Jonah: God's Mission
Notes
Transcript
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1 Then the word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time:
2 “Get up! Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message that I give you.”
3 This time Jonah got up and went to Nineveh, in accordance with the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, requiring a three-day journey.
4 On the first day of his journey, Jonah set out into the city and proclaimed, “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overturned!”
5 And the Ninevites believed God. They proclaimed a fast and dressed in sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least.
6 When word reached the king of Nineveh, he got up from his throne, took off his royal robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.
7 Then he issued a proclamation in Nineveh: “By the decree of the king and his nobles: Let no man or beast, herd or flock, taste anything at all. They must not eat or drink.
8 Furthermore, let both man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and have everyone call out earnestly to God. Let each one turn from his evil ways and from the violence in his hands.
9 Who knows? God may turn and relent; He may turn from His fierce anger, so that we will not perish.”
10 When God saw their actions—that they had turned from their evil ways—He relented from the disaster He had threatened to bring upon them.
PRAY
I think we all would agree that something is wrong with this world. Whatever your background, whatever your beliefs, you know that things are not the way they are supposed to be.
And people have all kinds of ideas about what’s wrong with the world.
Economic inequality
Racism
Lack of education
But the Bible presents for us the real issue: sin and rebellion against a good and holy God has left us in spiritual darkness, leading us toward death and eternal separation from God, and all sorts of other troubles along the way. And the Bible also tells us that we cannot solve the problem ourselves. We cannot save ourselves. We are in need of rescue.
Intro: A story of Rescue
Around 1 PM on November 5, 2005, a family of four was driving in their green 1998 Ford Explorer down I-275 North along the Howard Frankland Bridge in Tampa, FL. This father, mother, and two boys, ages 13 and 7, had nearly made it across the three-mile-long bridge, when suddenly there was a loud sound, like a gunshot.
The left rear tire of their SUV had blown out, which caused the driver to lose control of the vehicle. The vehicle first struck the northbound retaining wall, then careened across all four lanes of traffic, struck the southbound wall, and flipped over the side, falling 14 feet into the water below.
Since the glass from the windows and windshield had shattered, the parents were able to get out of the vehicle and swim to the surface, and the mother was able to grab her older son and drag him with her too. She tried diving down multiple times to rescue her younger son, but was unable to.
Nearby was a man named Kenny Hyatt who was there on his boat, and he came to rescue the parents and the older brother who had come up.
7 year old Amar Jakupovic was trapped underwater in the car - unconscious, buckled in his seat, unable to get to the surface, unable to rescue himself.
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This is similar to how the Bible presents us. Like Amar, we are utterly helpless, utterly unable to do anything to save ourselves. We are trapped in the darkness, headed for death. Not only that, the Bible tells us that by nature we love the darkness that enslaves us. Not only are we not able to get out, by nature we have no desire to get out. We are satisfied in our sin and rebellion, and yet we are headed for destruction.
We are in need of rescue. And for someone to rescue us, He must be stronger than us and the sin that enslaves us. And He must be kind and merciful.
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In the case of Amar, such a person just happened to show up at the right time. In God’s providence, a 43-year-old fisherman named Kerry had decided not to go fishing that day, and instead he took his 15-year-old daughter out to help her learn how to drive. They were not far from the accident, and when Kerry saw what was happening, he left his daughter with their vehicle, left her the keys and his wallet and things and locked it and told her, “I’ll be right back.”
He looked over the edge into the murky water and saw bubbles coming up, so he knew right where to dive in. On his first attempt he found the vehicle, but he had to surface again for enough air to be able to get the boy out. He came back up, took a deep breath, then went down again and found the vehicle again.
Kerry was later quoted as saying, “He was just sitting there like a little rag doll. I unbuckled him, pulled him out of the car, and gave him his first breath of life.” This man was able to rescue the boy because he was strong and kind.
On the bridge observing these things was a 25-year-old nurse named Kelly. She realized that the boy needed serious medical attention, so she dived into the water and came to the boat and continued performing CPR on the 7-year-old Amar until paramedics arrived.
