One Man Must Die
1. Introduction
A. Because one man had sinned, a whole boatload of sailors was under the sentence of death.
1. This certainly becomes a picture of the world today.
2. Because one man sinned, the world lies under the judgment and curse of his sin. (Rom 5:12) (Rom 5:18)
3. Because Adam disobeyed God, the Lord cursed him. All of his offspring are under the curse of that transgression.
B. Our situation is desperate, we need not argue about whether or not such a thing is true.
1. We need to find a remedy for our sin problem.
2. Arguing about our identification with Adams sin is useless.
3. We are not only guilty of inheriting Adam’s nature, we are also guilty of personal sin.
4. We sinned not only in Adam, we have sinned by personal choice.
II. How did Jonah Get Himself into this Difficulty
A. It’s not hard to find the reason for his predicament. As a matter of fact, I would like to suggest three reasons for his problem.
1. He neglected the Word of God (1:1)
2. He neglected his prayer life (1:5)
3. He neglected his testimony (1:8-9)
B. If we are going to be spiritually healthy, we must not fail in the observance of these spiritual exercises.
I. It is important that each of us regularly spend some time reading and studying our Bibles.
2. Prayer is the lifeline of the Christian. It is the means by which we make contact with the invisible God.
3. Our testimony is the verbal witness we share with others, making known to them the reality of the invisible God.
4. Neglect of any one of these will make a Jonah out of any one of us.
C. Jonah began by neglecting the Word of God, that leads to the neglect of his prayer life. (1:6)
1. Obviously, the person who neglects these two things will not have a testimony of the Lord either.
2. It was only after being peppered with questions that Jonah owned up to his relationship with God. (1:8-9)
3. His life at that moment belied his confession.
4. His testimony at that moment couldn’t mean much to them because his conduct certainly didn’t come up to His confession.
III. What About You.
A. If you are in the same place as Jonah, neglecting the means of grace (Bible-prayer-witnessing) keep in mind the chastening rod of God is about ready to fall.
1. If this is your condition, listen carefully to what Jonah is saying to you.
2. Repent, turn back to the Lord and the means of grace He has given for your spiritual growth.
IV. Throw Me Overboard (1:12)
A. At this point, Jonah becomes a type of the Lord Jesus in His work of substitutionary atonement.
1. If the storm is to be stilled, sin must be dealt with, since the wages of sin is death, the sinner must die.
2. Jonah’s death, therefore, is the only thing which can save the sailors from their doom.
3. Notice Jonah tells them, cast me into the sea.
4. This is the only way the sailors will be saved from death.
5. The guilty one must die for sin must be punished
B. This is also true of the human race. We have sinned and because of that fact, the judgment of God rests upon us.
1. But God wants to save sinners (Luke 19:10) so He sent His Son into the world to take the sinner’s place.
2. By His death and resurrection, He made peace with God and salvation for the sinner possible.
3. In this way, Jonah foreshadows the Lord Jesus Christ.
4. II Cor 5:21 – God made Jesus sin for us, Him who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.
5 Is 53:6 – The Lord laid on Jesus the iniquity of us all.
6. I Peter 2:24 – He bore our sins in His own body on the tree.
C. So the clear lesson of Jonah is this; one man must die that many others might have the life.
1. Caiaphas, the high priest at the trial of Jesus stated the matter clearly even though he didn’t realize what he was saying.
2. John 11:49-52.
3. Because of Adam’s sin and the sin nature, which we inherited and because we perpetuate the sin of the last Adam the Lord Jesus came and took that sin upon Himself and paid fully the penalty which was due us.
D. Jesus like Jonah was cast into the sea of God’s judgment.
1. The vast vessel of humanity was on its way to destruction, there was only one way to still the storm of that judgment.
2. Someone must die that others could be saved. We know from the gospels who that person was.
3. The sea would not be quiet until Jonah was cast into the deep.
4. Once that happened God’s justice was satisfied and the sea became calm.
5. When Jesus groaned upon that Cross – It is finished, the wrath of God against sin was fully satisfied.
6. That’s why Rom 5:1 says, “being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
V. Doing It On Your Own
A. The sailors tried every device they knew. They did everything that they knew to save themselves. (1:5,13)
1. They were doing these things even after Jonah told them what they had to do in order to be saved.
2. They insisted on rowing hard in hope that by their own efforts they might save themselves.
3. But it ah failed, they had to come to the place where they were willing to accept the death of another in their place if they were going to be saved.
B. The relevance of this can easily be made to contemporary society.
1. How many of us try to do something or quit something in order to gain God’s acceptance and forgiveness.
2. Many believe if they quit lying, stealing, swearing, if they throw those things overboard they can lighten the ship of their condemnation.
3. This is the way of false religion. It teaches us to give up this or that and live a decent life, then joins a church and the result will be accepted by God.
4. My friend all of this is to no avail but even after we are told this will not work, we still keep trying to do it our way. We are just like those sailors. (1:13)
5. In spite of Jonah’s witness, they still tried to save themselves.
6. They rowed hard – how like them we are.
7. However, we all must learn the futility of our own endeavors before we will cast ourselves upon God’s mercy and receive salvation as a free gift of God. (Eph 2:8-9) (Titus 3:5)
God bless
Sister Phyllis
