1. Running From Life
Notes
Transcript
Welcome to Iowa City Church, I’m so glad that you are here today, both in person and online! Today we launch a brand new sermon series called Jonah, The Story of You.
I know exactly what you are thinking! Jonah? What can we possibly learn from a guy who was swallowed by a whale? Am I right?
That is exactly why we need to spend five Sundays and even more studying Jonah! Most, if not all of us have been greatly influenced by children’s books and talking vegetables when it comes to stories like Jonah…which is really unfortunate. Let me show you what I’m talking about.
Here are a few pictures of kid’s books about Jonah. You have Jonah and the Whale. There’s Jonah and the Big Fish. Here’s one with Jonah being depicted as a little kid being swallowed by a fish. Can I just say that growing up, between Jaws and Jonah, I never wanted to go into deep water. I was terrified of being eaten. This last picture is from the VeggieTales movie that was released in theatres about Jonah. It was a big deal, and many people learned about Jonah from a talking cucumber! Needless to say, when people talk about Jonah all they think about is a fish…or whale…or something swallowing Jonah.
I never really appreciated Jonah until this last year I did a deep dive into what Jonah is all about. As many of you might know, I’m a huge fan of Bible Project. One the the main teachers in Bible Project is this guy Dr. Tim Mackey. He did a class for Bible geeks on Jonah and I was greatly impacted by what I discovered. So a lot of his class and sermons are going to spill into this series, just because of the in depth research he has put into the book of Jonah.
But what really came to the surface was how amazing the Bible is. It’s so creative and superbly written. The authors of the Bible were literary geniuses, but it takes work and commitment to really appreciate all that the Bible has to give us.
Let me share with three outcomes of devoting yourself to not only studying the Bible, and in this specific case, Jonah.
1. What the Bible does, and this is especially true Jonah, is that it exposes us. It reveals our weaknesses, lack of faith and areas where we need to trust God. I’m just telling you up front, each week we are all going to get a gut punch because that is what Jonah is supposed to do. It’s supposed to reveal our weakness so that we can change. As we work through Jonah, it will be like looking in the mirror because we all have many of the same traits and characteristics as Jonah.
2. Studying the Bible, and in this case Jonah, is going to point us to Jesus. That is the point of Scripture. In fact, Jesus is himself a fan of Jonah, referring to Jonah on multiple occasions during his ministry.
Here’s a third outcome.
3. Studying the Bible, and specifically in this case, Jonah leads us to true life. Life, the best life, isn’t that what we want? We spend so much of our time trying to figure it out. What we are going to see today, and what I want you to wrestle with throughout this series is this question: Is following Jesus, wherever he leads, the best way to live life?
Let’s begin to unpack that question by taking a look Jonah! If you have a Bible or device open to Jonah. If you are using the YouVersion Bible app, go to Events, then look for Iowa City Church and all of the sermon notes and Scriptures will be right there on your device.
The word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai:
This opening phrase, “The word of the LORD” gives us the major clue as to what kind of person Jonah is…he’s a prophet. Jonah falls into the category referred to as the minor prophets. In fact, if you were to turn ahead a few pages to Micah 1, you will see that it starts in almost the same exact way. Here is what is different about Jonah as a minor prophet, and all of the other books of minor prophets. Prophets were not exclusively these people who had visions of the future. Almost all of the writings of the prophets were people who were acting as the mouth piece of God to his people. So if you were to read through the prophet Micah you would have Micah, writing on behalf of God to Israel.
Jonah as a book is completely different, in fact there is no other book in the entire Bible quite like Jonah. Jonah is a narrative about the life of the prophet himself. We know Jonah really lived. Not only did Jesus refer to him, but he also shows up in 2 Kings 14. The truth is, we aren’t for sure who wrote Jonah. It could have been Jonah. It could have been someone else taking Jonah’s escapade and turning it into an amazing parable to teach us about who God is and who we are as people.
One last thing. “Jonah, son of Amittai”. Translated that means, dove of faithfulness. So, dove is supposed to make one think of peace, innocence, and purity. Son of faithfulness or trustworthiness. That’s the image we pick up from this opening line. However, as we are about to find out, this man of God, this prophet, of peace and faithfulness is unfaithful. Disobedient and angry. He wants his enemies to be destroyed. This is the amazing irony of this book. The good guy, is really the bad guy. And the people who would be labeled bad guys, repent and turn to God in worship. It’s truly an upside down book.
So here is the connection. We can carry the title or the label of pastor, Christian, or believer in God…but if we are not faithful to him we are just as bad as an unbeliever. Do you see how this is like looking in the mirror?
Let’s keep reading.
“Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.”
So as a prophet, God wants Jonah to go to Nineveh and be God’s “mouth piece” and tell the people of Nineveh to repent because of their wickedness. God cares about what is happening in Nineveh and he wants to help them turn things around.
