We Are Jonah
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Good morning, Gateway Chapel!
Read Psalm 139:1-10
1 O Lord, you have searched me and known me!
2 You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
you discern my thoughts from afar.
3 You search out my path and my lying down
and are acquainted with all my ways.
4 Even before a word is on my tongue,
behold, O Lord, you know it altogether.
5 You hem me in, behind and before,
and lay your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
it is high; I cannot attain it.
7 Where shall I go from your Spirit?
Or where shall I flee from your presence?
8 If I ascend to heaven, you are there!
If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!
9 If I take the wings of the morning
and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
10 even there your hand shall lead me,
and your right hand shall hold me.
Pray
Intro
Good morning everyone! Before we jump into our sermon this morning, we have a special guest.
I want to invite up Anne Kelly from Faith Covenant Church just down the road here in Sumner. We’ve talked a couple of times about the Compassion Clinic coming up on June 25th, and Anne is here to give us some more information.
Hi Anne! Let us know a little about yourself and tell us what is the Compassion Clinic coming up on June 25th.
Why would someone give up their Saturday to serve?
How can people serve? Is this only for people in the medical field?
How can people sign up?
Tab reads Jonah 1.
Good morning, Gateway. Always a privilege to be with you. My soul missed being here with you. Last time I was here on a Sunday was just after Easter. I had an impactful time at ManCamp with several of you a few weeks ago, our family got knocked down with sickness over Mother’s Day Weekend, and then we were in North Carolina for a family wedding which I had the honor of officiating so now if you need a guy for a wedding, I own one of those leather binders to hold the marriage license so I am ready.
This morning we’re continuing our 2022 Year of Biblical Exploration. We are followers of Jesus, the goal of our life is to hear him, love him, and obey him. And Jesus loved his Bible, including and especially those peculiar guys in the middle of it called the prophets.
But starting this morning and the next four Sundays, we’re going to be looking at one prophet in particular and that is Jonah.
When you think of Jonah, what is the first thing that comes to mind?
A whale! Veggie Tales!
I told Ben Lechnir I was having some writing block this week and he suggested I preach in a whale costume. No bad ideas but that’s a bad idea.
This is a book I grabbed off the shelf at home and it’s called “Baby’s First Bible Stories.”
Read the story
What’s the problem with this? In a few weeks we’ll get to Jonah chapter 4, which isn’t mentioned in this story. Doesn’t this feel like how we often misinterpret the Bible and our lives? I’m bad when I sin, God is angry at me, so God wants me to do better and then he won’t smite me.
Is that the story of Jonah?
The message of Jonah is not, “Don’t be like Jonah because God is angry at you when you sin” but “We are Jonah.” How is that good news?
Pray
My sermon today and probably the next few will be much thanks to the free seminary course on Jonah via the Bible Project just Google Bible Project Classroom Jonah and you’ll find it. And Phillip Cary’s commentary on Jonah.
Before we start...Why are we reading Jonah? Your friends aren’t reading ancient middle eastern stories this weekend.
We’re followers of Jesus, we believe he is the way to true life.
The Bible is a library of texts - both divine and human - with a unified story that leads to knowing Jesus and growing in Jesus.
The Bible is a library of texts - both divine and human - with a unified story that leads to knowing Jesus and growing in Jesus.
The key question as we read Jonah is this - “How does this point me to Jesus?”
Jonah Flees
Jonah Flees
1 Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying,
The word of the LORD begins and ends Jonah. It starts in Jonah 1:1, and Jonah chapter 4 will end with an open ended question from the LORD.
In my ESV Bible LORD is all caps because it represents God’s personal name YHWH which he revealed to Moses and his people. The LORD all caps doesn’t just mean he’s boss, it means this is the God who created everything. The God who still speaks today. His word, and not Jonah, is the driving force of this story and all stories.
The word of the LORD comes to Jonah. How does it come? A vision? Audible sound? A dream? We don’t know. The Bible often withholds details we deem important, not because it’s bad writing, but because every single word matters and it’s main point is not to give us the perfect details of the vision Jonah saw or, “What kind of fish did swallow Jonah? How did that work? Where’s the video evidence?” but to teach us something about who God is and who we are.
