He is Greater: Jonah and the Whale

Sermon Introduction

When I attended Bible School 20 years ago, one of the books that we read was about Hudson Taylor

For those of you who don’t know him, Hudson Taylor was the founder of China Inland Missions, and probably one of the most influential missionaries in East Asia

Hudson Taylor was born in 1832 at Barnsley, Englind

After becoming a Christian at age 17, he was inspired to become a missionary after reading the biographies of missionaries like Robert Morrison who was the first Protestant missionary to China.

He first went to China at the age of 21, in the middle of the 19th Century, meant sailing for nearly 6 months...

He was particularly well known for how he assimilated into Chinese culture by dressing like the Chinese and living among them, which may sound pretty natural to us now

But again, remember that in the 19th Century there was quite a different perspective… Particular concerning the superiority of Western Culture among early missionaries.

This meant that there was this sense that you first had to “Westernize” a person in order for them to be saved. Unfortunately, this lead to some pretty horrible abuse, just like what happened in the Roman Catholics and Anglican Residential Schools for Natives right here in Canada

Now, I mention Roman Catholics and Anglicans of course because all of the Residential Schools were run by those two churches, but to be fair, there were some Roman Catholic and Anglican missionaries who understood the need to share the Gospel in context like Francis Xavier and Jean de Brébeuf

But certainly the movement to do missions work within the culture and customs of the native population was made prominent by Evangelical, and particularly Baptists

As a result, the legacy of Hudson Taylor and other missionaries like him is incredible. Particularly in China, where, despite government persecution, there are 100 million Christians… That’s nearly 3 times the population of Canada

Scripture Introduction

Why were they so successful? Well, for this, we will turn to our passage today, although it is quite an unusual example to turn to

Because unlike Hudson Taylor, Jonah was anything but enthusiastic about God’s command to call people to repentence

Jonah 1:1–3, we read how the story began - “1 Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, 2 “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me.” 3 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.”

Tarshish vs Ninevah

Now, just to give you an idea of what Jonah did, I found this helpful map online...

So, as you can see here are where Joppa and Ninevah are...

Joppa is where Tel Aviv is today, and so if you ever visit Israel, you will be coming very close to where Jonah was...

Ninevah is in Iraq, right opn the Tigris river near the modern city of Mosul

And way over here… is Tarshish… on this map, it is shown as being in the South of Spain, but others believe it is in Northern Africa..

In either case, Jonah went in the opposite direction from where Ninevah is, to the farthest place that he can imagine… to a place, as Verse 3 told is, away from the presence of the Lord.

Of course there is no moving away from the presence of the Lord… as I’m sure many of us learned in Sunday School, God sent a storm against the ship that was carrying Jonah...

Jonah’s Rebellion

This scared the crew of the ship, so much so, as it says in Jonah 1, that they were crying out to their gods...

They soon figure out that it was Jonah who was causing all this trouble after he confesses to them that he was running away from God

Jonah tells them that they needed to throw him into the sea in order for the storm to stop… And although they initially rejected that idea, instead trying to row back to land… They eventually do so, and the storm immediately stops

Of course, the most famous part of the story then happens… as we read in....

Jonah 1:17 “17 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.”

In the belly of the fish, Jonah finally repents, and so the Lord causes the fish to vomit him out.

Ninevah Repents

This brings us to the passage we read today, where Jonah finally obeys the Lord and goes to Ninevah to call on them to repent, which brings about an incredible transformation in the people...

Jonah 3:5 tells us “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.”

So, in response to Jonah’s message from the Lord, that because of their great evil, he was about to overthrow Ninevah, they respond by putting on sackcloths...

If you’ll remember, from a few weeks ago in our sermon on Esther… Putting on sackcloths is a sign of great mourning

In other words, the people were grieved to hear the Lord’s message and they repent...

Verses 8 and 9 very clearly explains this… The king of Ninevah calls out declares to the people...

Jonah 3:8–9 “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.””

After seeing their repentence, the Lord does relent from his judgement against Ninevah, which should please Jonah, shouldn’t it?

But no… we learn why it was that Jonah ran away from God in the first place...

It wasn’t because he was afraid of the people of Ninevah… or maybe because he felt inadequate for the task that the Lord had given him...

No… Here’s what Jonah 4:1–2 says... “1 But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry. 2 And he prayed to the Lord and said, “O Lord, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster.”

Jonah didn’t want the people of Ninevah to be saved! He knew that God would… if they repented… but he didn’t even want to give them a chance!

Jonah’s Lesson

And so, God, gave Jonah a little lesson… Which I think is really important for us to go through becasue it’s often the part that’s overlooked in the Sunday School stories about Jonah...

