Auto Generated Transcript
This morning, we’re going to begin a new series together, and we’re going to be navigating through Jonah’s journey as a church. Uh, the book of Jonah. When we start a new series, especially in the book of the Bible, it always excites me. I love going through books of the Bible. You can’t go wrong when you when you read a book of the Bible and you understand the way God communicated that that story to his people at a particular time and place, and then how it relates to us in our life. You really avoid a lot of incorrect beliefs about God. And so I enjoy, out of everything we do as a church, just going through books of the Bible and and learning about those things together. And one of the other things I always enjoy about it is when I get to pick from the Old Testament, and that book is a page, and you get to watch people flip to that page. If you brought a Bible this morning, this this information I’m about to give won’t help. But if you use a church pew Bible or in front of the seat in front of you. Page 657. The Old Testament is where you find the book of Jonah. And be careful it’s only one page long. But if I were to ask you this morning, tell me something about Jonah. I know what everyone would likely say. He was eaten by a fish, right? And you might even call it a whale.
If you look in the text, you’ll note it’s called a fish. And that’s okay. Tell me something else about Jonah. He was eaten by a fish, right? I mean, what else do we know about Jonah? Well, consider this week preparation for Shark Week in July. It’s coming up, and we’re going to read all about big giant fish. And you’ve got a great story to share along with that to get excited and pumped up about it. Anybody? Does anybody like Shark Week? Anybody ever watch Shark Week and then go to the beach and never swim again? Or jaws for that matter? This book is intended to scare you. Not. No, I’m just kidding. Well, we’re going to find, as we go through this book together, is Jonah is really a piece of biblical literature that is difficult to deal with. In some ways. I see myself relating to Jonah a lot throughout this story, and it’s a side of myself I don’t like to compare with to the life of Jonah. This story really picks up, and it looks like it’s in the middle of a story. It says, and now the word of the Lord comes to Jonah as if you’re in the middle of some great story that’s taking place, and all of a sudden he just picks up with the word of the Lord coming to Jonah. And then when you get to the end of the book, there’s not really a conclusion to it.
Jonah starts mad and he ends mad. And you’re thinking, what do you do with this information? I mean, what is beneficial for us as people when we read this and God wants us to pursue him with joy, or we’re going to discover that together. As we look throughout this prophetic book, I just want you to note this morning that the last 12 books of your Old Testament are what we call the Minor Prophets. They’re not minor because they weren’t important. They’re minor because they wrote less. They’re men of brevity. And when they they wrote throughout the Scripture, what they declared to the people was God’s Word on behalf of God. They were God’s mouthpiece to the people. They were God’s prophets, God’s chosen ones, especially selected to share God’s Word with people. But out of all those 12 books at the end of the Old Testament, something interesting about the book of Jonah that while most of the books deal with God’s words being proclaimed to to his people, the book of Jonah only has eight words of a prophecy. Matter of fact, what you get most of in the book of Jonah is just the internal struggle that Jonah goes with and goes through as he experiences God’s calling on his life. Will he live up to what God has called him to do? Jonah tells us in the very beginning of the book, is called on by the Lord.
And here’s what we know about the life of Jonah’s as we look just in other related scripture. In Second Kings chapter 14, it says this concerning King Jeroboam the Second, he restored the border of Israel from the entrance of Hamath as far as the Sea of Araba, according to the word of the Lord. That’s all pertaining to the king, not Jonah, the God of Israel, which he spoke through his servant Jonah, the son of Amittai, the prophet who was of Gath hepher. If you note in the time of Israel’s history in this particular point, Jonah was a prophet selected by God to serve the Lord in what we call the northern part of Israel. In Israel’s history, there were there was a king who took place. It was it was Saul who ruled over Israel. And then David followed after Saul. And then after David came his son Solomon, right after the reign of Solomon. It tells us that the nation of Israel literally went through a civil war and split in two. The bottom half of Israel began to be referred to as as the title of Judah, taking on the predominant name of the tribe that ruled in the southern half of the nation of Israel. The northern kingdom kept its common name of Israel, taking with it ten of ten of the tribes that were a part of Israel. Once Israel divided the northern kingdom of Israel never had a godly king again to rule on the throne.
