“Jonah: The Preaching Prophet”
Jonah 3:1-10
David P. Nolte
Can you envision Jonah after being tossed into the sea, swallowed by a huge fish, imprisoned in the Haddock Hoosegow for three days and nights? Can you fathom how he must have stunk after being barfed up onto the beach? Can you imagine him with skin bleached out and wrinkled up like a prune? Can you see him with seaweed wrapped around his neck like a scarf? And can you imagine him staggering around, blinded by the sudden glare of sunlight? He looked like something the cat wouldn’t drag in!! And can you hear God restating His call, “Arise, go to Nineveh the great city and proclaim to it the proclamation which I am going to tell you.”? “Okay, Lord – I hear you loud and clear!”
This time, Jonah got his compass bearing correct. He headed for Nineveh to become the Preaching Prophet! What can we learn from this fellow today? What does the text have in store for us? Let’s see:
“Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah the second time, saying, ‘Arise, go to Nineveh the great city and proclaim to it the proclamation which I am going to tell you.’ So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, a three days' walk. Then Jonah began to go through the city one day's walk; and he cried out and said, ‘Yet forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown.’ Then the people of Nineveh believed in God; and they called a fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest to the least of them. When the word reached the king of Nineveh, he arose from his throne, laid aside his robe from him, covered himself with sackcloth and sat on the ashes. He issued a proclamation and it said, ‘In Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles: Do not let man, beast, herd, or flock taste a thing. Do not let them eat or drink water. But both man and beast must be covered with sackcloth; and let men call on God earnestly that each may turn from his wicked way and from the violence which is in his hands. Who knows, God may turn and relent and withdraw His burning anger so that we will not perish.’ When God saw their deeds, that they turned from their wicked way, then God relented concerning the calamity which He had declared He would bring upon them. And He did not do it.” Jonah 3:1-10 (NASB).
Have you ever been called upon to do a job for God and you ignored it, or made excuses, or agreed with crossed fingers, or flat out disobeyed? I think we all have – and since life has no “Undo” or “Do Over” buttons, it is very good that God is gracious!
I. GOD IS WILLING TO GIVE ANOTHER CHANCE: V1:
A. The word of the Lord came a second time! God didn’t speak once and then, not being heeded, didn’t speak again! God is the God of another opportunity!
B. I do not want to make it seem that God has gone soft on sin – just that when we sin it is not all over for us if we repent. He gives another chance
C. See who got a second chance here:
1. Nineveh did! It was a wicked city, corrupt, violent, immoral. Yet God wanted to save the people there!
2. Jonah did! He had been a rebel, a shirker, a disgrace to the name prophet. Yet God wanted to use him!
3. Neither Jonah nor Nineveh had gone too far to be reclaimed, redeemed, and used IF they’d repent and turn from their sins.
D. The Gospel is first and foremost a message of another chance! The call to “repent!” is one of the most positive calls ever issued. It is an invitation to turn around and get right with God. It is an opportunity to go God’s way..
1. “The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” 2 Peter 3:9 (NIV)
2. “There is more joy in heaven over one lost sinner who repents and returns to God than over ninety-nine others who are righteous and haven’t strayed away!” Luke 15:7 (NLT2).
E. Man! Talk about giving a second chance! The following news item appeared in the Grand Rapids Press: “A man who survived at least six attempts on his life, allegedly masterminded by his wife and her lover, wants the charges against his spouse dismissed because they have reconciled. Lawyers for the husband have filed a motion seeking to dismiss the charges of conspiracy to commit murder and shooting with the intent to kill. The motion said that the man and his wife Phyllis reconciled after the death of the woman's lover 2 months ago. According to the motion, the husband has decided he won't testify against his wife. The district attorney said that he wouldn't have a case without the husband's testimony.” And regardless of how often we have sinned, when we humbly repent, the Lord continues to extend unlimited forgiveness.
God is willing to give a second chance. But there’s more:
II. GOD’S WILL IS NOT ALTERED BY OUR REBELLION! V2:
A. Notice: same call, same destination, same task required of Jonah!
1. Not: “Well, Jonah, you’ve made it apparent that you don’t care to go to Nineveh. I’ve reconsidered and will send you to the Bahamas instead.”
2. Not: “After further consideration, perhaps I am out of step with the popular mind. What would you like to do?”
B. God:
1. Will allow us to try to run away.
2. Will allow us to rebel.
3. But He will NEVER conform His will to ours! He is never intimated by our rebellion, He is never bullied by our hostility, He is never over a barrel by our resistance.
C. Here’s the bottom line:
1. What must happen is that we shape our wills to His!
2. What is necessary is that we conform our plans to His!
3. What is required is that we surrender our wishes to His!
D. He has not
1. Changed His mind about sexuality or marriage or honesty or abortion or sins of any sort!
2. Altered His demand that we repent of sin, be immersed for baptism, and live lives which reflect the Lordship of Jesus Christ.
