Title: Praying Like the Prodigal Prophet Scripture: Jonah 2
Type: Expost/series on prayer Where: GNBC 8-23-21
Intro: Charlie Chaplin was the first movie actor in America to attain superstar status. He was the king of the silent movie era in the early 20th century. He was most famous for playing “the tramp.” The tramp was such a popular character that look-alike contests were held all around the country. People vied for prizes by imitating Chaplin as the tramp. In fact a young up-and-coming actor was first noticed when he won a Chaplin look-alike contest in Cleveland. His name was Bob Hope. Chaplin enjoyed telling the story of when a Chaplin look-alike contest was held in San Francisco. As a joke, Chaplin decided to quietly enter it. Amazingly, he failed to even make the finals! The judges decided five other men looked more like Charlie Chaplin than Charlie Chaplin did! Chaplin was staring the judges in the face and they didn’t recognize him. Sometimes we think a Christian is someone who performs a lot of outwardly religious deeds: Praying five or six times a day; attending church every time the doors are open; or giving money for the poor. The Bible teaches that a real Christian is someone who has been rescued by God when they couldn’t help themselves. Today we are going to look at the prayer of one of the most disobedient prophets who ever lived. When God rescued him from certain death. (Story attributed to Rev. David Dykes.)
Prop: Exam. Jonah 2 we’ll realize 3 Important Elements of the Prodigal Prophet’s Prayer.
BG: 1. Who was Jonah? “Son of Amittai” – v. 1 Events takes place about 750 BC.
2. Jonah was told by God to go to the great superpower of the time, Assyria, to preach repentance. Yet, Jonah did not want to do this. He wanted Assyria to experience God’s wrath and judgment.
Prop: We’ll exam. 3 Important Elements of Jonah’s Prayer in chapter 2.
I. Jonah’s Prayer Helps Us Realize that God is a God Who is Always Near and Who Always Hears. Vv.2-4
A. The Book of Jonah Begins with the Prodigal Prophet Attempting to Prove this statement False.
1. In chapter 1 Jonah runs away from and not towards the will of God.
a. “The context of the book gives us no evidence pointing in this direction. We saw from Jonah 1 that this prodigal prophet willfully sought to disobey the command of God to cry against the great city of Nineveh. Instead of traveling something over 500 miles to the Northeast to arrive at Nineveh, Jonah set out by ship from Joppa, heading Northwest, toward Tarshish. Jonah’s disobedience brought about a storm, which threatened the ship and the sailors. Only through their persistent questioning did they learn the reason for the storm, and only after great efforts to save Jonah did they cast him overboard. The sailors, unlike Jonah, responded obediently to the revelation they received, and they were left topside, praising God. Chapter 2 picks up the story from the undersea perspective, describing the prayer and the plight of Jonah as poetically depicted. In chapter 3, Jonah will be commanded for the second time to cry against the Ninevites, which he finally does, leading to the repentance of the entire city, and the “changing of God’s mind.” Chapter 4 shows us that Jonah’s attitude has not changed. There, he explains his disobedience in very unflattering terms, explaining why he did not want to preach to the Assyrians.” (Bob Deffinbaugh, study of Jonah 2)
b. In Psalm 139:7-12 The Psalmist asks where he could go where God would not be. Although Jonah tests the limits of the Psalmist’s parameters, the Prodigal Prophet will realize the same. Even in the belly of a great fish in the depths of the Sea of Arabah, God is there. As I begin this message this am. maybe there is someone here today, like Jonah you have decided to run far from God. Maybe you think you’ve gone so far that your out of “ear shot” of God. Never! Let Jonah’s prayer be a comfort to you.
