Please keep your Bibles open at chapter 1 of Jonah. And if you want to take notes,

Transcription

1 Wrong way turn back 1 st May Please keep your Bibles open at chapter 1 of Jonah. And if you want to take notes, there s an outline in your bulletin. Let me pray first for God s help and guidance with this passage. Intro Heather and I had our honeymoon in Bali. One day I decided to hire a 4WD and explore the island a bit. Not the best idea I ve ever had. As we came to a remote village I was driving behind a whole bunch of motor cyclists when I came across a sign like this: [Powerpoint 1] [What does the sign mean?] Foolishly I ignored the sign and kept on following the motor bikes, when there was a fork in the road to the left, which was probably meant for cars! Whoops! As we came into the village there was a policeman in a small tower like a gazebo and he signaled for me to pull over and I did And so began I sorry tale which turned out okay in the end I managed to avoid being arrested - and put in jail but only just! Page 1 of 11

2 Not my finest hour at all! 2 The full story is pretty funny now - but it wasn t at the time! And this story reminds me of Jonah chapter 1. God tells Jonah to do something - and like me ignoring the road sign Jonah ignores God and does the exact opposite. Ignoring God will ALWAYS have consequences so let s see how it plays out. Jonah called but he runs away (1:1-3) From verse 1 we read that the word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Ammitai. The word of the Lord is the most valuable thing we can hear. Something more valuable than money. And the worst thing that can happen to us is not to hear the word of the Lord. The Word of God is life changing and life-saving! And it s life changing and life-saving work - that God has in mind here. See v2 God tells Jonah to go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it because its wickedness has come to His attention. Why Nineveh? Well it s the largest city in the world at the time and it s full of wickedness. There is a great need there for people to repent. So Jonah must go to Nineveh and tell them to repent of their sin What a privilege for Jonah to bring God s Word to them and offer them forgiveness. And what a privilege to Nineveh that God cares enough about this wicked city to send someone to tell them about their sin and offer them forgiveness. Page 2 of 11

3 Then we see in v3 the saddest words of the chapter BUT JONAH Jonah doesn t see it as a privilege and he runs away and heads for Tarshish. He heads down to the port of Joppa finds a boat pays his fare and runs away from God [Powerpoint 2 MAP Explain] God says go EAST to Nineveh and Jonah goes WEST as far as he can! He ignores God like I ignored the road sign! And before we give Jonah too much of a hard time. It would be equivalent today of God asking one of us to go to North Korea and preach to them about repenting of their sin and putting their faith in Jesus. Remember North Korea is number 1 in the list of most dangerous places to preach Christianity there is zero tolerance to Christians - and absolute persecution of them! Would you go? Or would you head as far away as possible? (pause) 3 Nevertheless - when God speaks to us we must listen! He might not be telling you to go to North Korea. But he might be telling you to get involved in a ministry here like Scripture or Sunday School or Bible Study or Evangelism or Praying Or he might be telling you to talk to your neighbor or friend or family member about Jesus? Whatever He might be telling you are you running away? maybe not physically running away but emotionally and spiritually you re not having a bar of it and you are ignoring God! (pause) Or maybe God s speaking to you about a certain sin in your life and you conveniently run away put it at the back of your mind and ignore that nagging voice saying you must deal with this sin you can t run away (pause) And it s interesting that when we do run away like Jonah it s easy to justify it was the right decision. When Jonah gets to Joppa he finds a boat going to Page 3 of 11

4 Tarshish. How about that! That just confirms Jonah s disobedience! He s justified there was a boat ready and waiting for him. Friends when we re disobeying God things just fall into place the Devil s not going to put any doubts in your mind when you re disobeying God. He only puts doubts in your mind when you are obeying God! 4 [Powerpoint 3] But we can t run away from God because he s knows everything, he s everywhere and he s all powerful. He knows what Jonah s up to - and what we re up to. He s everywhere as we ll see in a moment. And he s all powerful as we see him work in this chapter Three omni words describe Him. Omniscient, Omnipresent and Omnipotent. Jonah sleeps during the storm (1:4-6) And Praise God for his grace and mercy he s not content with Jonah s disobedience. And He follows Jonah. As Psalm 23 verse 6 says surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life So God sends a great wind on the sea in verse 4 and a violent storm threatens to break up the ship. And in verse 5 the sailors on board are so afraid they cry out to their own gods and throw the cargo into the sea to lighten the ship. Meanwhile Jonah s chilling out - below deck. He s not rubbing shoulders with prophets and priests anymore he s become a tourist on a Mediterranean cruise and he settle downs for a nice nap! God sending the wind and the storm is God way of disciplining Jonah. It s God s simultaneous wrath and love. How can God be simultaneously sending wrath and love? Page 4 of 11

