Pastor Allan Kircher Shell Point Baptist Church
Jonah 1:1-17
“Where so much like Jonah”
We are studying the doctrines/Bible/wed/Sun/nights
• There are 30/out of all
• Doctrine/grace/hardest doctrine/Bible to accept.
• It’s not that grace is hard to understand.
• We know what the word means.
• Our problem comes in the application.
• Grace asks us to accept two things we don’t want to accept:
1. There is nothing we can do to save ourselves.
2. If God doesn’t save us, we will never be saved.
Nothing more clearly summarizes the true meaning of grace than Jonah 2:9, “Salvation is of the Lord."
That statement/striking/humorous because it comes from the world’s worst missionary.
• At the beginning he is running from God
• at the end he is arguing with God.
• In between he is praying and preaching.
• He’s no hero. He’s an anti-hero.
God never gives up on Jonah, not when he runs away and not when he sits under a vine and pouts.
• We’re so much like Jonah that it’s scary.
• There’s a little Jonah in all of us
• And a whole lot of Jonah in most of us.
That’s why we need, not just grace, but outrageous grace.
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God has an amazing way of getting our attention!
He calls us to a task/His kingdom but then we will draw back from Him and go our own way.
• When that happens
• the Lord will come after us
• pursue us until He brings us back to Him
• and His plan for our lives.
• When the Lord has an assignment for you
• He is determined that you will carry it out.
• He will not just allow you to walk away while He does nothing.
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This is one/lessons/book of Jonah.
God called/prophet/task he did not want to do/he ran from/Lord.
• But, God persevered and sent Jonah/prison experience
• Get his attention and gain his cooperation.
• This prison wasn’t constructed/brick, mortar/metal bars.
• It was a prison built of flesh and blood/bars of ivory.
It was/strange prison/Jonah/convinced/god’s plan was/right plan.
I want to join Jonah/his prison/deal with/truths we find there.
I want to show you can run/God/His will for your life, but you can never hide.
If necessary, He will send you into a prison experience to get your attention and gain your cooperation.
I. THE ROAD TO THIS PRISON
A. 1:1-3 It Is A Road Of Disobedience –
• God had called Jonah to a specific task.
• Told to go/warn/city/Nineveh/judgment/coming/their town.
• God wanted/extend His grace/lost/needy people
• Jonah wanted no part of it!
• God wanted to save the heathen people of Nineveh.
• Jonah, on the other hand, hated them
• Could have cared less if they had died and went to Hell!
Why/Jonah possess such/deep hatred for the people of Nineveh?
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There are several reasons, let me suggest a few.
• Nineveh was the capital city of the Assyrian Empire
• Assyrians were a fierce, warlike people.
Ninevites were
• Idol worshipers/not Jewish.
• Were known for their cruelty/people they attacked/defeated.
• Known/skin their victims alive
• Then impale/bodies/sharpened stakes/leave them there/die.
• They forced parents/watch/children being burned alive
• Just before the parents themselves were killed.
• Known/bury their victims up to their necks in the sand and leave them to die of hunger, thirst or wild animal attack
Whole cities had been known to commit suicide rather than fall into the hands of the Ninevites.
• Now the Ninevites had focused their attention on Israel.
• common knowledge/Assyrians were coming and they intended to destroy the people of God.
So, when Jonah hears the call to go and evangelize the city of Nineveh, he makes a decision to go to Tarshish.
Tarshish was located on the western coast of Spain, some 2,000 miles in the opposite direction.
• As far as Jonah could go to get away from God.
• He thought/could escape God’s plans running away
• He didn’t want to do what the Lord was telling him.
• So he hid, he fled, he did what he wanted.
Apparently, Jonah held to too small a view of God.
• He seems to believe that if he can run far enough away
• God will not be able to find him.
• Jonah holds to a faulty theology.
• Psalm 139:7-10 lets us know what God can see and where He operates!
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While he has a small view of God, Jonah seems to have a large view of self.
Jonah thinks
• He is smarter than God.
• He can run away and hide from God.
• He can serve God when it is convenient to Jonah
• When hard times come….
• An unpleasant assignment comes….
• He is free to abandon God
• To walk away from God’s call on his life.
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Let’s not be too hard on Jonah.
• Do we think/same way from time to time?
• We don’t mind serving the Lord when it is convenient.
• But, when He tells us to do something we do not want to do, we rebel and we disobey Him.
We may not go to Tarshish, but we do go away from the Lord!
• We think we know more than He does.
• We think we are in control.
• We think we can call the shots and do as we please.
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Let me just remind you that when the Lord saved you, He took total possession of your life.
• He owns you, body and soul, 1 Cor 6:19-20.
• He alone has the right to tell you what to do
• Where to go; and how to live your life.
• When He comes along with an assignment for you to fulfill, all He wants to hear from your mouth is what He heard from Isaiah, Isa. 6:8.
Anything less is disobedience and rebellion and that attitude will not go unchallenged by the Lord, Rev. 3:19.
