Jonah Week 1
Notes
Transcript
Intro
Intro
Welcome to REVO Students
I’m Jamie if you haven’t met me already
I’ve been doing student ministry for a while and it’s my favorite thing
Tonight we are starting a two part series on the book of Jonah
Jonah is an interesting book because you have all probably heard about the book, or the story of Jonah
He’s the guy that got swallowed by a big fish
But my guess is, that’s all you know about the book of Jonah
However, this book teaches us a lot of things, besides BIG FISH
God gives you a job
God gives you a job
Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me.”
God calls out to Jonah and tells him to go and call out against he city of Nineveh
To call them to repentance and to come back to the Lord
Nineveh was called a great city
The book of Jonah later tells us that there are over 120,000 people living in the city
For OT times that was a huge city
Yet we see that this great city is evil.
There is sin in the city
So God tells Jonah to go and call out against it, and share with them who He is
Here’s the first thing you can learn from Jonah
God gives you a job
God gives you a job, He gives you commands
He gave Jonah a job - go to Nineveh, a great city and call out against it
Go and share the Gospel with that great city
Jesus gives us a job
And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Jesus tells us to go and make disciples
Go and share the Gospel with people
God gives us the same job He gave Jonah
The wording might be different, the people might be different, the places you go might be different
But in the end, you are called to go and share the Gospel
Go and call out sin
Go and reach people
We are called to go to our friends, our family and share the Gospel, call out sin, and reach out to people
God doesn’t give up on you
God doesn’t give up on you
But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish. So he paid the fare and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the Lord.
But the Lord hurled a great wind upon the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship threatened to break up. Then the mariners were afraid, and each cried out to his god. And they hurled the cargo that was in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them. But Jonah had gone down into the inner part of the ship and had lain down and was fast asleep. So the captain came and said to him, “What do you mean, you sleeper? Arise, call out to your god! Perhaps the god will give a thought to us, that we may not perish.”
Jonah instead of following what God called him to, runs away
He flees the area that God called him to go
Got on the first boat he could find, and ran
He tried to outrun God
Side note: You can’t outrun God
God saw it, He sees all, and sent a great wind and caused the boat to start to sink
There is mass panic for everyone, they started calling out to their gods and finally they come to Jonah asking him to call out to his God
Then they said to him, “What shall we do to you, that the sea may quiet down for us?” For the sea grew more and more tempestuous. He said to them, “Pick me up and hurl me into the sea; then the sea will quiet down for you, for I know it is because of me that this great tempest has come upon you.” Nevertheless, the men rowed hard to get back to dry land, but they could not, for the sea grew more and more tempestuous against them. Therefore they called out to the Lord, “O Lord, let us not perish for this man’s life, and lay not on us innocent blood, for you, O Lord, have done as it pleased you.” So they picked up Jonah and hurled him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging. Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows.
And the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.
Jonah tells them - throw me in the water
Not wanting to kill him they reject that idea
Yet the storm gets worse so they cry out to God saying “if this your will we will do it, but if Jonah dies don’t punish us”
In essence, we are afraid. And we are doing what your prophet says
Immediately after hitting the water, the storm stopped and all the people on the boat believed in God
Then the thing everyone knows about Jonah - he was swalled by a fish
Chapter two tells us what Jonah did in the belly of the fish
It tells us that Jonah prayed to the Lord
He remembers the good things of the Lord
How the Lord saves and loves
Jonah repents for not listening to God
And the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah out upon the dry land.
Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying, “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it the message that I tell you.” So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, three days’ journey in breadth.
God then spits Jonah back out and tells him a second time to go to Nineveh
This time Jonah listens
That leads to the second thing
God doesn’t give up on you
God didn’t give up on Jonah
Jonah ran from God’s calling, yet we see God pursuing him
We see God causing him to be swallowed by the fish
We see God causing the storm to bring him back
We see God giving him a second chance with the exact same language, in the exact same spot
God doesn’t give up on you either
Don’t take this as an invitation to run from God - because it’s not
Jonah is proof that running from God causes pain and problems
Instead let this take the pressure off
When you fail, God doesn’t give up on you
Not that you should actively choose to fail
But that God gives grace when we do fail
We will fail and trying to do what God calls us to
It wll happen
BUT God doesn’t give up on you
He gives you a second chance just like he gave Jonah
He continues to give you chances
God can use your work, no matter how small
God can use your work, no matter how small
Jonah began to go into the city, going a day’s journey. And he called out, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!”
Jonah - who was supposed to go into the city and call out for repentance instead did the worst evangelism job of all time
“forty days and you’ll be destroyed”
Not a great speaker, yet look at what happens
5 And the people of Nineveh believed God. They called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them.
6 The word reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. 7 And he issued a proclamation and published through Nineveh, “By the decree of the king and his nobles: Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything. Let them not feed or drink water, 8 but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and let them call out mightily to God. Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. 9 Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish.”
Yet from Jonah’s small weak proclamation, the city of Nineveh turned from their sin
They all repented
They all put on sackcloth and ash
They all cried out to God for salvation
When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it.
Because of that God saved them
He didn't’ destroy the city
That leads to the last thing
God can use your work, no matter how small
God can use your effort, no matter how little it is
Jonah barely shared the Gospel
Yet the whole city repented
God used the weak message he gave to save the entire city
God can also use your weak message to save those around you
So often I think we feel like we need to know more before we can share
We feel like we need to have all the answers before we share
We feel like we need to fix our own problems completely before we share
Yet God can use our work
He can use what we share, no matter how small it may be
Don’t discount what God can do in and through you
Conclusion
Conclusion
God gives us a job
He tells us we are to make disciples - Jonah had a job, every person we read about in the Bible had a job, we have a job
God doesn’t give up on us
We are sinful - we are going to fail, mess up, not be able to do it. God doesn’t give up on us but instead gives us a second chance to do it
God can use your work, no matter how small
You won’t have all the right words. You won’t be able to answer every question
That’s okay, God used Jonah’s terrible message. God can use you
Tim Keller said it best:
The Gospel isn’t just the ABC’s of Christian life, it is the A to Z of Christian life.
Tim Keller
You may only know the Gospel
Jesus lived the perfect life
Died a death we deserve - for our sin
Rose again to offer us new life in Him
If that’s all you got, that is all you need
Don’t discount what God can do
