ABF ABF ABF. Baptist Church. Series: A Moody Missionary Meets The Merciful Master Lesson: God s Compassionate Control. Date: Sunday, September 4, 2011

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1 Series: A Moody Missionary Meets The Merciful Master Lesson: God s Compassionate Control Text: Jonah Overview (L1) Date: Sunday, September 4, 2011 Colonial ABF Hills Baptist Church Key = Teacher Information = Discussion Starter Series: A Moody Missionary Meets the Merciful Master Lesson: God s Compassionate Control Text: Jonah Overview (L1) Date: Sunday, September 4, 2011 Colonial ABF Hills Baptist Church BACKGROUND Interpreting Jonah In recent years, liberal Bible scholars have presented several reasons for interpreting Jonah as a parable or allegory, rather than as a literal, historical event. Let s briefly deal with this position, although we will go into more detail at appropriate points in the story: 1. These scholars suggest that Jonah was fictionally written in the later time of Ezra and Nehemiah as a protest against narrow- minded nationalism and exclusivism. For such a message to have impact, however, the story would have needed to be regarded as true. 2. Liberals scoff at the miracle of a fish swallowing a man and then spewing him back out alive. While it s not difficult to notice their strong bias playing a role in this dismissal, it s also interesting to note that modern history records the possibility of such a phenomenon. (NOTE: These stories are a bit suspect James Bartley on the Star ABF of the East). Ultimately, however, we acknowledge this to be a miracle by Almighty God. Afterall, Jesus placed it alongside the even greater miracle of His own resurrection (BKC). In other news, this scene with the fish is a minor aspect of this whole story. 3. Some question the size of Nineveh (3:3; 4:1) since excavations have revealed a walled- city circumference of only 8 miles. However, when taken to include the larger metropolitan area (cf. Genesis 10:11-12), this was indeed a great city, several times larger than Samaria, the largest Israelite city. Preaching to this entire metropolis would have easily filled three days. Others are puzzled by the uncommon reference to the king of Nineveh, but to substitude the capital city for a country is common in the Old Testament. Furthermore, at this time, Nineveh was virtually the extent of the king s domain, due to the independence of the provincial governors who were involved in their own tribal wars. 4. Scholars also reject the sudden repentance by the Ninevites as being unnatural (chatper 3). Such a rejection, however, obviously ignores the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit and His possible hearts- softening work in recent historical events: a current time of national weakness, two recent famines, and a total solar eclipse. Furthermore, we understand prophetically that God has a great revival planned for Israel, too (cf. Romans 11:26; Revelation 7:1-8).

2 5. The rapid growth of the vine in 4:6 has armed some to deny the historicity of this entire book. This growth can be explained physically by taking it to be the fast- growing castor bean and supernaturally by seeing the hand of God in orchestraing ( preparing ) its growth for His specific purposes. 6. Against the liberal agenda of dismissing the literal nature of this book are the following: (1) known cities are mentioned throughout the book; (2) Jonah himself was a historical character according to II Kings 14:25; (3) Jesus recognized the historicity of Jonah, including the swallowing by the fish, and based His call to repentance upon the validity of Jonah s message (Matthew 12:39-41; Luke 11:29-32); and (4) no early century rabbi s doubted the authenticity of this book. Historical Context Jonah was born in Gath- Hepher, about 13 miles west of the Sea of Galile. He lived and ministered during the reign of Jeroboam II, king of the Northern Kingdom of Israel ( BC the Northern Kingdom fell to Assyria in 722 BC). This was a time of both Assyrian weakness, because they were fighting with other neighboring tribes (before Tiglath- pileser seized the Assyrian throne in 745 BC his successor, Shalmaneser V, would conquer Israel in 722 BC), and Israeli prosperity, for Jeroboam II expanded Israel s borders to their greatest extent since David and Solomon, by conquering the area of Damascus, according to