Jonah (Part 1)

Good morning. Are you ready to worship this morning? I'm ready. I'm always ready to get them together. We've got something special this morning. First thing before we jump into our call to worship is we have two new families a part of our church.

And I wanted them to come up here, so the Hennicks and the Johnsons, if y 'all could come up here for a moment. We don't have room on the stage. This stage is getting cramped with all the stuff on it, isn't it?

Well, come on up here. So most of you know that we've had, we just had just a couple months ago, actually just a few weeks ago, we had our first membership meeting, our membership class. And as we went through the class, we had a number of people involved in that.

And I remember you guys told me, you said, hey, we're not ready to pull the trigger yet, but we want to come to the class. And praise God, over the past couple of weeks, both of these families have come to us and said, hey, what do we do?

We want to go ahead and be obedient to what God has called us to be. And we feel led to tie ourselves to this body of believers. And we're overwhelmingly grateful to God that he has brought two families like y 'all.

We're so excited to serve alongside you. And so we've got something for you this morning. I got to make sure I get which one because we've signed the inside here. We got it. So don't think of this as a gift.

This isn't really a gift for joining. That's not what we're doing. We're not trying to bribe people to join. Hey, you get a new ESV study Bible if you join. That's not the purpose in it. The purpose in it was to set the mindset.

It's almost like a commissioning. You're joining us in partnership here in this covenant body of believers. And in the midst of that, we want to set forward in front of everybody. And for each of you as families, that this is what we're surrounded around.

This is our weapon. This is our tool. This is of the utmost here. This is how we know God. This is how we know the God that we worship. This is how we know what a church is supposed to be. And so just to make sure that that everyone's on the same page, that we have this brand new ESV study Bible, one for each family.

And so I want to introduce Matthew and Lindley Johnson. They have just they joined. What was the day? The 30th. You guys joined a couple of weeks ago, but we haven't been able to do this until now. And then we have here Keith and Karen Henick.

I think most everybody in here knows everybody at this point. But here is an ESV study Bible for your family. I hope you can utilize it. And I just want you to welcome them. This is part of the family now.

So this is what it means to be a part of a church. And we're so grateful to have you all here. So let me pray over and with you guys and let's pray together as a body. Lord, thank you. Thank you for the work that you are doing.

God, we thank you for brothers and sisters. We thank you for prescribing the local church to us to live out this Christian life. And I thank you so much for bringing families like the Henicks and the Johnsons here to be a part of this.

They have special giftings and a special calling from you that now come and they're able to be a part of this body and be utilized. I pray that you bless them. I pray that you would use them mightily in this church.

And I pray that you would continue to drive unity and growth and maturity through sanctification in all of our lives. So grateful for what you are doing here at 12 Five Church. And we are thankful for how you are doing it and who you're bringing in Christ's name.

Amen. Amen. Thank you all. Every week with a call to worship. So let's stand. We have it listed up on the screen. Our call to worship this morning comes from First Chronicles, chapter 29, starting in verse 11.

It says, Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty. For all that is in the heavens, yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and you are exalted as head above all.

Both riches in your hand are power and might. Now, all of us together. And now we thank you, our God, and praise your glorious name. Amen. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Lord, we once again come to you.

We want to stop in this moment. We want to set our attention towards your majesty. Lord, for it is your greatness and your power and your glory. Lord, you are a victorious God. You are a great God. You are a good God.

And all the earth belongs to you. And Lord, we belong to you. Lord, because you are above all things. You are holy. You are just. And everything that we have, everything that we are, everything that that we see belongs to you.

For you created all of it and you give strength to us this morning. You give us the ability to come before you and worship you in spirit and in truth. So, God, we are so grateful for who you are. And God, we pray that as we sing, as we pray, as we open your word, as we speak of you, that you would be honored in our worship of you.

We thank you in Christ's name. Amen.

Whisper and darkness. The beauty demands such praises. What other splendor outshines the other majesty rules with justice. The glory of the power would offer that out church. Lord, we come to you again and we thank you for your holiness.

We thank you that we get to be a part of worshipping you. And part of worship this morning involves us giving back what you have so graciously given to us. God, that we we get the privilege to give to what to what is going to further the gospel, to what is going to establish and support your church, your bride.

God, we are so grateful that we get to be a part of that. Just a small part as we give back what you you have so graciously given to us. And we pray that that this these monies and these offerings would be used for your glory.

Lord, I thank you in Christ's name. Amen.

Introduction to Jonah and the Need to Define Our Terms

All right. Good morning.