The word of the LORD comes to Jonah son of Amittai.
Who is Jonah?
Jonah’s name means “Dove.” It’s like a pet name! Here’s the cool part about Jonah. It’s a story about his perpetual failing, but God calls him, “My Beloved.”
Think about the worst moment of your week. Something you said, something you thought, something you did…if you’re in Christ, in that moment, God calls you My Beloved.
Son of Amittai - Amittai sounds like Truth. So Jonah’s name is “Dove Son of Truth.” If you wanted a name for a biblical character, it’s hard to find a better one. But what we’ll see is the irony of Jonah not living up to his name.
How do we know Jonah is a prophet?
This is the second time Jonah appears in the Bible. The first is in 2 Kings.
23 In the fifteenth year of Amaziah the son of Joash, king of Judah, Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel, began to reign in Samaria, and he reigned forty-one years. 24 And he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. He did not depart from all the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, which he made Israel to sin. 25 He restored the border of Israel from Lebo-hamath as far as the Sea of the Arabah, according to the word of the Lord, the God of Israel, which he spoke by his servant Jonah the son of Amittai, the prophet, who was from Gath-hepher.
So the first time we read about Jonah in the Bible, he speaks to an evil king who God chooses to bless despite how wicked he is. That’s important.
The word of the LORD comes to My Beloved the Son of Truth and says
2 “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me.”
Where is Nineveh?
Nineveh is way to east…it’s the capital city of Assyria, the nation who wiped out 10 of the 12 tribes of Israel as we read in 2 Kings. They’re the enemy. They’re a brutal, violent, warring nation, that has murdered Israelite children.
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.
It’s hard to tell for modern American readers, but Jonah is essentially a comedy. In Jonah, whatever you expect to happen, doesn’t happen. Usually, the opposite happens. The only character who does remotely what you expect, is God.
They didn’t have Slack or Texting or Phone calls back then, so you had to send a messenger to communicate. But unlike Slack or Texting or a Tweet, sometimes a messenger can have a mind of its own.
If you send a mean text to someone, you can’t say, “I told the text to go to Nineveh but it sinned and typed out those horrible things about you.”
But it is comedic how far Jonah goes from where God wants him to go.
You just asked your kid to take out the trash, and then somehow commandeered a Blimp and flew to Wenatchee.
Why does Jonah flee to Tarshish?
We don’t know right away. If you know Jonah, you know where it goes in chapter 4. But at this point, we want to let the story lure us in. The answer seems to be…he’s afraid to go to Nineveh. Right? Asking a Jew to go to Nineveh is like asking a cat to preach the gospel at the dog park.
Fun Sunday afternoon activity - go home and search “Tarshish” in your Bible. Text me what you find.
The wind picks up in verses 4 thru 6.
4 But the Lord hurled a great wind upon the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship threatened to break up. 5 Then the mariners were afraid, and each cried out to his god. And they hurled the cargo that was in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them. But Jonah had gone down into the inner part of the ship and had lain down and was fast asleep. 6 So the captain came and said to him, “What do you mean, you sleeper? Arise, call out to your god! Perhaps the god will give a thought to us, that we may not perish.”
You know a biblical story is going to be a comedy when the mariners are involved.
There’s a lot we could say here, but one thing that stood out to me, is notice how each of the characters in the story respond to the LORD.
The sea
The sea
God sends a wind, and the sea responds by making a mighty tempest.
The ship
The ship
What does the ship do? It “Threatens” to break up…that word ‘threatens’ can also be ‘considered.’ It’s like the ship has a mind and it is responding to God by giving a good thought to going down.
The mariners
The mariners
What do they do? They’re afraid! And since they don’t worship the LORD yet, they take a shotgun approach and cry out to as many gods as they can. Surely they’ve’ seen storms before, but this one seems different. And isn’t it interesting that these likely wealthy sailors, going to Tarshish, a land full of wealth, throw their expensive cargo into the sea when they’re close to death.
