The Jonah In Us

Jonah chapter 1, it was a normal Sunday morning.

I got up about 6 o'clock 15 years ago.

It was dark when I got myself ready, and I got down to the church to get things organized, and we were getting closer to the service starting.

And someone, it was actually a staff member came up to me, and she said, she looked down, and she said, I hope you're not going to get up on stage looking like that.

And I thought, what have I done?

What have I done?

And I looked down, and I had one brown shoe and one black shoe.

And it was the funniest thing because I had this weird experience of looking at my dumbness right up close.

I was just shocked.

I thought, I know this sounds, none of you would ever, well, let me ask you, who's done the same thing?

At least it wasn't left on the right.

It was left on left and right on right.

Somehow, I found them.

The right shoe in the dark.

But as I reflect on that, it's unusual to have such clarity about your own foibles.

Often we don't have such clarity.

When you look in the mirror and see your blind spot, where you see, where your life is out of kilter with reality, it can be shocking, but it's a good thing.

And I think that's what we are going to experience in the Book of Jonah.

Lord willing, we get to study it throughout May.

It's a book that sort of encourages you to find a horse that's high and jump on it.

A high horse and sort of make judgments on this silly, ungodly, reluctant prophet named Jonah.

We could easily listen to the story, read the story.

Some of us know it well and think, oh, look at you.

As if I'd ever be like that.

But if we're honest, there's a bit of a mirror, isn't there?

When we look at the story of Jonah, it tends to point back at us and help us understand that there's a bit of Jonah lurking in all of us somewhere.

Like two different shoes put on your feet in the dark of a winter's morning, the Jonah In Us is a little embarrassing to see, but worth discovering.

The Book of Jonah begins with the chapter title, Jonah flees from the Lord.

Let me read from Chapter 1 verse 1.

The word of the Lord came to Jonah's son of Amittai.

Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it because its wickedness has come up before me.

But Jonah ran away.

He 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 for the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the Lord.

The name Jonah, he's often called the Reluctant Prophet, but the name means dove.

It also means peace bringer, which is what the dove is.

So Jonah's name is peace bringer.

Jonah, his father's name is Amitai, which means truth.

So bound up in his name is a sense of his destiny.

He is destined to be a peace bringing son of truth, but he's reluctant to accept that calling.

The word of the Lord came to Jonah and asked him to go, to leave somewhere and to go to somewhere else.

Go into all the world is what Jesus said.

It's so much part of the missionary calling on the church.

Abraham was asked by God to go to a nation, not his own.

Go, two letters, but very powerful and so much part of receiving a call to embark on that mission adventure that God wants us to be part of.

God says, go, and what does Jonah say?

No.

God says, go, and Jonah says, no.

And you know, the comedic sketch has the picture of him sort of turning and exit stage right and running a long way in the other direction.

The first idea we find in the Book of Jonah is God often asks us to do things we don't want to do.

What do you think?

Is that a true statement this morning?

God often asks us to do things we don't want to do.

Of course, for God to ask us to do something and us to have the opportunity of either accepting or denying it, of obeying or disobeying, comes with the sense of presupposition that you can hear from God.

One of our 12 core values is God speaks, we listen.

The idea of God speaking is paramount in the Bible.

It's an important aspect of who God is.

He speaks, the Bible says, and stars and planets turn up.

Animals and people come into existence from His speech.

He created by His word.

He spoke with Adam and Eve in the cool of the day in the garden.

We don't know exactly how that works, but that's what we're told happened.

He's a speaking God, amen?

Throughout history, He speaks sometimes with an audible voice.

He certainly speaks through His prophets.

He speaks through circumstance.

Most powerfully of all, He spoke through His Son, God in human flesh, through vocal cords and a mouth.

He spoke on this earth, and you can read Jesus' words in the gospels.

God speaks to us, to our inner man, by His Holy Spirit, and He speaks through His written word.

Is He speaking to you?

Is He speaking to you?

I think if I was to ask again for a show of hands, many of us would say, you know what, in my life, I've experienced a sense, maybe an audible voice, but probably more typically, just from God's word, I've read it and God's spoken to me, and I've said yes, and I've obeyed.

And others of us have heard from God, and we have disobeyed.

We've heard the Spirit say, don't do that or do that, and we've gone, no, I'm going to disobey.

But you know what, I think there's something even worse than disobedience, and it's not hearing from God anymore at all.

Just living a life that has become filled with a blur of responsibilities, of routine, of pain, of sin, of pleasure, of survival, and you just don't hear from God.

What is your answer?

This book of Jonah is a bit pokey, I think, as we sit in it.

There's a challenge that comes to us.

You can't read it without experiencing that.

How long has it been since you've heard God speak to you?

Because God is a God who speaks.