Well, the day begins our new series through the book of Jonah. And I hope you're as excited about it as I am. I have I've been itching to get to this book. I've been ready. I'm excited about this. This has been a couple of months in the works and preparation towards this day.

So so if you have your copy of God's word, which I hope you do, you can go ahead and turn to that Old Testament book and Jonah and get your place there. It's going to be a few moments before we get to it and read it.

But we're going to be kind of doing an overview of the entire book. We're going to read some selected verses as we get there. But as you're turning there, I wanted to ask you a question. What do you think of when I say the word awful?

When I say the word awful, you know, I asked my daughter that this week. She looked at me very perplexed, stopped for a moment. And after a moment of silence, she then said, like worms coming out of the ground.

I was like, oh, I guess that's awful. Unless you're JD and you want to go fishing. But but we all think of something negative, right? When you hear the word awful, you think of something negative and rightfully so.

The definition of this word, if you look it up, the primary definition is extremely bad. Unpleasant, ugly, inspiring fear and dread and terror. So it's understandable that we would think of something.

And when we hear a word, our mind goes somewhere and we think of something negative. But but here's the thing is this word in particular. That's not always been its meaning. You know, I read a lot of old dead guys like Puritans and some of the reformers, old works.

And and I remember reading through. And the first time I came across a phrase that was something like this. It said the awful majesty of God. I was perplexed. I was like, wait, wait a second. What does that mean?

Well, what? God's God's majesty isn't awful. God's majesty is majestic. It's great. It's good. So what in the world are they talking about? And I didn't understand that until I finally came to the understanding that this word awful actually meant something very different up until the eighteen hundreds.

And so if you read some old writings, if you read old English and you come across the word awful, it's very different than the way we perceive it. As a matter of fact, it's quite opposite. Its meaning back then was something more along the lines of worthy of all.

So so that's a correct statement. The awful majesty of God, the worthy of all majesty of God. And oftentimes the meanings of words change, don't they? And I draw our attention. I want to point this out because I want to draw our attention to the fact that words have meaning.

And they do change. They change with culture. They change with misunderstandings of the word until that becomes the new understanding of the word. So you can see how dangerous that it can be using phrases and terms unless you're able to define your terms.

Unless you're able to define your terms, it's quite dangerous. If we're not all on the same page, this is very different. There's a massive difference between me saying the awful majesty of God and the awful majesty of God.

Right?

But if we don't have the same understanding, that can be confusing. And in the Christian world today, we have a plethora of these types of misunderstandings within our dialect. We call it Christianese.

We have phrases that the rest of the world just doesn't use. And we have all types of words. And a lot of times there's this ambiguity in the midst of a word. We're not quite sure what that word means.

We're not quite sure how it's used. And the world definitely doesn't know how it's used. But I would say there are none quite so devastatingly misunderstood as the word God. All these other words address doctrine, address other things within our Christian subculture.

But the word God being misunderstood. Not understanding who God is. And I think we take it for granted that people know when we say the word God, when we mention God here in our service, we take it for granted that they know what we're saying.

And we oftentimes never seek to define our terms. I mean, think about it. Every religious organization, every entity in this town that's meeting today, I guess at least the religious organizations that meet on Sundays, every single one of them today is going to make reference to God in some way, right?

They're going to mention God.

But what God?

They're going to use the same terminology as us. They're going to say the same name, but a very different God, unfortunately. And I think many of the leadership of some of these organizations, they don't understand it.

Their people definitely don't understand. And so everyone in the midst of that is conjuring up in their minds their definition of who God is. They're coming up with this idea of who God is. I mean, I heard it said once that most of our understanding of who God is stems from our earthly father.

We all have daddy issues, don't we? If your dad was distant and disconnected, then you have a tendency to see God as distant and disconnected. If your dad was an angry, overreacting, condescending individual, then you see God as an angry, overreacting, condescending individual.

If your dad was weak, you see God as weak. Now this isn't everyone, but you can see how we get these preconceived ideas of God. We bring our culture, we bring everything around us into our understanding, and so we have to define our terms.

You know it's true. Go ask your neighbors. Go ask a friend of yours. Go ask a family member. Just ask them a simple question.

Who is God?

You're probably going to get a very different answer every single time. You may have some semblance and similarities based upon the region that we live in, the culture that we live in, but overall they're going to have a very different perspective as to who God is.

And I would say it's because even though God has made himself evident, he's made himself evident both through creation. We look at creation, we look at everything around us, and we see that God has made himself evident.