2. Jonah Prayed to God on the very path of his rebellion.
a. Illust: God had called Jonah to travel to Nineveh, the capital of the Assyrian Empire (Near modern Mosul, Iraq.) to preach repentance. However he refused! Illust: Can you imagine Moody, Sunday, or Graham, telling God “No! I am not going to preach to those mean people!”? The trip God was asking Jonah to take would have been 500 miles NE over land. Instead, in his rebellion, Jonah goes to the port of Joppa and hops a ship to Tarshish (2500 miles) West near modern day city of Cadiz, Spain.
b. Illust: I am not sure to whom the quote can be credited, but regardless of who said it, it is a truism: “Sin will take you farther than you want to go, keep you longer than you want to stay, and cost you more than you want to pay.” Well, as the drowning prophet is sinking deeper into the Sea, he comes to his senses and cries out to God. Illust- In Lk 15 Jesus tells parable of the Prodigal Son. As the wonton son of a wealthy man is starving and longing to eat the food he is feeding swine, he hits rock bottom and comes to his senses and knows he must go home. Here Jonah is literally about to hit rock bottom and decides to call out to the Lord. Maybe you are hear today, you’re address is “Below rock bottom”. Call out to Christ!
B. Let’s Examine this Portion of the Prayer of the Prodigal Prophet.
1. In faith Jonah appeals to God for Mercy.
a. Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the fish’s belly: “I cried out to the L??? because of my affliction, and He answered me. Out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and You heard my voice” (v. 2). When Jonah was swallowed by the great fish, he realized God had preserved him from death. It must have dawned on him that God was watching over him despite his rebellion and disobedience; and Jonah broke forth in prayer to the Lord.
b. The Recitation: First, Jonah reviewed his situation in the storm: “For You cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the floods surrounded me; all Your billows and Your waves passed over me” (v. 3). In his physical distress, Jonah came to realize God’s sovereignty over his life. He instinctively knew that by God’s will, the lot the sailors had cast fell on him; and thus they had thrown him into the sea (1:7, 12, 15).
c. Jonah’s Submission: In the throes of death, Jonah submitted to the Lord: “Then I said, ‘I have been cast out of Your sight; yet I will look again toward Your holy temple’” (2:4). Earlier, Jonah had wanted to flee from God, but now he realized the folly of his sin and cried out for God’s presence.
2. God’s Mercy Doesn’t Always Arrive in the Package we Assume it will.
a. A drowning, disobedient, prophet pleads with God for mercy. His near death experience is causing him to cry out to God for mercy. In Jonah’s day, repentant sinners came to the temple to offer sacrifices. So its not unusual that prophet tried to “pray towards the temple”. What was God’s mercy? A big fish to swallow Jonah! “Great, I am drowning and now I am going to be eaten!” (Out of frying pan and into the fire!)
b. Illust: In the NT, the Saul of Tarsus didn’t realize his temporary blindness was the mercy God gave him to be able to truly see. In the OT, Joseph didn’t realize that his unjust arrest and sentencing would actually be a blessing God would use to promote him to 2nd in the Kingdom of Egypt. Illust: Growing up was a boy in my class, David. He was wild with a capital “W” (You Cub’s fans, do you remember that letter?) David had a sweet Jeep Wrangler and girls loved him. On a date with one of prettiest girls in school. Getting high and driving and flipped Jeep. Nearly killed the girl. His legs were so badly crushed spent next 4-5 months in hospital. When finally got out one leg was 4” shorter than the other, and David was born again!
C. Application: Jonah’s prayer encourages us to realize that no matter how far we have run from the will of God, there is no place we cannot run where God will not be near and will not hear!
II. Jonah’s Prayer Helps Us Realize God is a God Who Restores. Vv.5-8
A. Jonah’s Life is at the Brink of Death When He Realizes God is the God Who Restores.
1. As Jonah begins to drown his Spiritual eyes reopen.
a. Notice the description that is given us of Jonah’s suffering and the prayer he prays in the midst of this suffering. (Read vv.5-6)
b. I have to imagine that Jonah felt the suffocating waters engulfing him and sense that death was near. Seaweed bound him like a rope and the jagged rocks of the sea floor trapped him. Sure he was sinking to the very gates of death. Illust: I was recently asked why our church sang hymns as well as p&w songs. I told him because many of the hymns are outstanding theological statements. (And because Scripture says to: Hymns, Psalms, Spiritual Songs – Eph. 5:19). I think if Jonah had a song to choose about his experience it would have been: “I was sinking deep in sin, far from the peaceful shore. Very deeply stained within, Sinking to rise no more, But the Master of the sea, Heard my despairing cry, From the waters lifted me, Now safe am I!!!Dear one that can be your testimony today as well. Let the love of God in Christ lift you! Lift Jonah from the depths of sea and death. You for hopelessness, depression, anxiety.
