Jonah 1
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(Rough Draft)
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Big Idea - God calls me to share the Gospel with everyone … Denying someone the Gospel is wrong.
Intro Story -
About 15 years ago I had the privilege of leading a group 35 students and leaders on a mission trip to the slums of Brazil.
A mom and a dad sent their 13 year old son on that trip without them.
There were a lot of great spiritual happenings on that trip that shaped lives for God.
There were a lot of great spiritual happenings on that trip that shaped lives for God.
One of them came late one morning when I was at the ministry center in a Brazilian slum.
This boy named Taylor Ramsey - who helped lead us in worship today was on the trip with us. He was around 13 years old at the time. He came on the trip without his mom or dad.
They either really trusted the leadership or they really wanted him out of their hair.
Taylor Ramsey 13 years old sharing the Gospel in the slums of Brazil. A little Portuguese speaking boy rides up on his beat up bike. A couple leaders saw that Brazilian boy, looked at Taylor and said, take a translator and go share Jesus with that boy. Long story short - Taylor was scared to death. Never had shared Jesus before. That day Taylor shared Jesus with that boy and it changed Taylor’s life.
A little Portuguese speaking boy rides up on his beat up bike to the curb outside the community center and looks interested in what is going on.
I was outside with another leader and Taylor when the boy rolled up. One of our leaders saw that Brazilian boy, looked at Taylor and said, take a translator and go share Jesus with that boy.
Long story short - Taylor was scared to death. Never had shared Jesus before. That day Taylor shared Jesus with that boy and it changed Taylor’s life.
I’ll never forget it. Taylor will never forget it.
Transition: That leads us into our first point today.
I. God calls me to take Gospel action in others lives. (God calls me to verbally proclaim Him in others lives.)
God calls a prophet named Jonah to proclaim Him.
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.”
A. the Word of the Lord came to Jonah. This was a voice of authority, there is no other voice more authoritative. This was the greatest voice of all.
I want you to hang on to this idea that God’s voice is the greatest of all. It is the most important to be listened to. It is the voice of greatest authority.
What does this voice of authority tell Jonah to do?
B. Arise and Go
, “Arise, and go to Nineveh, that great city ...”
Arise and Go
Arise and Go
This was a Gospel call that we will unpack later today.
We know where we get our Gospel call.
, Go make disciples of all nations
This is a call not only to do local missions (and yes we do local missions), but to go to foreign places to do missions. To all nations.
Would you allow me to challenge your rural sensibilities?
One of the wonderful values of a rural community is to look after each other and to keep each other safe.
One of the things that attracts you to put down roots in Louisville and Jefferson County is that people look after each other and keep each other safe.
In fact I would say that this is a strength of the community.
but, Did you know your greatest weaknesses are our strengths overdone.
Let me give an example-
A person who can speak with great clarity can occasionally say too much or speak when it is unnecessary or offensive.
Their strength overdone becomes a weakness.
An intense and focused person can get overly intense and struggle with anger.
Their strength overdone becomes a weakness.
Strengths overdone become weaknesses.
Slowly - A community that values the safety of its members can overdue this value and it can become a weakness.
The Gospel going out to new places and new people involves risk.
Risk in relationships, risk in being misunderstood, risk in money spent, risk in travel to a place that is unknown or unsafe.
We know this, 11 of the 12 disciples died for their faith.
Jesus didn’t play it safe - when He went to the cross.
When we take the Gospel into others lives there will always be risk.
Someone took a risk and
Earlier I asked you to pay attention to verse 1
“the word of the Lord came to Jonah.”
We said it was the most authoritative voice one could ever hear.
This voice of authority Jonah had to follow.
It was God’s voice, Jonah had no choice.
With that same authoritative voice - voice that is no different...
God tells us as individuals and us as a church to Go.
Go and make disciples.
To not Go with the Gospel into others lives - to make disciples is disobedience.
God says go.
The value of the Gospel going out must never ever
The voice of the Lord has competition with the Louisville/Jefferson County cultural voice that says - don’t go anywhere play it safe.
You may ask the question.
As much of we value the deep south and a beautiful place like this county and city - the lie that we are told in this at home culture that we live, to play it safe, must be fought against or we will be a Jonah.
Why can’t “The Go” be local missions - Jefferson county?
Yes - sometimes it is, It must start with local missions.
No one would ever deny that.
In fact missions and discipleship starts in your family, at your school, on your ball team, at your work.
4 different accounts of the great Commissions to do missions in the Gospels and Acts.
2 of the 4 speak to doing local missions.
The other 2 of the 4 of these great Commissions, ignore local missions all together.
All 4 speak of doing missions to the nations.
Here is what we see.
The bible commands local missions.
The greatest emphasis is on going out beyond our local environment to do missions.
-In the Bible, the emphasis of the Great Commission is 1st on foreign missions and second on local missions.
God calls all of us on a Gospel mission to share the Gospel with others.
I want you to hang on to 1 word. “Opportunity”???? Maybe remove
Transition, God called Jonah to a foreign Mission, but why? because ...