We know that from scripture. But more specifically, God has made himself evident through his word, but man desires to suppress the truth. And we don't know the word. Even though God has told us precisely who he is, we oftentimes don't try and define him because we don't want to, because we don't know his word.

And our misunderstanding of who God is is because we don't go to his word. Charles Haddon Spurgeon actually said, If you wish to know God, you must know his word. And he goes on, he says, If you wish to perceive his power, which all of us, everyone in the world wants to perceive the power of God.

We want to see miracles. We want to see everything. We want to see these things present. And he says, If you wish to perceive his power, you must see how he works by his word. And if you wish to know his purpose before it comes to pass, you can only discover it by his word.

Yet modern Christianity desires to have a feeling about God. To come with their preconceived ideas and assume who God is based upon their life and their culture and their perspective. That's how most people perceive it, right?

That's how most people see God. Even people within the church. Even good meaning churches. We have the religious organizations out there that we would look at and say, Well, of course Mormons say God and they're not worshiping the same God, I get that.

Jehovah's Witness say God and they're not worshiping the same God, I get that. Church of Christ, I get that. We're not worshiping the same God, I understand. But what about the other Baptist churches in the area?

What about our Presbyterian brothers? Well, I think even good meaning gospel centered churches, churches that we would align ourselves with, I think even sometimes they don't seek to define their terms and many of their people are left just having to assume who God is, right?

And so the Old Testament book of Jonah gives us a concise, only four chapters here, but clear picture of who God is. And that's why I want us to spend the next few weeks here in this book so that we can define our terms.

So being today is the introduction of this sermon, it's quite different than a normal Sunday here. Those of you that are here regularly, you know that by this point we've already read the passage, we've already prayed, and we've jumped right in line by line.

And today is a little bit different. We will be doing that next week. Next week we go back to chapter one, verse one, and we're going to go verse by verse. But today I want to do something. I want to lay some groundwork because this is what we're trying to do.

We're trying to define our terms, right? So let's lay some groundwork. The first thing I want to do is I want to give us a bit of a background on the book. We're basically going to jump in and do our preface to our commentary here to give us a little bit of background on the book of Jonah.

And then we're going to do a 10 ,000-foot flyover view of this book. We're going to cover the high points as we go through it. And the reason I want us to do that this morning is because I think this book is one of the most misunderstood books in all of Scripture.

And so we need to set the boundaries. We need to set our understanding of what this book is about. Even though this book is probably one of the most well-known stories in all of Scripture, I mean all of us that grew up in Sunday school, you heard about Jonah and the well, right?

That was the whole thing. That was everything. That's the only thing I knew about Jonah as a child is that he was swallowed by a well because he disobeyed God. We even sang the song, what was it? Who did, who did, who did, who did?

Am I the only one that remembers that song? Who did swallow Jonah?

Everybody's looking.

Okay.

Well, I sang that song, so I knew Jonah and the well quite well. But we sang the song. So we have this understanding of the book, but we don't quite understand what it is about. Because this book, despite popular belief, is not primarily about Jonah being swallowed by the well.

Or the great fish, as we might say, as Scripture says. But neither is it about a rebellious prophet. It's not primarily about a rebellious prophet. That's the way most people preach it today. And I can tell you for certain, it's not about how man can thwart God's will.

Which, believe it or not, some of you in here might be surprised, but many people preach it that way. All of these, well not that one, but the other two, the whale, the great fish, and the rebellious prophet, they're in here.

And there's principles that we'll see over the next few weeks. But they are not the primary thrust of this book. They are not the purpose of this book. They are not the theme of this book. The theme of this book and Jonah is God.

It's God.

That's the theme of Jonah. So what better way to define our terms than to go through it this morning? So a little bit of background. This book is part of what we refer to as the Minor Prophets. And many over the years have been perplexed as to why this is placed where it is in Scripture.

If you know the Minor Prophets, these are a lot of those smaller little books you see near the Old Testament. And it's placed in the midst of those. And people have tried to figure out why it's placed there.

Because it's written quite differently than the other Minor Prophets. As a matter of fact, if you just take a surface glance read of it, it's more akin to Joshua and Judges, Ruth. Some of these narratives that we see earlier on in Scripture.

So why is it here? Well it's not a mistake that it's here. It's not a mistake that it is here. It's supposed to be here, obviously, because the Holy Spirit has inspired it to be there. But one of the reasons is the fact that Jonah was one of the Minor Prophets.

Jonah was a prophet there in Israel under Jeroboam II in the 8th century. And so he lands within these Minor Prophets. And so some historians and theologians, they want to say, well, the book of Jonah, either he wasn't real.