2. Jonah’s Prayer Teaches us that God Can Restore the Failures of Our Lives.
a. “God has never given up on his original creation. Yet we’ve managed to overlook an entire biblical vocabulary that makes this point clear. Reconcile. Redeem. Restore. Recover. Return. Renew. Regenerate. Resurrect. Each of these biblical words begins with the re- prefix, suggesting a return to an original condition that was ruined or lost. (Many are translations of Greek words with a prefix, which has the same meaning as the English re-.) For example, redemption means to buy back what was formerly owned. Similarly, reconciliation means the restoration or reestablishment of a prior friendship or unity. Renewal means to make new again, restoring to an original state. Resurrection means becoming physically alive again, after death. These words emphasize that God always sees us in light of what he intended us to be, and he always seeks to restore us to that design. Likewise, he sees the earth in terms of what he intended it to be, and he seeks to restore it to its original design.” (Alcorn, Heaven, chapt.9). (Illust: My mother had a 1st cousin who restored antique cars for a living.)
b. Religion professor Albert Wolters, in Creation Regained, writes, “[God] hangs on to
his fallen original creation and salvages it. He refuses to abandon the work of his hands—in fact, he sacrifices his own Son to save his original project. Humankind, which has botched its original mandate and the whole creation along with it, is given another chance in Christ; we are reinstated as God’s managers on earth. The original good creation is to be restored.” That’s the great news of this prayer! God is the God of the second chance!
B. Notice the Sinking Saint’s Supplication vv. 7-8
1. Examine again the actual prayer.
a. Vv.7-8 (read). Possibly the prophet is now entombed in the belly of the great fish. He feels his life ebbing away. The runaway prophet has run away as far as he can. He has come to his end. Remembering God, from the deep, he cries out in prayer because God is His only hope for survival.
b. See the Prophet’s Supplication: Jonah is seeking the Lord at death’s door (Read vv.7-8). I have heard a lot Christians complain about near-death conversions. You know what’s worse? Dying without conversion!
2. Notice an Important Lesson that Jonah has learned and shares in his prayer.
a. Jonah mentions the “folly” of worshiping worthless idols. I think the prophet realized his rebellion had become an idol. Maybe his hatred of the Assyrians had become an idol. Maybe his Jewish nationalism had become an idol. Certainly, his unwillingness to obey God’s will was motivated by idols and had actually become an idol in his life. It had created a huge blind spot of idolatry in his life. When we exchange God for an idol we find ourselves out of God’s will and in harm’s way. Like Jonah, need to repent! The man who was supposed to preach repentance to the Assyrians needed to preach to himself.
b. Friend, maybe today you are finding yourself at the end of your proverbial rope. Maybe you are trying to trust in everything the world says will bring you hope and joy. Illust: Past week I bumped into a friend of mine outside a store we were both going into. Has a child about 30 yrs of age struggling with drugs off and on last ten years. Made all sorts of idols and worshiped them to get to where is today. Has also, unsuccessfully, tried to use idols to get through addiction: self control, 12 Steps, Family, Religion. However, hasn’t truly reached the bottom of the barrel, hasn’t cried out to Christ in full surrender to his will alone.
C. Applic: God is in the restoration business. He restores broken and battered lives.
III. Jonah’s Prayer Helps Us Realize God is a God of Hope. Vv.8ff
A. The overwhelming Message of Jonah Chapter 2 is that God is a God of hope.
1. When all seems lost, God is still a God of Hope.
Parents, can I tell you that Jonah 2 is a good argument for getting your kids in Sunday School? What do you mean Pastor? Nothing about SS! Jonah’s prayer prayer is composed almost entirely of sentences found in Psalms. Jon 2:2 reminds of Psalm 18:6-7; Psalm 120:1. Jon 2:3 contains a quotation from Psalm 42:7, 'All thy waves and billows passed over me.' In connection with Jon 2:4 consider Psalm 31:22. Jon 2:5 is found in Psalm 18:4; also Psalm 69:2. The thanksgiving in Jon 2:6, 'Yet hast Thou brought up my life from the pit, O LORD, my God' is closely allied to Psalm 30:5. The first part of Jon 2:7 is from Psalm 142:3 and 143:4. The second part is found in Psalm 5:7; Psalm 18:6. The eighth verse reminds of Psalm 31:6 and the ninth verse is to be connected with Psalm 42:4. We can see that Jonah was a man who knew the scripture and prayed the scripture. And it was the Scripture that God used to draw Jonah back to Himself. Friend, when you son or daughter is in 20’s-30’s 40’s, run far from things of God. Living in sin. It’s the WOG that will prick the conscience.