The Spirit of God is called our counselor for a reason.

He is our coach.

God wants to guide us, to coach us in life.

And coaches make us do today what we need to do so that we can do tomorrow what we can't do today.

Amen?

It's what coaches do.

They say, you know what?

You may not want to do this, but let's do this today.

Do what you can do today so that you can do tomorrow what you can't do today.

What is God the coach saying to you about the season of life you're in?

God said to Jonah, go to that great city of Nineveh and preach against it because its wickedness has come up before me.

And Jonah says, thanks for speaking to me, God.

But no, that's a terrible idea because, and he gave reasons basically in his heart, why I should not go to the Assyrians living in Nineveh because they are a diabolically evil people.

And look it up in history, and it's horrible what the Assyrians would do to their prisoners of war.

We're not going to glorify sin by talking about it here.

But you know, if you want to look up the Assyrians of Nineveh, there's a reason, there's a logical good reason why Jonah's like, no, you may be the God who created the universe, but I'm not doing what you're asking me to do.

I guess I know better.

No.

So we're holding up the mirror of Jonah.

Do you ever do that to God?

Do you ever do that to God?

May mission month is a great example.

We're asking for generosity.

And as I said in the video, no one's trying to be heavy handed and put pressure on anyone.

But I think it's real that we're living in the 21st century, and sometimes when you read about financial generosity in the Bible, you think, well, Lord, that's nice back then.

But did you know we're living in Sydney?

Inflation, interest rates, financial remuneration compared to the cost of buying a house, it doesn't make sense to be financially generous.

You're very old, God.

You are outdated, let's face it.

Do you even know what's going on in the 21st century in Sydney?

I think I know better than you about my financial requirements of good stewardship, but that would be a silly thing to think.

Maybe it's something more relational for you that God is saying, and just gently prodding, let's get that right with that person that matters.

Let's fix that.

Let's trust me for reconciliation.

Let's work towards that, and we're like, no.

And that's the Jonah In Us.

So knowing better than God, with good reasons behind him, Jonah hightails it in the opposite direction.

Jonah ran away, verse 3, 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.

Now, you probably know this, but this is the picture that again is quite humorous.

You've got Israel over there.

Nineveh is over towards Iraq.

It's in an eastern direction.

He hears the call of God, goes down to the port, which is right next to Tel Aviv.

Joppa, I can't remember the name of it.

Does anyone know what Joppa is today?

What is it?

Yaffa, I've been there.

I couldn't remember the name, but it's a beautiful port city.

He jumps on a boat and heads basically to Gibraltar, the Rock of Gibraltar.

Like he goes, I'm out of here and don't miss the humor of it.

He's like, I'm going to the end of the known world.

No, Lord, I am not doing what you asked me to do.

And this leads us, this image leads us to our second thought for today from the text.

There's always a boat heading the opposite direction to God's will.

If you want to jump on it, yin yang is an Eastern philosophy that is believed about energy from a lot of the world, that there's the yin yang symbol.

It's about balance of good and evil.

Qi is this energy that Eastern philosophy and religion would teach is flowing through everything.

And so there's always a counterbalance.

And that's not what we believe as Christians.

We believe God is the creator above all things.

And, you know, there's powers.

But I think this idea of opposing forces is actually true in practice.

We live in a spiritually dynamic world.

And have you noticed that when God is prompting you to do something, to step out, maybe it's in generosity of time, suddenly there's a pushback.

Work is asking for more time to make it harder to do that.

Or maybe you're speaking to a friend about purity and encouraging them to walk a line of righteous purity, and then you're coming under the temptation yourself.

It often is like this, that God is leading us a certain way, but there's a pushback from the evil one.

There's an offer, it certainly happened to Jesus in the temptation.

There's an offer of a boat to jump on, to head in the opposite direction.

In my reflection on Christianity and I guess on walking along the journey with so many other people, I think we often find ourselves on the boat to Tarshish by accident.

I think a lot of us upon reflection would say, I never bought the ticket to go to Tarshish, but we sort of drift that way.

Can anyone relate to that?

I just was sitting on a boat, a little bit offshore looking back at Tel Aviv.

And then all of a sudden, we started drifting.

Years ago, when we were in our 20s, my brother and I were visiting mom and dad.

They were on holidays up at the entrance.

And that opening at the entrance on the Central Coast has the opening of the River Mouth going out to the sea.

And we were, Murray and I, surfers, and Murray had this great idea to take dad's fishing two-man canoe out and do some surfing in the River Mouth.

The waves were only about this high.

And dad immediately said, I wouldn't do that.

It's my canoe.

I've capsized it up Roseville.

And you can't get it back right.

You can't, it's not going to work for you if you capsize.

And that's going to capsize.

I wouldn't do that.