The southern kingdom experienced periodic types of following after God and then falling back into sin. And Jonah is selected as a prophet of God in the northern Kingdom of Israel under King Jeroboam, and as large as Israel’s borders would ever get. Happens under the king Jeroboam. And Jonah, being a prophet of God, knows that his people, the nation of Israel, has no heart to follow after him. And Jonah is called to follow after the Lord and tells us he’s from the town of Gath Hepher. And it’s significant for us to note about the location of which Jonah was from, because it’s very close in proximity to the town in which Jesus was from. As a matter of fact, if you were to look at a map of Israel today, you would find the town of Gath still in existence over 2700 years later and within an hour, within an hour journey of walking from Gath, you could be in the town of Nazareth. Gath Hepher was a very small town, as was Nazareth. And as we read the story of Jonah, what we begin to find is there are some similarities toward towards the Savior who came to save us from our sins. And Jonah, who was called to the nation of Israel to excuse me, to preach repentance, tells us in this passage of Scripture in Jonah chapter one and verse one, Jonah didn’t ask for this calling from God, but the word of the Lord came to him.
This is a period about 760 BC in which God’s Word comes to Jonah. We’re not exactly sure how this happened according to this passage of Scripture. If you were to read Hebrews chapter one and verse one, it tells us in times past God spoke to his people or to many people in very in many times and in various ways Meaning this God in times past used to select prophets to go proclaim his truth to people in all sorts of ways, in many various ways. And as you read the Old Testament, you see it happens. It happens in dreams. It happens in God just speaking to his prophets to share with people. It happens in visions. In the life of Jonah, we don’t know exactly how it happened. Maybe it even was a christophany the appearance of Jesus on this earth before Jesus actually lived on this earth. That happened periodically throughout the Old Testament. Matter of fact, when you read John one one, it says, in the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. And the same was in the beginning with God, and the word became flesh. Jesus in Scripture is oftentimes referred to as the word and tells us in John chapter one and verse one, the word of the Lord came to Jonah. Not a choice, but God had appointed him for this particular need.
This morning, though, I just want to encourage you, as we desire to find and discover God’s will for our life, that we shouldn’t seek just special revelation or appearance from God to to communicate to us what he wants to do and wants us to do. See, Jonah lived in a time before the Old Testament was even formulated. He lived in a time before we had a New Testament. If you want to discover God’s will for your life, most of what God desires for your life is found within His Word. Matter of fact, as you read Hebrews one chapter one and verse one, it tells us God spoke in times past to to his prophets in many times and in various ways. But today he has spoken to us through Jesus. It says in verse two, meaning everything that God wanted for us to to understand and accomplish in this world, everything that we should see, to discover what God’s will for us is in our lives, is found in Jesus. That’s why, as you read the book of Genesis, you find that God promises to us a Savior who would come. You read through all of Scripture the promise of that Messiah who would be here. The Messiah comes, the Messiah dies for our sins. The church is established and you get to the book of Revelation in the end. And Jesus wins. God has declared to you the results and God’s will for you can be made known in the Scripture.
If you desire to know what God wants for you in his life to experience God’s calling, my desire for you, my begging of you, would be to become a student of God’s Word. See what God has to share for your life. I’m always hesitant when people sometimes say that the Spirit of God directed them to do certain things, because the Bible tells us in first John chapter four and verse one, brothers believe not every spirit, because many false prophets have gone into this world. And my question to people who who oftentimes say things like that without backing it up according to Scripture, is what spirit are you following? Because if what you’re doing can’t be matched with what God’s Word says, it’s not an obedience to what God would want you to do. And so it’s important to understand the way God desires to communicate himself through Scripture. Before you begin to share with other people what it is that God wants you to do without really knowing who that God is. Become a student of God’s word. Nonetheless, it says in this passage of Scripture that the word of the Lord came to Jonah. And this is what it says. We ask the question, why did God’s Word come to Jonah? He says in verse two, arise, go to Nineveh, the great city, and cry against it, for their wickedness has come up before me.
Jonah’s told by God that his purpose and reasoning in which God is sharing His word for him, is to go to Nineveh. Think about why Nineveh? God, just all of a sudden woke up this morning. He says, Jonah, I got up this morning and my map of the world was looking pretty good, and I threw a dart and it happened to land on Nineveh. That must be where we should go today. Is that how it works? If you study the history that’s taking place in the life of Jonah and the circumstances around Israel at this time, you become to understand that that Nineveh is the capital city of the empire known as Assyria. Assyria at this time is is a world dominating power. And God is saying to Jonah. Listen, Jonah, I want you to go to the largest city of the greatest empire that’s existing on the face of the Earth right now. It’s as if he’s saying to Jonah, Jonah, if we want to change this place, this culture, these people for Jesus, you’ve got to get to the heart of the city that dictates the culture in which they obey and follow. It should be a circumstance that all of us examine as we see where God calls us in our lives. If we desire to see God, just make some noise in a city. We get to the epicenter of that city or into into a state.
