· Intro Have you ever fled in response to what you heard? (parent to child. Me, Great Book Tutorial High School exam…)

1. Themes in Jonah vividly speaks to: Creation. Mission. Word & Spirit

a. The use of creation is stark: Winds, waters, whales, worms, and plants…

b. Missions: Sneak preview of Matt. 28:19 (the mercy of God to Jonah, the sailors, and the ninevites

c. God’s Word and Spirit changes the hearts of a king and his people.

2. Mccarthy argues: The core theme is, “The gospel is for all people.”

a. I agree, all people, the sailors, the king, the people, implications for the cattle, for Israel….And even for Jonah himself.

b. All people and all creatures everywhere are called to worship a gracious God.

i. The unrepentant and wicked have a clear pronouncement, without repentance all sin everywhere will be judged.

ii. Many respond and receive the gifts of relationship, mercy, and grace

iii. Some have stubborn hearts and hardened hearts… and the book may be named after just such a stubborn heart.

iv. Lets read about a stubborn heart. And maybe see our stubborn and wayward hearts…

3. Read: Jonah 1

4. Prayer of Illumination

Outline

1. Called by the Word (v.1-2)

2. Fleeing from the Word (v. 3)

3. Fleeing from the Word is a Bad Idea (v. 4-6).

4. Finding Mr. Bad Ideas (v. 7-11)

5. Fixing Mr. Bad Ideas (v. 11-15)

6. Fearful Salvation (v. 16-17).

#1 Called by the Word (v.1-2)

[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.” The Word, Arise, and Go (The call of a prophet)

1. Who is Jonah? A real historical prophet mentioned in 2 Kings 14:25, he has a happy message of prosperity to this king despite him living around (780-755 BC After Elijah, Elisha, King Ahab, this was during the years of Assyrian Empire when it was exacting tribute on the north, Israel.

a. Jonah worshipped the LORD, but in a country that had mixed in Baal worship. And many had turned from God to worship Idols.

2. But God is still living and active in his prophets. God calls and sets apart prophets by his word and spirit.

a. Prophets do not call and proclaim themselves to be such.

3. Prophets are called to confront kings, the Lord’s people, to remind them of the covenant God had made with his people…

4. Jonah had a nice commission before go say Israel will prosper for awhile…So it cames as a shock to him…this Less popular call, God says, go to a gentile city, go into the world and bring a word of the lord to another nation.

5. Nineveh: A Great City

a. A huge Assyrian city-district.

b. Against them, Why?

c. Their Evil is a Stench

i. Smell is offensive

ii. Evil is offensive to a Holy God.

6. You have a prophet, a problem, and how does Jonah feel about this call???

The unwanted call: Ill: James McCarthy: The Chaplain asked to serve as chaplain for all the high ranking Nazi officials…

7. To where was he called – Ninevah – A City of Blood

a. Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians (Mean > Nice empire progression).

b. During Jonah’s day Assyria was dominate and exacted tribute, taxes, making the North a Vassal state.

c. Two Reasons this is unpopular for Jonah

i. He cites later he was afraid that God would show mercy

ii. Second he is going into the capital of a foreign power and calling them dirty rotten sinners who need to repent.

1. Should you go to Moscow or Beijing and call out against Russia and China? Might cause some problems for your lifespan and political relations.

8. Why now? Ninevah’s stench to the Lord

An uncomplicated but difficult application God being God. God being the creator and sustainer of the world, meaning he made it, he owns it, we are not our own but belong to our heavenly father and in this passage he places, John Mackay says, a “personal demand mode on the prophet. God requires individual obedience, even when the task is one which we do no understand, or with which we are out of sympathy.” (Mackay, 8).

· Jonah needs to align his heart with God’s word simply because the Word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Ammitai. Ninevah will need to align their hearts and mind with God – You are a wicked stench in my nostrils repent. What of us? Where do our hearts struggle when we encounter the Whole Counsel of God’s word to us from Genesis – Revelation. Every Attribute. Every historical action of God. Every aspect of salvation in Christ and then his call to our daily lives.

· One aspect of sanctification of course is to understand the mind of God (which scripture is God’s mind revealed and written for us) and not only to renew our minds so that we understand, agree, and can give our amen to God’s direction in our life and in the bible.

o But throughout the bible Abraham, Jonah, Peter among others are called to the Lord to tasks they do not initially have a gut agreement with.

§ In Jonah’s case he says in chapter 4, what his gut disagreement was, God is too merciful to sinners. He flees to Tarshish because he just knew God would be merciful to the Ninevites…

§ In every culture and every era we may have a gut disagreement with God’s revealed will to us in the bible…

§ Do not flee the word of God to Tarshish. Wrestle with it. Meditate on it. Obey it and seek to come to understand It from an eager posture of obedience.

