We are starting a new 4-week series today on Jonah! This is a small book in the OT about a REBELLIOUS PROPHET and a RELENTLESS GOD. Here is the layout for the 4-weeks. Jonah RUNS, Jonah PRAYS, Jonah GOES, Jonah WHINES. For some of you, that may sound like an abbreviated account of your life.

Somebody out there might wonder WHY are we spending a month looking at the story of one man in Scripture? There are some incredible lessons we can learn from his story that are very applicable to our lives in 2021. So, lean in and I believe God is going to speak to us.

How many of you are familiar with the book of Jonah? Question: If there was an award for best actor, “non-human”, in Jonah, it would go to….a whale? NO WAY! The GREAT Fish is mentioned 4 times in Jonah, GOD is mentioned 38 times in these 4 small chapters. HE is the star of this book. If you are only familiar with the VeggieTales or children’s story version of Jonah, than you have actually missed the whole point of the book of Jonah. If you were to just look at the covers of story books of Jonah, who would you think the star of the story is?

Now, before we get to chapter 1 of Jonah, which we will cover today, let me give you some insight into this book.

· Some people really get caught up in whether it is scientifically possible for a person to survive in the belly of any great fish for 3 days. I have an answer for that. Who cares? That actually doesn’t matter. GOD, who created the GREAT FISH, can certainly make it possible for this ONE fish to swallow and keep this ONE prophet safe. It was an act of GOD and an act of GOD does not need to follow anything that is POSSIBLE because by definition, GOD can make the impossible…possible!
· Another thought, one of the reasons I trust the Bible to be true is because if the authors were dishonest or making up stories, they would never, ever include such a story of one of God’s prophets failing in such a big way. The Bible doesn’t make heroes out of it’s prophets or priests or kings or disciples. It shows theirs scars and their shadowsides.

Now, Jonah was a prophet of God. In addition to this book that bears his name, he is mentioned one other place in the OT, so we know he isn’t a made up character.

· He is also mentioned in the NT…by Jesus. We’ll get to that later in the series.

Here is the bottom line for this entire book as we cover it over the next month.

God doesn’t just work THROUGH US, but IN US and ON US!

God has worked THROUGH me on several occasions in my life. That does not mean that I have by any means “ARRIVED”. God is STILL working IN ME and ON ME! How about you?

What we will find out in this book is this:

God is not dependent on our dependability!

But He still WANTS to use us! Isn’t that incredible? WHAT GRACE!

Now, let’s get into Jonah chapter 1. We will go through this little by little.

Right away, there are a couple of really important pieces of information.

· GOD SPOKE to an individual! And He gave him a message. This isn’t something to take for granted or skip over. This was a BIG DEAL! Has God ever ‘spoken’ to you?

o In the summer of 1987, I was at Youth Camp. In an afternoon chapel service, the evangelist was talking about being used by God. In the middle of that message, I heard God’s voice saying “That’s what I want you to do with your life!” I got back from that camp and started making plans to pursue full-time ministry. When you hear God’s voice, it should MARK you!

o God has also spoken to me quite often through His Word. Where something I had probably read many times, somehow THIS time spoke to me in a brand new way. That is one of the major advantages of doing our SOAP Bible reading plan or any regular reading of God’s Word. You are giving Him a regular opportunity to speak to you. In fact, we started reading Jonah TODAY, in our SOAP Bible reading plan.

o God has also spoken to me through sermons, dreams, others. God has LOTS of ways to SPEAK to us. Are you listening?

· From the next part of this verse, we can glean some more info. This message from God was for one specific individual…JONAH.
· Jonah’s name means “dove” and the spiritual meaning of Jonah is “Declarer of Joy and Salvation”.
· His father’s name was Amittai which means “faithful”

Isn't this IRONIC? This book is about a PROPHET named DOVE and DECLARER who is ANYTHING BUT gentle and isn’t declaring. He is the son of “Faithful” but is as UNFAITHFUL of a prophet as you can find. Next verse.

