SERMON SERIES: THE RUNNING MAN A study through the book of Jonah – Gods Ridiculous Mercy to a People Undeserving
SUB TOPIC: I AM JONAH
Dear friends:
A mother was driving to school one day, and her youngest child was standing in the seat beside her. Realizing the danger, she said to him, “Sit down, dear, I may have to stop suddenly and you’ll be thrown against the windshield.”
“No!” the little boy refused.
“Please sit down, dear, I don’t want you to get hurt,” the mother insisted.
“No!” came the stubborn reply.
Finally, she reached over and pulled him down. He sat there sullenly for a moment, then said, “I may be sitting down on the outside, but I’m standing up on the inside.”
How often we respond to authority that way. We submit to it on the outside, but inside we’re saying, “I resent it.”
Or, outwardly, to other people, we may appear to be complying with God’s commandments and living a holy life, but inwardly we are imagining or planning evil. That was Jonah and today we are saying I am Jonah
INTRODUCTION:
Word association; Sesame? Michael? David andBathsheba, Al Green, Gore, Al-cohol, Jonah..
CONTEXT:
Jonah the son of Amittai who is this Jonah the son of Amittai? Jonah the son of Amittai first shows up in 2 Kings 14:23-27 (read). The basic idea is that the Israelites were being besieged by a powerful army from the North called the Assyrians, and the LORD used Jonah to prophesy to King Jeroboam II (a show of Gods mercy coz Scripture clearly says that Jeroboam was a wicked king). Jonahs prophecy led to the protection of their northern border and decisively protected them against the Assyrians, providing them victory and security within their ancient borders. Now, this made Jonah a national hero! He was praised, loved and heralded as the guy who saved Israel from certain destruction at the hand of the powerful Assyrians.
His name Jonah means dove and son of Amittai means son of faithfulness/truthfulness.
Jews used to name their kids like Africans, they usually named their children in line with what they hoped or prayed their child would turn out to be like we do; So you would assume someone whos name means dove, son of faithfulness would be a man who is gentle and merciful toward others, and faithful to the task God gives him right? Wrong!
Jonah was anything but gentle and merciful, and he was anything but faithful to the task the LORD had given him, even when Gods word so clearly came to him. What we will see in this chapter and really throughout this whole book is Gods ridiculous compassion for a people undeserving.
This book is called Jonah, but its not about Jonah, this prophet is sent to Nineveh, but its not ultimately about the Ninevites, theres a great fish that shows up in this book, but its not about a great fish. This book is about God, and Gods lavish, scandalous, ridiculous compassion to those who do not deserve it. Throughout the book we will see not Jonah, but GOD as the main character who is compassionate to the pagans who have rejected Him, and compassionate to the prophet who has rebelled against Him. Because you see there are 2 ways to run away from God;
By being very, very bad, and acting in contradiction with Gods Word like the Ninevites, or
By being very, very good, in fact too good to agree with Gods Word but according to your own terms like Jonah .
My prayer is that we would choose a third way, that we would repentantly and joyfully accept Gods compassion, throw ourselves upon His mercy and allow Him to have full rule over our lives.
Read Jonah Chapter 1; PRAY
Today in chapter one, we will see and talk about three things; Rebellion, Repercussions and Rescue. A rebellious people, who suffer the Repercussions of their Rebellion, but cry out to God and experience His rescue.
So lets dive in;
THE REBELLION
We have all rebelled against God – Like both the prophet and the pagans we have all rebelled against to God.
Here was Jonahs Responsibility: (read Jonah 1:1-2) Jonah had one job, one task, not 58 different things he had to do, just one. Like he had one task and not badly in the lineage of Israels prophets from which he comes, this wasnt even a hard task. Of all the prophets of God, Jonahs job was by far the easiest, if you compare him with the other prophets, Jonah had it good. Quick Bible study, just so we see that Jonah in comparison was given an easy task. In Isaiah 20:2-3 (Read), God commanded Isaiah to walk around naked from the street to the synagogue for 3 years! And he wasnt a young man eh, he had a wife and grown children!
Mini-Ill: So imagine your dad now imagine your dad walking into this church naked, for 3 years! Ushers I wonder whether youll even know where to begin with that. By Isaiah 49, hes tired and feels as though he prophesied to the wind, but even then his response to God was; here I am, send me.
