A message from the series “Daily Devotional Videos.” At those times when you are up against a situation or set of circumstances that seem impossible, Judy Mandl encourages us to remember the words of Jeremiah 32:27.
A message from the series “Daily Devotional Videos.” Pastor Rick reflects on Matthew 28:19-20 and Jesus’ promise of His presence as we’re fulfilling His assignment to be disciple-makers.
A message from the series “See Jonah Run.” This weekend we’re continuing our look at one of the most familiar fish stories of all time. The story of Jonah and the Great Fish. We’re looking at this story throughout this month of June, and as I was thinking about that, I realized that just about everybody has a FISH STORY. So I thought I’d start by asking you what is Your Most Memorable Fish Story?
Even if you’ve never been fishing, you’ve probably got a fish story. That’s why I phrased this question NOT “What is your most memorable FISHING story” because we’re not all fishermen or fisherwomen, but instead, “What is your most memorable FISH story”? I want to give you some latitude here, I’m talking about any story involving a fish. Maybe it was the time your cat mistook your child’s goldfish for catnip, and you had to explain to your little one why the bowl where goldie lived was now empty. Maybe it was a negative experience you had at Sea World or the time you got some bad Sushi? Maybe it’s the biggest fish you ever caught, or the one that got away, or, or, or…
One of my favorite FISH STORIES is one that was told on the TV series SEINFELD. This fish story was told by George Costanza. The episode begins with Kramer (the tall guy with the “crazy” hair) using the beach as his driving range. He has somehow acquired 600 Titleist golf balls from a driving range and decides to practice his driving skills by hitting them off of a beach into the ocean, rather than hitting them off a tee at a driving range.
At another point in that episode, Jerry runs into this girl that he and George knew in college and she expresses an interest in the perpetually under-achieving George, and she asks Jerry what George is doing these days. And Jerry, not wanting to throw George under the bus by letting her know what a loser he is, instead of lies and tells her that George became a MARINE BIOLOGIST. So, she eventually goes out with George, and at one point she and George are walking down the beach, she sees a crowd of people and someone says that there is a WHALE IN DISTRESS in the shallow water, and someone else begins shouting “Is anyone here a Marine Biologist?” And she says “GEORGE!!!!” And let me let George tell you what happens next. Seinfeld Marine Biologist Video Clip
That’s a great fish story! It would be hard to top that. But there’s one guy in the Bible who can. His name is Jonah, and it’s his story we’re looking at this month. When we last left Jonah, he was RUNNING FROM GOD. Jonah, Chapter 1 tells us that God spoke to Jonah and gave him an assignment.
Jonah 1:1 tells us… “The Lord gave this message to Jonah son of Amittai: Get up and go to the great city of Nineveh.” Announce my judgment against it because I have seen how wicked its people are; But Jonah got up and went in the opposite direction to get away from the Lord; Jonah didn’t want to go and preach in Nineveh because Jonah was a Jew, a proud Jew. And Nineveh was the capital of Assyria, and Assyria was a pagan nation – the great enemy of the Jewish people And Jonah knew that if he went there and preached the gospel, it would be just like the Lord to save that city. And when God saves somebody he blesses them and Jonah was happy for God to bless Israel…
But he didn’t want the Assyrians to be blessed by God, and so he came up with his own plan. Jonah found a boat; Jonah booked his passage; Jonah hopped on board that boat and started a journey that he hoped would take him far away from the place where God was trying to send him as he could possibly get. But, Jonah soon discovered that when you are running from God it’s not always smooth sailing. . . In the first chapter of Jonah’s story, as Jonah ran from God we saw The Price He Paid For His Disobedience.
We saw that in the form of a storm came upon the boat on which he was sailing, a storm the likes of which the sailors had never seen before. And strangely enough, while the sailors are throwing cargo overboard, and fighting for their lives against the storm. Jonah, the one who had caused the whole thing, is sound asleep below deck. The sailors realized that the storm that had come upon them had something to do with Jonah, and so they asked him what they needed to do to make the storm stop Jonah told them that what they needed to do was throw him overboard. They didn’t want to do that, But then, when nothing else would work they finally did.
At the end of Chapter 1, we’re told that “…the sailors picked Jonah up and threw him into the raging sea, and the storm stopped at once! Now the Lord had arranged for a great fish to swallow Jonah. And Jonah was inside the fish for three days and three nights.”
If you know the story of Jonah, then you know that the storm that came upon him was not some random meteorological occurrence, but rather it came about because of his unwillingness to obey the Lord. And while we may not be able to relate to his specific set of circumstances, in that we’ve most likely never been in the belly of a fish – we can relate to his experience in another sense. Most of us know what it’s like to find ourselves suddenly and unexpectedly thrust into the middle of a storm – a crisis.
