#Don’tBeAJonah
Notes
Transcript
Intro
Intro
Hey all,
Good to see all of you tonight. If you’re new here…my name is Cody and if you need anything…
This is what we do here on most Thursdays. Cafe, spend time in worship and teaching, and then community event.
So let’s get into the word together.
We are continuing in our series in the book of Jonah. We just spent the last two weeks in an extended introduction, and now we are getting into the first five verses of the book. So let’s look at them together and get straight to it.
Open your bibles to Jonah 1. Let me pray and then I’ll read.
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.
4 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. 5 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.
Alright, the title of this message is #Don’tBeAJonah
We will see this theme throughout the book, but it’s most obvious in these first few verses…so it was a fitting title.
But tonight we aren’t just seeing that we shouldn’t be like Jonah…we are learning three lessons from the story here.
Three lessons about God and the way he made the world and the way the world works.
Three lessons that may be new, or may be a reminder, but either way need to be said. So here’s the first lesson we see in these first five verses.
Three Lessons To Learn:
Disobedience Leads to Death (v.3,5)
Let’s first understand just how disobedient Jonah was…
In verse 2 we have the call from God. This is not an unusual call, this is something that God does quite often with many of the prophets. Isaiah, Elijah, Moses, even Abraham.
The call for Jonah to “arise” and go to Nineveh is right on par with what a Prophet should do.
But…Jonah’s response is not on par. In fact, it’s the complete opposite. Because instead of “Rising to go to Nineveh”, it says in verse 3..
He “rose to flee”. Remember what I said about the style of Jonah, it’s satirical.
This is something that has never happened before and is not recorded anywhere else in scripture…
A prophet of God, directly disobeying God.
This is what is normal.
8 And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here I am! Send me.”
So we have here the exact opposite…Jonah chooses disobedience over obedience…and it’s not just one choice in the heat of the moment like where Moses hits a rock instead of speaking to a rock…this is something that is consumed by days.
Look at verse 3 again…it says he went down to Joppa…meaning, he traveled 60 miles.
Pull up Map
Traveled miles…
After that, he pays money to be disobedient. It says he paid the fare to join the ship that was going the opposite direction…to Tarshish…which if we are talking about being intentionally disobedient, was the exact opposite direction.
So Jonah’s disobedience was obvious, and it was ongoing. Not just a heat of the moment disobedience, but a disobedience that lasted days, even weeks.
And the text is very explicit to point out how much this disobedience leads to death.
Euphemism: a mild or indirect word or expression substituted for one considered to be too harsh or blunt when referring to something unpleasant or embarrassing.
This passage is littered with those.
“Come up” in v.2
“Went down” in v.3 twice
“Had gone down” in v.5
All this to show, that direct disobedience to God, intentional disobedience is as foolish as intentionally walking into death itself.
This is not news to us…but it’s a great reminder.
Scripture
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
This is a great reminder and it should also be a sobering reminder for us.
Jonah shows us the danger of disobedience to God, Romans confirms that it brings death and also shows us that the only thing that covers our disobedience is belief in Christ.
However, as we find joy in our salvation in Christ, we also need to, in the back of our minds, be mindful of the areas of our life that we are living in ongoing disobedience.
Because we are told…
8 Bear fruit in keeping with repentance.
Scripture
26 For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.
Meaning, that a life dedicated to Christ that does not contain the works of repentance, proves to be a life that is not dedicated to Christ.
And so our application from this point…is be mindful of the ongoing disobedience in your life, and take care of it to guarantee that it doesn’t lead to death.
Jesus in the parable of the sower, when he is explaining speaks of seeds that are planted, and they begin to grow, but the concerns of this world strangles them…
20 As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy, 21 yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while, and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away. 22 As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it proves unfruitful. 23 As for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it. He indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.”
Jesus tells us this story so that we may desire to be good soil…so that we may be careful to not let the concerns of this world choke us out…and Jonah is a reminder to be mindful of our disobedience, that is…our love for the world and ourselves over the love of God.
Repent of it.
Give it to Christ. Over and over. And Find him gracious.
Examples of ongoing sin?
A Sinful Heart Makes a Foolish Mind (v.3 & 5)
You know, one of the things that stands out about this entire story is not just Jonah’s disobedience…but his foolishness is thinking that it would work…or at least his foolishness in attempting what he was attempting.
