10-11-09 Series: The Principle of the Path #3; The Story of Jonah – Go!
10-11-09 The Story of Jonah – Go!
I want to start off by asking our youth a question. Has there ever a time when your parents asked you to do something that you didn’t want to do? That’s never happened has it? Why do you think they do that? I heard from a reliable source that all parents sign an agreement to work together to make their kid’s lives unpleasant. They just do that because that’s the kind of people that they are, right?
Parents, has there ever been a time when you asked your kids to do something, and you knew it was for their own good, but you also knew that you were going to catch flack for it? You knew even before you asked your children to do something that they were going to gripe and complain and if they could, they would even try and avoid doing it if they thought they could get away with it. Have you ever had that happen before?
Why do you still do it then? You know that there’s going to be complaining and carrying on. You know it’s going to be rough. You know they don’t understand why they need to do it, and so they’re going to try and get out of it, so why do you keep going? Why do you still ask them to do it?
You know that they’re not going to do the job as well as you would anyhow. You know that they’re hearts are not going to be in it, so they’re going to procrastinate and you might even have to ground them for not doing it, so why ask them to do it at all. I mean come on, why do you follow through when it would be easier and probably even done better if you just did it yourself. Why do you do that?
It’s because it teaches them something doesn’t it. We ask our kids to do things that they don’t understand right now, but by doing those things, some day they will have learned something very valuable about life, won’t they? Kid’s, you don’t understand it right now, but your parents ask you to do things around the house that you may hate to do, but they ask you to do those things because it teaches you valuable things about life that are necessary as you move toward becoming an adult. You don’t know it yet, but the reason that your parents ask you to do things that you don’t like to do is because . . .they love you. As twisted as it may seem and though it may seem illogical and it doesn’t make any sense to you right now, the reason why your parents ask you to do things that you don’t want to do is because they love you.
If you are a Christian, if you are a follower of Christ, then you are a child of God and the same thing that is true for our children is true for us. God asks us to do things that don’t make sense to us because our perspective is too small. Our worldview and our understanding of the world is so small that we have a hard time understanding why God asks us to do things and to make matters worse, God asks us to do things that we don’t like to do, and so we avoid those things like the plague, just like our kids.
We don’t complain as much about these things. We let God know how we feel by not committing time to the things that God asks us to do. I mean, I’ve never said, “God I can’t believe that you ask me to tithe. How unreasonable. I mean, come on, that’s not in my best interest. Do you know how much I would have to sacrifice in order to do that? You must be off your rocker.” I’ve never said things like that to God, but I may as well, when I don’t do what he asks me to do. I don’t talk back to God like our kids may do to us. I just ignore him. If I had done to my parents, that which I sometimes do to God, I would have been grounded most of my growing up years and my butt would have been permanently red.
Sometimes I wish my kids would say to me, “Dad, I don’t understand why I have to weed the garden, but because you’re such a good dad, and because I believe you have my best interest in mind, I’m going to go out and weed the garden in a good mood and thank you Dad for this great opportunity that you’ve given me today.” Right?
Sometimes I think God would love us, as his children, to say, “God, I don’t understand why you’ve called to do these things, but because I believe you have my best interest in mind, and because I know that you have plans to prosper me and not to hurt me, I’m going to do these things with joy and I just want to thank you for the opportunity to do these things for you and your kingdom this day.”
It would be great if our kids did that and it would be great if we did that to God, but often times we don’t and we miss out on great blessings. WE miss out on becoming the people that God created us to be. We miss out on great blessing. We miss out on seeing God do great things through us. We miss out on seeing people’s lives being eternally changed.
And so this morning I’d like to share a story with you about a character that didn’t do what God called him to do and instead of going down the path of righteousness, he went down another path and because he didn’t go where God called him, he experienced some suffering. He expereience suffering because he ignored God’s call on his life. So if you have your Bibles, turn with me to the book of Jonah chapter 1. Most of us know the story of Jonah. You don’t have to grow up in the church to know the story of Jonah. It’s kind of like the story of Noah’s Ark, it’s really well known not only in the church world, but in the secular world as well. Here’s the story.