For years our life can be going along calmly, smooth sailing, and one day peacefully leading to another. God is in his heaven, and all is right with the world, and then suddenly without warning — it happens — our world is turned upside down. Maybe it’s a FINANCIAL REVERSAL or a FAMILY PROBLEM. Sometimes it’s an ISSUE WITH OUR HEALTH or a DIFFICULTY WITH OUR JOB. Maybe it’s the LOSS OF A LOVED ONE. Whatever it is, it affects everything else in our life. It colors everything It robs us of our joy.
Why Do Storms Come Upon Us? Let me give you four reasons. Some of the storms that come upon us are…
1) CONSEQUENCES OF OUR CHOICES
That’s what happened to Jonah, and it happens to us as well. If we’re honest we have to admit that. Often we have no one to blame for the storms we’re in but ourselves. A man chooses to smoke two packs of cigarettes a day from the time he is fifteen for the next 30 years, and he gets lung cancer, and then he shakes his fist at God and says — “How could you?”
A stock trader gets greedy and goes for the big kill in the market and the market catches him the wrong way, he loses tens of thousands of dollars and says “God, how could you? I tithe. . . I pray. . . how could you do this to me, Lord?”
A married couple chooses to ignore all of what God’s Word says about what it takes to build a solid marriage. Their relationship disintegrates — A divorce is the result and in the middle of it they say “God, how could you?”
Parents neglect their children during the impressionable years. They fail to do the tough work of love and discipline because they are so busy building careers that there’s not enough listening…Not enough nurturing… Not enough love. Rebellion sets in. Waywardness sets in. Resentment sets in. There is a family crisis and they say, “God, how could you?”
A person drives too fast or someone drinks and gets behind the wheel, and an accident happens, and grieving people at the funeral say “God, how could you?”
People can be so busy blaming God, that they never stop to consider the fact that if the truth of the matter were known, many of the crises that come upon us are the inevitable consequences of the choices we’ve made.
Then there are storms that come upon us simply as a result of …
2) FALLOUT FROM THE FALL
These have been referred to over the years as ACTS OF GOD. It’s a strange term when you stop to think that there is no record in scripture of hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, or tornados in the Garden of Eden before the fall. None of these represent God’s best intentions for the world, but because of Adam and Eve’s abuse of freedom, their disobedience to God, and their defiance of his laws, one of the consequences of their sin was the infiltration of evil into the natural order. Fallout from the fall.
There is a THIRD TYPE of storm that can come upon us and these are…
3) SENT BY SATAN
The Bible makes no secret about the fact that we’re in spiritual warfare against a real enemy and it lets us know what his agenda is. John 10:10 (Jesus said) “The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy.”
I Peter 5:8 says “Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.”
Some of the crises that come upon us are CONSEQUENCES FOR OUR CHOICES, some are just FALLOUT FROM THE FALL, some are SENT specifically by SATAN himself.
And others are…
4) GIFTS FROM GOD
Although it may sound strange, the reality is that any of the above three can be turned around and transformed by God into something good, if we turn it over to him.
Do you remember the story of Joseph, back in the Book of Genesis? He had suffered misunderstanding and mistreatment, false imprisonment, He’d been forgotten by his friends, and it all began when his jealous brothers threw him in a pit and sold him as a slave.
So it’s understandable that many years later when Joseph is in a position of power and authority that his brothers are scared to death of what he is going to do to them to pay them back for all the wrongs that they had done to him. And yet what did he say?
“Don’t be afraid of me. Am I God, that I can punish you? You intended to harm me, but God intended it all for good.” – Genesis 50:19-20
Joseph through all of the storms that he weathered, never lost sight of God’s hand, and as a result, at the end, he could say, “You meant it for evil, but God turned it into something good.”
Although Jonah isn’t there yet, he will eventually get to that point as well. The great fish which was initially a consequence of his own choice to disobey God would ultimately become his own PERSONAL UBER to get him exactly where God wants him to be. God ARRANGED for a great fish to swallow Jonah. As we mentioned last week, a lot of people have a problem with this part of the story, but understand, what is being described here is not something natural, it’s something supernatural. It’s miraculous.
Some people have a hard time believing it. But if you believe the first words of the Bible. That “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” Everything that comes after is easy. We’re talking about the one who SPOKE the universe into existence and so God dials up “Enterprise Rent-a-Fish” And God says, “Hey Fish…” The fish says, “Yes, Lord?” God says, “Go pick up Jonah. I’ll give you the GPS coordinates, and I’ll provide additional instructions as needed, but FISH, this detail is important. When you pick up Jonah, make sure you Swallow, DON’T CHEW. I’ll tell you where to drop him off.” The fish says, “Okay, Lord. You Got it” God appoints this fish and he swallows Jonah.
It’s from inside the belly of the fish that we see. . . The Choice That Jonah Made When we’re going through a storm we need to remember that in time that storm will pass, but the results of the choices we make as we weather the storm can go on to affect us long after. When we’re experiencing a storm…
WE CAN EITHER RUN TO GOD OR WE CAN RUN FROM HIM.