In his anger, Jonah leaves city and he makes a shelter for himself called a booth

God then causes a plant to grow over the booth, to shelter him further, making Jonah very happy

But then, God caused a worm to attack the plant so that it died, then he sent a scorching heat to make Jonah very uncofortable

Because of this Jonah asked God to just let him die… in verse 8, he says “It is better for me to die than to live”

And this incredible exchange happens between God and Jonah…

Jonah 4:9–11 “9 But God said to Jonah, “Do you do well to be angry for the plant?” And he said, “Yes, I do well to be angry, angry enough to die.” 10 And the Lord said, “You pity the plant, for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night and perished in a night. 11 And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?””

This is how the book of Jonah ends.

We’re not told what happens after this, but the very fact that we have this record of what happened…

That we have details of the story that really only Jonah would know, leads me to believe that Jonah himself repented of his attitude towards God, which then led him to write this book

And it is, quite a story indeed… Far from the story of Hudson Taylor… And yet, also very similar...

How so? Well, let’s look at the lessons we can learn...

The most important of which is that...

Our God Saves

One of the most important lessons we learn over and over is that God is the one who saves…

Zephaniah 3:17 is one of my favourite places to hear this… “17 The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.”

The work of salvation is the Lord’s!

Now we know this quite well.. The ultimate salvation of course, comes from the cross… Philippians 2:8 “8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”

Galatians 3:13 “13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”—”

And certainly, we believe that much for ourselves… After all, if you are sitting here this morning, and you believe that you are saved… you believe that you are saved by God… that there is nothing you have done to earn that salvation… am I right?

So, it’s easy enough to believe that our God saved us...

Sharing the Gospel

The issue is believing that Our God Saves when we are the one asked to share that message to others...

That’s when the doubts begin to creep in...

“Really? Me? God’s going to use me to share the Gospel with someone else?”

How could he do that? I’m just going to mess it up!

The implication from that of course is that you begin to believe that you’re the one saving someone…

That it’s through your ability, through your eloquence in explaining the Gospel… that you can convince someone else to believe.

And for most people, the result of this is inaction...

We’re paralyzed by our fear of doing or saying the wrong thing, that we just don’t end up sharing the Gospel with others...

Jonah’s rebellion ironically has a lot to teach us in this regard… You see, Jonah never doubted God’s ability to be saved...

Remember, he ran away from God’s command because he knew that the Lord was a “a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster.”

He knew that God could save Ninevah, his problem was he didn’t want God to save them...

If you’re here this morning, and you doubt your ability to share the Gospel with someone, let me encourage you to remember what you believe about your own salvation…

Philippians 2:13 “13 for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.”

In this save way, it is God who is working in the lives of the people we are called to share the Gospel to… It’s God who is drawing them to himself… We are merely the instruments that God is using to accomplish his purpose…

Here’s what Hudson Taylor says about that...

“I am no longer anxious about anything, as I realize the Lord is able to carry out His will, and His will is mine. It makes no matter where He places me, or how. That is rather for Him to consider than for me; for in the easiest positions He must give me His grace, and in the most difficult, His grace is sufficient.”

And so, our God is doing the work of salvation, but still maybe you’re still hesitant...

Maybe you’re still concerned that you don’t have the skill sets for God to use in this work… Well, the second great lesson for us this morning is that...

God Equips Us

God does not just call us to do his work… God also gives us the ability to do so...

As the famous quote that you’ve probably heard before says, “God does not call the qualified, he qualifies the called”

Hebrews 13:20–21 puts it this way... “20 Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, 21 equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.”

Again, where we see this in Jonah is quite ironic

Because of course, Jonah’s problem wasn’t his doubt of his ability… but rather his desire to see people saved.

And so, as I mentioned God taught him a lesson through the plant

To be sure, there may be some of us who needs to hear this lesson ourselves...

To tell you the truth, I struggle to express God’s love myself when it comes to sharing the Gospel with people who may have hurt me, or who may be incredible stubborn in their unbelief...

“Perhaps if there were more of that intense distress for souls that leads to tears, we should more frequently see the results we desire. Sometimes it may be that while we are complaining of the hardness of the hearts of those we are seeking to benefit, the hardness of our own hearts and our feeble apprehension of the solemn reality of eternal things may be the true cause of our want of success.”

And so, there may be sometimes a need to correct our attitude and ourt desire to bring the good news others

But certainly, the biggest problem is this sense that we lack the ability to share the Gospel..

But the fact of the matter is, you can share the Gospel yourself… it can be as simple as telling your own story of what God has done in your life.

You don’t need any special methods, or a fancy seminary education to do that much.

God can use you simply telling your story to draw people to himself...

Back to Hudson Taylor, as I said, he was 21 years old when he sailed off to China. He had no formal theological training… In fact, he was painfully aware of his own limitations.

And yet, through simply trusting the Lord, he became one of the pioneers of the modern missionary movement.

“Many Christians estimate difficulties in the light of their own resources, and thus attempt little and often fail in the little they attempt. All God’s giants have been weak men who did great things for God because they reckoned on His power and presence with them.”

Ephesians 3:14–19 “14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, 16 that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”

Ephesians 3:20 “20 Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us,”