Jonah s prophecy in II Kings 14:25. Jonah was a contemporary of Hosea and Amos, both of whom prophesied that Assyria would one day become God s tool of judgment upon Israel (cf. Amos 5:27; Hosea 11:5) because of her continued sin. This undoubtably contributed to Jonah s reluctance to go to Nineveh, for he was afraid that he might be regarded as a traitor. Nineveh, second only in size to Babylon, would eventually become the capital of Assyri. It was situated 500 miles northeast of Israel on the Tigris River and boasted an inner wall that was 50 feet wide and 100 feet high, in addition to its outer wall. Nineveh was apparently a vast metropolitan area, similar to a tri- city region (cf. Genesis 10:11-12). Regarding the character of her people, Nahum depicts for us the well- known brutality, idolatry, and immorality of this great city. Structure of the Book The Book of Jonah is easily divided into halves. A chart of parallels helps to demonstrate this: 1:1 Now the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the son of Amittai, saying 1:2 Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it. 1:3 But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD. 1:6b If so be that God will think upon us, that we perish not. 1:16 Then the men feared the LORD exceedingly, and offered a sacrifice unto the LORD, and made vows. Chapter 2 Jonah alone with God. 3:1 And the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the second time, saying 3:2 Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee. 3:3 So Jonah arose, and went unto Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD. 3:9 Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not? 3:5 So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth. Chapter 4 Jonah alone with God.

3 Contemporary Map INTRODUCTION If a book might ever be written entitled Everyman s Biography, one person has suggested it would be outlined this way: Chapter 1 A man walks down a street and falls down a hole that he didn't see. After a while, He gets out. Chapter 2 The man walks down the same street, thinking possibly the hole won't be there. It is, and he falls. He gets out. Chapter 3 The man walks down the same street. He knows the hole is there, but he hopes that he won't fall in the hole. He falls in and then gets out. Chapter 4 The man walks down the same street, knowing there is a hole and knowing he has to avoid the hole. He walks around the hole and doesn't fall in. Chapter 5 The man takes a different street. Indeed, man is a stubborn, slow learner! Long before the Everyman s Biography was written, God wrote another biography that reads like our own. This biography is recorded for us in the book of Jonah. This story reveals a believing man who is successful and serving, then disobedient and convicted, then stiff- necked and rebellious, then repentant and recommitted, then faithful and preaching, then racist and hypocritical, then selfish and angry, then bitter and suicidal, and finally rebuked and broken. Indeed, this is a moody missionary, and in reading his story, we sense we re reading our own. Other characters illuminate this story as well. We read of the heathen sailors who learn to fear God, and we see their attitude echoed by the wicked Ninevites who repented of their sin. We are also introduced to a great fish and a tiny worm. Yet, in reality, this book is neither the autobiography of Jonah (or us, for that matter), nor the historical biography of a nation. Rather, this book is all about the character and work of God. He is the main character of this story. This book is less about Jonah and more about Jonah s God less about the moody missionary and more about his merciful Master! As the book begins, we immediately find Jonah in rebellion running from God. What would make him run from God? Had God been overbearing? Had He asked Jonah to do something too hard? No! In actuality, Jonah was just coming off a very successful time of ministry (cf. II Kings 14:25 he had prophecied and seen fulfilled the expansion of Israel s boundaries). Now, God had given Jonah an opportunity to preach a revival service. Jonah was a prophet; so this should have been just another scheduled meeting. In addition, Jonah should have known that if God commanded it, He would surely help him and keep him safe. This would have been a great opportunity to be used by God to change people. But Jonah fled!

