Jonah 1:1 “Now the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the son of Amittai, saying,”

Jonah 1:2 “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me.”

Jonah 1:3 “But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD, and went down to Joppa; and he found a ship going to Tarshish: so he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it, to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD.”

Reading the Bible for myself is the reason I am a Christian. If I had based my faith strictly on other people, I wouldn’t be a Christian.

Yes I’ve had a few, but also just very few, great godly examples in my life, but getting to know Jesus Christ for myself is why I am more and more thankful every day that he heard my prayer and saved me by his grace and gave me a life worth living.

Today I want to browse through Jonah 1, and give some thoughts as we go along. I would encourage you to read Jonah for yourself, it’s four chapters so very doable, Jesus referenced Jonah twice, so you don’t get to say “that’s Old Testament”.

… When you get saved, what’s “old” to you now becomes totally new in Christ Jesus… it’s not the commandment changed, it’s not the word changed, you just weren’t changed yet, and when you were, if you were, changed in Christ Jesus, my goodness the Bible is newer and newer by the day. The cure for the old man and the same old is finding life in Christ Jesus!

… You really don’t know what and who you’re missing out on because until you are truly born again, it hasn’t even come into your mind, you can’t see or enter the things of God. Jesus before salvation is totally different to after. If you could see him like Isaiah did your attitude and the spirit of your life would be totally changed as different is life from death and light from darkness. “The way of life is above to the wise, that he may depart from hell beneath”

So on to the book of Jonah, and in Jonah 1, we are introduced to a man of God who is told the word of God… but he deliberately disobeys it.

Because he’s got his reasons to. Duh! Just like we do too am I right!What’s your reason for disobeying God’s word? I’m sure yours is more special and valid than his was. We all think we are the exception, but Jonah’s life teaches us that noone is above God’s word… no not one.

You’ll never be able to expect or see or command obedience toward God in someone else’s life if you don’t obey yourself. Your life following Christ has zero power until you start obeying Christ yourself. Zero. Perhaps that’s why you’ve never led anyone to saving faith in Christ, when it should be expected otherwise.

Jonah 1 in fact starts much the same way Genesis 1 starts… with the word of God. Everything hinges on the word of God, it is the seed and foundation of faith. Your Christian identity and life must be ordained and ordered by God’s word. It is God’s word that will give you direction, purpose in your life.

Note, Jonah’s problem wasn’t he didn’t know Gods word, it’s he didn’t like what God’s word said. That’s a big difference. Same to you. Even if you’ve had pathetic examples, you still know some of God’s word, even if someone has only presented the part of the gospel to you that they think you won’t hate them for or they can appeal to you more with.

But fact is, we are in a world, and also versions and really cheap imitations of Christianity which are in this case Jonah was… it’s not they don’t know God’s word, it’s they don’t like God’s word. And of course, like Jonah, you know better than God’s word don’t you. See, you’re not the first and won’t be the last.

But how many people are on their little faith journey to find truth, and when it was easily at hand, presented simply to them without bells and whistles and sex appeal, and not requiring at all a journey around the world to “find yourself”… they didn’t grasp it because it was not what they expected or liked “Wherefore is there a price in the hand of a fool to get wisdom, seeing he hath no heart to it?”

If your little faith journey is about finding yourself you’re not going to find much. Because there’s nothing enviable in man to bring out. The deeper into man’s heart and imagination you go, the deeper inside yourself you go, the less answers and greater darkness you find. You don’t need to find yourself… you need to come to yourself… aka wake up! “Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light”

God had a personal calling on Jonah’s life, and he is personally calling you too. Yes his word is general, but it is also personal. He’s got a purpose for your life, but that purpose is found in obedience.

Don’t listen to this fake Christian crowd who omits the word obedience from everything like it’s Pharisaical legalism… it’s not. Salvation and serving God are both predicated and mandated on obedience.

And a Christian will be known by what they stand against like Jonah was called to do. Christians that stand against nothing, stand for nothing either, mark it down.

And so right at the start of Jonah, this book begins with God’s word which was God’s direction and purpose for Jonah’s life. Until you obey the call to repent and turn to Jesus, and base your movements on God’s word, you won’t get out the starting blocks for life, simple as that.

God told Jonah go and cry against Nineveh… and why? Because their wickedness came up before God. God saw it “the eyes of the Lord are in every place” and God was not pleased with it. You may have gotten cool with wickedness and found a covenant with hell, but God hasn’t. Don’t mistake his longsuffering for license, patience for impotence, or mercy for approval… because it’s not.

… Yet Nineveh was not a Hebrew city! In fact it was a million miles from the land of the Hebrews… what business did God and God’s man Jonah have going there?

… because everywhere is God’s business and under God’s law. If you could find a place outside his realm perhaps you could tell God what business it is of his to interfere with your life

… except the fact your breath is God’s. Your soul is God’s. Your body is made from God’s dirt. You live on God’s earth. You look up at God’s sky. Everything is God’s. Even if you made it to the moon or stars or sun, you still would not be outside God’s creation. Your life is not your own, God gave it, and your spirit will return to God for judgment, and you won’t be able to carve out your destiny in the stars otherwise.