He's not a real character. And so obviously these stories aren't real. They're just allegory. They belong in Scripture, but they're just allegory. They're principles. Or they want to say, well, yes, of course he was real.

Because they have a difficult time denying the fact that he was real. Because we actually see him referenced earlier. Actually going and addressing something with King Jeroboam II. So we know he's real.

But they want to think that maybe this is just allegory. But that doesn't hold any water. And the reason is because Jesus himself squashed that theory. Actually in Matthew 12, Jesus addresses Jonah. He actually mentions Jonah being in the belly of the great fish for three days and three nights.

And actually tying it to him and his death. That imagery there. Jesus obviously believed in Jonah. So Jonah was a real prophet in this time. And I believe that this book is a real, true account of what happened to Jonah.

And I believe Jonah is the author of this book. So that gives you a little bit of background here. But you need to know too that there is a great correlation between the people of Israel this time and us.

So over the next few weeks we're going to be able to see some of that correlation. And maybe tie it to some principles for us today. But Israel was prospering greatly under King Jeroboam II. They were expanding their borders.

They were under a relative peace and prosperity. However, they were spiritually bankrupt. The people of Israel in this time, that's often how it happens, isn't it? The more comfortable we get, the less spiritual we become.

The less holy we become. That's typically the way it works. And the people of Israel oftentimes were that. When things were easy, that's when they felt like, oh, we don't really need God. So they were spiritually bankrupt.

And there was rampant idolatry. And there was horrendous injustice amongst their community. You see the correlations there between us and them? So, again, that's another reason I wanted to go to this book.

These parallels here. So now, we've covered a little bit of a background. We've gotten through all of the commentary type of stuff. Let's actually go to the book. Let's go to the book of Jonah. Hopefully most of you look like you're already turned there.

And we're going to look at some select verses. But we're going to start right in verse 1 of chapter 1.

It says,.

Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah, the son of Amittai, saying, Arise. So here we have a command. God is commanding Jonah something. He says, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it.

For their evil has come up before me. But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish. So he paid the fare and went down into it.

To go with him to Tarshish. Away from the presence of the Lord. Here, God has given him a command. And what does he want to do? He doesn't want to obey the command, so he runs. Look at verse 4. It says, But the Lord hurled a great wind upon the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship threatened to break up.

So now, it kind of goes into, it talks about the sailors that are on the ship. They're panicking. They're throwing things overboard. They're trying to lighten the ship. This storm is something that they're probably quite worried about.

It probably came out of nowhere. They weren't expecting it. This is throwing them off, but yet Jonah is down at the bottom of the ship sleeping. Now look down at verse 7. It says, And they, the sailors, said to one another, Come, let us cast lots, that we may know on whose account this evil has come upon us.

So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah. Imagine that. What are the chances? Now look down at verse 9. And he said to them, I am a Hebrew, and I fear the Lord. Which, by the way, I find that statement quite interesting that Jonah would say this.

This feels like a lie to me. He says, I fear the Lord. He says, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land. If he really feared the Lord, why would he run to the sea to try and get away from him?

He's the God of the sea and the dry land. This is Jonah just spouting off information that he knows about God, right? Look at verse 10. Then the men were exceedingly afraid and said to him, What is this that you have done?

For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the Lord, because he had told them. He seems quite nonchalant about this. He's been sleeping during the storm, and then he tells them, I'm running from God.

He's the God over the sea. He's the God over the land. I fear him. He's worthy to be feared. So, look down at verse 12. It says, He said to them, Pick me up and hurl me into the sea. Then the sea will quiet down for you.

For I know it is because of me that this great tempest has come upon you. And so now these men are in this predicament. These sailors, they're trying to figure out how they can get away without doing this.

They don't want someone's blood on their hands, so they don't want to throw him overboard. And so they do everything they can, but ultimately they come to a breaking point. They come to this point where they realize this storm is too powerful for us, and we must throw this man overboard.

And so they do. They throw him over, and what happens? The sea calms. Look down at verse 16. It says, Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly, and they offered sacrifice to the Lord and made vows. So, I think it's interesting that we have this correlation, and we'll talk about it as we go verse for verse, but I want you to see it.

Here's Jonah, running from God, nonchalant about it, saying, I fear the Lord, but his actions prove different, don't they? And now here's these men saying that they throw him overboard, and they see the power of God because now all of a sudden they've thrown this disobedient servant to God over to the sea, and the sea is calmed.

