JONAH: Book Overview

 Book Overview Jonah 1:1 Today is an exciting day - we’re back in the saddle, and into the book of Jonah. Before we came here after our studies through 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, and Romans as we studied to know what God is like and what that means to us in our daily lives we turned here to the Old Testament book of Jonah a minor prophet. Why? In short, we need to be compelled to live out what we’ve seen; we need to know our God better. We need to see Him as miraculous and gracious. As sovereign and loving. As demanding, yet giving - we need to be astounded by God, and then compelled to his presence we need a sign in a world of distraction. And as we did so, we took a mini series as we “walked with Jesus” and I want to tell you why. Jesus is the God man, God in the flesh. Want to know God’s character - look at Jesus’ life lived in the world. Jesus is the alpha and omega, the beginning and the end, the word of God who was with God at creation and for whom all things were made (John 1:1-4). Jesus as the God-man, give’s us a unique perspective. We read about being overtaken by alcohol as a sin, then we see Jesus bringing wine to the party, we see the law of God telling us that murder is sin - then we see Jesus essentially showing us everyone has the thread of the guilt of murder in their hearts (Matthew 5) Jesus the God-man is a literally a miraculous balance of the grace and mercy of God, and miraculousness leaves us uncomfortable, we want it. In the same breath we don’t want to recognize it. We want everything to be naturalistically explained away - but I hope we’ll see in the book of Jonah as we gaze at God not men or fish, that even the natural, isn’t - it’s a façade that we’re supposed to see the awe-demanding power of God within, so today we’ll see a sign. And so while we often turn to the Old Testament and learn of God’s holiness and high-character, which is immensely important, this side of the cross we can feel confused because we’re so focused on God’s grace in Christ. And so we walked with Jesus to get a better picture of holiness dripping with Grace in the person of Christ to prepare us for Jonah, our sign - that God will transform even the hardest of hearts. So God sends Jonah to Assyrians: They dismembered enemy soldiers, cutting off their nose and ears and gouging out their eyes while still alive, before finally beheading the soldiers and placing the severed heads on sharpened stakes around the walls of the captured city. Those who were kept alive did not fare much better. Their lower lips were pierced with fishhooks on lines, and they were led back to Nineveh where they were then tortured and killed or sold as slaves. Jonah is a book, not about fish, but with fish in it. A book, not about worms, but with worms in it. And a book, not about you, but with implications for you in it. I pray we’ll have a God-centered view of the book of Jonah when we’re finished and that we’ll see more clearly the meaning of the Grace of Christ that we’d be ready to bring it to all the world. What will we do with the book of Jonah; it’s radical? It takes a prophet and sends him to his worst deepest enemy - to bring grace and love. Church can we handle that? Can we find balance for that in a world of war? Jonah is a sign - will we see it or be captivated by whales and worms. First some history around Jonah: Jonah is an historical book. This is to say it starts off with a clue of its historicity in: Jonah 1:1 (ESV) 1 Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, A few things here, if this was to be interpreted as a parable, we’d have a difficult time addressing the fact that Jonah is presented in the beginning as an historical person. Also, if this was to be allegory/parabolic the allegorical/parabolic language is missing. We don’t see phrases such as: “Jonah was like” etc. Rather Jonah is attributed to figures from the historical record and to historical places. There is a documentary on YouTube called “The Bible Vs. The Book of Mormon” (you can find the entire film on YouTube freely available. This movie is a great look at the question “Is my faith based on something historical”. These questions are important. Knowing that the record of the Bible stands in accordance with reality is a faith building exercise - and so too is knowing that Jonah isn’t a fanciful story, but rather is a picture that we can rely on of God. And that’s at the heart of the book of Jonah - God and His character. However, we have to ask the question, “why”? Why that big fish everyone is captivated by? Why grow a plant and kill it with a worm? Because - Israel needed to see God’s grace and mercy demonstrated outside themselves. They’d had a long period of relative peace, and rather than allow them to build up, and grow their faith, study up and get prayed up to grow the kingdom of God - they did what we all do it times of mercy, and peace, and blessing - they god lazy, and religious, and forgot God’s goodness, and so they need this. Why tell the story of Jonah to paint a picture of God’s character, and grace and mercy and total sovereignty? I used to joke with Drew because one time he wrote “make God more robustly sovereign” and that may sound cool but it means absolutely nothing - Sovereignty is or isn’t there are no degrees. Once there is a step down from less than sovereign the word sovereign no longer applies. So this book about God’s sovereignty - why tell it through Jonah and why involve historical facts, why tell of Jonah’s father, and see references to their kinship and actual land in 2 Kings 13:14-21 or again of the land of Jonah’s family in Joshua 19:10-13? Why would Jesus point back to it and say you’ll get no sign other than Jonah in Matthew 12:39-40 