5 Well isn t that what loving parents do? they punish their child for disobedience and at the same time love them - knowing the punishment is for the child s long term benefit. 5 God singled out Jonah for discipline. And we should be thankful to God when he singles us out for discipline. He could have left Jonah in his sin and left him on his cruise! But no! God loves Jonah enough to pursue him and deal with him. But Jonah s asleep whilst the storm rages around him and the boat is tossed from side to side. How can Jonah sleep when he s run away from God when he s the reason for the storm? How can Jonah sleep when he s failed to do his job and tell the people of Nineveh that they need to repent and seek forgiveness from God? Maybe we re no better than Jonah though? The storm is a picture of the world we live in today tossed about by wave after wave of wickedness and sin. [Powerpoint 4] And perhaps as a church - or as an individual we re like Jonah - fast asleep whilst the storms of this world and its sin and wickedness rage around us. How can we sleep when the world s like this? (pause) The thing about sleep is we don t even know we re asleep until we wake up. Have you ever sat on the lounge for a rest and you doze off. When you wake up you look at your watch and you ve been asleep for an hour. And you say Did I fall asleep? Friends let s not sleep on the job? We need to be reaching the storms of this world and its sin and offering them the forgiveness of Jesus. In verse 6 it s the captain who wakes Jonah up. The captain says Page 5 of 11

6 How can you sleep? Get up and call upon your God!. Maybe he will take notice of us so that we will not perish. The captain s desperate the sailors have tried all their gods but the storm is still raging. So the captain might as well wake Jonah and try Jonah s God! What s it going to take to wake us up from our slumber and do the job that God intends us to do? Does the world have to wake us up like the captain woke Jonah? Does the world have to come to us for the answer to their sin? Or are we going to tell them first? (pause) 6 After all God didn t have to send the storm for Jonah to wake up from. He could have finished Jonah off then and there! And God could have finished us off for our sins too! But he didn t he gave us a remedy for our sin by sending Jesus to die for our sin and give us forgiveness to replace our disobedience and to give us love and life for our sins! Meanwhile we say thank you by sleeping on the job Jonah is found out (1:7-10) In v7 the sailors are desperate. They suspect someone is responsible for bringing this calamity upon them so they cast lots. Like drawing straws And coincidentally (or God incidentally) Jonah draws the short straw. And notice in v8 the sailors ask Jonah what kind of work he does and where he comes from? Jonah s hidden his identity from them! How about us do people know we re Christians? or do we hide that from them so we can be acceptable? Or so we don t get challenged or ridiculed? [Powerpoint 5] Page 6 of 11

7 One of the big problems we have in church today is we say we re not reaching people because we re not relevant to them we re too different. Well I m sorry we re supposed to be different as Christians. Jesus said we are the salt of the earth (Matt 5:13) we re not supposed to blend in with the world we re supposed to season it with the salt of God s Word. Jesus also said we are the light of the earth. We should be like a lighthouse guiding people to Jesus (Matt 5:14) As Christians we re supposed to be different to the world we believe different we talk different and we act different. 7 In v9 Jonah answers their question and says he is a Hebrew and He worships the Lord, the God of Heaven, who made the sea and dry land. In Jonah s day everyone knew about the God of the Hebrews who had done amazing things and the Hebrew God was feared and respected. There used to be a time when Christians were respected But the world today sees Christians as weak, or needing a crutch, or as being hypocritical or even irrelevant. Today many people see Christians as one of many religions all worshipping the same God with just a different name. But - the sailors gods were not the same as Jonah s God. And notice in v9 the Hebrew word for Lord is not the same as the Hebrew word for God. Jonah says I worship the Lord (Hebrew is YHWH = I AM) the God (Hebrew is Eloyhim) of Heaven So v9 I worship YHWH the Elohiym of Heaven Whenever you see LORD in the OT it is the special name for God YHWH the word used for God when the Bible is talking about God and his special relationship with his people. Page 7 of 11