4 Understand the tragedy of this! Since the very first expression of the Gospel in Genesis 3:15, the loving and gracious God of the universe has been active in brining people to Himself through faith and repentance. According to Isaiah 49:3 and other passages (Deuteronomy 4:6-8; I Kings 8:57-61), God s chosen nation of Israel was supposed to be the channel through which His compassion was preached to the gentiles so that they might believe and repent. Having been entrusted with the revleation of this true and living God, they were supposed to be a missionary nation. The mystery of the church in the New Testament (cf. Ephesians 2-3) was preceeded by the obvious reality of God s heart for the whole world in the Old Testament. Israel had the joyful responsibility to be a channel of God s grace to the heathen. Jonah, one of Israel s leaders and preachers, is flat out resisting, rejecting, and rebelling against that responsibility. He refuses to share God s grace with the Ninevites. And, more broadly, Jonah s disobedience to God s commission and his callous indifference toward taking God s love and grace to Nineveh symbolized Israel s indifference to the idolatrous condition of other nations (IMG, Mar/April 07, p. 24). Likewise, we, too, have been given a missional responsibility in this world (cf. Matthew 28:19-20; I Peter 2:9). Ours is the responsibility, as recipients of grace, to be channels of grace to those around us who know nothing of the forgiveness of God and a relationship with Him. Yet, like Jonah, we often reject that responsibility or stubbornly insist on doing it in our timing, in our way, and only to those to whom we want to minister. We are naturally selfish and disobedient to God s will in our ministry toward others. We don t naturally like to leave our comfort zones. We don t naturally like to place ourselves in awkward social situations where we may be hurt or exposed. We want to retain our own freedom to decide when to help people and when to just let them be. How might we be guilty of Jonah s sin? (1) Oftentimes, it s as foundational as simply not thinking about the needs of the lost round about us. Instead, we scoff at the bum begging for change at the I- 465 interchange, or yearn for judgment upon those we would consider to be politically corrupt or dangerous. (2) For some, just as for Jonah, you have disobeyed God s command to let your light shine and to go to the world to share the Gospel with them, and have rather selfishly kept the good news of the gospel from those who are searching for it because you have allowed anger toward them, a feeling that they don t deserve it, or a fear that they might actually repent to drive you from obedience and blessing. (3) Maybe you know that God has laid upon your heart a call to enter into full- time Christian ministry, but you have suppressed that and are running from God with your hands in your ears to His voice. (4) Maybe it s a specific need in this church or a particular unsaved friend that God is burdening your heart for, but you have silenced that voice of God over and over. (5) Perhaps you have spurned God s command to provoke one another to love and to good works and have not made yourself available to those in this local church. (6) Rather than obeying the call of James 2 to forsake favoritism and partiality, you continue to keep your interaction with your coworker or neighbor to a minimum, because he/she just isn t like you and you prefer to scorn his/her social blemishes. The book of Jonah is a call to such people who are resisting surrendering their ministry with others to God. Through the negative example of Jonah and the clear expression of God s character, we are motivated to surrender and obedience. In particular, it is the compassion and control of God that compell us to surrender our ministry to Him. And that really is the theme of this book: the compassionate control of God at work to accomplish surrender (for salvation or service) in the lives of people. Our goal this morning is to do a brief survey of the book, tracing this theme of God s compassionate control and learning with Jonah that you must surrender to God s ministry because of who He is. YOU MUST SURRENDER TO GOD S MINISTRY BECAUSE HE IS IN CONTROL. Throughout the story, God has a two- fold goal: 1) to destroy or restore Nineveh, and 2) to restore Jonah. He must restore Jonah, because His prophet has forgotten the reality of Psalm 139, that no one can escape God s presence. To restore His wayward prophet, God first confronts Jonah with the brick wall of His sovereign control over all things. Most notably, God teaches Jonah that God will have His way through seven specific demonstrations of control. 1. God sent out a storm (1:4) The Hebrew word literally means to throw far or to hurl. The picture is as if God entered into the heavenly storehouse of all the natural disasters, specfically picked this particular storm, and hurled it in Jonah s direction. Jonah got the message, for in 2:3 he acknowledged that they were Thy billows and Thy waves. 2. God controlled the lot (1:7) After doing everything they could to avoid drowning, the sailors determined that the storm must be divine punishment upon one of them. Out of desperation, they decided to cast lots to detemine who was the guilty party. The lot just happens to fall on Jonah. In a situation reminiscient of the book of Esther, while God s name is never mentioned, we know that He controlled the outcome of the lots. Proverbs 16:33 says, The lot is cast into the lap, but the whole disposing thereof is of the LORD.