The word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai: “Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.”
The first word that God speaks to Jonah is always the first word that he speaks to us. The word is “Go”. There are always people who are far from God. There are always people that don’t know the love and forgiveness of God. There are always people who misunderstand who God is. There are always people who have no peace and no joy and no love and God says “Go, and tell them about the good news of me and my kingdom.” Jesus’ last words before he returned to heaven were “Go”.
Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Matthew 28:19-20 (NIV)
God calls us to go, but for most of the church’s history we have not been very good at “Going”. Most of us think to ourselves, “I don’t want to go.” I think to myself there’s nothing in it for me, so why should I go. It doesn’t seem like God has my best interest in mind when he calls me to go. It seems very much like weeding the garden seems to my kids.
Now Jonah is a prophet. He is a man of God. He is accustomed to doing God’s will and speaking God’s word to people, but in this case Jonah doesn’t want to go to Nineveh. In his mind, Nineveh is hell. Nineveh is the far side of the tracks. Nineveh is where all the sinners are from and as far as Jonah is concerned those people are not worth his time or energy to go there. In his mind, he doesn’t understand why God needs him to do anything. In his mind he’s thinking, “God why don’t you just send down a little fire and brimstone on those people, because that’s what they deserve. Jonah’s being pretty judgmental. He’s thinking, “I got better things to do.” For Jonah, God asking him to go to Nineveh is like me asking my kids to go weed the garden. Jonah doesn’t even like these people, so why should he go. My kid’s don’t like vegetables, so why should they weed them. Do you see the similarities?
Now the crazy part about this story is that Jonah’s perspective is very limited, much like my kid’s perspective is limited. He’s not seeing God’s perspective and he’s not trusting that God has his best intentions in mind, so he does what many of us do when God asks us to do something that we don’t understand and that initially seems repulsive, we don’t go. God says to Jonah, “Go”.
But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the Lord. Jonah 1:1-3 (NIV)
The first thing that I’d like to point out is Jonah’s direction. He is headed away from Nineveh where God has called him to go. He’s running away from God. It says that he went down to Joppa and this is the author’s signal us that for a while that’s going to be the direction of Jonah’s for a while. His life is headed down. He’s moving away from God and away from heaven, and he is moving down toward a hellish existence. That’s what happens when we move away from God and his will; it always moves us away from who God created us to be. It moves us away from God’s blessing in our lives. It moves us away from God’s goodness in our lives. It moves us away from God’s peace, and his joy, and his love. It moves us away from heaven on earth.
4 Then the Lord sent a great wind on the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up. 5 All the sailors were afraid and each cried out to his own god,
Notice that the sailors are not worshipers of God Almighty. They each worship a false god. They worship some inferior god, not the Creator of the universe.
And they threw the cargo into the sea to lighten the ship. But Jonah had gone below deck, where he lay down and fell into a deep sleep.
Notice Jonah’s direction. Jonah keeps going down. He went down from Joppa and now he’s gone below deck. He’s now figuratively under the water. The further that Jonah gets away from God and his will for Jonah’s life, the further that Jonah’s life goes down hill. Jonah’s life becomes more and more hellish the further that he gets from God.
6 The captain went to him and said, “How can you sleep? Get up and call on your god! Maybe he will take notice of us, and we will not perish.” 7
It’s interesting to me that it takes moments like this one where our lives are in great peril and we realize that we can’t do anything to save ourselves that we turn to God. When our lives are out of control, we find that we have no other option, no other choice other than to turn to God and trust him. Why is that? I think it has to do with control. We like to be in control and when our lives are out of control we cry out to God to help.
Now, there is an interesting parallel between this Old Testament story and a very similar New Testament story. In the New Testament story there is terrible storm just like in this story and there is a boat just like there is here, and there are men on that boat that are fearful that they are fearful of dieing just like in this story, and on that boat there is another person who is sleeping through the storm in the bottom of the boat, just like this story. That person is not Jonah, but Jesus. When the disciples wake him, he gets up and he rebukes the wind and the waves and both the wind and the waves listen to him and the wind and the waves become completely calm. Jesus is the God of the wind and the waves, but this story has a different ending.
