The Passage: Jonah 1:1-3
1:1The 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." 3But 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.
NIV
Raise A Question: Have you ever deliberately run from God? Maybe there is someone here this morning running from God right now!
Pose A Problem: Here is the problem, and it is really larger than you might think, you cannot run from God until you have first heard from God! What I am saying to you is this, you know if you’re running from the Lord, and the Lord knows you know!
Identify A Need: If you see the problem here, then I believe we all agree, you must find your way back into the will of the Lord.
Open Up A Vital Issue: Jonah’s name is connected with the word “Dove”, which signifies a messenger. His father’s name was Amittai, which means “My Truth”. Put the two together and we find that Jonah, by name, was to be a messenger of the Truth!
One of the greatest issues in the world today is not sin or sickness or disease or even politics. One of the greatest issues of our time revolves around “Christians” not living up to their name.
The Point (Sermon In A Sentence): While the benefits, of the “Greatest Story Ever Told” belongs exclusively to Christians, we must not keep them to ourselves! We, like Jonah, must deliver the message of Truth and Repentance from our Heavenly Father.
1.The Message Received
1:1The word of the LORD came to Jonah son of Amittai.
Wouldn’t you think this would be the greatest thing that could ever happen to you or anyone else? Being asked by the Lord to go on an awesome mission involving the possibility of an entire heathen city repenting of their sins.
Oh, sure there could be some problems, like being physically beaten. Possibly run out of town. Certainly made fun of. Oh, and by the way, should you become the least bit successful in your ministry effort, in a place like this you would unquestionably be executed.
But, so what! The creator of the heavens and the earth had dialed Jonah’s number and he answered the phone!
A Principle
God the Father loves to communicate with His children. He enjoyed walking and talking with Adam and Eve in the cool of the day. And He loves nothing more than when you call on Him or He calls on you and you pick up (answer the phone).
An Application
Each time you wake up and say Good morning Lord! He is there to welcome you into a new day. Even if you wake up and say Good Lord, its morning! He is there to say and I will help you through this!
Each time you pick up your Bible, whether to study intensely or just read for the pleasure of it, He is there to give you insight beyond your years. He will help you discover nuggets of gold in “them there” Scriptures that will bring understanding into your most complicated situations.
Each time you beat back the demons of hell that try everything possible to keep you from coming to church, if you allow Him God will take you to a deeper, richer level in your relationship to Himself and others.
Each time you make the conscience decision to truly enter into praise and worship, the Lord will welcome you into the Holy of Holies. Where healing is common, relationships are restored, and new boldness and strength is supplied to weary believers.
Each day brings with it the opportunity to learn something new!
An Illustration: I remember being a young pastor, sitting with some ministers many years my senior. I sat quietly listening and learning. One of them asked me what I thought the five stones, in the story of David and Goliath represented. Without hesitation I said that David was no only going to kill Goliath but his four brothers also if they got in the way. This pastor, who had probably forgotten more than I will ever know, look and me and said, “I have never thought about that.” Well to this day I’m not sure I was right, but the lesson to me was this, everyday time you pick up the Bible with a heart to learn something new, you will.
Well, with a build up like this surely Jonah was ready to take on any task the Lord had for him, right? No …
2.The Message Rejected
I believe the scenario went something like this:
Use a skit to the theme of Mission Impossible with Jonah smashing the message device instead of accepting the Mission.
Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me."
A Principle
Num 32:23
23"But if you fail to do this, you will be sinning against the LORD; and you may be sure that your sin will find you out. NIV
An Application
Go to Nineveh and cry out against it – go there with the Godly purpose of rebuking them for their sin and call them to repentance. 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 dangerously pagan, Gentile city and call them to repentance.
i. 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 – without a doubt an intimidating place to go.
For their wickedness has come up before Me: Why did God want Jonah to go? God was watching their wicked behavior. None of man’s wickedness is hidden before God - He sees it all, and it will come to a point where sin demands the specific warning and judgment of God.
If you are presently sinning against the Lord, there is a season of time in which it appears you might get away with it. However, that season of time, allowed by God, is your opportunity to repent. Should you ignore this time of grace, rest assured and be warned this day, your sin will be exposed.