We get to the capital of that state, and we make a difference for Jesus. And God’s interest is to change the wickedness of these Gentiles. It says, into the grace of God. It’s a simple request for Jonah that we find in these scriptures. God just simply says, listen, Jonah, I’ve got a got a will for you. I’m not going to tell you everything that happens there, but Nineveh is wicked, and I want you to go there. And I love the way that God works when he declares to us what his will is for our lives. It’s as if God only directs us according to to one step at a time. You know, when I was younger, a lot of times I would get asked the question, especially in high school and college, what are you going to do with your life? According to to most high school and college kids, we have no idea. And when we get to college, we’re going to change our major about 20 times and we still have no idea, right? Man God, I get tired of this conversation. Just show me everything you want me to do with my life for the rest of my life. Just map it all out for me. But God doesn’t do that for Jonah. He doesn’t do that for us. I find one of the reasons that I think God is just more concerned about the the next step that we take in our lives is that if he revealed to us every step of the way, we would become too overwhelmed and cower at what God has for us in store for our lives.
It’s too much to bear and handle as we examine it from beginning to end. And Jonah just has spoken of to the Lord, and God just simply says, listen, Jonah all I want you to do right now is go to Nineveh because they’re wicked. And recently, we just had the Kentucky Derby ran. That’s pretty close to where I live. People back east, they love their horses, especially in the state of Kentucky. If I could just tell you the one animal I will never get on in my life, it’s a free thinking animal that can run really fast. And, um, but the cool thing about the Kentucky Derby, and if you watch some of these, these trainers who teach these animals to run, is some of them have a certain time in which they will show up to the race. Matter of fact, the recent race that was just ran this weekend, it said that one of the one of the jockeys intentionally brought this animal to the race late or later than all the other horses. And the reason was, is the jockey had trained this animal to recognize that when this animal got prepared to run the race, when he showed up to the track, the animal went into running mode, and it got really antsy about getting ready to to run this race.
And so the trainer wouldn’t let the animal know when he was going to run the race until the race was about to start Similar to us in our Christian lives. God is preparing us through the word of the Lord as we begin to learn and grow in him, because he’s got a race for us to run. He’s got a purpose for us in our living. Whether it be the great city of wicked Nineveh or somewhere else that you may not choose to be like Jonah. God’s got a plan for your life. God desires for you to learn and be taught in His Word, that you may declare it to other people what God would desire for them to know, and what we see in the life of the Ninevites, the people of Assyria, is that God is compassionate towards even the worst of sinners. If you study Assyrian history, what you’ll find is in this people group. They were just horrible. Something that would make the Geneva Convention of today cringe at what they would do to prisoners of war. Oftentimes, when they would conquer a town or city, they would go through and slaughter every man and every child and only leave the women alive if they captured you as a prisoner, it was common for them to bind you up, dig a hole out in the middle of the desert, and bury you until your until just your head poked out of the sand and leave you for dead.
They were a group that only liked to conquer, but they liked to torture their enemies. And God says to Jonah, their wickedness has come before me, and I want a message of grace and compassion being taught to them that they may know me. What we discover in Israel’s history is by the year of 722, the northern Kingdom of Israel is taken into captivity by these Assyrian people, just one generation removed from Jonah in 586. We discover as well that the southern tribe of Judah is taken into captivity, and Jeremiah is there for the conquering of Israel. And God says this to Jeremiah and Jeremiah 29 seven he says, but seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf. For in its welfare you will find your welfare. God saying to Jeremiah, rather than being a person of complaining in the position that I’ve placed you. Be a person that seeks the good of the city, because in seeking the good of the city, we find the good for ourselves as well. We think about maybe just a prayer for our church and reading such verses. May we be a church that that the city just aches for, to continue to help in its need. That in our absence the the city aches with pain from a church that loves Jesus so much that it’s making an impact in the lives of the people around it.