It's miraculous, and now they fear the Lord exceedingly, and they sacrifice and make vows to the Lord. And then 17. And the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.

That's the big story. Everybody knows that one. Look at verse 1 of chapter 2. Then Jonah prayed to the Lord, his God, from the belly of the fish. So now we see this prayer from Jonah. He's praying from inside the belly of this great fish, and at the end of his prayer, look at verse 9, he says, But I, with the voice of thanksgiving, will sacrifice to you what I have vowed I will pay.

And then here's the big statement. Here's probably the greatest statement, in my opinion, in all of Scripture. Salvation belongs to the Lord. And then what does God do? And the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah out onto dry land.

Now look at verse 1 of chapter 3. Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time. What a patient God here. Saying, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it the message that I tell you.

So God's message hasn't changed. He's given him the same command he gave him up front. And look down at verse 4. Jonah began to go into the city, going a day's journey, and he called out this really intricate, super in-depth, super loving sermon.

Probably the most loving sermon that anyone's ever preached, right? He says, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown. Mic drop. Walks out. And what happens? Look at verse 5. And the people of Nineveh believed God.

They believed God. This great city of nearly 600 ,000 people. This great city that was founded by an unbelievably, probably one of the most wicked men that's ever lived, Nimrod. Jonah goes in. Mind you, this great city's so large, it takes about four days to walk through it.

And Jonah, notice, he only goes one day in. It's almost like he just barely gets into the city. He gets far enough to be obedient to God. Just far enough. Preaches a sermon, and makes his way out. Look down at verse 10 of chapter 4.

It says, When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it. Now, if you're like me, this is exactly where this book should have ended.

That's what it seems like. This seems like chapter 3 should have been the very end of this book. Let's just call it quits. This is a happy ending. If they ever made a movie about Jonah, this is where they would end it.

Right?

Because this is the happy ending. The whole city was saved. And now Jonah can be friends with this city that he dislikes so much. But that's not where it ends. Look at chapter 4, verse 1. But it displeased Jonah exceedingly.

And he was angry. And he prayed to the Lord and said, O Lord, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish. So why did he flee? Was it because he was afraid of the people?

No.

It says, For I knew that you are a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and relenting from disaster. This is why Jonah is angry. This is why he didn't want to go in the first place.

He didn't want to go because he knew who God was, didn't he? He knew the God that he served and worshipped. And he did not want that God to show mercy to these people in Nineveh. So why is that? You've got to understand, the people of Nineveh have been horrendous to the people of Israel.

They have been wicked. They have pillaged. They have destroyed. They have been at war with them. They have done evil things to the people of Israel. And the people of Israel hated the Ninevites. Hated them.

And so Jonah hated these people, but he knew the nature of God. And when God told him to go preach, he knew good and well what was going to happen. He knew the nature of God. And he knew that he was going to be merciful and that he was slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.

So he didn't want them. He didn't want them to be saved. That was his reason. So what does Jonah do at this point? Jonah, he pouts. He goes up. He gets himself a nice little spot where he can see the city.

And he sits.

And I think probably what Jonah's doing is he's kind of hoping that God changes his mind on changing his mind. Which, by the way, we'll talk about that. God doesn't change his mind. But I think that's what Jonah's kind of hoping he does right here, isn't it?

Jonah's hoping that maybe God will just kind of know that they're wicked by heart and they didn't really truly repent. And he goes ahead and destroys them anyways, and I get a front row seat to it. And he sits there.

And so what does God do? God, in his grace, sees his servant, his disobedient, angry, pouting servant. And he brings him shade. He brings a tree up to grow over him miraculously and give him shade from the sun.

And so that Jonah can be comfortable as he sits there and pouts and rebels against God. But he only gives it to him for a day. And what does he do? He sends a worm to destroy the tree. And then he sends great wind and the sun beating down on Jonah's head.

And he says, all right, your pouting's over now. And look at verse 9. Because he's mad now by the way. Jonah's angry that the tree is dead. He's mad about the tree. He's gone from being mad about the Ninevites and now he's identifying his anger with the tree.

In verse 9 he says, but God said to Jonah, do you do well to be angry for the plant? This plant that I gave you is a good gift even in your rebellion and your anger and in your pouting. Do you do well to be angry for the plant?

And he said, yes, I do well to be angry. Angry enough to die. I want to die. I just want to sit here and let you kill me. Just take my life. I don't want to live anymore. Verse 10. And the Lord said, you pity the plant for which you did not labor?

Nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night and perished in a night? And should I not pity Nineveh, that great city in which there are more than 120 ,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?