He was still unresponsive. They were very concerned about brain damage. The paramedics took him to a nearby hospital where they treated him. And just two weeks later in the hospital, young Amar was sitting up in his bed playing super Mario, completely oblivious to the accident and what had happened. He had been rescued.
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We are in need of rescue like this young boy Amar.
Like him, we were helpless and unable to rescue ourselves from our sin and darkness.
We needed someone who is strong and kind to come and rescue us.
And that’s exactly what God has done for us in Christ.
13 He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of His beloved Son,
14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
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God is on a mission to seek and save the lost.
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10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”
In Jonah, there are 3 ways God reveals His mission to reach the lost:
Delivering idolatrous sailors
Saving a sinful city
Rescuing a rebellious prophet
Delivering Idolatrous Sailors
Delivering Idolatrous Sailors
3 Jonah, however, got up to flee to Tarshish, away from the presence of the LORD. He went down to Joppa and found a ship bound for Tarshish. So he paid the fare and went aboard to sail for Tarshish, away from the presence of the LORD.
4 Then the LORD hurled a great wind upon the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship was in danger of breaking apart.
5 The sailors were afraid, and each cried out to his own god. And they threw the ship’s cargo into the sea to lighten the load. But Jonah had gone down to the lowest part of the vessel, where he lay down and fell into a deep sleep.
6 The captain approached him and said, “How can you sleep? Get up and call upon your God. Perhaps this God will consider us, so that we may not perish.”
7 “Come!” said the sailors to one another. “Let us cast lots to find out who is responsible for this calamity that is upon us.” So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah.
8 “Tell us now,” they demanded, “who is to blame for this calamity that is upon us? What is your occupation, and where have you come from? What is your country, and who are your people?”
9 “I am a Hebrew,” replied Jonah. “I worship the LORD, the God of the heavens, who made the sea and the dry land.”
10 Then the men were even more afraid and said to him, “What have you done?” The men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the LORD, because he had told them.
11 Now the sea was growing worse and worse, so they said to Jonah, “What must we do to you to calm this sea for us?”
12 “Pick me up,” he answered, “and cast me into the sea, so it may quiet down for you. For I know that I am to blame for this violent storm that has come upon you.”
13 Nevertheless, the men rowed hard to get back to dry land, but they could not, for the sea was raging against them more and more.
14 So they cried out to the LORD: “Please, O LORD, do not let us perish on account of this man’s life! Do not charge us with innocent blood! For You, O LORD, have done as You pleased.”
15 At this, they picked up Jonah and cast him into the sea, and the raging sea grew calm.
16 Then the men feared the LORD greatly, and they offered a sacrifice to the LORD and made vows to Him.
We don’t know who these sailors were. Based on Jonah’s confession in v. 9 that he is a Hebrew, it seems likely that these men were not, but rather from other countries, each having their own religion and gods.
Verse 5 tells us that at the beginning of the storm, the sailors feared the storm, and they each cried out to their various gods.
5 The sailors were afraid, and each cried out to his own god. And they threw the ship’s cargo into the sea to lighten the load. But Jonah had gone down to the lowest part of the vessel, where he lay down and fell into a deep sleep.
The sailors cast lots to determine who was responsible for the storm, and in God’s providence, Jonah was selected.
7 “Come!” said the sailors to one another. “Let us cast lots to find out who is responsible for this calamity that is upon us.” So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah.
These sailors had heard about the LORD from Jonah, but Jonah was a terrible testimony for God.
Verse 10 tells us that
10 Then the men were even more afraid and said to him, “What have you done?” The men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the LORD, because he had told them.
So when Jonah tells them about the LORD in v. 9, his words clearly do not match his actions.
9 “I am a Hebrew,” replied Jonah. “I worship the LORD, the God of the heavens, who made the sea and the dry land.”
If Jonah really believes that God is the Creator and Sustainer of all things, and if he really fears and worships this God, why is he running away from God?
How often is there a mismatch between our words and actions that leaves a bad testimony in front of a watching world?
Despite Jonah’s terrible testimony, it appears the men believed his words.
Finally in v. 14, these pagan men stop calling out to their own gods and call on the LORD instead:
14 So they cried out to the LORD: “Please, O LORD, do not let us perish on account of this man’s life! Do not charge us with innocent blood! For You, O LORD, have done as You pleased.”