Money can do a lot of things, but it can’t save you from death.
The captain
The captain
He’s trying to save his crew! This captain, who doesn’t know God, seems to know about grace. Perhaps this god who is causing the storm will forgive us!
Ironically, Jonah knows God, but doesn’t want to give God’s grace to the Ninevites. Spoiler for chapter 4.
All of these are right responses to the LORD sending a storm. What does Jonah do?
Jonah
Jonah
Sawing logs inside the ship.
From the Bible’s perspective, there is nothing more important in life than how we respond to God. And Jonah is a comedic retelling of how even those of us who believe in God, live like he’s not even there.
Jonah is called out
Jonah is called out
7 And they said to one another, “Come, let us cast lots, that we may know on whose account this evil has come upon us.” So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah. 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.
Things are so bad, they cast lots, which is like rolling dice to figure out the will of the gods.
They roll snake eyes, which points directly to Jonah.
“What have you done?” they say.
Jonah says, “I am a Hebrew”
Which is like saying, “I’m just a foreigner”
And I fear the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.
Jonah gives a perfect verbal answer (quoting Psalm 95) as to what he should say, after doing everything wrong.
It’s like if someone got caught shoplifting and the cops say, “Anything you wanna say for yourself?” “Yes, all glory to God and his son, Jesus Christ.”
And ironically, the sailors who are verbally calling out to false gods, act in a right response, by freaking out! THE God is behind this? We’re doomed!
Like a comedy, Jonah takes everything you expect to happen, and turns it upside down.
Jonah is hurled into the sea
Jonah is hurled into the sea
11 Then they said to him, “What shall we do to you, that the sea may quiet down for us?” For the sea grew more and more tempestuous. 12 He said to them, “Pick me up and hurl me into the sea; then the sea will quiet down for you, for I know it is because of me that this great tempest has come upon you.” 13 Nevertheless, the men rowed hard to get back to dry land, but they could not, for the sea grew more and more tempestuous against them. 14 Therefore they called out to the Lord, “O Lord, let us not perish for this man’s life, and lay not on us innocent blood, for you, O Lord, have done as it pleased you.” 15 So they picked up Jonah and hurled him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging. 16 Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows.
Jonah’s words seem heroic…throw me overboard!
But think about Jonah’s movement so far in the story. Arise Jonah! He arose and went down to Joppa, down into the ship, laid down fast asleep. And now he says, “I want to go down to death. Just kill me, I want to be done with this.”
Notice the crazy upside down gospel story going on here.
In Jesus, God’s chosen one is sinless, and in his death, he gives life to sinful people.
In Jonah, God’s chosen one is sinful, and in his death, he gives life to relatively innocent people.
Jonah says he fears God, but runs from him. The sailors were just worshipping false gods, but now they fear the LORD exceedingly, and act out their repentance by sacrificing and vowing vows.
And then we get to the real fun part.
Jonah is swallowed up
17 And the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.
One of my first jobs was working at Stafford Suites just down the street here and one day we ended up talking about Jonah for some reason. And a coworker said, “My pastor says Jonah didn’t really get swallowed by a fish, it’s just a metaphor but that couldn’t happen.”
And I remember thinking, “She’s not a Christian!” My mind made that jump…if you don’t think he was swallowed by a fish, you can’t believe in Jesus.
Do I think the God of the universe, who spoke and made black holes, and eagles, and marriage…can make a grown man fit in a fish? Sure.
Is that the point of the story? No.
Jonah is a picture of Israel. And in Jonah’s rejection of God, he sinks down to death.
What story in the history of Israel does this remind us of? The exile. Israel rejects the God who chose them, and it leads to virtual inihillation.
Jeremiah 51:34
34 “Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon has devoured me;
he has crushed me;
he has made me an empty vessel;
he has swallowed me like a monster;
he has filled his stomach with my delicacies;
he has rinsed me out.