Transition: And Jonah listened and obeyed the Lord even though he hated the Ninevites, the End…

No…Verse [3]

#2 Fleeing from the Word (v. 3)

In v. 3 we are supposed to get in a Hebrew narrative get either the brief “and Jonah did all that the Lord said…” or the longer version where you the montage of him doing all that was said…So it is jarring when you get to verse 3 and it says, Jonah gets up and Runs away in the opposite direction…

· Jonah took the first boat in the opposite direction of Ninevah, Tarshish… If God said go to Washington D.C. He is headed for Dallas.

· He gets on the boat…and hides in the bottom of it…curls up and goes to sleep.

o Jonah explains in chapter 4 he does this because he fears the Merciful nature of God

· Twice the point is emphasized He is fleeing the presence of the LORD.

o Forgetting the words of King David Ps. 139: Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I fleefrom your presence? 8 If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you arethere! 9 If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea….

o God is not a little trible deity…you cannot ever fall off God’s radar.

o You are allowed to chuckle at the irony here.

o Tarshish isn’t off the grid for God. The Ocean isn’t out of God’s control.

o And Yet…And Yet…finish laughing at Jonah.

§ We do the same thing…its exhausting to flee from God.

§ Two thoughts I want deep in your memories, covenant children, believers in Jesus. And you are right now if you are still fleeing from God.

· First, It’s exhausting to flee from God.

· Jonah was fleeing God because he might be merciful…last verse of Jonah: He gets on the boat…and hides in the bottom of it…curls up and goes to sleep.

§ My prayer is you remember this as a covenant child, If you move cities…and somehow failed to connect with a church…if you were ever to stop worshipping on Sundays…and find a deep dark corner of shame…and think I’ll just go spiritually to sleep, God’s presence is far from him, he’ll leave me alone.

§ I dearly pray like Jonah in fact that he will not. If you are a child of the covenant he has placed his name on you. God will not be done with you.

· If you are just tired…in the middle of family life…in the middle of retired life, and feel like you are hanging by a rope that you are seeing the threads snap off one by one…do not bow your head and think you will just go to sleep…you have fled the presence of God and the covenant land of God and the covenant people of God.

o 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 dwellin the uttermost parts of the sea….even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me.11 If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night,” 12 even the darkness isnot dark to you; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you. 13 For you formed myinward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. 14 I praise you, for I am fearfully andwonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.

§ And Jonah…Jonah fled a merciful God…”Should not I pity Ninevah…120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left…

§ You might feel you don’t know what is left or right or up or down. But God Knows! And God will be merciful…if he will offer mercy to those outside the people of God how much you who have shared in belonging in God’s covenant.

§ His word calls you to return in moments like these. He will place the train back on the tracks…he will cast you another rope….

§ He MAY, He MAY Hurl a great wind and nearly kill you…He may use you as the world’s worst evangelist to call people to Fear and worship the Lord.

§ Maybe we are a bit like Jonah. So Chuckle at Jonah. Tarshish is a funny city name. But God remembers, the Lord, Jesus knows his sheep by name.

Verse 4…

#3 Fleeing from the Word is a Bad Idea (v. 4-6).

[4] But the LORD hurled a great wind upon the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship, she threatened to break up. [You know you are in trouble when boats start making threats…I’ll do it, I’ll break up and we’re all going down…that’s how bad the groans and creeks were…]

[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. – You know you are in trouble when the pagan sailors…are screaming, and crying, and throwing all the things that make them money away….

But Jonah had gone down into the inner part of the ship and had lain down and was fast asleep. [running from God is exhausting…In fact, yes ]

[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.”

- the captain unintentionally echoes God’s command earlier to Jonah, “arise, go, call out to your God.

· Perhaps your God will give a thought to us.

o Note the themes. Presence. Mercy. What might save them is the very traits Jonah is fleeing from.

o Sin leads to spiritual apathy. After the initial sting of your conscience, sin sings you a lullaby to sleep.

o But God so often echoes his words, the gospel, his teachings to you and in this case it was a pagan captain.

o Awake O sleeper, rise up from the dead, and Christ will shine on you… - Ephesians.

o But Jonah still needs to be backed into the corner…

#4 Finding Mr. Bad Ideas (v. 7-11)

[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.