The crises we go through can make us better or they can make us bitter. We can increase in faith, or we can decrease in faith. We see a situation like that in the story of Jonah. We’ve been looking at his life over the past two weeks and we’ve seen that he was a man who was running away from God – when he tripped and fell.
And his fall took him to the very depths of the sea. Now it’s hard to imagine how a person can sink much lower than Jonah – finding yourself inside the belly of a fish at the bottom of the sea, but even Jonah – in the depths of despair. Even in the belly of a fish at the bottom of the sea still had options. He could reach out to God or he could keep on running away from God.
The second chapter of this book of Jonah records the story of two miracles. There is the one for which this book is most famous. Jonah being swallowed by a large fish. But there is also a second and no less amazing miracle that takes place in Jonah.
And we see that one through…
3. The Prayer He Prayed On the surface there may not seem to be anything miraculous about a prophet who prays, but you need to remember Jonah was a prophet on the run, and he was a prayer-less prophet. He had stopped praying, much like a lot of people who call themselves believers. They claim to believe in God, and yet, have virtually no prayer life, whatsoever.
I like the story of a small-town church. The pastor was very upset because a bar was opening up in this town, which up till this time had been a dry town – a town where no alcohol was served. The pastor of the church said, “We’re not gonna stand for this. We’re going to pray them out of business,” and so the church held prayer vigils, and for 24 hours at a time, the people would meet and they would pray. . . “God, please, run them out of business. Get rid of this bar,” And wouldn’t you know it, after quite some time of praying, the building that was being built to hold the bar was struck by lightning and the bar burned to the ground.
Well, the bar owner sued the church, claiming they were responsible for his loss. The church hired an attorney claiming they weren’t responsible. The judge said, “No matter how this case comes out, one thing is clear: the bar owner believes in prayer, and the church members do not.” Jonah was a prophet who should have believed in the power of prayer. . . But we don’t see him praying during the storm, Or even when he’s thrown into the sea. The first prayer we see from Jonah comes from deep inside the belly of the fish.
Take a look at what happens there in Jonah 2, verses 1 and 2 . . . “Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from inside the fish. He said, ‘I cried out to the Lord in my great trouble, and he answered me. I called to you from the land of the dead, and Lord, you heard me!” Jonah hits bottom. Physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Jonah had gone a long time without praying to God, and the first prayer that he prays in this book is from the belly of a fish.
The Word of God came to Jonah telling him to “Go to Nineveh” Jonah doesn’t pray about going to Nineveh He just took off in the opposite direction and got on a ship for Tarshish. He doesn’t pray about the ship. A storm threatens to destroy the ship. Jonah doesn’t pray about the storm. Now, he’s in the belly of a fish and he prays. Why? Well, what else are you going to do from the belly of a fish? I doubt he had his iPad with him. And even if he had, I’ve got the feeling that there’s not very good wifi at the bottom of the sea.
One of the reasons that I think a lot of us have a hard time praying is because we have so many other things we can do. But think about it. What is there that you can do from the belly of a fish? Not much, and so in his distress, Jonah prayed, and God heard him and he hears us.
To Whom did Jonah pray? Verse 1 told us. “To the Lord his God” Jonah prayed to God directly. Personally. . . . He didn’t have to go through another person – – Even though Jonah rebelled, he was still in a covenant relationship with God. He had a personal God. It was HIS GOD to whom he prayed.
You can’t come to God and call him “Our Father” if you have never been born into his family.
John 1:12 talks about Jesus and it says “To all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.” It’s true that we are all God’s creation, but only those who trust in Christ become his children. Jonah could pray to his God – can you? Jonah had run a long way from God but he even though Jonah forsook the Lord, the Lord never forsook Jonah. God was still his Father.
Reminds me of what the Apostle Paul writes in 2 Timothy 2:13 “Even If we are faithless, God remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself.” Jonah was honest in his prayer. He came clean. Again, look at what he prayed beginning in verse 2, “He said, ‘I cried out to the Lord in my great trouble, and he answered me. I called to you from the land of the dead, and Lord, you heard me!’ You threw me into the ocean depths, and I sank down to the heart of the sea. The mighty waters engulfed me; I was buried beneath your wild and stormy waves.’ “Then I said, ‘O Lord, you have driven me from your presence. Yet I will look once more toward your holy Temple’. I sank beneath the waves, and the waters closed over me. Seaweed wrapped itself around my head; I sank down to the very roots of the mountains. I was imprisoned in the earth, whose gates lock shut forever. But you, O Lord my God, snatched me from the jaws of death! As my life was slipping away, I remembered the Lord. And my earnest prayer went out to you in your holy Temple. Those who worship false gods turn their backs on all God’s mercies. But I will offer sacrifices to you with songs of praise, and I will fulfill all my vows. For my salvation comes from the Lord alone.”
