INTRODUCTION:
Today I want to tell you a BIG FISH TALE. How many fishermen do we have here today? Now our fish tales are always the truth, right? I caught a fish this big! But there's a story in the Bible about a Big Fish and about a man who lived to tell the tale.
BODY:
Let's Turn in your Bibles now to... Jonah chapter one
Jonah 1:1-3New International Version (NIV) says…
1 The word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai: 2 “Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.”
3 But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the Lord.
Context and Background- The city of Nineveh was the capital of the Assyrian Empire and was a large and prominent city in its day. It was not a city of Israel at all; God called Jonah to go to a pagan, Gentile city and to call them to repentance.
Ancient historians say that Nineveh was the largest city in the world at that time. It was the large, important capital of a dominating empire - surely an intimidating place to go.
Why did God want Jonah to go? Because God saw their wickedness.
Nahum 3:1-4gives us a good idea of how wicked the people of Nineveh were.
In Nahum 3:1-4New International Version (NIV) it says…
1 Woe to the city of blood, full of lies, full of plunder, never without victims!
2 The crack of whips, the clatter of wheels, galloping horses and jolting chariots!
3 Charging cavalry, flashing swords and glittering spears! Many casualties, piles of dead,
bodies without number, people stumbling over the corpses— 4 all because of the wanton lust of a prostitute, alluring, the mistress of sorceries, who enslaved nations by her prostitution and peoples by her witchcraft.
Why didn't Jonah want to go to Nineveh and do what the LORD told him to do?
And Nineveh was over 500 miles from Gath Hepher, Jonah's hometown.
The Assyrians were a warrior race who built their empire by conquering and enslaving the peoples around it. They were known to be very brutal. They had a reputation of being cruel and ferocious. And they were Israel's enemies; their oppressors.
Jonah had every reason to expect that at the very best, he would be mocked and treated as a fool. But more likely he might be attacked and killed if he did what the Lord told him to do.
It was also because Jonah didn't want the Assyrians in Nineveh to escape God's judgment.
Imagine a Jewish man in New York during World War II hearing God say, 'I'm going to bring terrible judgment on Germany. I want you to go to Berlin and tell Nazi Germany to repent.' Instead of doing it, the man heads for San Francisco and then hops on a boat for Hong Kong.
Or let's relate it with something in our day. What if you were the family of one of those police officers who were gunned down in the shootings recently, and God told you to go and share the Gospel with one of those shooters? Would you do it? Could you do it?
Or what if God laid it on your heart to go and witness to a terrorist organization like ISIS or in a country where it is illegal to carry a Bible and be a Christian? Or maybe even more close to home. What if God told you to witness to your ex who still bad-mouths you to your kids and treats you awful? Or to that person who got you fired? That one who broke your heart?
What if? It is easy to discuss Jonah's reasons for not doing what God told him to do, but what is our reason? God told Jonah to go and to preach; and every Christian has the same command. Jesus tells us in Matthew chapter Five to “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” Are there some people that we want them to get what's coming to them? Are there some that we really don't want to forgive… and we don't want God to bless? Be honest now!
Why did Jonah choose Tarshish as his destination? Because this city was thought to be towards the end of the earth. Tarshish was in the west, meaning that Jonah was heading in the opposite direction of Nineveh. Nineveh was to the east of Israel and Tarshish was about as far as you could go west, on the coast of what is today Spain, past the straits of Gibraltar. Jonah wanted to go as far as he could to escape God's presence and God's calling.
But Jonah should have read in Psalms 139:7-10 (NIV) where it says… Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.
Maybe you're running from God today. Maybe you're running from God today. Maybe you're living your life on the run hoping that it won't catch up with you. But wherever you go, God is there. He is there with His conviction. He is there prodding your conscience. He is there speaking to your heart, calling you home. There is no depth where you can sink and no length where you can go to outrun God. He is always there.
And God was there in that boat as Jonah tried to sail away from God's presence and God's will.