Then the sailors said to each other, “Come, let us cast lots (like drawing straws or doing rock scissors, paper) to find out who is responsible for this calamity.” They cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah. 8 So they asked him, “Tell us, who is responsible for making all this trouble for us?
They are now asking Jonah who is this god that you worship? The sailors understand that Jonah’s God is causing this storm, but they don’t really know who he is, so they begin to interrogate Jonah to find out more.
What do you do? Where do you come from? What is your country? From what people are you?” And you thought I asked a lot of questions! 9 He answered, “I am a Hebrew and I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the land.” 10 This terrified them and they asked, “What have you done?” (They knew he was running away from the Lord, because he had already told them so.) 11 The sea was getting rougher and rougher. So they asked him, “What should we do to you to make the sea calm down for us?” and Jonah must have heard God speak to him because he immediately answers 12 “Pick me up and throw me into the sea,” he replied, “and it will become calm.
Jonah tells the crew what God has said even though he’s certain it will cost him his life. The Christian life is paradoxical. It doesn’t cost you anything to receive God’s love and grace. We can’t earn it and we certainly don’t deserve it, and yet, God gives it to us anyway. On the other hand, the Christian life will cost you everything. We are called to say, “Father, your will be done and your kingdom to come, not mine.” We are called to become people who submit to God’s will, because his perspective is so much greater. Jesus was willing to give up his very life for the sake of God’s kingdom. He calls us to do the same. Jonah gets this. He says throw me overboard. At this point he willingly sacrifices his life to save theirs.
John 15:12-13 (NIV)
Jesus said, My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Jesus was willing to die for you and I, so that we might have abundant life. He calls us to be willing to do the same for one another.13 Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.
I came across this quote last weekend. “The world is about others except for one tiny exception.”
Jonah tells the sailors, you must throw me into the sea. At this point, God is able to use him because he is willing to give up his life for the kingdom of God. Jonah is no longer thinking selfishly. His perspective has changed from focusing on self to focusing on God.
Jonah said, I know that it is my fault that this great storm has come upon you.” 13 Instead of throwing Jonah into the sea, the men did their best to row back to land.
Why did they do that? The reason they didn’t initially throw Jonah overboard was because they didn’t want to kill Jonah. These are good men, but they don’t yet know God. But by not throwing Jonah into the sea, they too have turned away from God’s will, and whenever we don’t listen to God and his will, things always get worse.
Instead, the men did their best to row back to land. But they could not, for the sea grew even wilder than before. Then they cried to the Lord,
Who did they cry out to? Did they cry out to their own gods? No! They cried out to the Lord. God’s word always gives life. When we speak God’s will and we speak God’s words to others, it always gives life. When we do what God calls us to do, it always gives life. Jonah is beginning to relent and he’s beginning to realize that he can’t run from God. Be begins to share with others who God is and what his will is, and all of a sudden they are praying to God.
Then the sailors cried to the Lord, “O Lord, please do not let us die for taking this man’s life. Do not hold us accountable for killing an innocent man – for you, O Lord, have done as you pleased.” Then they took Jonah and threw him overboard, and the raging sea grew calm.
Just do what God asks. When my kids do what I ask, there raging dad grows calm. The same is true with God, because he has plans for you to prosper you and not to harm you, and he gets angry when we don’t trust him and his will.
At this the men greatly feared the Lord, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows to him.
These sailors begin to have a relationship with the one true God. They are worshipping him! But for Jonah, he continues his voyage down. Direction determines destination and Jonah is sinking down, down, down into his watery grave. As we’ve been talking about, our actions take us down a path and that path has a destination and Jonah is about ready to reach his destination.
But the Lord provided a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was inside the fish three days and three nights.
Three days and three nights, does that remind anybody of something? Yes!
