The Stubborn Evangelist: Part 3 Series

Today we continue a four part series entitled Jonah: The Stubborn Evangelist. Jonah is also a man on the run from his responsibility – to share the message of God’s mercy to others. And this is what Jonah is really about – first experiencing God’s mercy and then extending God’s mercy. And it’s just this reason why Jonah shows his stubbornness. For he hates his enemies and does not want to show God’s mercy to them.

God had commanded Jonah to speak His message to Nineveh. At the very mention of the city of Nineveh, Jonah revolts from God and runs from God. And all throughout this short story is one where Jonah is in flight; it’s also one where God is in pursuit. And in the end, it’s God’s pursuit that eventually extinguishes Jonah’s rebellion.

The Story of Jonah: Catching Up from the Last Two Weeks

The story begins by the word of the Lord coming to Jonah where God says, “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me” (Jonah 1:2). Many of you remember the general outline of what happened. Jonah did not go east to Nineveh on the Tigris River. He got on a boat in Joppa bound for Tarshish (probably in Spain) – the opposite direction. God hurls a storm against the ship. When the prayers of the crew prove useless, they awaken Jonah and tell him to pray. Then they cast lots to see whose guilt brought the storm, and the lot fell to Jonah. When they asked who he was, he said, “I am a Hebrew, and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land” (Jonah 1:9).When the crew asked what might still the storm, Jonah said, “Pick me up and hurl me into the sea; then the sea will quiet down for you…” (Jonah 1:12). The crew threw him overboard, and the storm ceased. And Jonah sinks in the water to be swallowed by a big fish. Jonah sends a big fish not to punish Jonah to turn him around.

Today we watch a prophet walk from the beach to one of the most prominent cities of the eight-century.

Today’s Scripture

“Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying, 2 “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it the message that I tell you.” 3 So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, three days' journey in breadth. 4 Jonah began to go into the city, going a day’s journey. And he called out, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” 5 And the people of Nineveh believed God. They called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them.

6 The word reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. 7 And he issued a proclamation and published through Nineveh, “By the decree of the king and his nobles: Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything. Let them not feed or drink water, 8 but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and let them call out mightily to God. Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. 9 Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish.”

10 When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it” (Jonah 3:1-10).

The book of Jonah 's message is first experiencing God’s mercy and then extending God’s mercy.

1. The Man is the Message

When we catch up with Jonah, he’s had a brief time to recuperate from being swallowed by a big fish as well as time to digest the spiritual lessons from the entire incident. Nothing is recorded of when Jonah stretched out his hand to make sure he was on dry ground. His life had been shattered and then saved. It was sometime after this that our story begins: “Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time…” (Jonah 3:1a). Had Jonah been your quarterback, you would have cut him from the team. Had he been your employee you would have fired him. Would you take an officer who has just been court-martialed and immediately give him command of a post? Yet, notice the amazing patience God has for Jonah.

Remember God’s big purpose in this book is to first experience God’s mercy and then to extend God’s mercy. I want you to notice carefully the man (Jonah) who delivers this message today. For the man is the message. Some 800 years later, Jesus would say of Jonah: “This generation is an evil generation. It seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah. For as Jonah became a sign to the people of Nineveh, so will the Son of Man be to this generation” (Luke 11:29-30). Jesus calls our attention to Jonah himself. Jesus tells us that it is our failures that make us useful. Jesus points to Jonah as the message. And what’s the message? God brings life out of death (John 12:24).