In Jonah 1:4-16New International Version (NIV) it says…
4 Then the Lord sent a great wind on the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up. 5 All the sailors were afraid and each cried out to his own god. And they threw the cargo into the sea to lighten the ship.
But Jonah had gone below deck, where he lay down and fell into a deep sleep. 6 The captain went to him and said, “How can you sleep? Get up and call on your god! Maybe he will take notice of us so that we will not perish.”
Remember that the Lord stirred up the storm.
We often think of Jesus calming the waters, and He can do that. But He can also stir up the storm. The ship and the sailors were in a dangerous place. And this was all due to Jonah being on the ship.
Do our sins have consequences? Yes they do. And I want you to think about this: Our sins, our rebellion against God not only affects our lives but also the lives of others. Perhaps the storm that your family is in right now is because of your sin and God trying to cause you to come back to Him. Come back to the right path. Come back to His will for your life, and your stubborn refusal to obey God has put those around you in a dangerous position.
There was Jonah sleeping in the bottom of the ship as the sailors desperately try to keep their ship afloat! How could Jonah sleep in the middle of this storm? I think it's just another way of him trying to escape God's voice. We find ways to block out God's voice.
What a curious and tragic scene! All the sailors were religious men, devout in their prayers to their gods. Yet their gods were really nothing, and could do nothing. There was one man on board who had a relationship with the true God, knew His Word, and worshipped Him – Yet He was asleep! Listen to what Spurgeon says about this- "Jonah was asleep amid all that confusion and noise; and, O Christian man, for you to be indifferent to all that is going on in such a world as this, for you to be negligent of God's work in such a time as this is just as strange. The devil alone is making noise enough to wake all the Jonahs if they only want to awake … All around us there is tumult and storm, yet some professing Christians are able, like Jonah, to go to sleep in the sides of the ship." (Spurgeon)
Are you sleeping in the midst of the storm while God is speaking to you? Wake up Church! Wake up! It's time for Christ's Church to awaken and do something about the world we live in.
The sailors cast lots to find out who was guilty of making the gods angry and the lot fell on Jonah. So they asked him, “Who are you? Where do you come from and what have you done?” When he told them, they were terrified because what he described to them was a god who was supreme, the maker of the land and sea and Jonah had angered this God.
Now they were doomed! What can we do?
Jonah tells them, “Throw me overboard. I'm the guilty one. Get rid of me and you'll be safe. I know that it's my fault that this storm has come upon you.”
But the men don't want to do it. They didn't want to compound the problem by killing one of this God's prophets even if he was a disobedient one. So they tried to sail to shore.
But the storm got worse and they had no choice. So they cried out to God and said, “Please, Lord, don't let us die for taking this man's life.” And then they took Jonah and threw him overboard in the raging sea. And the sea grew calm; the storm died down and the wind and the waves were stilled.
When the sailors saw that, they immediately feared the LORD and they sacrificed to God and made vows to Him. These pagans who worshiped and served other gods, who knew nothing of the Lord (the one true God), were drawn to Him because of the imperfect testimony of one of His followers. Listen, God can use even our mistakes, even our failures, even our stumbling, even our sins to bring Him glory.
Now Jonah is out there in the dark waters of the sea left to die for his disobedience. And God provides. Now how does He provide? Does He provide a life boat, the coast guard, a passing ship? No, He provides a fish. A FISH?
Now it doesn't say a whale, but it could have been I guess. Some large sea creature. And when it says “belly” it doesn't necessarily mean “stomach” where he would have been digested, but probably the inside a large mouth kind of like in “Finding Nemo” or “Pinocchio.”
We get the idea from Jonah's prayer in chapter 3 that he spent a little time out in the ocean before the fish got to him. While he is out there in the sea among the waves and sea creatures, he's surely left to die and without hope. But he cries out to God in his distress and puts his hope in the Lord, and so God causes the fish to come “give Jonah a ride.” Not on its back, but in its mouth. Now, what would you be feeling right about then? What would you be thinking as your being eaten by a big fish? Jonah spent three days and three nights in that great fish. And what does he do while he's there?