8 8 The world today whether Hindu, Buddhist or Muslim may worship god or gods but they are not the same as YHWH God - the God who wants a relationship with his people and whom God wants Jonah to tell the Ninevites about. In John s gospel Jesus said before Abraham was born, I AM (John 8:58). What Jesus is claiming is that He is that same - YHWH God - And Jesus said later on in John I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me (John 14:7) What makes Christians unique is Jesus. For years we ve been trying to be friends with the world and merge and be relevant when we must maintain our difference and not water down Jesus as just another way to be right with God Jesus is the ONLY way. People must see there is something authentic about us. That s what the sailors realized about Jonah in v10 they ask Jonah what have you done? When they knew that he was running away from the Lord - they see that Jonah s God is real and alive and active in the world and pretty angry right now! And they are not just afraid they are terrified! The world today has no fear of God? They are not in awe of God like the sailors were. The sailors were afraid because Jonah TOLD them about the God he was running away from. And we must TELL people about the God who loved us so much he sent his only son Jesus to die for the sin of the world. Page 8 of 11

9 [Powerpoint 6] It s not good enough for us to say God is in control of everything he controlled the storm that he sent to Jonah on board the boat so he can get people to believe in Jesus! 9 No - God expects us to be telling people about Jesus! There are people going to places and facing situations we are too proud to go to reaching people we don t want to and God has been saving his people all other the world from different ethnic groups and nations whilst most of us do nothing (pause) The sailors believe (1:11-16) With no sign of the storm abating, the sailors in awe of Jonah s God in v11 ask what should we do to make the sea calm down for us? The sailors were moved not by Jonah s good behaviour but by the fact that he was disobedient to God. So in v12 Jonah tells them to throw him overboard and the sea will become calm. Why was Jonah willing to be thrown overboard? Was he suicidal? No! Jonah rediscovered something important about being a believer. His life and our lives are not our own. Jesus said whoever desires to save his life will lose it whoever loses his life will save it (Mark 8:35) Paul said You were bought with a price you are not your own (1 Cor 6:19) If anyone here this morning who is not a Christian and is thinking of becoming one. You need to understand that - You cannot receive Jesus as your Saviour without also receiving him as your Lord. You can t have the benefits of his shed blood and his resurrection without Jesus owning you, and keeping you - and doing what he wants with you and He will! Page 9 of 11

10 Jonah at that moment realized that God loved him so much he was willing to track him down. Jonah got a glimpse of God s glory right there and handed his life back to God Jonah realized he was owned by God. Isn t that how missionaries work? they see God s glory and that he owns them and like Isaiah they say Here I am Lord, send me and they have little regard for their life. 10 Have you been manipulating your life? Trying to get ahead? Asserting yourself? Protecting your own life? Have you been worried about how you re going to make it financially, emotionally, or physically? You are not your own. The cares and worries you have are God s cares and worries. He s taken on your case. And don t be tricked by the devil that your problems are somehow unique and no one else has experienced them and that they are too hard for God? Are you willing to be thrown overboard - and let God do what he wants with you? [Powerpoint 7] One reason for God allowing this storm to continue was because Jonah needed to learn more lessons. But the second reason is so that the sailors could believe. They called upon the one true God (Romans 10:13 whoever calls upon my name will be saved and there is no other name Acts 4:12) The sailors saw God s mercy when they threw Jonah overboard in v15 and the sea grew calm Then in v16 they made a sacrifice for their sins (whatever form that took) and they made vows (promises) to Him. Conclusion Just one final word of warning. It would be easy for us to think - if Jonah hadn t been disobedient then the sailors would not have become believers. Therefore Jonah s disobedience was justified and thank goodness he didn t listen to God. But remember God s ways are beyond our complete understanding (Rom 11:33) Page 10 of 11

11 And remember the apostle Paul says All things work together for good But that doesn t mean all things are good Jonah running away from God wasn t a good thing it was a bad thing. Maybe you can look back on your life and see something you did that was terribly wrong and say I m glad I did that because things worked out good in the end. No No No - Let s not think like that friends because then we are giving ourselves the credit. [Powerpoint 8] Let s realize that God works things out - despite our sin, and despite our disobedience and despite our wrong choices - not because of them. 11 If people like the sailors are converted on board a ship because of the actions of a man like Jonah running away from God imagine what could happen when we re not running away from God but doing what he wants Let s pray. Page 11 of 11