That’s what Jonah was called to Nineveh. And just like Jonah is called to Nineveh. God has called us to a specific place and time to serve, to serve him on behalf of the Lord. And here we see that God pursues the sinner. What a crazy concept to think about God, because it reverses all thinking of any other God taught within culture, in any civilization or nation today, that God would love people who aren’t worthy of being loved. And so God gives Jonah a call. In verse three, we find what’s Jonah’s response? It tells us in the passage of Scripture. But Jonah rose up to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord, or from the presence of the Lord. Excuse me. So he went down to Joppa, found a ship which was going to Tarshish, paid for the fare, and went down into it to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. Jonah’s simple response was, I don’t want to go. God, do you understand who I am? I’m a I’m a Jew. God, you’re working through the Jews. I mean, we are amazing people. We’ve not really done anything in northern Israel that would deserve that. But we are just amazing. We’re Jews, right? We’re better than them. Matter of fact, if you were to read in acts chapter ten and verse 28, Peter is called by God to go to the home of Cornelius.
And when he shows up, he says, this has to be of God because because a Jew does not come into the home of a Gentile. And so Jonah is faced with the same perplexing situation. God, these are your people. You’re going to leave the Jewish people to go share to the wicked Gentiles about your love? No way man. I’m fleeing to Tarshish. You know, in the situation what some of us are left to think. Man, if God came to me and he said to me in an audible voice to go, I would go, right? I mean, I’m better than him. Let me ask it this way. Um, if I were to say you had to spend your life serving God in Spain, or you had to spend your life serving God in Iraq. Um, what would you choose? Tarshis is in Spain. Nineveh is in Iraq. There’s not a lot of difference between Iraq when Jonah was around and Iraq today is there? I mean, serve Saddam Hussein. Love that group. I like Spain. I want to learn Spanish. Right? I don’t know. I don’t want to go to Iraq. And Jonah’s looking at the same circumstance. God, what you’ve called me to do seems too difficult. And Jonah ignores the need that exists in Nineveh. But I love the way the Word of God shares it to us as people.
Yes, Jonah is ignoring Nineveh, and he’s ignoring the need of the people in Nineveh. But look what it says about the situation. It doesn’t say that Jonah is fleeing from Nineveh. It says what Jonah is fleeing for at the very bottom of the hole. Or the the whole verse here it says Jonah is fleeing from the presence of the Lord. Jonah’s fleeing from the presence of the Lord. We’re not always happy with the situation where God calls us, and it may not be the exact circumstance that we go to. I wish God would call me to Hawaii. That would be awesome. I could find reasons to celebrate every day with my fresh coconut. Yeah, but God called Jonah to Nineveh. And what we discover for the life of Jonah. But this is God’s will for Jonah and that ignoring God’s will, he’s not ignoring the need in Nineveh. What he’s running from is the presence of God in his life, that relationship that God wishes to share with him. And I’m sure it went through Jonah’s head. Okay, God, I feel like, man, this is definitely where you called me. You called me to do this, but they might get upset with me. Who knows? It’s none of other mean they’re angry. How about second best today? God, Spain. I hear they need Jesus. But God had selected Jonah for that specific place for a specific reason. Why doesn’t Jonah want to serve? And we could share things like, you know, I don’t think God would really want me to go there, right? I mean, it sounds hard.
My aunt went to Iraq to serve with the Peace Corps, and she came back telling me stories about people who just use the restroom in open places when there’s a restroom beside them. And it’s a common thing to do there. That, to me, is gross. You know, I’m sure it is to you as well. Could you imagine serving in a situation like that? Just saying. Maybe God doesn’t really want me to do that. I’m sure God doesn’t want me to to experience that pain. Maybe he’s just got second best for me out there. But you know, when you examine the life of the people who have really been called by God who who love the Lord, it’s it’s always been marked by a life of some sort of sacrifice and suffering. The prophets many times were killed going to the northern tribe of Israel after they they split from the southern tribe of Judah. They never followed God. Could you imagine being a prophet proclaiming the truth of God to people who didn’t want to hear it? Jesus, when he walked this this earth as a Jew, rejected by his own people to the point that he went to the garden. And he said, God, let this cup pass from me, but nevertheless your will be done. And it tells us in Hebrews, for the joy set before him he endured the cross.
In a situation where you think there could be no joy to be experienced, Jesus sought joy. The apostles laid down their lives in following after the Lord. You know what that teaches me as I look at Scripture is that the truth is worth the consequence. The truth of knowing God and experiencing God, whatever the cost, is worth the consequence. When you read the early church as it started, tells us, if you’ve been reading along with us in our in our series of Reading the New Testament in a year, we’re in the book of acts. These days towards the end of it. But in chapter one through three, it gives us the Spirit of God who comes to this world and dwells his church. The church goes out and begins to proclaim his name as they proclaim his name. It tells us in one day, 3000 people came to know Jesus because people were passionate in the city of Jerusalem and reaching Jerusalem, where God had called them to be. And the apostles went to the to the temple, the place where where Jesus was brought before trial. And and he and he goes to the temple, and he begins to proclaim outside of the temple the name of Jesus. And and as he’s he’s proclaiming the name of Jesus, Peter and John are dictating this message to the people, and they see a lame man and he’s healed.