And also dad said, it's a really strong outgoing tide and it's nearly dark.

And Murray and I went, what would you know dad?

So we said, we'll go out there.

We're experienced surfers.

We didn't have any life jackets on, but we got out there and I was in the front and we're going out through the little waves and we turned around and as we were turning, I thought this is a bad idea.

And we went for our first wave, Hawaiian style with the open canoe.

It wasn't like a ski.

It wasn't like a kayak.

It was an open canoe.

And as you'd imagine, obviously the wave came straight over my brother's back and filled us up.

Just filled the, you know, over before we started.

And we thought, oh, this isn't good.

So we jumped out.

There's no way we could fix our situation.

It was full, completely sunk.

We jumped out and we thought, at least we can touch the ground.

We'll be able to sort of work our way out of the river mouth, but we couldn't.

It took seconds, and we were hooked out to sea at the entrance.

No life jackets holding on to the canoe.

And as we were literally a couple hundred metres out to sea, it's getting dark, and I'm looking at the southern headland of that entrance beach.

And I'm thinking, this is not good.

I'm not sure how we get out of this situation.

Now we're just drifting, drifting, drifting.

And then, you know, Tonto on his horse or whoever, the Lone Ranger, I heard the lifeguards coming with their rubber ducky, and they saved us.

But it was it's a reminder for me that you drift in your spiritual life, you make a bad decision, and all of a sudden it's taking you somewhere else.

And, you know, it can be we've got one of our seven strategic keys.

We talk about at NorthernLife is Big Sunday, and we encourage people at church to make Sunday a priority, if you can, to meet with God's people.

To listen to Hebrews, Hebrews says, don't give up meeting together because you need one another to stir one another on to love and good works.

It's just so easy that you get busy and you don't come to church for a few weeks and then you think, oh, I come once a month.

But then when life gets in the way, all of a sudden, I'm not having those connections and we can drift.

You certainly don't need to go to church to be a Christian, but it helps, amen.

It's the way it's meant to be.

Jonah ran away from God's call.

Let me ask you straight out on this morning.

What are you running from?

Is there anything that the spirit prompts you and says, yeah, where are you currently drifting?

Is there anything the spirit prompts you to think about?

There's always a boat ready to take you somewhere, but is it the right place?

The story of Jonah tells us that God doesn't mind using storms for his own purposes.

The third thought is God may send a storm to grab your attention.

That's what we learn as we hold the mirror up and think, What am I learning from Jonah?

Verse 4 says, Then the Lord sent a great wind on the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up.

If you're Jonah, you're immediately thinking, This is not good.

I think God knows where I am.

He saw me.

All the sailors were afraid and each cried out to his own God.

I hope you know the story.

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.

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 that we will not perish.

Then the sailors said to each other, Come, let us cast lots to find out who is responsible for this calamity.

Obviously, their world view is one of a spiritual reality.

They're thinking that something has been done to offend the gods.

They cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah.

So, they asked him, Tell us who is responsible for making all this trouble for us?

What kind of work do you do?

Where do you come from?

What is your country?

From what people are you?

Interesting questions.

He answered, I am a Hebrew and I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.

And one feels like saying, Hold on, Jonah, really?

You're suddenly very spiritual.

You're a Yahweh worshipping Israelite.

Seems like you're doing your own thing.

Oh, that's right.

Jonah is a mirror.

Anyone relate?

I've got this sword, Lord, I've got this sword until the storm comes.

And then it's like, oh, time to become very spiritual.

Time to become very spiritual.

God sends storms to grab our attention.

Is that your experience?

It is.

It happens.

This terrified the sailors and they asked, what have you done?

They knew he was running away from the Lord because he had already told them so.

The sea was getting rougher and rougher, so they asked him, what should we do to make the sea calm down for us?

Pick me up and throw me into the sea, he replied.

It will become calm.

I know that it's my fault this great storm has come upon you.

Instead, the men did their best to row back to land, but they couldn't, for the sea grew even wilder than before.

Then they cried out to the Lord, please Lord, do not let us die for taking this man's life.

Do not hold us accountable for killing an innocent man for you, Lord, have done as you pleased.

What do we take from this portion of scripture?

There's a line that stands out, I think, then the Lord sent a great wind on the sea.

It's problematic in the midst of suffering to say God did it.

It certainly messes with our head a bit, doesn't it?

It was like that sort of throwaway line, oh, God's done it for a purpose.

And if you're in the midst of suffering, you don't always want to hear that.

And of course, it's actually not always the truth.

Suffering is a complex and at times confusing experience, isn't it, in life?

But, you know, here it does say the Lord sent a wind.

I think we have to accept that there are times when storms in our lives will have God's fingerprints on those storms.

But it takes wisdom to work out if that's the case, or how it all works.

