great work and may you be merciful and kind enough to use us in building your kingdom. Thank you, Lord, for loving us and saving us and sending us out. In Jesus name we pray, amen.