We find out later in this book exactly what Jonah was thinking and why he did what he did…but for now what he see is his intent. And his intent is pretty obvious…satirically obvious actually.
Remember how I told you this was a satirical book? Not only does it have euphemisms in it…but it also purposely repeats phrases to make a point and almost to jest. Look at it.
Jonah “rose to flee” v. 3 what is he fleeing from?
“From the presence of the Lord” (v.3 twice)
“To Tarshish” three times in v.3
Do you see how the repetition in this is meant to show the foolishness of Jonah and accent it.
So his purpose was to go to Tarshish…and his purpose was to flee from the presence of the Lord.
Except…we know that one can’t flee from the presence of the Lord.
7 Where shall I go from your Spirit?
Or where shall I flee from your presence?
But Even Jonah knows this…he confesses later
9 And he said to them, “I am a Hebrew, and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.”
So Jonah himself, a prophet of God, who God speaks to…knows who God his and what he is, confesses those things…and yet is still attempting to do what is impossible…he attempts to flee from God.
What??
There’s got to be an explanation right? Well there is an explanation.
It’s called foolishness.
And I don’t mean silliness…I mean foolishness. Stupidity.
But in scripture a fool is not someone who is ignorant…like they don’t know…scripture defines a fool as someone who refuses to listen to wisdom.
And that’s what we have here.
A fool…who refuses to listen to wisdom. Refuses to acknowledge who God is.
So what caused this foolishness?
Sin.
We’ll get to this much later in chapter 4…but we need to see it a bit now…Jonah’s heart was filled with sin.
It was filled with hatred for God’s enemies (the Ninevites)…and it was filled with a devaluing of God’s character.
So are you seeing the story here?
Jonah’s heart was filled with sin…and it led him to foolish things.
It led him to foolishly flee from the Lord in verse 3, and even in verse 5 there if you look at it…it causes him to foolishly attempt to go down into the cabin and sleep during a terrible tempest of a storm.
Things that don’t make sense to do.
Things you would never expect a prophet of God to do and honestly, like with the whole sleeping in the middle of a tempest, something you wouldn’t expect a normal human to do.
But he did. He did foolish things.
Things…that we are just as capable of.
And that’s your application point from this one tonight…be on guard.
Be on guard for the ways that sin can cause foolishness in your lives.
Ways that we are foolish because of sin…
God Will Have His Way (v.4)
Look with me at v.4 again.
4 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.
So what we see here is that God has a response to Jonah’s disobedience. We’ll get more in the weeks to come about how compassionate of a response this truly is…but for now we see that God isn’t just gonna sit there and take Jonah’s disobedience quietly.
God takes action to accomplish his will. And as we will read the next few weeks that’s what we will see…God will accomplish his will.
God is sovereign, he’s lord over all, and he accomplishes what he sets out to do.
Scripture
10 declaring the end from the beginning
and from ancient times things not yet done,
saying, ‘My counsel shall stand,
and I will accomplish all my purpose,’
Scripture
30 No wisdom, no understanding, no counsel
can avail against the Lord.
God. Will. Have. His. Way.
That’s our point from this verse and this point should bring two very strong emotions.
Fear
For some of us…we should have a sense of Godly fear. Because God will accomplish his plans…and sometimes those plans are for him to respond by creating a storm…the question is…are you going to someone who is found faithful to answer the call?
Or are you going to be like Jonah?
Because God intended for Jonah to go to Nineveh, and that was going to happen either way. It could happen by Jonah obeying, or it could happen by Jonah having to go through a storm, and get swallowed by a fish, and other things that we will cover.
And the question for you should be…if God is calling me to something, or I will be called to something…will I obey? Or will I be a Jonah.
Hashtag…don’t be a Jonah.
We should have a healthy, Godly fear, to make sure that we are faithful to be obedient when the Lord clearly calls us to something.
We should have a healthy, fear of God, that causes us to be in the word and prayer often with God as a means of hearing him and hearing him clearly so that we don’t walk in disobedience.
Here’s the other feeling you might feel in response to this.
2. Comfort
I know, I know…they feel like opposites, but go with me here.
We spend so much of our time in anxiety…
But God can accomplish his will even with the disobedient…how much more with the obedient??
Response Time.