• God been speaking/your heart/something He wants you/do?
• Are you obeying His voice?
• Or, are you doing as you please
• Going on your way/going against God’s will for your life?
B. 1:3-12 It Is A Road Of Disappointments
When Jonah hits the road, things go well at first.
• He finds a ship heading to the right place.
• Such a ship didn’t come along/once every six months or so.
• He was able to pay the fare, board the ship and lay down for a little rest.
• He thinks that he is going to have a soothing cruise/start a new life in a new location.
• Jonah has it all planned out!
• The disappointments begin right away.
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Notice now that Jonah is on a downward path, v. 4-5
Nothing worked out like Jonah planned it!
The same scenario will play itself out/lives/those who choose their own path over God’s plan.
• You will experience trials, tribulations, disappointments and hardships that could have been avoided.
• The Bible reminds us in Pro. 13:15b,
• “…the way of the unfaithful is hard.”
The Bible also gives us this word…Galatians 6:7-9.
• If the Lord has been calling you/follow/certain pathway
• and you choose to go in another direction
• Don’t be surprised when troubles/disappointments come your way!
C. 1:4-17 It Is A Road Of Disasters
• Jonah made his decision/set his plan in motion.
• He was doing it his way.
• His goal was to “run away from the Lord”, v. 3.
Jonah had his plan, but God had the final say!
• God first sent a storm to get Jonah’s attention.
• A very severe storm/the sailors were terrified.
• They had weathered other storms on/Mediterranean Sea
• But they had never seen a storm as ferocious as this.
Jonah slept right through the storm, v. 5-6.
Listen, God’s not going to let you sleep through this!
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Well, sailors concluded the gods are behind the storm.
• They cast lots discover who the vile sinner is and Jonah is selected.
• He is forced to confess his rebellion to a bunch of men who do not know the Lord.
• He says throw me overboard
• He knew he caused the storm.
Those pagan sailors have more compassion that he does, because they try to save the ship and Jonah, v. 13.
• Saving/ship doesn’t work/forced throw Jonah overboard.
• When they do, the storm is gone in an instant, v. 15.
• God used/event to bring/the conversion/those pagan sailors
• When you get the backsliders out of your midst
• You can have revival!
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Then, Jonah finds himself swallowed alive/special fish, prepared just for him.
• He is imprisoned there for three days.
For years, infidels and skeptics have mocked the Bible for this account of a man being swallowed by a giant fish and living to tell the tale.
They claim that it is an absolute impossibility.
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In 1891, off the coast of the Falkland Islands, a man on a whaling vessel named James Bartlett fell overboard. As he bobbed in the ocean, he was swallowed whole by a huge whale.
• 15 hrs later/crew caught a large sperm whale.
• Began disemboweling/animal/saw movement/stomach
• Cut it open/found james Bartlett
• Skin/bleached/hair eaten off from gastric juices
• Unconscious/alive
• Revived able to talk about his experience.
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What happened/whaler proves that what/Bible says is accurate.
One thing after another went wrong until Jonah found himself in a place of utter helplessness.
• He thought he could do battle with God
• but he found out/his arms were too short to box with God.
• By the way, so are yours and mine!
• God knows how to bring us to our knees!
• He knows how to take the “but” out of you, v. 3!
Moses – Ex. 3:11, 13; 4:1, 10 – God answered every objection Moses offered. He will do the same for you!
• Regardless of what He wants you to do, do it!
• If you rebel, you will find that you pathway will be filled with disappointments and disasters.
• He will not let you get away
• but He will pursue you
• He will do whatever it takes to get you in a place of absolute submission!
• Is God trying to get you to do something?
• Is He calling you to a new ministry
• To a deeper walk with Him; to a new kind of work?
If He is, my advice to you is this:
• Don’t run from Him, run to Him and yield to His will.
• He will not change His mind, Rom. 11:29.
II. THE REHABILITATION IN THIS PRISON
After he was placed there, the Lord began to affect the changes that were needed to rehabilitate Jonah.
A. 2:1, 4, 7-9 Jonah’s Acknowledgement Before The Lord
Out of that whale’s belly, Jonah prays and calls on God, v. 2.
• He turns his eyes/his heart/God’s direction once again, v. 4.
• He comes back/God/praises/Lord for Who God is and for how he works, v. 7-9.
• Verse 8 seems to be a confession of his sin and foolishness.
B. 2:9b Jonah’s Agreement With The Lord
• He says “What I have vowed I will make good”.
• In other words, Jonah is saying
• “Lord, I am through running now!
• You called me to be a prophet and I will deliver your message when and where you tell me too.
• Wherever you lead I will go!”
C. 2:2, 10; 3:1-2 Jonah’s Accepted By The Lord
We know/Jonah made things right/Lord because God heard his prayers, v. 2.
• God delivered him from his prison, v. 10.