3. Been swayed by the Supreme Court, nor Church Councils, nor atheists and scoffers nor popular human opinion.
4. Ceased to offer the chance to start over, but He will not negotiate the terms. It is still: “Go to Nineveh! Cry against it!’ We obey or we fall.
E. Sometimes God has to do something unpleasant to get us out of rebellion and into His will. For Jonah, it was a guided tour through a fish’s digestive system. For solders in basic training in Florida it was something else: As the soldiers were running through an obstacle course, they came to a broad pond. They were to grab a rope, swing across, and continue through the course. It was sweltering. The water looked so cool that the weary men would “accidentally” make it half-way across the pond and then drop into the water. An enterprising Lieutenant solved that. He put a huge Florida Gator in the pond and after that the recruits left the ground 15 feet from water’s edge and landed in the dust well beyond the other side. Their self-will didn’t change the will of the army at all.
Nor did Jonah’s resistance change God’s will, nor does our rebellion change God’s will either. He does not change – but there is good news:
III. GOD STILL CHANGES LIVES: VV4-10:
A. Note
1. The message: “Yet forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown." I.e: “In forty days this dump goes down the drain!”
2. The response: “When God saw their deeds, that they turned from their wicked way, then God relented concerning the calamity which He had declared He would bring upon them. And He did not do it.” That what Jonah preached didn’t even offer any hope, just a statement of doom. But the people believed, repented, and were saved. Their lives were changed!
B. Real faith always changes lives! I Had a car back in 1974 that would surge when driving slowly through a parking lot. Not that it was not operable – it just aggravated me. And when I keyed up the CB the engine would die. Every 2 - 3 weeks I took it back for repair but they never did get it right – it still surged at low speeds and when I keyed up the CB the engine would die. But each time the dealer said it was fixed. Calling it fixed is not the same as fixing it! In like manner, some people claim to be saved and still live in wilful sin, but merely calling one’s self a Christian is not the same as being one! Let us live truly Christ-changed lives and let us repent of and forsake sin.
1. Paul makes that clear when he writes: “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace might increase? May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?” Romans 6:1-2 (NASB).
2. He writes further: “You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love.” Galatians 5:13 (NIV).
3. And further: “So this I say, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart; and they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness. But you did not learn Christ in this way, if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught in Him, just as truth is in Jesus, that, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.” Ephesians 4:17-24 (NASB).
C. What conclusion would we draw from those texts?
1. If your faith doesn’t change your life, it is not faith!
2. If your walk with Jesus doesn’t change your morals, you are not walking with Jesus!
3. If your profession of belief is not matched by a performance suited to belief, you don’t believe!
4. It doesn’t matter how “Spirit filled and tongue talking” you claim to be, if you don’t live a Christlike life you’re kidding yourself.
5. Saved people live saved lives; they don’t commit sexual sin:; they don’t cheat and lie and steal; they don’t cuss and swear and use the Lord’s Name in vain; they don’t hate and bear grudges and seek vengeance. Their lives are changed.
6. But to merely change the outward appearance without a changed heart would not suffice. It would be like an old man I heard about. He came from the back mountains of Tennessee found himself one day in a large city, for the first time standing outside an elevator. He watched as an old, haggard woman hobbled on, and the doors closed. A few minutes later the doors opened and a young, attractive woman marched smartly off. The father hollered to his youngest son, "Billy Bob! Hurry and go get mother. I want to run her through that thing-a-majig!"
D. God desires to change your inner person and then the outward person will be changed as well. You could take any pig and clean it up, paint its hooves and put on nice clothing – but if you take it to your table as a guest, you will soon discover that it is still a pig! God wants to change our hearts. God is patient, but let us not be presumptuous! God waits, but let us not delay! God is gracious but let’s not confuse His grace with tolerance of sin!
1. He calls America, and He calls each of us, to obey His will. Perhaps you have resisted that call. He has another chance for you if you cease your resistance.
2. He won’t change His will but he will change you if you come.
E. Once there was a wild rose bush growing in a ditch, all snarled up and untended and badly in need of care. There came along a gardener with his spade. As he dug around it and lifted it up the rose bush said to itself, "What is he doing? Doesn't he know I am a worthless and wild rose bush?" But the gardener took it into his garden and planted it amid his flowers, while the rose bush said, "What a mistake he has made planting me among these beautiful roses." Then the gardener came once more and pruned the bosh and made a slit in its stems with his sharp knife. He grafted it with another rose and when summer came lovely roses were blooming on that old rose bush. Then the gardener said, "Your beauty is not due to what came out of you but to what I put in."
We are that wild rosebush – we may produce a rose of some sort but to be truly beautiful (or handsome for the guys) that attractiveness must be due to what God Himself puts in. We come as a wild rose – we move on toward what God wants us to be.
Just as you are, not as you ought to be; just as you are, not as you will be; just as you are but willing to change, just as you are come.