So you better start caring about what pleases God. We are made to please God. We live our whole lives licking the boots of people who will never like us trying to please them, while never caring for what God thinks of us.

The Old Testament laws required a whole lot of actions and sacrifices some of which don’t make sense at first glance, which were all based on a willing heart and revealed true heart attitude and delineated between true and fake love for God. Why obey? Because God says so. Why offer God your present? Because he’s God, because they cared about pleasing God because of who God is and what he had done for them.

Your life would be a whole lot happier if you made it about pleasing God… you’ll never be happy living for self and life will always disappoint you, people will always eventually fail your expectations… why do you think people are so disillusioned, dysfunctional, dark and despairing?

And we read in Jonah 1:3 that Jonah rose up and went the exact opposite direction of where God told him to go and what God told him to do.

Is that you? If you pull a map up, you’ll find Tarshish is west, and Nineveh is east, he was going as opposite to God’s word as east is from the west. Maybe that’s your life, diametrically opposed to Jesus Christ… and then you wonder why your boat is being rocked.

Well, Jonah found some friends to help him to go opposite to God too. You’ll always find people to help you go opposite to what God told you to do. Sadly, in churches you’ll find them in abundance too.

Jonah was even willing to pay to go opposite to God! You get a faithful preacher of God’s word and you’ll find an empty church. But you find fake Christianity and you’ll find deep pockets, people willing to pay for books, Bible courses which don’t get people in the Bible, concerts, conferences blah blah blah it’s endless, people are willing to pay to disobey God, but wouldn’t give a dime for people who would take them in the direction ordained by God’s word… a word, THE WORD which has not changed.

Note this, in this entire story, God had not changed. After the whale spat Jonah out, the message hadn’t changed.. go to Nineveh and preach that destruction is coming. Just because you decide to take a little detour in life opposite to God’s word doesn’t mean God’s word changed. He is unchanging. And his word is unchanging. Even if you decide otherwise.

Now if you try being a smarty pants you might say, well, God didn’t destroy Nineveh like he said! Yes, but that’s not because God lies. He would’ve destroyed Nineveh. But we know that God “is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance”. See, God would rather save than slay. In fact Jonah knew that, which is why he didn’t want to go to Nineveh, he was afraid God would spare them because he wanted to see them “get it”.

God does not break his word, but God’s prophets were always sent to stand against sin with a view to restoration. The only thing that will ever change God’s mind about you in your unsaved state will be you calling upon the name of the Lord to be saved. If you do that, he will change his mind about you. Thank God for his mercy.

Notice how Jonah was fleeing from the presence of the Lord? It wasn’t he couldn’t find God, it was he was running from God. See, your lack of salvation, happiness, joy, purpose and life is not on God, it’s on you, if you go to hell even, it won’t be a failure of God’s love, there are no victims and innocents in hell… it’s because you were determined to outrun his graciously outstretched hand.

And while Jonah 1:3 says “But Jonah”… Jonah 1:4 says “But the Lord”. Which is the bigger but you think?

So Jonah hopped on board a ship to Tarshish fleeing from God’s word and God’s presence. Don’t claim the presence of God when you are disobeying God… if you reject God’s word you also reject his presence in your life.

And they set sail, but got caught in a storm that theatened to break the ship. “like to be broken”… if you keep disobeying God you must like breaking stuff in your life. I’ve seen plenty of broken lives, indeed even my own life has been broken by my sin. How much breaking before you reach breaking point my friend?

Sin will break your fellowship. It will break your joy. It will break your happiness. It will break your marriage. It will break your body. Thank God that Jesus, though so battered and beat up by wicked men… yet a bone of him was not broken. You want something that doesn’t ever break? Let me tell you about Jesus. Because everything else in this world and about this world is broken in case you haven’t computed that yet.

And so they get caught in a storm that’s gonna send their ship to the bottom. And the sailors are up and about trying everything they can do to avert disaster. It’s not they’ve never seen a storm before, but they know this is beyond them. They’re even willing to try some God to stop it! Things must be pretty bad in your life when you’re even will to try a little God to fix it.

The shipmaster comes down into the bowels of the ship and finds Jonah fast sleep in the storm! Why would he be sleeping at such a time. How could he be sleeping when they’re in such danger, and because of him?

You know what’s the problem in our society… ? Christians that are sleeping at the worst possible time. Unaware of the world going to hell. And don’t even care. That’s what Jonah was.

See how destructive Jonah’s disobedience was? It affected more than just himself, he got others involved in his sin.

You know what the problem in our society is? It’s not obedient Christians doing what God told them to do. It’s disobedient Christians sailing exact opposite of what God’s said to do causing trouble for everyone and not helping anyone. And all this time Jonah is off on his jaunt, Nineveh is just waiting for someone who will bring God’s word to them. There’s a whole world out there waiting for someone who actually loves and is following Jesus’ directions.