5 3. God prepared a fish (1:17) In this verse, we have the first of four occurences in this book of a Hebrew word that demonstrates God s appointing or preparation of a specific item to prove His control. Here, God is appointing a fish. God s control extends far beyond people and their circumstances. God does His will among the animal world as well. 4. God spoke to the fish (2:10) Using the same word as 1:1 in which God is described as saying a word to Jonah, 2:10 reveals God as speaking to the fish. It is as if God went to the depths of the deep blue sea and found just the right fish for the task. Perhaps He said something like this: Now Nemo, I want you to head over to such- and- such an area and hang out for a while. You ll notice a fierce storm overhead and a ship struggling in the violent seas. Just hang out there for a while. You ll eventually notice a man get thrown overboard and start to sink. I want you to swallow him us now, no teeth, okay?! Three days later, God again spoke to the fish saying, Thanks for the good work, Nemo, but I need Jonah back. Please spit him back up on the Israeli coast. What a vivid picture of God s control! 5. God prepared a gourd (4:6) In chapter 4, God prepares or appoints three more entities to accomplish His sovereing purpose. 6. God prepared a worm (4:7). 7. God prepared a wind (4:8). Jonah got frustrated by these events and responded selfishly. He had to learn the lesson that God runs the universe and not Jonah. Specifically, Jonah learned three lessons relating to the sovereign control of God and his required response to it: 1. He learned that He couldn t run from God. Jonah was stubborn in his refusal to learn this lesson, but God wouldn t give up. When Jonah was finally cornered in 1:11, Jonah admitted that he must be thrown overboard in order for the sailors to expereience peace (v. 12). Now, was this repentance? No! If I John 1:9 teaches us what repentance for a believer looks like, how would a repentant Jonah have responded? By confessing his sin! What, then, is Jonah still doing? Running from God! He s willing to take his chances in a killer sea, rather than submit to the will of God concerning his ministry to people. And, God conceeded He allowed Jonah to experince His full power and taste His great wrath in the fury of the ocean. It wasn t until he had hit rock bottom (literally, 2:4-5) that Jonah finally submitted to the control and compassion of God (2:7). Although Jonah had chosen the jeopardy of the water, he soon came to realize that God was behind that punishment, reinforcing the reality that you cannot run from God. Even in the killer sea, God is there! 2. He learned that He couldn t be God. Jonah later learned that God s control and compassion extended far beyond sparing the life of one of His own rebellious children this sovereign grace also extended to those who might be considered the farthest from God s household. As we will discover in chapter 4, Jonah didn t like that. Oh, he didn t mind being a recipient of unconditional love, but he wanted no part in being a proclaimer of it to his enemies. Jonah had to learn to let God be God, and humbly rejoice that God loves to save His enemies. If that was not the case, Jonah wouldn t have been a believer, either. 3. He learned that He couldn t stop God. In spite of Jonah s disobedience (chapter 1), racism (chapter 3), and bitterness (chapter 4), God still used Jonah to proclaim his message of grace to the gentiles. God will accomplish His plan! He wants to use us, and He can use us; but He doesn t have to use us. Illustration: When a politician decides to run for an elected office, he usually selects a campaign manager to direct the campaigns operations. No matter how detail- oriented and driven that manager may be, it is inevitable that at some point issues will arise, details will be overlooked, and victory may be threatened. Even the most successful campaign managers have their stories of failure. Meanwhile, Almighty God controls the entire universe and the 6.7 billion people upon our planet, and He does so without any counselors and without any errors. Application: Whether you like it or not, whether you know it or not, God is in control of your life. The question is not, Will you let God control your life? The question is, Will you submit to His control, and thereby know His blessing? We can t run from God; we can t be God; and we can t stop God. One of the saddest observations in this book is that everyone and everything obeys in this story, except Jonah! The storm obeys as it is sent out by God; the fish obeys as it swallows up and then spits out Jonah; the sailors and Ninevites obey as they both turn to fear God; the plant, worm, and wind obey God in chapter 4; even the ship is pictured as submitting to God, for the Hebrew states that it thought about/considered/contemplated being broken up, if that was God s desire. Jonah, the born again believer and commissioned prophet, was the only character not to obey. What a terrible testimony for one who