We could go through that prayer and deconstruct it line by line, phrase by phrase, but we won’t Instead, I want to ask you just to focus on the last verse of the prayer. How did Jonah pray? He prayed with songs of praise. If Jonah could offer a sacrifice of praise from the belly of a fish, then most likely we can offer it from whatever storm we find ourselves going through.
Interesting to note that Jonah didn’t ask to be delivered – he simply started praising God in a difficult situation and giving thanks. More often than not, when we praise God, it’s associated with the good things He has done in our lives. Yet, Jonah learned an important lesson in the belly of that fish, Jonah learned that praise brings liberation. Jonah sang a song in the dark and God delivered him. JOB did the same thing when he was stripped of his health, wealth, and family, he responded by saying “though he slay me, yet will I trust him.” And if you know his story, then you know that God restored to Job twice what he had before.
It was the same with Paul and Silas in a Philippian Jail cell. Chained to prison guards at midnight – these two men sang a song that opened prison doors. Would have been so easy for them to have cried out about the unfairness of their punishment. They hadn’t done anything to warrant it. They had left their homes for the sake of the gospel and sacrificed much. They could easily have slipped into resentment. But they didn’t.
The Bible says “About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God and the other prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once the prison doors flew open and everybody’s chains came loose:” – Acts 16:26
Praise and Thanksgiving are the keys that unlock the door and set us free. You DON’T HAVE ANYTHING to praise God about?
Praise him NOT FOR WHAT HE GIVES YOU but for WHO HE IS.
If Paul and Silas had been like a lot of modern-day disciples we would have read that “At midnight Paul and Silas WHINED, AND WHIMPERED, AND QUESTIONED God.” But instead, like Jonah, they praised the Lord in the middle of the storm and God set them free.
The Bible says – “Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” 1 Thessalonians 5:18
We are to give thanks in all circumstances. That doesn’t necessarily mean we are to thank God for the fish’s belly, but rather to thank God from the fish’s belly. Thanksgiving is THE PROOF OF THE REALITY OF OUR FAITH. It’s the DIFFERENCE BETWEEN those who WALK BY FAITH and those who WALK BY SIGHT. Those who walk by sight can sing songs of praise and thanksgiving only when deliverance comes. That’s not hard to do. We get a new job and we give thanks. We get a good report from a doctor, and we give thanks. But those who live by faith make the choice to live in thanksgiving even in the midst of adversity. Jonah had to hit bottom before he looked up.
There is an important little phrase in verse 9, and if you’re not careful it’s easy to overlook, Jonah said “Salvation comes from the Lord.” He realized that it’s God who delivers. As long a there are still a few strings left for us to pull, we can trace our deliverance out of storms to our own efforts. The truth is we’re not saved because we deserve to be, or because we’re good, or because we are moral, or because we are intelligent, or because we are American.
Salvation comes from the Lord. Jonah finally realized that. Inside the belly of that fish, he said “It’s out of my hands – there is nothing I can do.” He knew that if deliverance was going to come it would have to be from the Lord. God has a special way of bringing each of us to that point. He has a way, when we are rebellious, of getting us to the point where we finally have to say “Lord, it’s out of my hands, there is nothing more I can do. Deliverance has to come from you.”
I love this story because it has a happy ending. “Then the Lord ordered the fish to spit Jonah out onto the beach.” – Jonah 2:10
Notice, Jonah did not get dropped off by an angel. The fish vomited. He lost his lunch, he tossed his cookies, he took a ride on the regurgitron… Okay? Got it? And there is Jonah on the beach, covered in Shrimp Cocktail or whatever the fish had eaten, ready for whatever God has for him. And my favorite part of this second chapter is actually the FIRST verse of the THIRD chapter…
“Then the word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time.”
That’s where we’ll pick up the story next week. Two things I hope you’ll take from this story, particularly if you’re going through a storm, and maybe that storm is something you brought on yourself.
Number one: God is a God of Second Chances
Number two: When God disciplines us, it’s not to PAY us BACK, but to BRING us BACK.
Even when we’re FAITHLESS he remains FAITHFUL. He loves us too much to ever let us go. Let’s pray.
A message from the series “Daily Devotional Videos.” Do you ever struggle with sleepless nights? Judy Mandl reflects on Psalm 63:6-8 and encourages us to follow David’s example when it comes to battling insomnia.
A message from the series “Daily Devotional Videos.” There’s an old saying, “It’s the thought that counts,” and while that may be true in a lot of areas, Pastor Rick reminds us that when it comes to following Jesus, the question we need to be asking ourselves is “What would Jesus DO?” not “What would Jesus THINK?”
A message from the series “Daily Devotional Videos.” Raquel Blanchard continues her look at the beatitudes by examining Matthew 5:9 and reminds us that being a peacemaker requires action on our part to reconcile people with one another and with God.