2. The Message of Jonah’s Salvation Points to a Greater Salvation.
a. Some people have asked me as to whether or not I REALLY believe in the story of Jonah. My answer is unequivocally, YES! 20 yrs ago, I would have given you several notable examples of men who have been swallowed up by fish, whole, and survived. There are a handful of these examples. I would have debated with you as to whether this was a sperm whale or whale shark or Loch Ness monster for all I care!…. Truth is, I don’t know and I don’t care. All we know is that God appointed a fish. Could have been a special act of creation for all we know. It was a miracle. It was a miracle that Christ noted so as to point to a greater miracle to come.
b. Illust: Mt. 12:40 “For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” A committee of scribes and Pharisees from Jerusalem had come to Jesus, objecting to the practice of His disciples (15:1). Now, in Magdala, another committee of Pharisees, joined by a number of Sadduccees, waited to confront Him. What a strange combination: conservative Bible scholars, Jewish fundamentalists, and ultra-modern theological liberals putting aside their differences to ask for “a sign from heaven” to validate Jesus’ claims and teachings! By making the comparison, Christ states the resurrection to be touchstone of truthfulness of all of His claims and promises. Friend, let me tell you that is where your hope can be found today! The death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ!
B. Notice the Prayer of the Restored Prodigal.
1. What do we see in the prayer of this changed man?
a. We see rededication in his prayer. Jonah expressed appreciation for his salvation and promised to pay what he had vowed: “But I will sacrifice to You with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay what I have vowed. Salvation is of the L???” (v. 9). Running from God’s call brought Jonah to the horrifying situation in which he found himself. In the jaws of death, the prophet finally saw where his sinful pride and self-will had landed him. And he cried out to God in repentance. Upon being saved from death, he lifted his voice in thanksgiving to God for sparing his life and gratefully promised to offer sacrifices and keep the vows he made to the Lord.
b. Illust: At CIU got to meet Mary’s academic advisor. Chp. Commander, Michael Langston. God called into the ministry while a 9 yr. old in rural Louisiana. Excelled in sports. Ticket out was college football. Then, decided to see the world. Joined Marines. But as a young Cpt. Stationed on Okinawa, God called him a second time. Obeyed the voice of the Lord. Went to seminary. Pastored 2 yrs. then 26 yrs. Navy Chaplain. Okinawa was ½ world away from little town in Louisiana. Yet, was the same God. You can’t outrun God. He’s near and He hears!
2. Finally, We See Jonah’s Attitude at his deliverance.
a. We see appreciation in Jonah’s prayer. Jonah concluded his prayer with “Salvation [deliverance] is of the L???” (2:9). No other words were more fitting to summarize the prophet’s experience. Jonah was correct in his theology. Only the Lord can save. Often it takes a near-death experience for people to realize and appreciate that “salvation is of the L???.” Jonah certainly didn’t have it “all together”. Ironically, Jonah was overjoyed at God sparing his life; but later in the book, the prophet was angry with God for saving Nineveh.
b. Joy is the attitude of the individual God has delivered from death. Illust:
C. Applic: Do you need hope today? Are you like Jonah, seemingly drowning in the cares of life? Call out to Christ. A baseball in my hands is worth about $3, the cost of the ball. In the hands of Gerrit Cole its worth about $$$. A golf club in the hands of Tiger Woods can be worth thousands; in my hands, not much. In the hands of a normal man a stick is a good device to beat off dogs. In the hands of a man of faith it can part a great sea. A fish and a loaf of bread in the hands of a normal man would make a good fish sandwich, but in the hands of the Lord Jesus, it can feed thousands. Whatever the problem, whatever the situation... in your hands it can be a mess... in the hands of Jesus it can be a miracle.