Prophet Jeremiah had an equally difficult time being a prophet heres what the Lord told him in Jeremiah 16:2 (Read),
Mini-Ill: Can you imagine if Jeremiah was dating someone and he calls her to break up with her? babe its not you, its the LORD! Hes the only guy in human history who could have legitimately get away with that tired line. Jeremiah was not an older man like Isaiah, God called him when he was only about 17 years old, by the time Gods telling him this, hes a young healthy man with young healthy sexual urges and desires, who had to grow up solo, who had to grow up watching everyone elses wedding except his own, who was invited to everyone elses baby dedication but his own, but even then, He said in Jeremiah 20 God you lied to me!, but right after that he says that the Word of the LORD was like a fire shut up in his bones and he cannot help but prophesy, he didnt ran away, from the task he remained faithful to it.
Prophet Ezekiel didnt have it easy either, in Ezekiel 4 (Read). Ezekiel had to sleep 390days on his right side for the sins of Israel and just when he thought it was over he had to sleep another 40 days on his left side for the sins of Judah while eating food prepared with cow dung (human excrement), but he didnt ran away from it,
Hosea was commanded to marry a prostitute and every day he had to bear the pain of his heart breaking because his wife had found someone more desirable than him, but he stayed the course, he never ran away
Then theres Jonah. This clown was just asked to do one thing, go talk to the people of Nineveh. God said go and Jonah said nope! And you have to ask, maze, are you sure this guy should be standing in the same line as Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Hosea, these great prophets of God? My answer. I dunno bana, maybe he got the wrong memo, coz hes the first and ONLY prophet in the Bible to have ever rebelled against God! The million-dollar question is Why?. Why Jonah? Why would you do this? God gave him a task and Scripture says; (Read Jonah1:3a- but Jonah)
But Jonah 2 of the most unfortunate words in this book: By the way in the Bible when a sentence says; But then followed by a human name? Its usually a bad sign. Adam and Eve knew what God had said, BUT Adam, went and ate the fruit. Moses was supposed to speak to the rock, BUT Moses, arrogantly struck it instead. David knew that Bathsheba was Uriahs wife, BUT David, do you see a pattern here? Its only positive when But is followed by God But God.. Jonah knew full well what the LORD had commanded Him to do, but Jonah fled instead. His hope was to flee from the presence of the LORD. Now Jonah knew full well he couldnt really ran away from Gods presence, as a good Hebrew boy (a prophet no less), he knew Psalm 139:7 (read*). Jonah knows that God is omnipresent, he knows he cant run away from God, so what does Scripture mean by he rose to flee the presence of God? Jonah was running away from a relational space with God, he was running away from Gods relational presence. The Hebrew word for presence means face, Jonah was trying to ran away from Gods face, put differently, Jonah didnt want God all up in his face. He was running away from a meaningful, intimate relationship with God.
Mini-Illustration: you know how sometimes married couples fight and then one of them leaves the living room and goes to bed, and even when the wife or husband goes to bed he sticks to one side and she sticks to another and theres the great rift valley between them? Mpaka if one persons foot accidentally touches the other they jerk and theyre told; toka hapa wewe na hizo miguu zako! They are not really running away from each others presence, they are still in the same house and same bed, but that space, is representative of them running away from each other in a relational capacity, its them saying I want nothing to do with you right now, dont talk to me, dont touch me, if I could, I would rid myself of you.
Relate: Thats what Jonah is trying to do here. Hes fully aware that God is there and sees everything, but he doesnt want anything to do with Him and the responsibility the LORD has given him. Isnt this what we do ourselves we know God is around us and that one is okay with us but theres some depth of intimacy we want to run away from? Ill: Young ladies beware – You know prayer is not my gift
By his flagrant disobedience and rebellion, Jonah is making some big statements about what he thinks of God and what he thinks of Nineveh. So what is it about Nineveh that Jonah just couldnt stomach? What is it about Nineveh that literally made Jonah 2,500km in the opposite direction?