It tells us when this lame man is healed, more people came to listen to this message, and and many more people came to trust in God. And and as they came to trust in God, the the leaders of the Jewish nation got angry. And they brought the Peter and John before the Sanhedrin, the leaders, and they told him not to proclaim the name of God anymore. You think about that circumstance for a minute. They just saw Jesus on a cross. Not many days later, they’re back at the temple proclaiming the name of Christ. How would you react? Now, having come before those leaders, I know what I would likely done. Whew! That was a close one, right? Do not take me back to that place. There is no way. Let’s do it. But do it in secret. Let’s do, like, House Bible studies. No one knows. We’ll keep all the lights off and let’s share. Right. That’s the American way. We pray for. For prosperity. We pray for the sick people. We pray that God gives us comfort. We pray for all the nice things we can enjoy in life. But look what the apostles prayed for. It says, now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. They left and didn’t ask for any prosperity. They didn’t ask for anything great to go their way. They just wanted boldness to share this message.
That’s how important they understood Jesus to be. The truth was worth the consequence to them. Jonah couldn’t find the need to share God’s word. Maybe one of the reasons, and this is just speculation, that Jonah didn’t share God’s word or didn’t desire to share with the people of Nineveh. It’s because he was focused on the past, not looking to the future. You know, if we told Jonah at that moment, Jonah, God hasn’t revealed his entire plan to you. But if these people don’t repent and these people don’t trust in Jesus, in 40 years, your people are going to be taken captive by these people that you hate so much, and your people are going to be slaughtered before your very eyes and tortuous ways that you thought unimaginable. I wonder what Jonah’s desire would have been then. But he looked at the nation of Assyria, who were suppressing the people around him, and maybe even the Jewish people. And he’s he’s saying, man, no way, no way am I going to love them. No way am I going to extend the hand to them. I’m just going to sit here and complain about everything that I don’t like about these people. I’m going to Spain, kiss this job goodbye. And think about your circumstance. Have you ever lived in a place that was difficult to stand for Jesus? How did you react? Like Jonah or like Jesus? It depends on the day.
It’s true. It’s absolutely true. But the point of the story, as we look at the life of Jonah, Jonah’s testimony, Jonah’s sharing of his story for us is when we reach this conclusion. It’s just it’s just unsettling. When you get to the end of chapter four and you see that Jonah’s heart never really changed for the place he was doing ministry for. And I think as Jonah. If Jonah wrote the book of Jonah, we have no reason to think otherwise. But if Jonah wrote the book of Jonah What a story of regret this was. God’s prophet called to do something for him of which he was used to doing. But he got to a circumstance where he just didn’t want to anymore. If a prophet called by God through God’s audible words could could not surrender to God’s will. How does that match up for us as people? We act like Jesus and pray, as the disciples did, for boldness, just to stand more clearly for him to see the lives and hearts of people change for the good of the city, and the good of all people around, the good of the church, for for everyone. Or do we act like Jonah and run? The truth is worth worth the consequence. And in the end, we have no idea about the outcome. And one of the things maybe we can examine the life of, of Jonah is the reason that he wasn’t able to do ministry is because Jonah focused on himself rather than others.
Jonah was more concerned what people would think about him going to the nation of Nineveh, rather than what would happen in the life of the Ninevites as as God’s Word was proclaimed. Could you imagine today if we just thought in our heads, okay, if this area was like 95% Christian, we better be ready. Study your Bibles because you’re going to have a lot of Jesus sharing to do with people. I mean, but could you imagine the transformation that would take place if we were to dream that big, if we were to pray for that kind of boldness to share God’s word like the apostles and not like Jonah. And I’m brought to a place and a portion of Scripture like this, where I just fall to my knees and say, God, forgive me for not having a vision as big as yours, for not seeing this city the way that you do for this state, for this country. God, give me a heart that when you say go, I get up and run. You know, we looked last two weeks. What God’s plan is for the church to go out into this world and make disciples. And how to do that? God has called us to do that. It doesn’t take an audible voice. God has said, go. And rather than praying for comfort on a on a day or for a sick person, which are good things to pray for, we want our well-being right? We want to not be sick.
