“Returning to God”
“A God of Second Chances”
Jonah 3:1-5
The story is told of a Sunday School teacher who was proud of her lesson for the day. She thought that she had presented the material quite nicely. Summing up, she asked her class, "And what do we learn from the story of Jonah and the great fish?" An eight-year-old girl, named Suzy, thought for a moment and answered, "Always travel by air." Of course, air travel didn’t exist in Old Testament times; and, I hope that we learned something more from the story of Jonah than just always travel by air.
The writer and creator of "The Far Side," Gary Larson, in one of his cartoons depicts a bearded man standing at his front door. He is dripping wet and his clothes are in shreds. His wife opens the door. She looks at the messy, bearded man with disgust and says, "For crying out loud, Jonah! Three days late, covered with slime, smelling like a fish. What story have I got to swallow this time?" It is hard for some people to swallow the story of Jonah and the great fish!
For the last month we have been looking at the Book of Jonah and I believe that it would be safe to say that one of the things we’ve learned is that Jonah is a very stubborn man! As we’ve seen so far that God came to the Prophet Jonah and, told him to go to Nineveh and "cry against it!” However, Jonah did not want to go to Nineveh - it would not be wrong to say that Jonah hated the people of Nineveh!
So, what did Jonah do? He went in the opposite direction! He boarded a ship bound for Tarshish, which was about as far from Nineveh as an individual could go in the ancient Biblical world! His idea was to escape the "presence of the Lord." What a bright, novel idea - He would go somewhere - he thought - where God was not present! I guess he forgot, like many others who try to flee from the presence of God - that God is an "Omnipresent God" – He’s everywhere at once!
We think that our sins - our wrongdoings - our misdeeds are hidden - that we are safe - but, we couldn’t be more wrong! In Numbers 32:23 (NLT), Moses tells us: "But if you fail to keep your word, then you will have sinned against the Lord, and you may be sure that your sin will find you out." Be sure our sins will find us out - we cannot hide from God; in fact, we cannot hide anything that we do from God!
We all have heard sermons from the Old Testament Book of Jonah on the uselessness of running from God; yet, we all have done it at some time in our lives; I included! We do not have to board a ship and head for a distant port - we simply do it with our minds and our hearts! We actually tune the "still small voice" of God out! We ignore His voice calling us to His service!
Now, the last time we left Jonah he had been swallowed by a great fish; in the belly of the fish Jonah begins to pray. In that prayer he finally got things right with God and the last thing that happened was that Jonah was vomited up on dry land. Now what is Jonah to do? That’s where our story picks up. Read Jonah 3:1-5.
Have you ever longed for an opportunity to undo some of the mistakes you have made in your life? We have all made mistakes in our finances, our careers, our parenting, our marriages, which lead us to wish we could have one more chance, an opportunity to begin again. Well Jonah’s experiences remind us that as a child of God we can begin again, we can have another chance. It also reminds us that we serve a God who will use those who repent and return to Him. This morning I want us to see Three Things Jonah found out about God…
I. Jonah Found out God Gives Second Chances (v. 1)
“Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah the second time….” The words “the second time” underscore God’s determination to get his message to the Ninevites and to use Jonah in the process. In other words, Jonah quickly found out that God gives second chances. “On New Year’s Day, 1929, Georgia Tech played University of California in the Rose Bowl. In that game a man named Roy Riegels recovered a fumble for California. Somehow, he became confused and started running 65 yards in the wrong direction. One of his teammates, Benny Lom, ran him down and tackled him just before he scored for the opposing team. When California attempted to punt, Tech blocked the kick and scored a safety which was the ultimate margin of victory.
That strange play came in the first half, and everyone who was watching the game was asking the same question: “What will Coach Nibbs Price do with Roy Riegels in the second half?” The men filed off the field and went into the dressing room. They sat down on the benches and on the floor, all but Riegels. He put his blanket around his shoulders, sat down in a corner, put his face in his hands, and cried like a baby. If you have played football, you know that a coach usually has a great deal to say to his team during half time. That day Coach Price was quiet. No doubt he was trying to decide what to do with Riegels. Then the timekeeper came in and announced that there were three minutes before playing time. Coach Price looked at the team and said simply, “Men the same team that played the first half will start the second.” The players got up and started out, all but Riegels. He did not budge. The coach looked back and called to him again; still he didn’t move. Coach Price went over to where Riegels sat and said, “Roy, didn’t you hear me? The same team that played the first half will start the second.” Then Roy Riegels looked up and his cheeks were wet with a strong man’s tears. “Coach,” he said, “I can’t do it to save my life. I’ve ruined you, I’ve ruined the University of California, and I’ve ruined myself. I couldn’t face that crowd in the stadium to save my life.” Then Coach Price reached out and put his hand on Riegel’s shoulder and said to him: “Roy, get up and go on back; the game is only half over.” And Roy Riegels went back, and those Tech men will tell you that they have never seen a man play football as Roy Riegels played that second half.”