They plead for God’s mercy and acknowledge His sovereignty.
After they threw Jonah in and the storm stopped, they recognize that this was indeed the work of the LORD. They respond in reverence and worship.
16 Then the men feared the LORD greatly, and they offered a sacrifice to the LORD and made vows to Him.
At first they had feared the storm - now they fear the Lord, greatly.
They offered a sacrifice to the LORD to honor Him.
They made vows to the LORD.
These sailors are the first recipients of God’s rescuing mercy in Jonah. God used an unlikely vessel, His disobedient prophet Jonah, to reach these idolatrous sailors with His mercy. These sailors may not have had any other opportunity to hear about God, but God chose to extend His mercy to them and draw them to Himself.
God is on a mission to seek and save the lost.
Saving a Sinful City
Saving a Sinful City
The book of Jonah starts out with God’s message to Jonah to go preach against the sinful city of Nineveh. This is the primary focus of the book:
1 Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah son of Amittai, saying,
2 “Get up! Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before Me.”
In God’s providence, He had others to reach with His mercy before Jonah got to Nineveh, and He even used Jonah’s disobedience to reach the lost sailors.
Following Jonah’s three-day vacation at sea, God gives him His message for Nineveh again:
1 Then the word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time:
2 “Get up! Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message that I give you.”
This time, Jonah obeys. He goes and proclaims the message of God’s coming judgment against their sin:
3 This time Jonah got up and went to Nineveh, in accordance with the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, requiring a three-day journey.
4 On the first day of his journey, Jonah set out into the city and proclaimed, “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overturned!”
Many times in Scripture, though, a message of judgment was conditional on the people’s response to the message. If the people continue in their sin, judgment is coming, but if they repent, God promises mercy. Consider Jeremiah 18:7-8.
7 At any time I might announce that a nation or kingdom will be uprooted, torn down, and destroyed.
8 But if that nation I warned turns from its evil, then I will relent of the disaster I had planned to bring.
The message of the threat of destruction was the means that God used to turn the city to repentance. Notice Nineveh’s response to Jonah’s proclamation:
5 And the Ninevites believed God. They proclaimed a fast and dressed in sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least.
They believed God. This expression indicates more than just that they believed Jonah’s message or that they took him seriously. They put their trust in God. It is the same expression used in Genesis 15:6 when it says that Abraham believed the LORD and it was counted to him as righteousness. It is a personal faith and confidence in God Himself.
And they demonstrated their sorrow and repentance by putting on sackcloth and fasting.
From the greatest to the least - v. 6-8 tells us that all the way up to the king and all the way down to the animals responded with fasting and mourning, hoping for God’s mercy instead of judgment.
9 Who knows? God may turn and relent; He may turn from His fierce anger, so that we will not perish.”
While they hoped for God’s mercy, they recognized that they deserved His judgment, and they acknowledged that God was under no obligation to show them mercy.
But God did show them mercy. He did not punish them as they deserved.
10 When God saw their actions—that they had turned from their evil ways—He relented from the disaster He had threatened to bring upon them.
So the Ninevites are also recipients of God’s rescuing mercy. He sent this reluctant prophet to announce His judgment against their sin to cause them to repent and seek His mercy, and He showed them His mercy.
God is on a mission to seek and save the lost.
Have you experienced God’s rescuing mercy?
Maybe you never thought about yourself as all that bad of a person. You do a lot of good things. You’re here at church today, right? How bad could you be?
But unless you begin to see the depth of your sin and the judgment you deserve for your sin, you cannot experience or appreciate the mercy of God. Once you acknowledge and confess your sin, you are ready for His mercy.
And He is more than willing to give you His mercy and forgive your sin, and He promises to do so if you will put your trust in Him and what He has done for you in His Son, Jesus Christ.
There’s one more place we see God’s mission of displaying His rescuing mercy in this book. And that’s in the life of Jonah himself.
Rescuing a Rebellious Prophet
Rescuing a Rebellious Prophet
Jonah needed God’s mercy every bit as much as all the horrible sinners among the Ninevites and the sailors. And so do you, no matter how good you think you are. You are a sinner in need of God’s mercy and grace. And it’s available for you.