· The interrogation, who, what, where, when, why?

o A Hebrew prophet fleeing from YHWH the Lord of Heaven and Earth.

o You’ve doomed us!

o The Lord in his providence allows them to know accurately the cause of their distress. Mr. Bad ideas flee from the presence of God.

o So when they are spared, they know it was the Lord God of heaven and earth. Not a small Trible deity. A greater claim has been made.

o The Transcendent God.

o Creator of all things. [Expand and Riff…]

o Therefore, Fear the Lord. The sailors will soon fear the Lord as well. True reverence of God, leading to true worship.

o The question we should be asking, will Jonah live up to his essentially citing the Apostles creed here “I believe in God the father almighty, maker of heaven and earth”.

o It’s a nice creed…good orthodox words… But will he be Christian in name only or will he turn to the Lord and be true to the confession of his lips. Will he turn into a dead orthodox man.

o If a pagan asks him, yes I’m a Christian, I know Jesus…But his words don’t control me, I’ll keep living in disobedience to how I know I am called to live. To the missions and call of God…That question will be resolved in Chapter 2. Dead orthodoxy or living faith…???

o God through the sailors, is saying, “remember who you are son of the covenant.”

o Today. Will these sailors be spared? Yes, Jonah gives them the way of escape.

o And to their credit they don’t just immediately throw him overboard…

§ Can you imagine, [airplane in middle of ocean, parachute, ocean, throw me out]….

o Hear these next verses once again as a stinging MERCY from pagan sailors…Jonah did not want extended to Ninevah…

#5 Fixing Mr. Bad Ideas (v. 11-15) [Summarize story]

[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.”

· Hurl / God Hurled they hurled, its just fun word choice in the way Jonah chose to write this for us

[13] Nevertheless, the men rowed [the word the men dig. They tried to dig their way back. Rowing…Sorry I just love Hebrew idioms…] they hard to get back to dry land, but they could not, for the sea grew more and more tempestuous against them.

· They extended sweat, and risked their life for a foreign man. God’s law written on the human heart, holding them conscience bound to avoid murder.

· Mercy of Sailors / Jonah’s worry Ninevah would receive moercy

[14] Therefore they called out to the LORD, “O LORD, [this is a new name on their lips they don’t know YHWH, the 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.

· They don’t want to be murderers. Once again. They rowed, they then cried out to this God they do not know and said, LORD we don’t want the blood of your prophet on our hands…But he has told us to do this. So even the Lord hurled the storm on them they hurled Jonah into the sea.

· Quiet. Peace. Ceased. Stillness. Where else do we see this?

· Jesus, the sea immediately ceases from its raging…Why? Because God the creator of the universe the lord of nature told it to….When else does a sea immediately CEASE, Still…because Christ Jesus, the very God and very Man, begotten not made, the Lord God, the second person of the trinity is the Lord of creation. When Jesus speaks the creator is speaking.

#6 Fearful Salvation (v. 16-17).

1. [16] Then the men feared the LORD exceedingly, and they offered a sacrifice to the LORD and made vows.

a. Feared – Worship – Vowed.

i. They moved from fear of the storm to fear of the Lord of Heaven and Earth.

ii. Accidental first-fruit converts of gentile men. That will

iii. He’s a horrible prophet…its almost like salvation belongs to the Lord.

iv. You are probably not a worse evangelist than Jonah.

v. God continues to save and if you live long enough you know he saves through people throwing bibles out of trains, and people quoting scripture at plays means to mock God and the bible…The word of the Lord cuts the heart and changes heart.

vi. Because God not only preserves our life but our Lives – our souls…Look in 17.

2. [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. (ESV)

a. Jonah was rescued. He fled God. He thought his life was over and not worth living. But God spares him in mercy, and will restore him for ministry…

b. God, “appointed” He is sovereign over creatures, creation, and history: Jonah is a wonderful anticipation of Christ’s being thrown into death and chaos only for God to after he had gone down into the grave to be raised again to life after 3 days and 3 nights.

c. Christ is risen for you! If you are in Christ you to have died to sin. This means you are no longer fleeing from God’s word. And you have been made alive again to now pursue God and pursue God’s word in your life.

d. God in his intricate overseeing of History worked hundreds of these details thoughout the Old Testament…the serpent in the wilderness lifted up like Christ on the cross…Jonah descending down only to be raised again after three days and three nights..

e. When the apostles who witnessed Christ in the flesh bore witnesses to the reality that Christ died and is alive again, they do not preach the truth that Jesus, being the God man died and was made alive again into a vacuum.

f. The preach it into the context of a string of beautiful references to the messiah and what he would do.

g. When the disciples first hear of the resurrection it’s like a movie flashback of all that Christ said and the Old Testament anticipations of this climactic event

h. Jonah 1:17 is Another pearl In the neglace of evidences that makes the resurrection plausible and persuasive.

i. It is taking this small pearl of anticipation and placing and stringing it together with all that is said of Jesus, born of woman, born to be the new prophet, priest, and kind, of the tribe of Judah, in the line of David, in Bethelehm, in humility, and on and on that you step back and see what the apostles understood in a thunderclap of clarity. Christ was crucified an he is risen again!

i. Jesus said in the parable of the rich man, “they have Moses and the Prophets let them hear them” let them read and believe them.

ii. God saves sinners through the Resurrected Jesus.

iii. Do you believe this? How will you respond to the Word of the Lord? Flee from it? Or hear it with joy. Christ died. Christ is risen. Christ is reigning

iv. PRAY.

v. Benediction.

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