The sailors just don’t know any better, they try lightening their ship. They do what many people do, which is that when God gets on their lives, they start lightening off their load of sin a bit. They “reform” as if that could appease God’s wrath. See, they don’t even understand anything, they don’t have the answers, and the guy that does is on the outs with God.

Maybe you’re at the stage of trying to clean up your life… that’s not what God wants though, he wants your surrender. Salvation is a new creature in Christ Jesus, it’s not being less bad while you still sail contrary to God’s word.

And it doesn’t work. Lightening the ship doesn’t work. Making the word of God “light” doesn’t work. We have churches where it’s all about not getting too heavy, not talking about hell, wrath, judgment, sin, righteousness… sticking with the light hearted stuff. Pastors and preachers that think they’re comedians, with no burden of God on their hearts.. and it’s not helping the floundering ship at all.

And so when what they try doesn’t work, their false gods and impotent spiritual tactics, the sailors search for reasons as to why this is happening to them. They ask Jonah to pray and he doesn’t… Because Jonah doesn’t care about them.

Friends, you will never care for other people until you get right with God yourself first. Why are so many Christians not reaching the lost? Because they have no heart for the lost because they’re lost and in rebellion themselves. If you have never had a burden for the lost, you are the problem.

These poor sailors are desperately looking for answers to why this is all happening and Jonah is being a jerk.

Friend, did you realize this world is trying to find answers? And when Christians should have them “Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ?” …yet very few can show Christ to a lost sinner seeking answers to the questions of life “Go, stand and speak in the temple to the people all the words of this life”

Hint: you can never show the love of God to someone if you are not obeying the word of God in doing so. That is established in 1 John, because every man and his dog is so loving supposedly, but self commended love is not the love of God “For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.”

You’ll never be the least bit useful to this lost and dying and floundering world until you are in a right, obedient relationship to God.

To get answers, the sailors cast lots to find out why this is happening and the lot fell on Jonah. Friend, the lot has fallen on you. If you are a Christian and you won’t obey God’s word… who will?

They ask Jonah a whole load of questions and Jonah’s response reveals a great spiritual truth. See, Jonah says the right things, he has the “right” doctrinal statement, he believes the right things about God… but that doesn’t mean he’s obeying God.

You can believe all the right things about God, you can know all about God, and be totally disobedient to God and without his presence in your life.

God is not present in many churches today, you can go there and perhaps hear elements of truth there, but his presence is not there, because naming the name of Christ where you worship is one thing, God adding his stamp of approval with the power of his presence is another thing entirely.

We’ve got a lot of churches theseadays which are bit like Samson sporting his new haircut… nude of the power and presence and protection of God and don’t even know it.

And the sailors have a very, very logical question for Jonah in light of his profession. If this is true, why are you doing this?

… If you are a Christian, if you have the God of glory, if you have the truth, if you have God’s holy word, Christian… why are you doing what you are doing in your life then? “I have not written unto you because ye know not the truth, but because ye know it, and that no lie is of the truth.”

We have Christians claiming to be Christians who the world wonders… if you know Jesus why are you drinking, smoking, fornicating, gambling, tattooing, shooting up, snorting, dabbling here and there in sin. Why are you doing what we are doing? Why are you going the direction we are going? If you are a Christian why is everything about your life worldly and self indulgent and lustful and greedy and prideful? If you have something different why aren’t you different then?

A Christian changes someone elses life by their sacrifice, not by their selfishness, and that’s exactly how Jonah’s example worked here… it was when they chucked him overboard that the sailors were actually convinced of the God he said he served.

What struck me throughout this first chapter is that the sailors were trying harder to keep the ship afloat than Jonah. That hit me like a ton of bricks. We have people even in my suburb, unsaved people trying harder to bring the ship to land than the Christians in it.

When we have the answers we won’t lift a finger and people who don’t have the answers are trying hard to help and make a difference.

We are so utterly useless to God when we are not obeying God. And other people pay the price when we don’t.

No, obedient Christians aren’t the problem, disobedient Christians are. Never forget that. Because I’ve seen worldly disobedient Christians pick apart those who are actually trying to obey God… and they do it to ease their own conscience and would rather make someone else evil to make themselves right, rather than getting right.

And in all this book, realize that Jonah is God’s man. This is why you should not follow man. Because even God’s man can go the wrong way.

… the mariners didn’t want to die! People don’t want to die and go to hell! But that means like Jonah, us as Christians… do your job!

It doesn’t matter what facts you can spit out about God or what statement of faith you can cling to if you’re not walking with him. In fact, people are just wondering if that is all true, care to explain why you’re doing what you’re doing then?

There are people out there who are just about willing to try anything now, because they don’t have the answers. How about have Jesus Christ to give them. God would use you, he can use you… he is just a changed attitude to the truth of his word away. May God bless his precious word to our lives today.

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