We want to live a healthy life. But what about the spiritual need of the people around you? What about when you knew that you should have shared Christ in a particular situation, but you held your tongue afraid to offend somebody? What about praying for boldness? You know, I know, I know, and seeing Christians live out their lives, there are a small group of Christians who, um, who go to proclaim the name of Jesus and do it in such a spirit that it’s really distasteful towards the overall body of Jesus. But I have to say, as a body of Christ, more oftentimes, we err on the side of not saying something about Jesus rather than saying too much about him. And what we need is boldness. Start thinking about the way Jesus can use you to proclaim his name. And rather than be be a Jonah, be like Jesus. And we see as Jonah disobeys God what type of circumstance this creates in the following verses. I’m going to breeze through this real quick because it’s a large portion, knowing that the sides cut off, so I might throw in words for fun. Oh. It says the Lord hurled a great wind. Jonah’s on the ship, remember? It says the Lord hurled a great wind on the sea. And there was a great storm on the sea.
I want to think how big this disobedience is for a minute. People in this day don’t jump on a plane and just, you know, in two hours, they’re where they want to be. You can’t go to Israel to from Israel to Spain that fast in these days. This would have taken like a year of Jonah on this ship thinking I’m disobeying God. I’m disobeying. And the Lord brought a great wind to the sea, and there was a great storm on the sea so that the ship was about to break up. Then the sailors became afraid, and every man cried to his God. And they threw the cargo which was in the ship into the sea, to to lighten it for them. But Jonah had gone below into the hold of the ship, laying down and falling sound asleep. I’m sure he had run away from God. You think anybody watched Deadliest Catch? Man, I gotta admit, I’m a Deadliest Catch addict. Anybody know if I say SIG Hansen? Anybody know who that is? Like the man of all men on the sea. Northwestern. He drives it. He’s from Sweden or something. Denmark. I don’t know, but he’s like a man’s man. You think about these guys on the ship for just a minute in this storm. These are sailors, and they have seen storms. Matter of fact, they would probably put the Deadliest Catch people to shame. They’re flying. We’ve had thousands of years now in building better crafts that are more seaworthy to handle big storms.
These guys are on these old rickety boats in the middle of the storm. And they are sailors, dirty, nasty, toothless, West Virginia looking sailors. And I’m from West Virginia, right. And they’re afraid it tells us so much so that they begin to to lighten the load. I should apologize if West Virginia people ever come here. Sorry And they lighten the load. And it begins to tell us in verse six to the captain approached him and said, how is it that you are sleeping? Get up and call on your God, and perhaps your God will be concerned about us so that we will not perish. And there’s a philosophy in this time about the type of gods, and everyone just followed their own god. They kind of please. This is Greece, right? Many gods, some of them are big and strong. They look like no, nevermind. But they’re big and strong, right? Some pictures. Zeus with a lightning bolt just hitting people whenever they’re mad at them. And that’s kind of the appearance of God. Something bad is happening. Gods are angry at us. Everyone please your God. And so they go downstairs and they say this to Jonah and it says, each man said to his mate, come, let us cast lots so that we may learn on whose account this calamity has struck us. So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah.
And they said to him, tell us now, on whose account has this calamity struck us? What is your occupation, and where did you come from? What is your country and from what people are you? Jonah goes on to share. He says, 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. See, Jones. Just saying. Okay. In your time, you know, you think you worship these gods, and this gods may be in charge of the rain. This god’s in charge of fertility. And this God’s in charge of the crops. No, this God created heaven. Everything on earth and everything on land. That’s how powerful this God is. That’s why that storm is here today, it says. Then the man became extremely frightened, and they said to him, how could you do this? For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the Lord, because he had told them so. They said to him, what should we do to you, that the sea may become calm for us? For the sea was becoming increasingly stormy. And he said to them, pick me up and throw me into the sea. Then the sea will become calm for you. For I know that on account of me this great storm has come upon you. However, the men rowed desperately to return to land, but they could not, for the sea was becoming even stormier against them.
You know, in our storm circumstances, it’s worth noting for us that Our sin can affect everyone. When you think about the sailors on this ship. Jonah’s sin of not following after God caused these men to take their possessions, I’m sure that they were traveling with to make money on and cast it off the side of the boat. The people of Nineveh needed to know the Lord. And Jonah’s just content with himself. Oftentimes, we can identify sin as direct, obedient disobedience against God. But how much do we think that just not taking the time to share what the Lord is doing in our lives with other people is disobedience? Because that’s what Jonah was doing and his sin storm, if I could call it that, began to affect the lives of everyone around him. But I love the way that God can take anything negative and turn it into his good. I think in in our lives, if we’re disobeying God and it’s just created a sandstorm around us. And we can see how that ripple effect is even affecting other people. Even in that situation, we can live in a hope and knowing that God can change it in for his good. Because the Bible tells us that these men began to pray these Bible. The Bible tells us these men were fear and fear of who God was. And it goes on to tell us in verse 14, and they called on the Lord and said, we earnestly pray now they’re calling on God.