The message FROM GOD TO JONAH was really clear! GO TO NIVEVEH! We need to understand that this was no small ask on the part of God. Nineveh was the capital city of the Assyrian Empire. These were not nice people.

Tim Keller in his book “The Prodigal Prophet” said this of the Assyrians wickedness. “Assyrian history is “as gory and bloodcurdling a history as we know.” After capturing enemies, the Assyrians would typically cut off their legs and one arm, leaving the other arm and hand so they could shake the victim’s hand in mockery as he was dying. They forced friends and family members to parade with the decapitated head of their loved ones elevated on poles. They pulled out prisoners’ tongues and stretched their bodies with ropes so they could be flayed alive and their skins displayed on city walls. They burned adolescents alive. Those who survived the destruction of their cities were fated to endure cruel and violent forms of slavery. The Assyrians have been called a “terrorist state.”

But here is what I don’t want you miss from verse 2! GOD wanted His prophet to speak His truth to the worst of the worst of people! God wanted THEM to hear the TRUTH! THAT is AMAZING! God loves the unlovable!

God chooses the WORLD to hear because God chose the world to love!

Next verse.

Tarshish was as far away in the OPPOSITE direction you could go in the ancient world. Our modern day equivalent would be to say that “he went to Timbuktu”. So, the prophet of God literally RAN from God! Do you see the irony coming through here. A ‘preacher’ who knew theology running from a God who is omniscient, omnipresent and omnipotent. All-knowing, all-present and all-powerful! But remember:

God is not dependent on our dependability!

Here was the shocking headline in the local Joppa Journal - “PROPHET RUNS FROM GOD!” SO disappointing! When I woke up Saturday morning, here is what God spoke to me about this idea.

Don’t ever be surprised when one of your heroes has a shadowside. EVERYONE has a shadowside! Each of us STILL has the sinful nature at work. The key is to keep your shadowside BEHIND you. To do THAT, you have to keep the SON in FRONT of you. You have to PURSUE God. When you face Him, your shadowside is behind you. But when you don’t PURSUE Him, you have your back to Him, which is the position of running away, even if it’s at a slower pace than someone else. So:

PURSUE God’s FACE on the daily!

Jonah wasn’t PURSUING God, he was RUNNING FROM GOD! But here’s some grace…While Jonah RUNS from God, God is still working through Jonah, IN Jonah and ON Jonah! Let me ask this:

Have you ever RUN FROM GOD?
· Run from His clear commands in Scripture?
· Run from His warnings about things you wanted to do
· Run from His commands about things you didn’t want to do.
· Run from His calling to ministry

Jonah did NOT want to go to NINEVEH! And by the way, you would not have wanted to go either. This could be similar today to going to:

· Iran with an “Islam is wicked and doomed” t-shirt on or to
· Berlin during WW2 as a Jew and preaching on the street corners that the 3rd Reich was evil.
· Admittedly, it was even more than that. He HATED these people. He WANTED God to JUDGE them and bring His wrath on them. He did NOT want God to save them or show them mercy! We will see that even more clearly in a later chapter.
· Part of that was RACIAL. They were not Jewish. Part of that was they had bullied the Jews. They had been cruel.
· You would NEVER plan this missions trip! You could never have gotten trip insurance for your group going to Nineveh!
· But this wasn’t Jonah’s plan, this was God’s plan! And when God spoke to His prophets, they were supposed to OBEY! When God speaks to His children TODAY, we are supposed to TRUST HIM and OBEY. Would Jonah TRUST GOD? Ummm, NO!

Jonah responds, not with the character of God but with his personal preferences. How does that show up for us in 2021? Who should God save? Who shouldn’t God save? Do you have a list? In your mind? Who do you write off? Do you rejoice when a person struggling with sexual sin comes to Christ? A rapist? The person who made fun of you or bullied you? A terrorist? Someone who betrayed you? Several years ago, Daniel Tyler shared his story on a Sunday morning here. His mother had been killed by her boyfriend. A few years later, Daniel went to see him in prison, forgave him and led him to Jesus. WHY? Because that is what God wanted him to do! Jonah though, was no Daniel Tyler!