-Yes, to those you know.
-Also, yes to people who are different than you.
II. God’s mercy is GREAT
2 “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me.”
, Call out against it or Preach against it.
The wickedness of Ninevah had become know to God
What evil? What wickedness? A lot of evil.
The Ninevites did not at all follow the God of the Bible.
T
The Ninevites were evil people.
-All kinds of sorcery & witchcraft in Nineveh and ancient Assyria.
-The Ninevites were a very superstitious people.
-The rulers of Assyria were terribly cruel.
-They boasted of their cruelty on monuments that exist in museums to this day.
The New American Commentary: Amos, Obadiah, Jonah 1. God’s Instruction and the Prophet’s Flight (1:1–3)
First, God calls people to his service. Here Jonah is called to preach to a foreign city, Nineveh. Second, God cares enough about sinners to send a word of hope, love, and grace. Finally, implied here and told later in the story, no one can run from God. “You hem me in—behind and before; you have laid your hand upon me” (Ps 139:5). And certainly if our misdeeds are never hidden from him, so also are our needs ever before him (cf. Isa 40:27).
They would cut off the heads of their enemies and like a skewer with 12 marshmallows on it, they would place the heads on a pole and drive that pole into the ground for the many who would walk past to see their cruelty.
Skin their enemies alive and tack the human skins on the walls of conquered cities to warn their enemies that they were not to be challenged.
Burned alive those captured in war - thousands at time, even children
Cut off limbs, hands, fingers, noses, lips, ears, private parts & gouge eyes.
Cut open their enemies alive and spill out their organs.
Brutal people - Many hated them.
, Tells us the Ninevites did not know right from wrong.
While all sin is abhorrent to God, in some instances a specific group of people had become so wicked that God issued a special call of localized judgment.
This was the case for the Assyrians in Nenevah.
Jonah was called to bring the call of this localized judgement.
Here is where God’s GREAT mercy enters the picture.
I want you to get excited about this,
This judgement of God is the first half of the Good News. Without the bad news you don’t have good news.
God hates sin, judges sin, and condemns all sinners to eternal punishment.
Without God intervening in our life every single one of use would be condemned to God’s eternal judgment in hell.
This the first half of the first part of the Good News.
Before you were saved someone shared with you the Bad News.
This bad news is something that we all shy away from sharing because it is so difficult for someone to hear, and so painful for us to think about.
If you are going to become strong at sharing your faith, you have to be willing to share the Bad News.
It is a loving God that tells the bad news.
It is a loving person who tells the bad news.
If God did not care about the Ninevites, he would have told them nothing and sent them to an eternity in hell. They wouldn’t know anything was wrong with their way of life.
But instead - God’s mercy is Great!
He told Jonah to go to this awful people and share the bad news.
Why? GOD’s MERCY IS GREAT!!!
This is the intro into point 3
They were well known in the ancient world for brutality and cruelty. Ashurbanipal, the grandson of Sennacherib, was accustomed to tearing off the lips and hands of his victims. Tiglath-Pileser flayed victims alive and made great piles of their skulls. Jonah’s reluctance to travel to Nineveh may have been due to its infamous violence.
Woe to the bloody city! In his prophetic vision, Nahum took a tour of the city of Nineveh and observed how ripe it was for judgment. He saw it was a busy city, full of the noise of a whip and the noise of rattling wheels, of galloping horses, of clattering chariots. Yet it was busy with violence, deception, and idolatry.
This was the kind of nation that people hated.
“I cut off their heads and formed them into pillars.”
· “I cut off their heads and formed them into pillars.”
Skin enemies and tack the skins on the walls of conquered cities.
Burned alive those captured thousands at time, even children
Cut off limbs, hands, fingers, noses, lips, ears, private parts & gouge eyes.
Open up enemies and spill out their organs.
Brutal people - Many hated them.
, Tells us the Ninevites did not know right from wrong.
This was the kind of nation that people hated.
Jonah disliked this kind of people the point of holding back God’s Word to them.
It is most likely
-We know that racism is thrown around a lot.
Question - When we talk about sharing the Gospel with all people, is there a kind of people you pull back from wanting to share the Gospel with?
Racism is - disliking or acting against a people
-Some of us would be willing to go on a Missions Trip to the poor people of Europe and find people who look like us to share the Gospel with.
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-If I asked you to help with a VBS for kids who live on East 5th street in Louisville you wouldn’t do it.
Why? There is a disgust for certain kinds of people.
3. I must embrace the call of God to share the Gospel with others.
Pile corpses up into mounds
· “Bubo, son of Buba, I flayed in the city of Arbela and I spread his skin upon the city wall.”
I must embrace the call of God to share the Gospel with others.
Our temptation is to follow the path of Jonah and run from the authoritative command of God.
Example - As Conservatives we embrace and insist on God’s commands when it comes to issues like sex outside of marriage or gay relationships.
· “I flayed all the chief men who had revolted, and I covered the pillar with their skins.”
We get passionate about these kinds of commands.