The Book of Jonah is meant to reframe things for the reader.

It's meant to challenge us.

And one of the ways it reframes, I think, is it presents these supposedly stereotypically pagan, ungodly sailors as quite godly men.

What should we do?

God have mercy on us.

Rapid obedience.

These sailors make Jonah look like the pagan, don't they?

I wonder if we can see ourselves in Jonah.

Are there people you've discovered in your life that have taught you about following a righteous way of life that surprised you?

The story finishes with Jonah being thrown overboard, but the reframing book of Jonah again reminds us, Jonah's worst nightmare was exactly what he needed.

Jonah's worst nightmare was exactly what he needed.

Verse 15, Then they took Jonah and threw him overboard, and the raging sea grew calm.

At this, the men greatly feared the Lord, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows to him.

Now the Lord provided a huge fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.

Thrown overboard, worst nightmare.

And then he's swallowed by a fish, and we're left at the end of the story just with this hint that he's in the fish three days and three nights.

It's clearly a...

We'll talk about this Lord willing next week.

It's a picture of Jesus, the son of Jonah, three days and three nights in the ground.

But, you know, it's also a problematic text.

You might be here today thinking, I find it ridiculous, and it sort of rocks my faith a bit.

Like, I just don't believe that a human being was swallowed by a big fish, and it's always rocked me a bit.

And I want to encourage you, maybe it wasn't a real man in a real fish.

Maybe, maybe it was a type, it was allegory.

I'm happy to believe, if Jesus can tell Peter to go down and throw a line in and catch a fish and find, and he says, in that fish is going to be a drachma coin, I'm okay with a fish coming and swallowing a guy and somehow it working.

But you know, I just want to encourage you, if that's almost a deal breaker for you, there are lots of godly Bible believing Christians who don't actually believe that was a literal fish.

You may disagree with me, but that doesn't mean they're going to a bad place when they die.

There's room, there's room in the kingdom, in the church for people who can challenge some of these stories.

What is the main point in this?

For Jonah, he is patently aware that the reason he is on a boat to Tarshish is that he's disobeyed God and he has now been thrown overboard and as he feels the cold of the water and he struggles to keep his head above water and then he feels the inexplicable horror of being swallowed by a wild animal.

Who has in their top three of things you don't want to have happen to you, being swallowed by, live by a wild animal, whole.

It's in my top three.

But this is what Jonah has experienced, yet in this worst of nightmares.

It's exactly what he needed.

It's what he needed.

That's what we're meant to take from this story.

Sometimes you're going to run away and God will send a storm and then some people to throw you overboard and in a hopeless situation you get eaten whole by a fish.

And we'll read about his prayer of lament and desperation next week.

But it's not all bad.

We can't control the future and we can't control the past.

I think we've probably worked that one out.

But we can control our present.

At least how we respond to what God is doing.

Where are you now?

Again, this same question.

Is there any connection in your life season to a picture of Tarshish and Nineveh?

Drifting, saying no when God says go.

What's God saying to you?

It's an important story to talk about at May Mission Month, where we celebrate some of the people we partner with, who are cross-cultural workers.

They said yes when God said go.

No one's overseas serving in a new culture for the sake of sharing the gospel of Jesus.

No one's doing it who hasn't said yes to the command, the invitation to go.

Praise God.

Amen.

Praise God for our cross-cultural workers and their courage.

But we haven't seen one or a couple or a family raised up for a while at church, and a prayer that we have is, Lord, raise them up, the harvest workers.

Raise people up to go out that we can support and get behind and partner with, because our God is still working throughout the whole world, and He's raising people up, and we want to be part of the kingdom advancing.

I wonder if for some of us, the picture of Jonah and running away is one of your whole life, and right now, you are saying no to Jesus as your Saviour.

You're running away.

I hope you can hear the story, and as you read it and find out what happens.

Our God is a God who loves the worst of sinners.

He is only sending Jonah to Nineveh because he loves the lost city of Nineveh.

Amen.

That's why he's doing it.

And you may feel like an Assyrian in Nineveh.

You may feel like, you know, at that time in history where they were lost and what we might call godless.

But God, through Jesus, has made a way for you to come back to him.

And of course, there is any number of goes of obedience that we are being called to consider as Christians.

When I looked down at those shoes those years ago, one brown and the other black, I was in shock.

I just sort of was surprised.

And I think as we read the Book of Jonah again, the story, the Jonah Mirror can be shocking.

Just how recklessly disobedient, how lazy, how lost, how muddled we can be.

In that moment, it can be shocking, but God is gracious, and the Book of Jonah is one to point us back to him.

Are you heading to Joppa?

Are you in a big fish right now?

If there's a Jonah in you, what does Jonah show you?

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