That story is unusual because not many second chances exist in the world today. Just ask the kid who didn’t make the little league team or the fellow who got the pink slip. Not many second chances. Nowadays it’s more like, “It’s now or never.” “Three strikes and you’re out.” “It’s a dog-eat-dog-world!” Jesus has a simple answer to our masochistic mania. “It’s a dog-eat-dog world?” he would say. “Then don’t live with the dogs.” That makes sense doesn’t it? Why let a bunch of other failures tell you how much of a failure you are? We don’t need others making us feel worse about our failures.
Think about it, as Christians our failures can leave us feeling like God could never use us again, that God could never bless us again, and that we are useless in God‘s work and to God’s plan. But just as we see that God gave Jonah and second chance, God will give us another chance and He will use us again if we will just make ourselves available to Him. Just remember, its not every day that you find someone who will give you a second chance, much less someone who will give you a second chance every day. But in Christ, we find both. Jonah found out that God gives second chances and…
II. Jonah Found Out God Still Had A Plan For His Life. (v. 2)
“saying, (2) "Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach to it the message that I tell you." We serve an awesome God! He has plans for each of us and we can’t fail enough to ever change those plans. Jer. 29:11 says, “For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans to prosper you, not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.” Jonah had failed when he was first called to go to Nineveh, but his failure was only temporary. Now before we look down upon Jonah we must realize that Jonah isn’t the only person in the Bible who “failed” God at some point. Let’s take a look at some of those others that failed and found that God didn’t give up on them.
Abraham: God promised him that his wife, Sarah, would give him a son. But what does Abraham do? He decides to help God out and has a child by his wife’s servant. He “failed” to believe God but God didn’t give up on him. God made Abraham the “father of many nations”. Jacob: Jacob lied to his father, stole his brother’s birthright and blessing. He “failed” to live as God intended him to live, and consented only after God had wrestled him into obedience, yet God gave him the name “Israel”, representing God’s people. David: God made David king. As king, David commits adultery with Bathsheba, then has her husband murdered to hide his failing”. Yet, David becomes known as “a man after God’s own heart”. Peter: Poor old Peter. Peter, the one who swore that he would never deny Jesus, then denies Him not once, not twice, but three times, publicly! Peter “failed” Jesus. Yet Peter goes on to become one of the greatest leaders of the early church. Paul: Paul, or Saul as he was known earlier, spent his early life persecuting Christians. Then, through what you might call an “eye-opening” experience, Saul, the one who “failed”, became Paul, the greatest missionary in history.
These people I’ve just mentioned, along with many others have “failed” God at some point in their lives. But God DID NOT give up on them. God didn’t give up on them and He won’t give up on you or me. What a comfort to realize that the best of God’s servants have made foolish mistakes, but were used again.
When the word of the Lord came to Jonah “the second time” it came with the same commission he had received the first time. It was God’s plan for Jonah to go to Nineveh (1:2) it is still God’s plan for Jonah to go to Ninevah. God’s plan for Jonah had not changed; Jonah was the one that had changed. The first time the word of the Lord came to Jonah telling him to go to Nineveh, Jonah ran away. This time, having learned his lesson the hard way on the consequences of disobedience; this time he obeyed. The truth is that the Lord has some things He wants you to do. But do you know that many of the things God intended for you and me to do never get accomplished? Do you know why? Because oftentimes the people God has set apart to accomplish His will have refused to surrender to Him. We run rather than obey.
Perhaps you are thinking, "Well I don’t know what God wants me to do." But let’s be honest with ourselves, we know what God wants us to do. You and I know that God wants us to be witnessing for His Kingdom. We know that God wants us to love our neighbors as ourselves. We know that that God wants us to be good stewards of our time, money, and talents and we know when we’re not doing what God wants us to do. So today we need to drop the excuse that we don’t know what God’s will is for our lives and admit the fact that our problem is that we do know what God’s will is, but we’re simply not willing to do it.