40 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. Matthew 12:40 (NIV)
And after 3 days and 3 nights inside his watery grave our story says,
And the Lord commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land. Jonah 2:1 (NIV)
Jonah experiences redemption. Jonah is born again, so to speak. The imagery of Jonah is of being born again, because apart from God’s miraculous intervention, Jonah would be dead and apart from Jesus’ miraculous intervention, we would be dead. The imagery of Jonah is the belly of the fish is a sign of being born again. It’s a tight spot with lots of water, and all of a sudden he is thrust out into the fresh air of life. Isn’t that cool!
Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time: 2 “Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you.” 3 Jonah obeyed the word of the Lord and went to Nineveh. Jonah 2:2-3
And Jonah began to preach the word of the Lord to the Ninevites, but something completely unexpected happened. This vast city of evil repented. They realized that they had been living a life that dishonored God and from the least to the greatest, everyone repented of their sin and
10 When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he had compassion and did not bring upon them the destruction he had threatened.
1 This change of plans greatly upset Jonah, and he became very angry. 2 So he complained to the Lord about it: “Didn’t I say before I left home that you would do this, Lord? That is why I ran away to Tarshish! I knew that you are a merciful and compassionate God, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love. You are eager to turn back from destroying people. 3 Just kill me now, Lord! I’d rather be dead than alive if what I predicted will not happen.” Jonah 4:1-4 (NLT)
Do you know what the whole point of this story is? God sent Jonah to Nineveh to change Jonah. One could argue that God could have sent Jonah to change the Ninevites, but God could have sent anyone. Why did he pick Jonah? He picked Jonah because he knew the condition of the Jonah’s heart towards other people. Jonah did not have a compassionate heart towards people. Jonah was judgemental. Jonah didn’t love his neighbor as himself, so God sent him there to teach him who God was and who God was calling him to be. He was calling Jonah to Go out and share with people the Good news of God’s compassion and God’s mercy, and God’s love. Why, so that he would become the person that he called and created him to be.
Leadership retreat – people explained that they had been changed by doing outreach.
Next week we are not going to worship here as we usually do. I am not going to preach another sermon on “Going”. We are not going to talk about going where God has called us to go. Instead, we are going to go. We are going to trust God even if we don’t understand God.
Most of the people in this town understand God to be the harsh, judgmental, condemning God that Jonah and many others have made God into. Instead, God wants us to unselfishly serve our community to reveal a God who has great compassion, and mercy and love and who is slow to anger and eager to turn back from destroying people.
God told Jonah to Go. Jesus called his disciples to Go and they went and changed the world. We are called to Go and do likewise.
Because, remember, “The world is about others except for one small exception.” The greatest two commandments are about Loving God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength and loving those that God loves – loving our neighbor as our self. When we get that right, heaven invades earth.
Life Link:
Somewhere during your gathering, ask your group what the 3 core areas of New Community and express why each is important.
v Did you ever run away from home or thought about doing so? Where did you or would you go?
v Why did Jonah run away from God? Why do we think about running away from home? Are there any connections between your story and Jonahs?
v Why do we not understand our parents or God sometimes? Why don’t they seem reasonable sometimes? (Parent’s perspective vs. child’s/ God’s perspective vs. ours)
v Is there anything that God asks you to do, but you resist because it doesn’t make any sense to you? (You might suggest the following and add some of your own: Tithing, outreach, prayer, Bible reading, etc)
o When someone poses a question, ask the person if they want to pose their question to the group or not? If yes, then ask the group, “Does ______(tithing) make sense to you or have you taken a step of faith in that area and watched God bless you?
v We have said that Direction Determines Destination. We saw in Jonah’s story that when he fled from the Lord, his path led away from blessing and toward some tough trials.
o If you are currently doing something in your Christian faith that is bringing you blessing, please share it with the group at this time.
o Are there areas in your life where God is calling you to “Go” or “Do” something, but you have been resisting? Are you going to change paths and go in a different direction as a result of this message?
v One might think that God called Jonah to “Go” to the Ninevites because he wanted to change them. However, God’s primary purpose in calling Jonah to “Go” was to change him. Is there anything in your heart that is hardened toward other people, and do you think God is calling you to “Go” and serve your community as a way of changing your heart?
Posted in Sermons - Text