A message from the series “Daily Devotional Videos.” Pastor Andrew continues his look at what happened on the day that the church was born in Acts 2, and reminds us that the same power that was present on the day of Pentecost is available to us today.
A message from the series “Daily Devotional Videos.” Judy Mandl reflects on Psalm 40:5 and reminds us that God is always working and that most of the time we are only aware of a small portion of what He is doing in our lives.
A message from the series “Daily Devotional Videos.” Pastor Rick reflects on Proverbs 6:27-28 and Galatians 6:7-8 and reminds us that if we ignore God’s Word, more often than not, we will become the cautionary tale that others are telling.
A message from the series “See Jonah Run.” Welcome Church Family. This weekend, we’re beginning a new teaching series going through the Old Testament Book of Jonah. We’ll be spending the next four weekends looking at each of the 4 chapters of this book, and so, if you have your Bible, or your Bible app, let me encourage you to turn right now to the Book of Jonah Chapter 1, which is where we’re spending our time today.
Jonah is a small book located in the midst of some other small books in the Old Testament. If you’re not sure where it is, or how to find it, the easiest way to find the book of Jonah, is if you go to the New Testament (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John) and work backward about eight books. While you’re turning there, let me mention that just about everybody knows the story of Jonah! Even people who aren’t Christians know this story. . .
Jonah was, of course, that little wooden boy who ended up in the belly of a whale, with his father Giapetto, and each time he would lie, his nose would grow longer. . . Oops, wrong story! That’s not Jonah, that’s Pinocchio. While there are some similarities between the stories of Jonah and Pinocchio, in-as-much-as someone gets swallowed by a fish and lives to tell the story. There are also some critical differences… There’s no singing cricket in the Book of Jonah, and there’s no wooden puppet going around saying, “I’m a real boy, I’m a real boy.”
The most important difference is that the story of Pinnochio is a Fairy Tale, and the story of Jonah really happened.
Each week, we’ll be looking at one chapter of Jonah’s story. There are 4 chapters in this book, so we’ll be spending four weekends looking at Jonah. Today Jonah, Chapter 1, beginning in verse 1, we read . . .
“The Lord gave this message to Jonah son of Amittai: ‘Get up and go to the great city of Nineveh. Announce my judgment against it because I have seen how wicked its people are.’ But Jonah got up and went in the opposite direction to get away from the Lord. He went down to the port of Joppa, where he found a ship leaving for Tarshish. He bought a ticket and went on board, hoping to escape from the Lord by sailing to Tarshish. But the Lord hurled a powerful wind over the sea, causing a violent storm that threatened to break the ship apart.
“Fearing for their lives, the desperate sailors shouted to their gods for help and threw the cargo overboard to lighten the ship. But all this time Jonah was sound asleep down in the hold. So the captain went down after him. ‘How can you sleep at a time like this?’ he shouted. ‘Get up and pray to your god! Maybe he will pay attention to us and spare our lives.’ Then the crew cast lots to see which of them had offended the gods and caused the terrible storm. When they did this, the lots identified Jonah as the culprit. ‘Why has this awful storm come down on us?’ they demanded. ‘Who are you? What is your line of work? What country are you from? What is your nationality?’ Jonah answered,’ ‘I am a Hebrew, and I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the land.’ The sailors were terrified when they heard this, for he had already told them he was running away from the Lord.
‘Oh, why did you do it?’ they groaned. And since the storm was getting worse all the time, they asked him, “What should we do to you to stop this storm?” ‘Throw me into the sea,’ Jonah said, ‘and it will become calm again. I know that this terrible storm is all my fault.’ Instead, the sailors rowed even harder to get the ship to the land. But the stormy sea was too violent for them, and they couldn’t make it. Then they cried out to the Lord, Jonah’s God. ‘O Lord,’ they pleaded, ‘don’t make us die for this man’s sin. And don’t hold us responsible for his death. O Lord, you have sent this storm upon him for your own good reasons.’ Then the sailors picked Jonah up and threw him into the raging sea, and the storm stopped at once! The sailors were awestruck by the Lord’s great power, and they offered him a sacrifice and vowed to serve him. Now the Lord had arranged for a great fish to swallow Jonah. And Jonah was inside the fish for three days and three nights.” AMEN!
A little bit of background about Jonah… Who was he? Jonah was one of the Minor Prophets, not minor because he didn’t have the skills to make it to the majors, and not minor because his message wasn’t important, but minor because of the length of the book that bears his name. The 39 books of the O.T. are grouped into categories, and two of those categories are the Major Prophets and the Minor Prophets. The longer books are the Major Prophets, the shorter are the Minor. For example – – – Isaiah was a prophet and his books is numbered among the Major Prophets because the book that bears his name is 66 chapters long. Jonah is categorized among the Minor Prophets because his book is 4 chapters long.