An Illustration
A drunk husband snuck up the stairs quietly. He looked in the bathroom mirror and bandaged the bumps and bruises he’d received in a fight earlier that night. He then proceeded to climb into bed, smiling at the thought that he’d pulled one over on his wife. When morning came, he opened his eyes and there stood his wife. "You were drunk last night weren’t you!" "No, honey." "Well, if you weren’t, then who put all the band-aids on the bathroom mirror?"
3. The Messenger Retreats
3But 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.
A Principle
Well here we are, Jonah had receive a message & mission from the Lord, he rejected it and is now in full retreat. Tarshish was approximately 2,000 miles in the opposite direction to which God was sending him.
Allow me to give you a Word of Wisdom this morning. I promise you this, you may be willing to invest your time, talent and money in running away from the Lord, but you will ultimately be disappointed.
An Application
Why didn’t Jonah want to go to Nineveh and do what the LORD told him to do?
i. It may have been because he was given an extremely difficult job to do. Nahum 3:1-4 gives us insight into just how wicked the people of Nineveh were.
Woe to the city of blood (Ninevah), full of lies, full of plunder, never without victims! 2The crack of whips, the clatter of wheels, galloping horses and jolting chariots! 3Charging cavalry, flashing swords and glittering spears! Many casualties, piles of dead, bodies without number, people stumbling over the corpses- 4all because of the wanton lust of a harlot, alluring, the mistress of sorceries, who enslaved nations by her prostitution and peoples by her witchcraft.
NIV
ii.Jonah had every reason to expect he would be mocked and treated as a fool. He would most likely be attacked and killed if he did what the Lord told him to do.
iii. I strongly believe Jonah didn’t want the Assyrians in Nineveh to escape God’s judgment. Imagine with me 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 to a port on the West Coast and then hops on a boat for China. He simply wanted the aggressors to get what was coming to them, understandable, right? We must never forget Rom 5:8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. NIV
iii. It is easy to discuss and theorize 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; every Christian has the same command in Matthew 28:19-20. With Jonah’s example before us, we have far less reason than Jonah for our disobedience.
An Illustration
Newscaster Paul Harvey told a remarkable story of God’s providential care over thousands of allied prisoners during World War II, many of whom were Christians. One of America’s mighty bombers took off from the island of Guam headed for Kokura, Japan, with a deadly cargo. Because clouds covered the target area, the sleek B-29 circled for nearly an hour until its fuel supply reached the danger point. The captain and his crew, frustrated because they were right over the primary target yet not able to fulfill their mission, finally decided they had better go for the secondary target. Changing course, they found that the sky was clear. The command was given, "Bombs away!" and the B-29 headed for its home base. Some time later an officer received some startling information from military intelligence. Just one week before that bombing mission, the Japanese had transferred one of their largest concentrations of captured Americans to the city of Kokura. Upon reading this, the officer exclaimed, "Thank God for that protecting cloud! If the city hadn’t been hidden from the bomber, it would have been destroyed and thousands of American boys would have died." God’s ways are behind the scenes; but He moves all the scenes which He is behind. We have to learn this, and let Him work
Jonah wanted Ninevah destroyed, but God knew it wasn’t time.
The Conclusion
For those of you here this morning sitting on the edge of your spiritual seats, serving the Lord with all your heart, mind, soul and strength, I appreciate you and share your excitement.
Should you find yourself in a position this morning that seems familiar with that of Jonah, please allow me to share this quote: “If you are losing a tug of war with a tiger, give him the rope before he gets to your arm. You can always buy a new rope.”
Please bow your head and close your eyes. Are you a Christian and feel like God should being handling certain situations in your life differently, and because He isn’t you aren’t talking to Him? In other words, “Please leave a message God, I’m not available to receive your call.” Would you lift your hand please?
Is there anyone here this morning not absolutely certain if you died tonight you would wake up in heaven? Would you lift your hand please, I promise not to embarrass you.
Which of you who lifted your hands would like to stop running from God today and let Him help make your life better? If that is you, please get out of your seat, come forward and let’s communicate this directly to Him.
PRAYER