STATE: It involves who the Ninevites were to the Israelites
Ninevehs wickedness (Read Jonah 1:2) God talked about the evil of this city that has come up before Him. Like any city, Nineveh was a place of immorality, inequality, impunity and the same issues every city in the world has ever had. People generally dont move into the city to be upright, they move in to get away from rural accountability and live the high life of money, sex and power. Nineveh was a great big city that took 3 days walking to get across the city. So its wickedness was a one reason why a good, upright Hebrew boy like Jonah wouldnt want to go there, but there was bigger reason. Remember how earlier Jonah had prophesied and protected Israel from the Assyrians. The capital city of Assyria was called
Capital city of Assyrias wickedness Nineveh is where a lot of the policies of the Assyrian empire would be made and supported, both by their leaders as well as their citizens. The Assyrians were a brutal, brutal lot. They were known to tie prisoners of war to horses and drag them for kilometers until whatever city, town, village or country was filled with the blood of their own. They had city gates so wide that you could ride 3 chariots on them. They would regularly assemble thousands of human heads (not skulls) and make a mountain of the heads at the city gate in Nineveh to serve as a warning to what the Ninevites and Assyrians could do to you should anyone be dumb enough to mess with them. They would rape and kill little prepubescent boys and girls, they would skin their enemies alive, and then drape the human skin over the city walls as a warning.
Now do you see why he said no? Jonah had lost his aunts, uncles, friends and families in the most brutal ways to these very Ninevites. Hes the mighty prophet and national hero who protected Israel from these brutal Assyrians, and now hes being sent to the enemy.
Scenario A: The Ninevites repent and become a strong, powerful, prosperous nation, but Good News for Nineveh means Bad News for Israel, because they will likely expand and enslave Israel, and Jonah goes from national hero, to national traitor.
Scenario B: The Ninevites refuse to repent, and given their track-record in mastering the art of torture, what do you think theyll do to Jonah once they reject his message?…now can we empathize with Jonah a bit?
Mini-Illustration: imagine being a Jew in the 1940s and God asks you to go tell the Nazis who raped and killed your mother, placed your father in a gas chamber and experimented on your sister about Jesus. Tell the truth would you go?
Relate: and this is where it all comes together, if you know you would not go, please do me a favour, put your hand in your chest like this and say; I am Jonah, say that with me (pause, fb)
Relate: You are Jonah, I am Jonah. The same way Jonah would rather live in comfort without God, than live radically with Him? I am Jonah, you are Jonah. You see Jonah was faithful to HIMSELF, and when Jonahs life plan started parting direction with Gods plan for Jonah, Jonah chose his life goals as opposed to Gods.
Our definition of rebellion: We usually think to ourselves; ya, I know Im not perfect, but at least Im not a rebel against God! We think to ourselves; at least I go to church, at least I tithe, at least Im in an E-Group, at least Ive done plug-in, at least Im not sleeping around, at least Im not corrupt, based on these things, theres no way Im a rebel against God. But you know what;
Rebellion Biblically Defined is? Simply saying no to God. As long as you say no to God, you are a rebel against God. In the words of J.D. Greear, you are never further away from God than when you are close to Him and you say no. Actually let me make it worse for you1 Samuel 15:23 – Rebellion against him is as bad as witchcraft.
Like Jonah: Jonah was obedient to God in every other respect but one, and like him, many of us read our Bibles, pray every day, are faithful members of this church, and look like youre walking with God except in one seemingly tiny area of our lives. Maybe for you its a;
Relationship that you know is ungodly, you know youve been living in sin in this relationship, youve tried justifying it, you know God is saying walk away, but you wont quit it. Every other part of your life is fine, but when it comes to this relationship, you wont let Him or anyone else who speaks His Word in love touch this area of your life. Maybe for you its
Money the Lord has been asking you to be faithful in your giving or support a specific ministry financially that will go towards making disciples and in your heart you know what the Lord is calling you to do, but you say; no! I need that money for my kids (as though God cant provide), I need that money for security (as though God cant protect), I need that money, no! Maybe its your
Time the Lord has been calling you to give more of your time to serve others in church or in your E-Group, or to start and E-Group or join a ministry of the church, and you just do not want to sacrifice your time. Perhaps its an even bigger
Sacrifice for some of you God may be asking you to leave the comfort and security of this city and like Jonah move to a difficult, uncomfortable part of Kenya, Africa or the World to make disciples in that area. Maybe for you Hes asking you to do that not as a full time missionary, though there are certainly some Hes calling to do that, but Hes asking you to go as doctor, teacher, engineer, architect, musician to a people who do not know Him and call them to repent and believe in Christ.
Will your heart and soul say yes? Or will you say no like Jonah? Jonah is a guy who is faithful in every area of his life but there is one where he says no to God.