This 4 chapter book is where we’re going to be spending our time this weekend and over the next 3 weekends, so I want to encourage you to accept the “Jonah Challenge”, and if you want to accept this challenge you can let us know by selecting this as one of the next steps on your connection card. What’s the Jonah Challenge? Just this, read the book of Jonah once a week for the four weeks. What? You want me to read a whole book of the Bible, and you want me to do that four times? Even though it’s 4 chapters long, the four chapters only total 48 verses, so it would take you about 10 minutes to read the book. Read it once a week. Do that and you’ll learn a lot about Jonah. You’ll discover some things about who he was.
As I said, he was one of the minor prophets. As a prophet he was someone to whom God spoke, and then he had the responsibility to take the message that God had given him and share it with others. Jonah was a real guy. He’s not just mentioned here – but in the book of 2 Kings we’re told that he was a well-known prophet among the people of Israel and everyone paid attention to his words. He’s also someone that Jesus referred to as a real guy who really did live.
In Matthew 12:40, Jesus speaks of his own time in the grave and he likens it to what happened to Jonah. Jesus said, “For just 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.”
Jonah was a real guy who really lived, and the word of the Lord came to Jonah, telling Him to go to Nineveh and preach, and Jonah didn’t want to do it. Which isn’t surprising, Nineveh wasn’t the kind of place you’d want to vacation. Nineveh was the capital of Assyria. The Assyrian empire was at the height of its power from 700BC – 612BC and they were some of the most wicked and cruel people on the face of the earth. They attacked and conquered cities – – – raping all of the women and young girls and then killing them. They would take the men outside of the cities and skin them alive. Then they would bury them alive up to their necks in sand and then leave them in the sun to die.
And then, after they died, they would behead them, and take all of the heads of these people and stack them into a pyramid and that would be a monument to the fact that they had conquered that city.
Nineveh was a brutal, intimidating city, and God said Jonah – – – “I want you to go to Nineveh and tell them to repent.” And Jonah didn’t want to do it, and the reason that he didn’t want to do it was because he was AFRAID. Not afraid of the brutality of the Ninevites, but afraid of something else. Jonah knew something about what happens when prophets preach. Jonah knew that sometimes “when prophets preach — people repent.” And Jonah knew that God was gracious, and even though he was sending Jonah to preach a message of hell fire and brimstone, Jonah knew that if Nineveh repented, God would give those people a second chance. . .
He knew that if the people of Nineveh repented God would forgive them, and bless them and Jonah couldn’t stand the thought of that.
He couldn’t stand the thought of those heathen people being forgiven – and specially those heathen people who were Israel’s enemies. It’s an unusual reaction on the part of a prophet of God. Jonah wasn’t afraid of failure, he was afraid of success. How do we know that? We know it because of a prayer that he prayed to the Lord later on in this book when Nineveh did ultimately repent.
Later on, toward the end of this book, “Jonah complained to the Lord about it: “Didn’t I say before I left home that you would do this, Lord? That is why I ran away to Tarshish! I knew that you are a merciful and compassionate God, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love. You are eager to turn back from destroying people..
Jonah says, “God, I hate to say I told you so, but I told you so, I knew you were the kind of God who would forgive those people, and then they would become believers and I’d have to be with them in eternity forever and God I didn’t want that cuz I hate those people and that’s why I ran”
“For God so loved the World? Yeah, well maybe so . . . But there are some people in this world that God may love but you don’t like because of the color of their skin, or their ethnicity, or some of the sins they are into… Think about that for a minute. . . .
Who is someone who is difficult for you to love?
For you, maybe it’s REPUBLICANS or DEMOCRATS. For Jonah, it was the people of Nineveh. And so, when the word of the Lord came to Jonah saying, “I want you to go to Nineveh,” Jonah didn’t just say “no” and just stay where he was. He literally turned tail and ran as fast as he could in the opposite direction. It wasn’t just “No, God I’m not gonna make that 500 mile trip to the East to the place you’re calling me to go. I’m going west – 2000 miles in the opposite direction.”
God said “I want you to go to Nineveh”
Jonah said, “I think I’ll go to Tarshish”
Where was Tarshish? It doesn’t matter. All you need to know is that Tarshish, was as far from Nineveh as you could get in the known world. God said go East, Jonah bought a ticket hopped a boat and headed West, and as far West he could possibly go. Some scholars estimate that the trip from Joppa where Jonah boarded that boat, to Tarshish, where he was headed, may have taken a year to complete. That ought to give you some idea of how badly Jonah wanted to get away from God.
We’re going to spend these four weekends looking at Jonah because I believe that his story is our story too. I believe that there is a little bit of Jonah in all of us. Every one of us at some point in our life has run from God, every one of us has been at a point where God said “I want you to do this”, and we’ve said, “Sorry God, I’m not gonna do that.”
