The Third Day Is Coming!

An Unexpected Hero
The Third Day Is Coming!

I. Introduction

A. Jonah 1:17 (NAS) And the LORD appointed a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the stomach of the fish three days and three nights.

1. “Appointed” – – “”

2. It would take a for this to happen!

3. So, to God, is impossible!

4. is up to something !

B. Jonah 2:1-4 (NAS) ¹Then Jonah prayed to the LORD his God from the stomach of the fish, ²and he said, “I called out of my distress to the LORD, and He answered me. I cried for help from the depth of Sheol; You heard my voice. ³For You had cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the current engulfed me. All Your breakers and billows passed over me. ⁴So I said, ‘I have been expelled from Your sight. Nevertheless I will look again toward Your holy temple.’”

1. And because of all of these , we can avoid having to face what’s going on inside of us.

2. Jonah goes as low as he can go—and is the point of this story to the Israelites.

C. Jonah 2:5-7 (NAS) ⁵“Water encompassed me to the point of death. The great deep engulfed me, weeds were wrapped around my head. ⁶I descended to the roots of the mountains. The earth with its bars was around me forever, but You have brought up my life from the pit, O LORD my God. ⁷While I was fainting away, I remembered the LORD, and my prayer came to You, into Your holy temple.”

1. is never more than a away!

2. God says, “Okay. I’m glad you’ve come to Me. Because the to every problem in your life!”

D. Jonah 2:10 (NAS) Then the LORD commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah up onto the dry land.

1. To Israel—going down into the sea is absolutely the !

2. And one day, we will understand fully that !

3. Jonah’s name means “the .”

E. Matthew 12:39-40 (NAS) ³⁹“An evil and adulterous generation craves for a sign; and yet no sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah the prophet; ⁴⁰for just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.”

1. The message of Jonah is a little foretaste of the of —who comes to meet us at the lowest place!

F. I Corinthians 15:55 (NAS) “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?”

1. They understood that is coming! is coming! The third day is coming!

2. No matter what’s going on in our lives—if you are a follower of Jesus— always wins in the end!

II. Conclusion