6 professes to fear the LORD God of heaven who made the sea and the dry land (1:9). Are you surrendered? Are you obedient to God? Jonah learned that by running from God, he was deceiving himself and removing himself from the place of God s merciful blessings (2:8-9). You, too, until you turn to God in humble obedience to whatever He commands will deceive yourself into a mindset of control over your life when in actuality you are heading for the belly of the fish. Transition: Not only does the active reality of God s control compell us to surrender our ministry to God, but secondly YOU MUST SURRENDER TO GOD S MINISTRY BECAUSE HE IS COMPASSIONATE. In spite of Jonah s stubborn rebellion and harsh animosity, God didn t just nail Jonah, throw him away, or use someone else, etc. God chose to work with Jonah to restore Him to surrender and service. Likewise, even though the wickedness of Nineveh was great, God provide forty more days for repentance and salvation. He is afterall not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance (II Peter 3:9). Saving the study of God s compassion upon the Ninevites for another lesson, let s consider three expressions of kindness that God displays towards His own wayward servants. 1. God extends forgiveness when we fail Him (2:1-11). The forgivness of Nineveh in chapter 3 is remarkable and will be studied in detail later. Nonetheless, just as remarkable is the forgivness discovered by Jonah in chapter 2. Twice he staes that God heard [his] voice (v. 2). He acknowledged that, to the very end, God remained available in His holy temple (vv. 4, 7). Jonah reminisces that God brought up [his] life from corruption (v. 6). Four times, Jonah addresses God as LORD or the LORD his God. God was a personal God, a covenant- making God, a faithful God, a forgiving God! Indeed, Jonah exclaims, Salvation is of the Lord (v. 9). 2. God gives grace when we fail Him (3:1-3). Notice a similarity and two contrasts between 1:1-3 and 2:1-3. The similarity is in the commission God once again commissions Jonah with the task of preaching judgment to the Ninevites. God had a second time for Jonah. One contrast is in the empowerment this time, God promises to give Jonah the words to say, the outline to preach, the very sermon to proclaim. God lavishes grace upon Jonah to make it easier to obey. And this time, the outcome is different Jonah arises and goes to Nineveh ready to preach. Praise the Lord for gracious second chances and changed outcomes! 3. God patiently teaches us when we fail Him (4:1-11). Illustration: Faithful parents never give up on their children. Although punishment may happen over and over and over again and although the same instruction may be administered over and over and over again, many parents know the blessing of persevering in training and seeing the fruit it produces in the lives of those children who finally learn the lessons. As He relates to Jonah in chapter 4, God assumes the role of a longsuffering parent or patient teacher. The moody missionary had again lapsed into a state of sin this time, although he s fulfilled his commission, his heart is full of pride, selfishness, discontentment, racism, anger, and bitterness. Nonetheless, the Teacher is too compassionate to give up on Jonah. And, if Jonah did indeed write this book or orally provide the material for it s writing, Jonah did eventually learn the lesson. Application: Are you testing God s patience? Are you spurning His grace? Are you learning His lessons? Are you surrendering to His service? CONCLUSION God s compassionate control is always at work in your life, believer! You must, therefore, surrender to God so that He can use you to further demonstrate those attributes toward the unsaved. Do you find yourself in Jonah s sandals, knowing that you need to give your life to minister to people your family, your neighbor, your boss, your students, your brother, your parents, your church but you aren t willing to give up your excuses or preferences? God will target your rebellion, either with His compassion or His control, and He wil accomplish His will in bringing you to surrender and channeling His grace to His enemies.