Let’s look at three Lessons We Can Learn From Jonah…
Any time you mention “Jonah” people immediately think about THE GREAT FISH, and that’s unfortunate because as we’re gonna see today and over the next three weekends, there’s a lot more to the story of Jonah than the lessons he learned at the bottom of the sea.
In fact, the Book of Jonah is not really about a fish. Only three verses in the book deal with the fish. The other 45 verses tell us the real message of Jonah’s story. The story of Jonah is a story about running, and most importantly it’s the story about the one who runs after us.
What are some of the Lessons We Can Learn From Jonah…
#1 – God’s Word is AS CLEAR to us AS IT WAS to Jonah
Often when we read Old Testament stories where God speaks to someone in a vision, or a dream or through an angel, the tendency is for us to think… Why? Why doesn’t God speak to me like that? Why doesn’t God just TELL ME what he wants me to do, cuz if he did, for sure I would do it?”
I understand that way of thinking, but I guarantee you, everyone of those guys who lived in Old Testament times, if you could talk to them, they would say “I wish God would just write things down in a letter to me so I’d know what to do. Instead I’ve got to follow some cloud by day to know where he wants me to go. Or, I’ve got to figure out what some dream meant? Was that God speaking to me through that dream? Or was it just that I ate some bad sushi before bedtime? It would be so much easier if he would just write things down and tell me what he wants me to do?”
Well the good news is he has! You and I have this book we call God’s Word, and the reason we call it God’s Word is because it’s God’s Word! It’s our OWNERS MANUAL. There is nothing you are going to face in life that isn’t covered by this book. If you’re Single – – – this book tells you how to live your life as a single person – – – it tells you what to do with your sexuality. Looking for Career guidance? It’s in this book! Trying to figure out how to do Marriage? How to treat your spouse? How to parent your kids? It’s in this book! This book tells you what to do with your Finances. You want to make sure that when it comes to finances, you’re not going it alone, but letting God lead the way?
This book tells you how you make Him Lord of that area. Whether it’s career direction, or relationships, or family advice, or figuring out your gifts and your purpose in life, everything you need is in here. And yet a lot of times we’re asking for God to speak to us, to give us direction. God says – — – “I’ve given you direction, I’ve written it out for you in black and white, and you’ve ignored it.”
He says, “If I can’t trust you with what I’ve plainly written, why would I ever tell you something more?” God’s Word is AS CLEAR to us AS IT WAS to Jonah, and yet sometimes we ignore it. So ask yourself, “Where am I acting like Jonah? Where in my life right now, am I not doing what God told me to do? Before I look at Jonah and say “What an idiot he was, I need to look at my life and say, “Where am I acting like him? Where in my life has God shown me what he wants me to do, and I’ve chosen to go the other way?”
God’s Word to you and me is as clear as it was to Jonah. A second lesson we can learn from this reluctant prophet is that…
#2 – Sin Splashes
What I mean by that YOUR SIN AFFECTS OTHERS. Think about it, it wasn’t just Jonah who was affected by his disobedience, but everybody else who was on that ship with him was affected. The Bible teaches that you never sin in isolation. We’d like to believe that our sin only affects us, but it doesn’t. It often affects those we love the most, and if it hasn’t yet, it may tomorrow. . .
Jonah couldn’t see it – – – he was oblivious to it – – – he was sound asleep, but these seasoned sailors… These men who had spent their lives on the sea. They saw what was happening, and they were SCARED FOR THEIR LIVES. They were TERRIFIED.
These men had been through lots of storms, but there was something about this one, that caused them to realize that this was no ordinary storm. This was something supernatural, and so they were terrified! Sooo frightened, that they begin throwing the cargo overboard. Now understand, the cargo was their livelihood! No cargo = no pay.
They are so scared that they are also doing something I’m sure they didn’t do often, and that is they’re praying, each to his own God.
Question – – – What had these sailors done to deserve having this calamity come upon them?
Answer – – – Nothing!!!
As far as we know they had done nothing wrong. Yet, in spite of doing nothing wrong they had lost their livelihoods and they’re in danger of losing their lives, all because they are in proximity to someone who is running from God.
Jonah’s disobedience was affecting everyone else in the boat. SIN SPLASHES!!! SIN SPLASHES!!!
PARENTS – – – your choices can affect generations after you. Some of you here today carrying around baggage – – – scars from your childhood, all because of the home you grew up in. You were hurt because of storms you went through, and yet you did nothing to cause those storms. Someone else’s disobedience affected you. Sin Splashes!!!!
Lesson #3 – It’s NEVER TOO LATE to TURN AROUND
Look again at verse 7, “Then the crew cast lots to see which of them had offended the gods and caused the terrible storm. When they did this, the lots identified Jonah as the culprit.”
“Why has this awful storm come down on us?’ they demanded. ‘Who are you? What is your line of work? What country are you from? What is your nationality?’ Jonah answered,’ ‘I am a Hebrew, and I WORSHIP the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the land.’”