So Jonah buys his cruise ticket on the SS Minnow, so now just sit right back and you’ll hear a tale, a tale of a fateful trip that started from this Joppa port aboard this not so tiny ship.

This wasn’t a normal storm that hit the ship. The weather started getting rough, the tiny ship was tossed…Here is the truth. God has the ability to get our attention! He DEFINITELY got the attention of the salty, seasoned sailors! This powerful wind and violent storm were not sent from God as punishment but GRACE. Here is what God was saying to Jonah:

STOP…TURN AROUND…COME BACK!

We should not take for granted that our God is the God of SECOND CHANCES! God is literally chasing Jonah down…not to smite him, but to give him another chance! WHAT GRACE!

Jonah 1:5a – NLT – “Fearing for their lives, the desperate sailors shouted to their gods for help and threw the cargo overboard to lighten the ship.”

They are hurling cargo as God is hurling a great wind. Who is going to win that battle? When you know WHO GOD is, all of our evasive actions are pretty ridiculous!

Jonah 1:5b – NLT – “But all this time Jonah was sound asleep down in the hold.”

He had an opportunity to lessen the fear of the sailors by sharing with them the knowledge of the true God, but instead separates himself, goes below deck and SLEEPS. Obviously, Jonah is SO into himself and his STUFF that his eyes are closed to any opportunities around him. When you are RUNNING from God’s call, your focus isn’t often on the right thing.

He was sound asleep…physically…and spiritually!

Have you ever been driving and you are exhausted, tired, and HAVE to stay awake? What did you do to wake yourself up? Red Bull, Dr. Pepper, Hot Tamales, roll down your window, stop and run around your car, etc. You do whatever it takes to wake yourself up! Jonah didn’t DO anything to wake himself up…SO God woke him up.

God chastises His prophet through an unbeliever! God had sent His prophet to point the pagans toward Himself. Yet now it is the pagan captain of the cruise ship pointing the prophet toward God!

As Jonah and the Captain go up top on the ship, the crew cast lots, threw dice to see which of them had offended the gods. God used this method to show them that it was Jonah! So, they asked him all kinds of questions: “Who are you? What is your line of work? What country are you from? What is your nationality?” Listen to Jonah’s response:

This makes me want to stop and ask, “What does it mean to ‘FEAR’ the Lord? Does it mean that you are SCARED of the Lord? NO. To ‘FEAR’ the Lord, meant that you respected the Lord, were in awe of the Lord, trusted the Lord and understood how God felt about sin. And Jonah said, “I FEAR the Lord”. Really? Do you now?

Jonah wasn’t FEARING the Lord, He was FLEEING the Lord!

That might have been his identity as a prophet of God, “I FEAR THE LORD”, but it wasn’t his reality in the way that he was acting. There was a big gap between what he “KNEW” and what he “DO”! He was not a very real or authentic witness for God to these sailors. In fact, his LACK of fearing the Lord, had now grown to …now involve and bring great risk to the sailors. A disobedient child of God is a threat to everyone – spouses, children, coworkers, friends, and even strangers can be affected by your sin, when you are RUNNING. The sailors are terrified and afraid for their lives and their livelihood:

Jonah 1:11b – NLT – “What should we do TO you to stop this storm?”

It had been revealed to them by lot, who was responsible, now they ask HIM, what they should do? Listen to how selfless Jonah answers:

Jonah feels bad that these men are paying a price for his sin, but instead of repenting, he chooses death. He would rather DIE than obey God and preach to his enemies! Really! I think he could have said, “Guys, give me a few minutes to talk to God, repent of my sin and then if you turn around and take me back, the sea will be calm and He might even help us with a tail wind.” But he doesn’t do that. He tells them to throw him into the sea, but look at what they do.