who was in the belly of a fish as a sign, the men of Nineveh Church - I think we could find some fuel here for ourselves rather than simply being captivated by whales and worms. I firmly believe this is true in every generation (and I’m not talking about birth year ranges millennial V / GenX / Boomers and being ignorant enough to think we’re better/worse because of 30 years spread between us) but I mean total planet population shifts over not decades but Centuries, of claiming to be wiser than previous generations. Romans 1:22 (ESV) 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, Do you see it, day in and day out, people claiming to be wise but exposing their foolishness? Jonah is a sign to us who are inherently wise, will we see the sign or be mesmerized by whales and worms? Turn with me in your Bibles guys, we need to be reminded of this often: Genesis 1:1 Genesis 1:1 (ESV) 1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Do you believe that? Or do you believe that there was nothingness and when enough time passes nothing becomes something. That there is consistently in the universe (though what’s a universe when there is nothing) to allow for explosions, that elements (though what’s an element) that can react to changes in state of other elements - (though what’s a consistent state) of nothing comes nothing -but God. But God created all things - and when we can settle that, when we can get past our first world spoiled bratisms where we think we know better but expose our foolishness through our wisdom, then we can truly turn to a sovereign God, and see his mercy, and grace, and love - and be excited again. I think the book of Jonah was to drive excitement for God - and I don’t mean giddy childish excitement like the feeling of joy in knowing you’ll get elephant ears and cotton candy from the fair, rather I mean the joy of learning to see the sovereign, infinitely powerful God of the universe and of all creation - and then knowing His grace is available and wholly sufficient. This is the point of Jonah. Jonah is a sign - will we see it or be captivated by whales and worms. The God of Genesis 1:1, displays His great grace and mercy in life, through Jonah which he’s able to do through miraculous means, because he's the creator God, y’all. We either believe that or we don’t but we don’t have to explain away the miracle through naturalistic means - he created the “natural world” in fact the world we live in is super natural, it’s a creation - all designed to sustain our lives, to give us oxygen in a universe deplete of oxygen while we stay stuck to a globe that’s spinning and should hurl us off - but rather it sucks us in through gravity (which we’re OK to describe away as natural) it’s not narwhal it’s God’s power, and we need to see his power and be reassured that we’re not that wise, we’re but fools, and we need to look to him, and his character and Jonah helps us do that - when we don't get distracted by the whale/fish. So I pray you’ll read Jonah this week - it’s literally 4 chapters long. I pray you’ll consider the history of Jonah and let me make a few points to be helpful as you read it because this shows the sovereignty of God, but it’s subtext takes it another place: Jonah is the ONLY book that describes a heathen city, makes no mention of Israel. This is a book of paradox, because God and his grace and mercy and character seem paradoxical against our own. Jonah is a prophet but a runaway from God, a man drowned and eaten but alive, a preacher of repentance, yet angry at others repentance, but - solely because of God Jonah was saved from death on repentance, a beacon of hope for Nineveh though it’d be destroyed not long after, this makes the patients and pity of God drive a hot iron into the icy hearts of men. What then should this study do for us; it should put on display for us to see the sign. Jesus was asked for signs all the time - lets see him respond to a sign request we referenced earlier in Matthew 12: Matthew 12:38–40 The Sign of Jonah 38 Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered him, saying, “Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.” 39 But he answered them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. 40 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. Guys - we’re so close to this life, the miracle of it all is lost on us. We’re so busy with school deadlines and books to read in balance with a social life. Which prepares us for a life of work, balancing demands of meetings, clients, deadlines - calendaring that we miss out on the sign of life that is its self-miraculous. Church I pray we’d take in deeply the miracle of life and existence of a planet that sucks us in rather than slinging us out - that we’d be appropriately blown away by that. Then we’d see what Jonah is intended to show, the character and nature of our God. Is total sovereignty (which is just actual unencumbered sovereignty) over all creation? In that picture we can more accurately see his mercy and grace both through Jonah, but now in Christ, we can be blown away - and positioned as ambassadors of that message - God is holy and good. He is judge and the center of all mercy. And so as we together see Jonah is a sign and takes it as such rather than being captivated by whales and worms, then we’re ready to approach Jesus’ table of common union. All peoples of all nations - made one with God because of Him, Jesus - the fulfillment of the sign of Jonah - that one would conquer death, bringing a message of repentance to even the worst of hearts and souls - to children who don’t know their left the God of all creation has grace and so we celebrate as we see the sign. JONAH: Book Overview Pastor John Weathersby Transcend Church 5 of 5 Sunday 9/3/2017