As soon as Jonah starts running from God, we see the LORD pursuing him:
3 Jonah, however, got up to flee to Tarshish, away from the presence of the LORD. He went down to Joppa and found a ship bound for Tarshish. So he paid the fare and went aboard to sail for Tarshish, away from the presence of the LORD.
4 Then the LORD hurled a great wind upon the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship was in danger of breaking apart.
In His mercy and love, God did not let Jonah just go his own way. God was pursuing him.
Through this storm that He sent, God got the attention of Jonah and the sailors.
When Jonah was thrown into the sea, God didn’t let him die there:
17 Now the LORD had appointed a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah spent three days and three nights in the belly of the fish.
6 To the roots of the mountains I descended; the earth beneath me barred me in forever! But You raised my life from the pit, O LORD my God!
God preserved Jonah’s life and set him going back in the right direction. He gave Jonah a do over. A second opportunity. Mercy.
10 And the LORD commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.
1 Then the word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time:
In chapter 4 we see Jonah’s angry response to Nineveh’s repentance and God’s mercy toward them. But God doesn’t leave Jonah alone, sulking in his anger and frustration. God continues to pursue this rebellious prophet:
3 And now, O LORD, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.”
4 But the LORD replied, “Have you any right to be angry?”
God teaches him a lesson using a plant, a worm, and a scorching east wind to demonstrate God’s sovereignty and kindness. Even when Jonah persists in his anger, God continues pursuing him:
9 Then God asked Jonah, “Have you any right to be angry about the plant?” “I do,” he replied. “I am angry enough to die!”
10 But the LORD said, “You cared about the plant, which you neither tended nor made grow. It sprang up in a night and perished in a night.
11 So should I not care about the great city of Nineveh, which has more than 120,000 people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well?”
The book ends with a question, unresolved. But it would seem that God’s mercy took a hold of Jonah, since he is likely the one who wrote down this story for us.
God is on a mission to seek and save the lost.
The book of Jonah reveals to us the compassionate heart of our God and His loving pursuit of sinners to draw them to Himself. Everyone in this book needed God’s mercy, and His mercy was more than enough for all of them. It’s enough for all of us today too.
We’ll end this message with another story, this one from Jesus:
11 Then Jesus said, “There was a man who had two sons.
12 The younger son said to him, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them.
13 After a few days, the younger son got everything together and journeyed to a distant country, where he squandered his wealth in wild living.
14 After he had spent all he had, a severe famine swept through that country, and he began to be in need.
15 So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed the pigs.
16 He longed to fill his belly with the pods the pigs were eating, but no one would give him a thing.
17 Finally he came to his senses and said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have plenty of food? But here I am, starving to death!
18 I will get up and go back to my father and say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.
19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants.” ’
20 So he got up and went to his father. But while he was still in the distance, his father saw him and was filled with compassion. He ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him.
21 The son declared, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’
22 But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet.
23 Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let us feast and celebrate.
24 For this son of mine was dead and is alive again! He was lost and is found!’ So they began to celebrate.
25 Meanwhile the older son was in the field, and as he approached the house, he heard music and dancing.
26 So he called one of the servants and asked what was going on.
27 ‘Your brother has returned,’ he said, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf, because he has him back safe and sound.’
28 The older son became angry and refused to go in. So his father came out and pleaded with him.
29 But he answered his father, ‘Look, all these years I have served you and never disobeyed a commandment of yours. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends.
30 But when this son of yours returns from squandering your wealth with prostitutes, you kill the fattened calf for him!’
31 ‘Son, you are always with me,’ the father said, ‘and all that is mine is yours.
32 But it was fitting to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ ”
God is on a mission to seek and save the lost.
Application:
Receive God’s Rescuing Mercy
Proclaim God’s Rescuing Mercy
For further study and application:
What is God’s Mission? How is it revealed in the book of Jonah? How is it revealed more fully in the New Testament?
What part does God want you to have in His Mission? What are practical ways you can live in line with His Mission?
How has God displayed His rescuing mercy in your life? Take time now to thank God and praise Him for His mercy (Rom 15:9)!