Nineveh was the ancient capital city of the Assyrian empire. The Assyrians will eventually come and wipe out the northern 10 tribes of Israel, because Isreal has been acting wickedly for hundreds of years. The Assyrians were a brutal people for sure, violent and bloody, especially to those they conquered.
So the question is this: Does God care about the Ninevites? He does. Does Jonah care about the Ninevites? Let’s keep reading.
But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the Lord.
Jonah wants nothing to do with the Ninevites nor God’s gracious call for the Ninevites to repent…so Jonah runs from God. Let me give you a humorous picture of what is going on with this verse.
Show Picture of Tarshish.
Here is where Nineveh is located. Here is where Tarshish is believed to be. We don’t know the exact location but here is where it’s believed to be. The point is that Jonah is booking it for the farthest known location in the world. He’s running to the edge of the world to get away from God, the author tells us this fact twice.
So why is he running? Well, he most defiantly is afraid…right? These Assyrians are violent, bloody people. They most certainly kill him. It’s kind of like God calling one of us to go North Korea and declare that Kim Jong Un isn’t god. Or go tell the Taliban to repent and turn to God. That has to be the reason, right? However, it’s not. Jonah literally gives the reason for why he runs in chapter four.
After he goes to Nineveh and preaches, the people repent. Here is how Jonah responds.
But to Jonah this seemed very wrong, and he became angry. He prayed to the Lord, “Isn’t this what I said, Lord, when I was still at home? That is what I tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity. Now, Lord, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live.”
Jonah knows who God is, he knows how gracious and compassionate he is…and he wants nothing to do with it! In fact Jonah would rather die then be a part of God’s compassion and abounding love.
So what’s going on here? It really comes down to obedience. Yes, that terrible word. I think for most people obedience got a bad rap in those rebellious teenage years. The adults in charge don’t know anything, and as teenagers we knew what life and fun was all about. True life and fun is all about rebellion and defining life on your own terms. That’s why God is often looked at as the great kill joy in the sky. The one who takes away fun. The one who doesn’t really know about life.
However, the opposite is the truth. Obedience to God is life.
I remember when I was doing youth and family ministry many years ago. We had some close friends in the church who had three kids who were elementary age. The middle child was named Danny and he was about four years old and he wouldn’t listen to his parents for anything. If they said be quite, he would talk louder. If they said come here he would run away. One day after church, we were all together leaving the restaurant, which was located by a busy street. As we all walked out the doors Danny gets a head of steam and he is headed out the doors right into the busy street. His parents are yelling at him to stop. I’m seeing this whole thing unfold right in front of me and it’s not looking good.
Who wants nothing but good for Danny? His mom and dad! They want him to have the best life possible! What does Danny think about his parents? Oh, they are raining on my parade! They are ruining my life! Does this sound familiar to anyone? Any parent? Now in the story, at the last second, I reach out and grab Danny by the back of his shirt until his parents can get there…and of course I’m the bad guy for Danny. I remember telling Suzi later that this kid is going to kill himself. He was literally running from life to death. The good news is that Danny is alive and doing well as a great husband and father, and he completely understands obedience now!
Jonah thought that he knew how best to live his life as a prophet. It definitely didn’t include going to Nineveh. The truth is, Jonah would have rather died then consider being obedient to God. What we see is Jonah running to find his life, but in reality…Jonah is running from life.
So here’s a question: Are you running from life?
Remember how we opened this morning? I said that Scripture points us to life…points us to Jesus. Obedience to Jesus brings us life…now and forever. Here are a couple of examples.
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.
Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
How did Jesus become the way, the truth and the life? He lived as the perfect human, and was obedient to his father. Through his obedience, we have life.
So here is what we all have to consider is that am I willing to settle and pursue my definition of life or am I willing to be obedient to Jesus. I know that for a lot of Christians there is this contentment we have developed with our spiritual routine. It’s very comfortable, safe and we think it’s life. However, Jesus always invades our lives to invite into something even better, meaningful and life giving. Sometimes it is dealing with sin. Breaking away from habit or addictions. However, sometimes it’s much like Jonah, a call to join God in his work or reaching into the lives of other people. It might be forgiving someone who is your enemy. Maybe it’s loving someone who is so far from God that it repulses you. Maybe it’s making a commitment to engage in disciple making in a very uncomfortable situation. But if Jesus is leading us to those situations, then isn’t that where we are going to find life?
Here is what the book of Jonah teaches us about life: When we are obedient to God’s invitation, we discover true life.
Here are some steps of obedience I want you to consider:
What is God inviting you to do right now? Respond in obedience this week.
Read through the book of Jonah this week.
Prayer walk through your neighborhood this week. Specifically pray for those who are hard for you to love.
Ask yourself this question: Am I running to life or away from life?