What did Jesus mean when He said the only sign given to His generation (the Jews living during His earthly ministry) would be the sign of Jonah?
Jesus did many miraculous things during His earthly ministry: healing the sick, crippled, blind, maimed, etc. The religious people of that day wanted Him to do something even more spectacular to prove He was the Son of God.
Then certain of the scribes and of the Pharisees answered, saying, Master, we would see a sign from thee.
But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas: For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
(Matt. 12:38-40 KJV)Then answered the Jews and said unto him, What sign shewest thou unto us, seeing that thou doest these things? Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.
Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days? But he spake of the temple of his body. When therefore he was risen from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this unto them; and they believed the scripture, and the word which Jesus had said.
(John 2:18-22 KJV)
His resurrection from the dead is the sign to which Jesus was referring. His resurrection is the hope that all believers have. If Jesus rose from the dead, we who believe in Him will also rise from the dead.
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Joe Cameneti Sr. is the lead pastor of Believers Church, located in his hometown of Warren, Ohio. Pastor Joe, along with his wife Gina, pioneered Believers Church in 1983 following his graduation from Bible School.
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