When it comes to the command to share the Gospel, that offers a sinner the opportunity to receive Christ and escape eternal judgement, we ignore the authority of God to command our life.
Transition - and Jonah not only ignored God, but willing tried to run from God.
Jonah Fled from the Presence of the Lord.
· “Many within the border of my own land I flayed, and spread their skins upon the walls.”
They were well known in the ancient world for brutality and cruelty. Ashurbanipal, the grandson of Sennacherib, was accustomed to tearing off the lips and hands of his victims. Tiglath-Pileser flayed victims alive and made great piles of their skulls. Jonah’s reluctance to travel to Nineveh may have been due to its infamous violence.12
3. Jonah Fled from the Presence of the Lord.
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.
· “I cut off the limbs of the officers, the royal officers who had rebelled.”
· “3,000 captives I burned with fire.”
· “Their corpses I formed into pillars.”
What was Jonah’s motivation?
· “From son I cut off their hands and their fingers, and from other I cut off their noses, their ears, and their fingers, of many I put out their eyes.”
· “I made one pillar of the living, and another of heads, I bound their heads to posts round about the city.”3. Jonah Fled from the Presence of the Lord.
Maybe out of fear of his own life. That the Ninevites might torture him.
Maybe he thought the Ninevites/Assyrians didn’t deserve the bad news that leads to good news because of how they had treated other people.
-Most importantly verse 2 tells us that he ran because he didn’t want the people to be saved. They didn’t deserve it.
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.
Jonahn
-Jonah rejects the call of God and runs hard the other way.
How hard? He got in a boat for Spain.
We believe this city named Tarshish was in Spain.
A boat ride from Israel to Spain is about 2,300 miles in a small boat with no radar or life raft on the Mediterranean sea - that is known to be stormy.
Jonah really didn’t want to obey God.
Jonah did not want the Ninevites to be saved by God.
I have 2 friends I found out recently that were sexually abused as children over 100 times by the same man. I know of that man. He died prematurely in an accident. I know for a fact that man wasn’t a Christian. I know he is in hell right now.
There was a time in my life I was happy for that. I didn’t want this man to be saved. I wanted him to burn in hell forever.
My sinful attitude was - He hurt 2 people I care about. He devastated their lives. He deserves to not get the Gospel.
You know that best way to insure that someone doesn’t get the Gospel? Be silent.
God calls me to share the Gospel with everyone.
4. God pursues Jonah in his disobedience???
Story tell
Jonah get on this boat going to Spain (city of Tarshish)
-”away from the presence of the Lord” verse 3
-When the boat was in deep water a tempest (hard storm strikes)
-Everyone feared for their lives, were praying to their gods and throwing cargo off the ship to lighten the boat.
-When you are throwing your cargo away, you think you are going to die.
-The superstitious crew rolled dice to figure out who on the ship was the reason for the deadly storm - and the dye fell on Jonah.
-They became even more afraid when they learned who Jonah’s great God was.
8 Then they said to him, “Tell us on whose account this evil has come upon us. What is your occupation? And where do you come from? What is your country? And of what people are you?” 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.” 10 Then the men were exceedingly afraid and said to him, “What is this that you have done!” For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the Lord, because he had told them.
Jonah 1:8-
-He begged them to throw him into the ocean, they wouldn’t
-Storm got ever worse - finally they threw Him in.
-Storm immediatley stopped.
- Bible tell us that Jonah was swallowed by a huge fish.
-Look at the response of the sailors in verse 16.
-When the sailors saw that the storm stoped with Jonah was thrown overboard.
16 Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows.
-The men of the ship responded to the God of the Bible.
-God brings himself glory, even in the chaos.
-Even in Jonah’s disobedience God proved to these men that He is the Savior from judgement. God was even able to use Jonah’s disobedience to declare a Gospel message to the sailers.
Transition - In God’s great wisdom and love, God pursues Jonah. He doesn not give up on Him.
4. God pursues me in my disobedience
God pursues Jonah in his disobedience of silence and running.
God loved Jonah so much that he would not let Jonah ignore the call he placed on his life.
God has placed on your life the call to share Jesus with others.
There are some in this room today that God is pursuing.
Maybe you are the person who knows they should share the Gospel with others, but doesn’t know who.
-Would you pray for God to give you 2 names.
-There are some in this room that God has given you a name.
-In fact you have seen that persons face in your mind several times during our sermon.
-Ask God to give you an opportunity and for you to take it to share how Christ has changed your life.
-There are some in here that can identify with the Ninevites. Not because you torture people, but because you need to respond to the call of God for forgiveness of your sin.
-God pursues both Christ follower and the unbeliever in their disobedience.
If you have not come to faith in Jesus, trusting Him as the one who has paid for your sins on the Cross would you say Yes to Him today?
Pray -
What disobedience is God pursuing me in?
Not sharing the Gospel with those around me.
Not going on mission when God has opened the door.
Sometimes our sin is not a sin of commission, but omission.
Jonah ran from the sinners who needed God.
Jesus ran to the Cross
Mention that hearts can change. Who you shared with one time may not be the same person in their heart.