These salty sailors care more about Jonah the prophet of God than the prophet of God did about them. So they give their all to rowing! Little did they understand that they were rowing against God! And God had a message in this storm for Jonah. It was…

STOP…TURN AROUND…COME BACK!

The sailors come to the conclusion that they cannot do this in their own strength and they ask Jonah’s God for forgiveness BEFORE they even throw him into the sea. And then they throw him overboard…and this violent, terrible storm, unlike anything these seasoned sailors had ever seen…STOPPED…at once! And the sailors were awestruck by God’s great power, repented and turned to Him.

Jonah didn’t want pagans to receive God’s grace and forgiveness and he ran FROM GOD, BUT GOD used him to reach pagans and grant them forgiveness in spite of himself. Remember:

God is not dependent on our dependability!

But how much MORE effective would Jonah have been IF he had been willing?

So, where have you been RUNNING from God?

· In your attitude – Philippians 2:5 – NLT – “You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had.”
· In your work habits – Colossians 3:23 – NLT – “Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people.”
· In your GRATITUDE at all times? 1 Thessalonians 5:18 – NLT – “Be THANKFUL in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.”
· In sharing Jesus with others? Mark 16:15 – NLT – “Go into all the world and preach the Good News to everyone.”
· Being unequally yoked with an unbeliever? 2 Corinthians 6:14 – NLT – “Don’t team up with those who are unbelievers. How can righteousness be a partner with wickedness? How can light live with darkness?”
· How about loving your wife or respecting your husband? Ephesians 5:33 – NLT – “So again I say, each man must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.”
No qualifiers, no exceptions, no excuses, but WILL YOU DO IT? It is a matter of obedience. WILL you CHOOSE to LOVE her AS CHRIST? Lay down your preferences? Lay down your ‘rights’? Will you CHOOSE to respect Him?
· Or perhaps God spoke to you and called you into ministry. And you are not pursuing that. You are afraid you are not talented enough or don’t know enough. Perhaps afraid that you have too many unanswered questions or that your past disqualifies you. And…you are RUNNING to Tarshish.
· Or maybe there is just an area in your life that you lay claim to. “This corner is mine!” And it could be something that God convicts you of. Drinking or lust or your entertainment choices or flirting with others when you’re married. And you DON’T LISTEN to His voice in that area. RUNNING!
· Or talking to a neighbor? Co-worker? Family member about Christ or maybe your favorite barista at the local coffee shop.
· Where in your life are YOU RUNNING FROM GOD?

Hear God’s voice this morning…I believe He is saying to you what He said to Jonah:

STOP…TURN AROUND…COME BACK!

The walk of obedience is the blessed life, and THAT battle takes place in your mind.

If we start to think thoughts that take us away from TRUSTING CHRIST, take that thought CAPTIVE! Remember, God IS CALLING YOU! Will you TRUST HIM and OBEY? This is the time…

STOP…TURN AROUND…COME BACK!

Is there another area in your life where you have been running from what you KNOW God wants you to do? STOP…TURN AROUND…COME BACK to GOD!

Notice how Jonah’s story applies to our MISSION STATEMENT, which is “At BC, we want everyone to know God, find freedom, connect with others and make a difference.” Jonah applies all 4.
· “Know God” because without spending time listening to his voice we can’t obey it. Turn TOWARDS the SON, don't RUN AWAY like Jonah!
· “Find Freedom” because while bound to predjudice, hate, or anger we can’t obey or love.
· “Connect With Others” because Jonah intentionally ran from people God loved because he didn’t want to connect with the unlovable.
· “Make a Difference” because God called Jonah to make a difference and he avoided that responsibility and it almost cost him and his mission field their lives.

Which one of those needs the most work in you? Are you RUNNING from any of them?

Now, listen to the last verse of Jonah 1:

Jonah 1:17 – NLT – “Now the Lord had arranged for a great fish to swallow Jonah. And Jonah was inside the fish for three days and three nights.”

And THAT is going to leave us hanging for next week. We’ll pick up there.