• God renewed His call on Jonah’s life and gave him a second chance to carry out God’s will
• Jonah paid a high price for his rebellion.
He suffered greatly/damaged his testimony because he refused to walk in the will of the Lord.
• But, when God got his attention
• Jonah repented and made things right with God
• Lord forgave him and restored him!
I praise God always/ready/receive His wayward child back again.
• All He is looking/heart willing to tell the truth, I John 1:9.
I praise the Lord that we serve the God of the Second Chance!
• He doesn’t write His people off when they mess up
• He forgives them
• Restores them and uses them again for His glory.
• Just look at Moses, he was a murderer, Ex. 2:12.
• Look at David, he messed up in some mighty big ways, but God still used his and his life for His glory.
Then there is Peter; he denied the Lord three times, but Jesus forgave him and used him as a mighty preacher/Word of God.
There are times..
• When we can fail/Lord/lose our right to hold certain offices.
• When our influence with men is so devastated that it can never be fully repaired.
There will never be a time when the Lord will refuse to forgive His repenting child and to restore them to a place of fellowship!
It’s possible you might not be able to do what you once did
But there is a place of service for all those who will repent and call out to the Lord once again!
III. THE RESULTS OF THIS PRISON
• When Jonah comes out of this prison
• He is a different man.
• God sent Jonah into that fish to bring/desired changes in Jonah’s life.
Let’s look at the results of Jonah’s prison experience in his life.
A. 3:3 God’s Man Is Changed
• This time Jonah/not running from the Lord
• He’s running with the Lord!
• Jonah picks up his Gospel trumpet and heads off to Nineveh.
How he must have looked a little strange/began to preach.
• His skin bleached with/gastric juices/whale’s stomach
• his hair dissolved off his body.
• He was a changed man physically, but more importantly
• he was changed spiritually
• Jonah is on the Lord’s team now!
B. 3:5-10 God’s Mission Is Accomplished
When the people of Nineveh hear the message of Jonah, they repent of their sins and seek the face of the Lord.
The greatest revival in history breaks out and an entire town is converted to the Lord!
• At least 120,000 children are saved, 4:11.
• It is estimated/Nineveh/population/600,000 at this time.
• This event is a great demonstration/power/grace/God in saving sinners.
All/came/because Jonah/changed/prison experience
• He began to go with God instead of against Him.
• When we get/place where/Lord can use us, He will use us!
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What qualifies as Nineveh for you today?
Nineveh is…
• whatever pulls you out of your comfort zone
• the place God calls where you don’t want to go
• The people who have hurt you deeply and God says, “Go and give them my message.”
• the place God calls where you don’t want to go
• Danger/discomfort.
• whatever you hate that God loves deeply
God is looking for people He can clean up/use/powerful way.
Look at our Lord’s disciples; He took them and in spite of their weaknesses, their failures, their pasts, and He used them for His glory.
• Right here in this room
• there are people who have failed the Lord
• You may think your ability to serve Him has been forfeited forever.
• You are wrong!
• The Lord can restore you, bless you and use you
• if you will yield to Him/go with His plan for your life!
It is the
• patience of God that allows us to run away
• wisdom of God that provides the ship.
• providence of God that sends the storm
• kindness of God that sends the great fish.
If God didn’t care, he would let us go on in our sin forever.
As we wrap up this message, here are three thoughts to ponder:
1. Every step out of the will of God is a downward step.
No one ever disobeyed God and went up. You only go down.
• “Down” to Joppa.
“Down” into the ship.
“Down” into the sea.
“Down” in the belly of the great fish.
2. We get away quickly, we recover slowly.
• It’s easy to go down
• easy to get off the right path
• Easy to fall into sin.
• But the road back is difficult and often very painful.
3. Satan can work through circumstances just like God can.
Satan has his ships, and he always has room on his ships.
• His ships always go where we want to go!
• He makes disobedience look good/favorable circumstances.
What do you do when God says, “Go to Nineveh,” and you hate those people?
• You need to think about/cause sooner/later
• that’s what he’s going to say.
You may wonder, “Where is the grace of God in this story?”
• The answer is simple.
• He let Jonah disobey.
• He didn’t kill him on the spot.
• He gave him the freedom to mess up his own life.
• That didn’t seem like grace at the time, but it was.
God works even in the midst of our disobedience to bring us to himself.
Sometimes God lets us go way off course so that when we finally see our sin for what it is, we are ready to return to the Lord.
Conc: The prison of His perseverance can be a hard place to live. But, it can be a blessing in some ways too.
This prison..
• Reminds us that God loves us, Heb. 12:6-12.
• Helps prepare us for greater service.
• Can focus our affections/set our hearts/God’s plan/our lives.
Has God been calling you to do something for His glory?
Have you been taking a different path than His?
Wouldn’t today be a great day to come to Him and tell Him that you are through running and fighting, and that you are ready to go with the Lord?
If He has spoken to your heart, or if you would just like to recommit to a life of service to Him, this altar is open