Do not let us perish on account of this man’s life, and do not put innocent blood on us. For you, O Lord, have done as you have pleased. So they picked up Jonah and threw him into the sea, and the sea stopped its raging. Then the men feared the Lord greatly, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows. We could stop here and say, see my disobedience. God can still do what he wants. I would say you are the greatest resource that God has to use to proclaim to this world what God can do in the life of an individual. And God desires in his love to work through you. And rather than leaving God behind. God loves you so much. Jonah could have just said, okay, God, I’m not going where you want me to go today. I’m giving up. And God said, okay, I’ll just find somebody else. Have a good day. God loved Jonah, and he began to pursue Jonah. And it tells us in verse 15 that as soon as Jonah went overboard, the storm stopped. The reason the storm existed was solely because of Jonah, and Jonah was being pursued by God, and God was sharing with Jonah. Jonah, I love you too much to give up on you. And rather than focus on the fierceness of this storm, we focus on the fierceness of God’s love being made evident through the storm.
Think about a sin storm in your life. Something that’s caused you to be disobedient to God. And in that storm, and in that ripple effect that’s affecting the lives of other people around you, God is passionately pursuing you with his love to use you for the reason that he’s called you in this world. Jonah created this storm. And when Jonah was thrown overboard, the storm ceased. And can I say this morning, as you think about the places that God puts you, whether you like it or not, there’s an opportunity for you to find joy in it. And knowing of the hope that is ahead for the people that you share God’s Word with. But the safest place you could ever be in this world is in the center of God’s will. We’re going to find in the next chapter happens to be in the belly of a whale for Jonah, but it’s the safest place you could be. Don’t focus on the severity of the storm in this situation. Focus on the love of God in this storm as we make comparison again just to Jesus and Jonah, I’m reminded of our own just sin that that caused Jesus to go to the cross. When we had our own sin storm to deal with in our relationship with God. Jesus endured that sin for us. So much so that Jesus made an illustration in Scripture from himself back to Jonah.
And it tells us in Matthew 1239 he said, A wicked man and an adulterous generation asks for a sign. Jesus is before all the religious leaders and they’re saying, Jesus, Jesus, do another miracle Jesus. Jesus is saying, that’s not what I came here for. If you want a miracle, here’s the last one I’m giving you. It’s the sign of Jonah. It says an adulterous generation asks for a sign, but none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it. For they repented at the preaching of Jonah. And now something greater than Jonah is here. Because Jesus endured our storm so that we wouldn’t have to. Jesus has given us the opportunity to walk in joy in the middle of his will for our lives. Jesus has called Jonah to proclaim that message to the lives of other people. Jesus has called you to do the same to those who follow. A few years ago, Stacy and I went up to up to Ogden to a Christian concert put on by Steven Curtis Chapman, and it was a great, just a concert set that he had performed all over the country, because the thing that was driving it was adoption.
Steven Curtis Chapman, If you’ve never heard about his life, he he helps other people adopt kids, especially from foreign countries. He himself has adopted a few kids from foreign countries. And he came to Ogden and he he raised some money while the concert was going on, raised some money and then gave it to a family at the concert who was working to adopt a child but didn’t have the financial means to do it. They were just a little short of what it required. It was all about adoption. And Steven Curtis Chapman pointed out to the people in the congregation that that adoption is such a godly thing. Because because you were an alien to God and God, a foreigner to God, and you didn’t have a relationship with God before, you trusted in Jesus and God adopted you to his kingdom. Kind of cool to think about. And as Steven Curtis Chapman put on this concert, he even brought his two older boys who were, I think, in high school at the time to perform this, this worship set that he had prepared for this group to to listen to him. And his whole family was just worshiping together. They were serving the Lord together. It was a great thing to see. So when that song I Will dance With Cinderella came out, I don’t know if you’ve ever heard it.