He prays and gives thanks to God for the fish! Huh? “God, thank you for the fish that is now eating me.” And fish says, “Thank you, God, for this food that I'm about to eat.”
Doesn't that sound crazy?
Why would Jonah thank God, praise God for being fish food? When you read his prayer, he doesn't mention the fish. He's thanking God for saving him from death. He's thanking God for allowing him to still be alive. God had every right to judge and condemn Jonah. Jonah directly disobeyed God. But God is merciful and Jonah sees this as a second chance.
How many of you are thankful for the second chances that you've gotten in life and the many times where God had every right to condemn, but He chose to forgive you instead?
How many times has God held back the floodgates of His wrath when you have disobeyed and He chose to forgive you, to save you, to rescue you instead? Aren't you thankful?
I wonder if Jonah was still thankful after being “vomited” up by the fish onto dry land? Nice. I think I need to take bath now.
And then Jonah gets his second chance. God says once again, “Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message that I give you.” This time Jonah obeys. He tells those who live there, “In 40 days Nineveh will be overthrown! Forty more days till judgment comes!”
And the people declare a fast. Even the king proclaims that every one seek God and turn from their wicked ways and hopefully God will have mercy. A city-wide repentance!
A city-wide revival! Wow! Amazing! God uses this prophet to bring about a great revival in the land and turn his enemies back to God. Can you imagine? Can you imagine if that would happen here in America? And so God held back His judgment on this city and had compassion on them. He didn't destroy the Ninevites.
You would think… you would think that Jonah would be thrilled. Thrilled to the gills. But is he? Nope.
Look at Jonah 4:1-3 New Living Translation (NLT)
1 This change of plans greatly upset Jonah, and he became very angry.2 So he complained to the Lord about it: “Didn’t I say before I left home that you would do this, Lord? That is why I ran away to Tarshish! I knew that you are a merciful and compassionate God, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love. You are eager to turn back from destroying people. 3 Just kill me now, Lord! I’d rather be dead than alive if what I predicted will not happen.”
Why is Jonah upset? Why is he unhappy? Because he wanted them to get what they deserve!
He knew God was a merciful God. He knew God would have compassion and forgive rather than strike them down. He knew it. It figures. This is why I wanted run away in the first place.
Does Jonah remember being thrown overboard into the deep blue sea? Does he remember God saving him from that watery death that he deserved? Does he remember God's forgiveness then?
So God is going to teach him a lesson. All that Jonah can see is these terribly wicked Assyrians getting away with murder. All that they had done to his people and now God doesn't punish them? Are you kidding?
Have you ever been so frustrated with life or circumstances that you said something like this, “Lord, just kill me now! Just get it over with!”? That's the way Jonah is feeling. It's not fair.
Jonah and the vine…
The vine and the worm…
Jonah, mad enough to die.
Verse 10 Then the Lord said, “You feel sorry about the plant, though you did nothing to put it there. It came quickly and died quickly. 11 But Nineveh has more than 120,000 people living in spiritual darkness,[a] not to mention all the animals. Shouldn’t I feel sorry for such a great city?”
CONCLUSION:
Summary- What's the moral of this BIG FISH STORY? All lives matter. All lives matter.
What this comes down to folks is the very Heart of God! All lives matter. That's what God says. Not just the decent folk. Not just ones who are trying to live a good life.
But even our enemies. The ones who are living in sin and hate right now! Does God care about them? Yes, He does. It's hard for us to think about God loving a rapist or murderer. But Jesus died for them just like He died for you and me. And maybe He's saying, “Church, it's time to go and preach… judgment is coming.” Why? Because all lives matter to God.
And since all lives matter to God, shouldn't all lives matter to us? Would you please stand?
