The Call of God and the People of God

Jonah 1:1-16

My desire is for you to live in faithful obedience to Christ as you keep your eyes set on Him.

The word of the LORD came to Jonah

Go to Nineveh

Exceedingly wicked

Major Assyrian city, which makes it a major enemy city

He knew what the call on God was for his life

God spoke to Him and instructed him

We also have a word from God

One of the most common questions asked by Christians

What is the will of God for me?

The answer is found only one place:

God has spoken to us through His Word and that is all we need

We do not need for Him to write His will in the clouds

We do not need special revelations or signs or dreams

We don’t need to know what is going to happen in the future

We need to know what He has said in His Word

2 Timothy 3:16-17- All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

Perhaps the reason that so many Christians feel like they don’t know the will of God is because they don’t give themselves to serious and extended time in the Word of God

As we know more clearly what He has said and commanded, as we meditate on it day and night, and as we begin to filter everything through the lens of the Bible, then He will give light to our path

Psalm 119:105- Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.

What has He commanded for us to do?

Love the Lord your God

Love your neighbor

Go and make disciples of all nations

Even those who hate us and those who we resent

Jonah flees from the LORD

“Presence of the LORD”

He knows that He cannot escape the presence of God as the omnipresent God

Verse 9 testifies to this

He was fleeing from the people of Israel where the temple was in the hopes that he would escape God’s call

He runs in the opposite direction

Nineveh is east of Israel and Tarshish, although the location is not precisely known, was west of Israel

Are you fleeing from the command of God?

Do you use your time and resources and life to honor God?

Are you pursuing a life of holiness, purity, and godliness?

Do you sacrificially love others with a heart of love and compassion?

Are you actively engaging with unbelievers with the gospel?

If you neglect these things, then you are fleeing from the command of God

But the LORD…

God does not simply passively stand by and watch

This kind of thinking is not Christian

He sends a storm

It’s so bad that these seasoned sailors become completely unnerved

He sends a large fish to swallow Jonah

Some people have criticized this book as a fable or at least figurative because of this part of the story

A few weeks ago, off the coast of Massachusetts, a diver was swallowed up by a whale

We did not need this to happen to believe the book of Jonah, but it simply points u back to the trustworthiness of the Bible

The discipline of God

This was the correcting discipline of God toward Jonah

God also disciplines us when we wander or rebel

Hebrews 12:9-11- we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

It’s for our good and His glory

The plan and providence of God

The lot that was cast did not fall on Jonah by chance

Proverbs 16:33- The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord.

Jesus’ interpretation of this event reveals that it was ordained by God as a sign

Matthew 12:28-40- Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered him, saying, “Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.” 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. 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.

The book of Jonah is not simply a cute children’s story that we tell so that our children will know Bible stories

The story of Jonah is a huge blinking light pointing to the One who is at the center of it all

What ought Jonah chapter 1 mean for us?

We ought to seek God in His Word

We ought to joyfully submit to the instruction and commands of God

We ought to repent of any place in our lives in which we are rebelling against His instruction and commands

We ought to have our hearts recalibrated so that Jesus is the center of our lives

May you live in faithful obedience to Christ as you keep your eyes set on Him.