III. Jonah Found Out How Much God Can Do With One Person. v.3-5
“So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, a three-day journey in extent. (4) And Jonah began to enter the city on the first day’s walk. Then he cried out and said, "Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown! (5) The Ninevites believed God…" Jonah entered the city and began to proclaim the message. “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!" (v. 4)
This message in verse 4 seems hardly impressive and yet as we see in verse 5 it had tremendous results. How can that be possible? Now before we answer that question let me first say it seems to me a little more than coincidental that Jonah is sent as a messenger to a city that worships the fish-god Dagon (half man half fish). The fact, that the reluctant prophet was swallowed by a great fish and then thrown up on the coast of Phoenicia and sent to go to a city and preach God’s message to a group of sinners that worshiped a fish God is not coincidence. I believe the fish story opened the door for Jonah’s message.
But the question I really want to answer is what factor caused the inhabitants of this great pagan city to repent so quickly and so thoroughly? The fact that the people of Nineveh repented and turned to God would be a continuing mystery were it not for a clue supplied by the Jesus Himself. In the Gospel of Luke, He refers to Jonah with these words: "For as Jonah became a sign to the men of Nineveh, so will the Son of man be to this generation" (Luke 11:30). Jesus indicated that the prophet himself was the sign to the city which brought about their repentance.
What did He mean by this? There are Bible scholars who feel that something happened to Jonah’s skin in the fish’s belly which changed his entire features. It seems highly likely that the prophet’s skin was altered in appearance by the gastric juices of the fish. Other men who have survived similar experiences in history had such spotted skin from the digestive juices that they would stand out in any crowd. I think Jonah was a rather spectacular sight to see. A man who has spent three days and three nights in a fish simply cannot come out looking like he did when he went in!
Dr Harry Rimmer told of a man in 1926 who was swallowed by a fish and spent two days inside the fish and lived to tell the story. He was displayed in London as “the Jonah of the twentieth century.” Dr. Rimmer interviewed him two years later after it had happened, this man didn’t have a hair on his body, and his skin was a yellowish-brown color. You see, the gastric juices of the fish had reacted upon the individual as the fish had tried to digest him.
Those chemicals had an effect upon him, and this is what I believed happened to Jonah. You can imagine the color of Jonah’s skin and you can imagine how he must have looked. When he stopped at a corner and the crowd gathered, they would say, “Brother, what happened to you?” So, if this is the case, which I believe it is, then it’s not difficult to imagine what happened in the city of Nineveh when Jonah preached, if his entire face and body confirmed the remarkable story. The Ninevites would have clear proof that the God who sent Jonah to proclaim, "Yet-forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown," was a God who kept His word. Hence, the city repented to the last man and the judgment of God was stayed.
Because Jonah surrendered to go and because Jonah surrendered to speak God used even the terrible experience of his time in the belly of the fish for His glory. Look at v. 5 “And the people of Nineveh believed God...” God turned Jonah’s terrible experience into His glory and God will do the same thing with our pain. He can take the pain in our life and use it to His advantage. That is what I believe that Paul means when he says in Romans 8:28 “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” Because of Jonah’s obedience God’s power moved a whole city to repentance, which we will talk more about next week.
As we close this morning we, as Christians, need to realize that God has a plan for our life and granted some of us have messed up and some of us have run away and we are still on the run. But no matter how bad we have messed up or how far we have run away, as we learned today, if we are willing to come back to Him, God is willing to give us another chance. Not only is He willing to give us another chance He is willing to use us again to accomplish His purpose. He is willing to use us again to share His message and His love. But in order for that to happen we must return to Christ today. Won’t you quit running and return today? Christ and His church need you!
If you’re here this morning and you don’t have a relationship with Christ that means then you are on the run from God. So, my challenge to you this morning is quit running from God and surrender to Christ today. As I shared several weeks ago, Christ didn’t run from the cross but rather he ran to the cross to take your place and my place on the cross. He took upon himself our debt (sin) so that we could be set free from our sin. No matter what you have done or how bad you have done it if you come seeking forgiveness and asking Him to be the Master of your life then your sins will be washed in the blood that was shed and you will be washed whiter than snow and you can walk out of here this morning knowing that because you have made Him the Savior of your life that you will have eternal life. You can walk out of here knowing that when that day comes when you die or Christ comes back you know that you will be in eternity in heaven with Christ.
“Returning to God”
“A God of Second Chances”
Jonah 3:1-5
Jonah found out:
I. God Gives _________ ___________. (v. 1)
II. God Still Had A _______ For His Life. (v. 2)
III. How Much God Can Do With One ________. (v.3-5)