CS: So as Jonah is fleeing the presence of the Lord and his task to go to Nineveh (Read Jonah 1:3b)
Rebellion will take you down
Jonah went down it is a picture of the rebellious prophets spiritual life shutting down. Look at the word play coz literary masterpiece, so shout out the word down every time you see it, ok? Here we go; (read the downs). Hes going further and further away from God with every step.
Down to sleep he couldnt care less what happens to the people above deck, he wanted to do his own thing. This is not just any sleep the word used here is the same word used when it says god put Adam to sleep, its a deep sleep that resembles death. The picture God is painting for us here is that of a man who is slowly heading toward spiritual coma as he gives in to the subtle waves of sin and disobedience. The people upstairs in the ship are crying out for God, THEY have to wake him up to pray to his God, something he should have already been doing without being asked. But Jonahs heart had become cold, both toward God and men. The subtle, often unseen waves of disobedience and rebellion had swept him away into a deep spiritual sleep.
The Gospel group Casting Crowns puts it this way; Its a slow fade, when you give yourself away, its a slow fade, when black and white turns to grey and thoughts invade, choices are made, a price will be paid when you give yourself away. People never crumble in a day, daddies never crumble in a day, families never crumble in a day, its always a slow fade. The waves of disobedience to God and his call happens in small subtle waves and before we realize it, we are in the sea of spiritual slumber
Adultery at 40 begins with pornography at 20, grand corruption at a national level begins with bribing cops kidogo tu, alcoholism at 35 starts with illegal drinking at 16, the arrogant, unyielding man or woman who never listens to anyone at 60 begins with avoiding and dismissing spiritual accountability and authority in our lives at 30 and being indifferent to the cries of our city which is in spiritual slavery to sin, Satan and the grave starts with refusing to engage in evangelism with our classmates, workmates, neighbours and family.
The enemy is ready for your rebellion
Down to a ship that was ready there was a ship ready to take Jonah away from God and away from Gods call on his life.
Relate: Heres a massive lesson from the life of Jonah; “if you want to ran away from God, there is always a ship ready to take you to Tarshish.”. If youre a married man, theres always some girl who will respond to your flirting with her even though she knows youre married. If youre a married woman, theres always some man whos too good to be true, who says and does all the things your husband wont and hes ready to sweep you off your feet, in complete disregard of your husband as you explore your feelings with him. If you and I are greedy, there will always be a great deal on something we absolutely have to buy. If you dont want to go out evangelizing, theres always another commitment more important than bringing people to the Lord. If you want to reject Gods rule over your body, theres always some good reason to sidestep Scripture.
Illustrate: You know how we dare God in our prayersyou tell God, Haki if you dont want me to fall into the sin of fornication dont allow those cheeks to pass before my face. Maybe your struggle is alcohol, you tell him please if you dont want me to fall dont allow so and so to call me today because its Friday.i kid you notthey will call you.
Dont you think you have an enemy who WANTS to aide you in your disobedience. Dont you think you have an enemy whos Job Description, his entire J.D. is to ready the ship for your disobedience? And when I say that, youll usually respond to me saying; Ya, I know this relationship is not biblical, but I just have a peace about it. When people say that I literally have to hold my hands together like this tightly, just so that I dont give them a Nigerian who is yua fada slap. Wacha these East African slaps of ours, this is a proper slap as you ask them who is yua Fada?! Because in essence what they are saying when they do that is that God wants this for everyone else, but for you, just you, He has given you peace to disobey Him. In Genesis 3 when Eve was about to eat the fruit and Satan says; you will not surely die, you will become like God., you know what hes doing? Hes giving her peace about disobeying God! Your enemies whole J.D. is to give you peace about disobeying God.
Peace is not the mark of whether or not we should do something. Gods Word is!
This is the rock, regardless of how we feel, what peace we have or do not have, THIS is the rock we stand on to know what Gods will is, and then to obey that will.
c). Rebellion will cost you
Jonah 1:3b.He paid his fare and went aboard with the crew to sail to Spain, where he would be away from the LORD”.(GNT)
God only funds his missions He doesnt fund rebellion. You are on your own my guy
APPLICATION:
So as we close, I just want to ask one question;
Will you say yes?
Salvation maybe you are like the pagan and you need to repent and believe, give your whole life over, youve sense God tug at youwill you say yes?