You know, you think about your daughter and just weep. It’s a great, just a great time. In a couple weeks went by and Cece and I were sitting at home and the news came on and we found out that, uh, Steven Curtis Chapman’s youngest daughter, whom he adopted, um, had been killed. And she actually ran over, run over by her older brother who was performing at that concert That’s a tragic moment. Think about it, man. He wrote that song for his daughter who passed away. He then wrote another song about singer One day in Heaven. And. And that young boy, what would have been going through his mind when he. He knows what what that whole concert was about. And now this young lady he just ran over with, with his car, his vehicle, and they put the family on Larry King Live months later and were asking him about the situation. And and Larry King asked the young man, when you got out of the car, what did you do? Or what were you thinking? And he said, when he got out of the car, the family began to gather around the young lady, and he was just so destroyed by the situation that he just ran away, and he just hid because he couldn’t bear looking at the people that he shamed. He couldn’t bear thinking about the circumstance that he was facing. And I think in our own lives, we we can guilt rid ourselves so much for what God wants to do through us that we just think about all the shame that’s presented upon us, all the things that we’ve done wrong, and we just want to run and we just want to hide.
But God in that storm is pursuing you. And the reason that family was allowed to be on Larry King that day is because that son began to experience the restoration of his relationship with his family and the people that he disappointed so much and began to live again for the reason that God had created him and his family gathered around him, and they loved him. I don’t know when it comes to the life of Jonah, if we just are living in direct disobedience to God, or it’s just the weight of sin that’s weighing it down. But the important thing to recognize is we go through the story together, is that God has a purpose for your life. God has put you in a place to see people change for the sake of Christ, beginning in your own life. And if it’s a difficult place, how more important it is for you just to stay in thinking about the future, hope that can be brought forth to all people as we point them to Jesus, and obedience to the reason God has created us. You think about the early church in acts. They were told not to proclaim the name of Jesus anymore.
The Sanhedrin, they went out again and they proclaimed Christ one more time, and they were brought before the Sanhedrin one more time. And it says, they called the apostles. And you think about these 12 guys for a minute. They called the apostles in, and they flogged them when they would flog people. It was usually a process done one at a time, sometimes two at a time. You think about 12 men, your two buddies up there now, and you’re sitting back here watching your friends being beat within an inch of their life, and then it’s your turn. And then it says in verse 41, if we go on. They ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus and let them go. And the apostles left the Sanhedrin. Look at this next word. Rejoicing because they had counted. Been counted. Worthy. Worthy to suffer disgrace for the name referring to Jesus. And then it goes on to say that didn’t stop him. Day after day in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Christ. That’s contradictory to everything that I think about as an American Christian. How do you even fathom that? Rejoicing in suffering because you’re so focused on Jesus, and then praying to be more bold, to then let it happen again? Think about the passion that they had to serve Christ because they knew the truth was worth the consequences.
The reason Jonah is in our Bible today, so that we could learn from the story of regret on behalf of a prophet who rejected God. Jonah messed up. He was so focused on himself and his own joy and pleasure in this world, that he forgot the greater picture in which God had called him to serve. You know, this morning, this message is a hard one to think about, a hard one to start on when we go through this series. This is step one. Wait till step two. You know, I mean a prophet. If a prophet can reject God, what shot do I have? And Jesus has seen and has to be in our lives if we’re to live the way God called us, more important to us than anything in this world, that we’re willing to make the sacrifice to share his message. Because in that people find freedom. It’s a hard message to share with us this morning, but it’s an important one. If God is calling you to to live in a difficult place, will you serve him? A place where you may be different just because you’re following after him? I mean, will you react like Jonah, or will you react like Jesus? What kind of storm will it take for God to get your attention? Can you see the bigger picture in which God wants to accomplish in you? What an amazing story it would have been for Jonah if, at the end of the book, he sat back in the city of Nineveh and he watched this entire city repent.
And he said, you know what? God gave me a hand in all of this. This was a wonderful thing to be a part of. What an opportunity as a church family, if we sit back and we think about the needs of our city, and we go out into this world and proclaim his name with joy, and we can sit back one day and say, you know, God had called me to this place, and I put my hand in obedience to him in this And we had a part of this. Can I tell you, maybe as a suggestion, where to start? This morning comes in acts 429. Pray about boldness. Have you ever in your life prayed for boldness? It’s not something that readily comes off the tip of our tongue. When we think about the needs that we have as Christians, we just line them up. Man. God, I don’t have the amount to pay for this this month. God, I’m feeling like I got a cold and John is sick. Um, Amen. Which is fine to pray. What about the boldness to carry out the mission that God has called you to? You think this morning we could just say this verse before the Lord. Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servant to speak your word with great boldness. Maybe this morning you could say to yourself, God, enable me as your servant to speak your word with great boldness.