Time out! Let’s get this straight, you worship the God who made the SEA, you’re running away from HIM? What part of running away to SEA seemed like a good idea to you? And another question… “You say you WORSHIP this God – – – – the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land. You WORSHIP the Lord, then why are you running from Him? Why were you asleep? You WORSHIP???”
Yes, I worship! I go to church! I serve the Lord! I may be asleep, I may be disobedient, but I’m a worshipper. I go to church… I sing the hymns… I even say an occasional Amen! Now, my lifestyle may not be anywhere close to what God calls me to in His Word, but make no mistake, “I worship! I go to church!”
What we miss is that WORSHIP IS MORE than what happens here for an hour each weekend. Worship is about a LIFESTYLE that is seeking to reflect the life of our Lord Jesus Christ.
And yet we’ll still try to justify ourselves saying, “I worship! – – – I worship the Lord of heaven and earth. I may cuss like a sailor, but I worship! I’m not married, so of course I sleep around a little bit, but I worship! I know what God says about money and how I ought to handle it, and that I SHOULD return the first portion to him, but what’s mine is mine – – – but make no mistake I worship!”
Jonah told the sailors who he was, and who he was running from “The sailors were terrified when they heard this, for he had already told them he was running away from the Lord. ‘Oh, why did you do it?’ they groaned. And since the storm was getting worse all the time, they asked him, “What should we do to you to stop this storm? ‘Throw me into the sea,’ Jonah said, ‘and it will become calm again. I know that this terrible storm is all my fault.’”
Stop there for a moment, and think about something… How hard was Jonah’s heart? How badly did he not want to go to Nineveh? So badly that he would rather DIE than obey God. That’s why he said, Jonah said, “Throw me into the sea” But the sailors said, “We’re not gonna do it. We’re sailors, not pirates.”
Verse 13 tells us, “Instead, the sailors rowed even harder to get the ship to the land. But the stormy sea was too violent for them, and they couldn’t make it. Finally, as a last resort, these sailors did what Jonah said, but not before crying out to the Lord. “Then they cried out to the Lord, Jonah’s God. ‘O Lord,’ they pleaded, ‘don’t make us die for this man’s sin. And don’t hold us responsible for his death. O Lord, you have sent this storm upon him for your own good reasons.’ Then the sailors picked Jonah up and threw him into the raging sea, and the storm stopped at once! The sailors were awestruck by the Lord’s great power, and they offered him a sacrifice and vowed to serve him.”
Again, the lesson for us is that… It’s NEVER TOO LATE to TURN AROUND. No matter how far you’ve WANDERED, or even RUN from God. Our God is a God of the second chance, and the third chance, and the fourth chance, and more chances than you can count. One last blank for you to fill in on your notes. . . .
Surrender comes before Salvation.
What do I mean by that? Well think about it this way? When did things change for these sailors? Was it when they got scared and prayed? No. Was it when they cried out to God to save them? No!
In verse 5, they were scared, and each cried out to their own God, but the sea still got rougher and rougher. Did the sea grow calm when God (speaking through Jonah) told them what to do? No!
They were told by Jonah what God wanted them to do in verse 12… They chose to ignore that, and just try harder. Just row harder. And the storm just got worse and worse. They weren’t saved until they SURRENDERED, until they came to the end of their own resources and surrendered, to what God was telling them to do. That was when things changed.
Maybe you’re in a storm right now, and like those sailors, you are rowing harder and harder and harder. Maybe like them you’re even crying out to God, but you haven’t done the one thing that God is waiting for you to do, and that is SURRENDER.
If you’re crying out for God to SAVE you and for God to STOP something or for God to change something or for God to calm the storm, you might be talking to a silent God. If you are crying out to God because of a storm that has rocked your FINANCES, or your HEALTH, or your MARRIAGE and God isn’t doing anything. It may be that God is saying, “You have to SURRENDER before I’ll save you.”
Understand, God didn’t send the storm so that Jonah would DROWN, He sent the storm so that Jonah would TURN AROUND.
God can CALM THE STORMS, but sometimes he also SENDS THE STORMS as a way of getting us to turn around and surrender to Him. It happened to Jonah, it happens to us. I don’t want to leave this story by leaving you thinking that God left Jonah in the ocean to drown.
The last verse of this first chapter says, “Now the Lord had arranged for a great fish to swallow Jonah. And Jonah was inside the fish for three days and three nights.”
Come back next week and you’ll see that JONAH COMES OUT OF THAT FISH, and winds up on dry land, and if you read ahead into the second chapter you’ll SEE WHICH END OF THE FISH he comes out of, but trust me . . . and here’s the important thing. . . he comes out of the fish, ALIVE! He is SAVED… All because something happens inside the fish – When he’s inside the fish he SURRENDERS.
Let’s PRAY.