The original readers of Jonah would have seen these connections right away: long ago Israel passed safely through the sea in their exodus from Egypt, and more recently Israel was swallowed up by the greatest beast of them all, Babylon the great, which the prophet Jeremiah calls “the great monster that has swallowed me up” (Jer 51:34). And yet, after being swallowed up by Babylon, the remnant of Israel was kept safe in the belly of Babylon. Jonah swallowed up by the sea monster is a parallel image to the Jewish people going into exile, yet still alive and still having a future as they sing songs in the belly of the beast….”
Key Points
Okay so what do we do with this story, and how does it point us to Jesus?
Two thoughts.
We are Jonah…and we need an Anti-Jonah.
We are Jonah…and we need an Anti-Jonah.
Who will save us from the belly of the fish? It says Jonah was in the fish for 3 days and 3 nights.
Where else do we hear that phrase?
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. 41 The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.
Jesus is the anti-Jonah.
The word of the Lord came to Jonah…and he didn’t listen. The word of the Lord came as a baby in a manger, as Jesus, and he obeyed everything God spoke to him.
Jonah said one thing, and did another. Jesus’ words and actions were perfectly aligned. He had integrity.
Jonah’s sins caused him to be killed for the salvation of the nations. The sins of the nations caused Jesus to be killed, even though he was righteous.
Jonah spent three days and three nights in the belly of a fish, and emerged relatively unchanged. Jesus spent three days and three nights in the grave and emerged resurrected and reigning.
Jonah wanted to keep God’s mercy and grace for himself…Jesus came to give life to all people.
We are Jonah. Jesus is the Anti-Jonah we always needed. The gospel is that like Jonah, we are told to arise, and we go down. We say that we fear God, but we don’t…but God knew. And God it was God’s purpose all along to send Jesus to save us from ourselves and to send the prophet we could never be.
We are Jonah…and we are Beloved.
We are Jonah…and we are Beloved.
The story of Jonah is Israel’s story, and it is our story. It’s a story of how left to our own devices, we end up in a pit full of sea monsters. Just like Genesis 3, humans disobey and end up hanging out with a monster rather than God. It’s a comedic story of all our failings. Of all the ways we say, “God is really working in my life lately. Praise God! Jesus is really blessing me lately. It was a total God moment. Praying for you!”
Of all the ways I choose productivity over sitting with Jesus, when we choose to tune out God and tune into social media, when we choose to run to porn and lustful thoughts instead of being satisfied in Jesus, when he choose to dismiss friends, family, celebrities, who make one mistake rather than offer grace and mercy. One thing after another.
But…his name is Jonah. The Dove. The Beloved.
If you have trusted Jesus, confessed that he is Savior and Lord…God loves you as much as he loves Jesus, despite all the ways we live like Jonah.
God says of Jesus. You are my Beloved.
17 and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”
7 To all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
1 Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children.
11 Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul.
12 Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you.
“Beloved” Passages
Romans 1:7, Romans 9:25, Romans 11:28, Romans 12:19, 1 Cor 4:14, 1 Cor 4:17, 1 Cor 10:14, 1 Cor 15:58, 2 Cor 7:1, 2 Cor 12:19, Eph 5:1, Philippians 2:12, Philippians 4:1, Col 3:12, 2 Thess 2:13, 1 Tim 6:2, Heb 6:9, James 1:16, James 1:19, James 2:5, 1 Peter 2:11, 1 Peter 4:12, 2 Peter 3:1, 2 Peter 3:8, 2 Peter 3:14, 2 Peter 3:17, 1 John 2:7, 1 John 3:2, 1 John 3:21, 1 John 4:1, 1 John 4:11, 1 John 4:7, 3 John 2, 3 John 5, 3 John 11, Jude 1, Jude 3, Jude 17, Jude 20
God knows we are Jonah, but he calls us Beloved. The crazy reality is that on your worst day this week, at your worst moment, in the middle of your worst thought, in the middle of your lowest point…God loved you as much as he loves Jesus.
“Jonah does nearly everything wrong and gets into the deepest trouble imaginable, yet all the while he remains God’s beloved and chosen one, not to mention one of the most successful prophets in the whole Bible. He is Israel, but he is also us. And we need his story.” - Phillip Cary
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