Mission of Mercy No.1 The Runaway

Thank you for joining us for this evening's lecture. Thank you for joining us for this evening's lecture. And let's read from Jonah from chapter one.

The word of the Lord came to Jonah, 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 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. Then the Lord sent a great wind on the sea and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up. All the sailors were afraid and each cried out to his own God 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'll take notice of us and we won't perish.

Then the sailors said to each other, come, let us cast lots to find out who is responsible for this calamity. 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 do you do? Where do you come from? What is your country? From what people are you? He answered, I am a Hebrew and I worship the Lord, the God of heaven who made the sea and the land.

This terrified them 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 you to make the sea calm down for us? Pick me up and throw me into the sea, he replied, and it will become calm.

I know that it is my fault that this great storm has come upon you. Instead, the men did their best to row back to land, but they could not, for the sea grew even wilder than before. Then they cried to the Lord, oh Lord, please do not let us die for taking this man's life.

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

But the Lord provided a great fish to swallow Jonah and Jonah was inside the fish three days and three nights. He cried, be still my soul, I know the Lord will take, to guide us he has a cause. I hope my confidence and knowledge change.

He cried, be still my soul, love his voice to rule. Be still my soul, the hour is facing on. Friend we shall be, forever with the Lord.

Friend is the voice that we can hear the Lord. Sorrow for us, but to his joys is more. Be still my soul, when change and tears are lost.

Oh, take and bless me. We'd like Ian and June to take our love and greetings to the Goodalls. They'll be out there in Tanzania within the next 36 hours.

We pray that they too will have a very safe and blessed time in East Africa. And I'm hoping to be back from Japan, God willing, in just two weeks and one day. Let's now move to the most important thing and that is coming around the word of our God.

And I'd like you to have your Bibles open at the prophecy of Jonah in the chapter which Andrea so feelingfully read. Why study the minor prophets? Why are we embarking on Sunday mornings in a series of addresses from this latter part of the Old Testament? Well, don't be tripped by the word minor. Minor does not refer to their importance but rather to their length.

They're shorter than the main prophetical books. Why study Jonah? Well, because Jonah is perhaps one of the more important personalities in the Old Testament. He was referred to in the life of our Lord Jesus in the ministry of the Savior.

A miraculous incident that occurred to Jonah was selected above all other incidents in the Old Testament as being illustrative of the final days of the life of our blessed Lord on the earth. Those who have problems with Jonah staying three days and three nights in the stomach of a great fish will also have problems with the concept of our blessed Lord being three days and nights in the bowels of the earth. But those of us who believe in a supernatural God have no problems with the story of Jonah.

It is surely reasonable to expect that in history there will be some anticipations of that great resurrection of our Lord Jesus. And so in the New Testament we are referred on several occasions to the sign of the prophet Jonah. And that is, if you like, symbolic language, token language, indicating something of the unique nature of the faith of Christian people.

We believe in a Savior who died. We believe in a Savior who was raised again as Jonah was three days in the bowel, in the belly of the fish. So our Lord Jesus was three days in death.

And then on the third, well, it could not hold its prey. Jesus my Savior, he tore the bars away. Jesus my Lord.

Why study Jonah? Because here you've got encapsulated something of the magnificence of the gospel of our Lord Jesus. And Ian Taylor was quite right when in his prayer he identified himself with Jonah. There is a sense in which we're all runaway prophets.

There is a measure in which we are all reluctant missionaries. My friend R.T. Kendall in some sermons that he preached on the book of Jonah, which were later published in book form, says in his preface, I am Jonah. And if we fail, those of us responsible for expounding this book, to explain it in such a fashion that you yourself feel that it's not Jonah that's on the page, the vision of Jonah blurs and it refocuses and it's you, unless we get that across.

Then we have failed. Jonah was uncomfortable because he was outside the will of God. There is no place on God's earth which is less attractive than being outside of his will.

He had a commission to Nineveh to go there. Now Nineveh was not like Brightness to Worthing. Hop on a train and spend 20 minutes slumbering and you're there.

Not a bit, it's 500 miles away. The frequency of transport is not all that is required. The mode of transport also leaves a lot up for grabs.

What's more, Nineveh is a highly populated city. It is a mega wonder of the ancient world, with circumference walls something like 60 miles round, so thick that you could put three chariots side by side 100 feet high, parks that stretch for acres, palaces. The most sophisticated society, if by sophisticated you mean carnal, materialistic, sensual, blossomed in Nineveh.

If capitalism ever had an unacceptable face in Old Testament times, then there you find it. Along with the rich there were the poor, and from the lips of the poor came their cries to a God who was always on the side of the poor and the widow and the orphans. And when God sees the problems of Nineveh, praise his name, his immediate reaction is not judgment, but mercy.

When God sees Bombay, when God sees Berlin, when God sees London and New York, and even significant Worthing, with its need, with its sin, his immediate reaction is not judgment, but mercy. Noah preaches before the flood comes, Lot, perhaps not the best representative, but makes his way to Sodom and Gomorrah before the fire falls. Whether it's to Jew or Gentile, the attitude of God to men in their sin is first of all an attitude of mercy.

It is not God's will for any man to perish. Thus, the need of Jonah's. Those who know the truth, bringing the truth to those who are ignorant.

The plan of God is simple. Jehovah to Jonah, Jonah to Nineveh, Nineveh to God. The preachers to Worthing, no.

God to the preachers, the preachers to Worthing, Worthing to God. It's always the pattern. God so loved the world.

Who shall I send? Who will go for me? Here am I. God to the Lord Jesus, the Lord Jesus to human society, human society to God. You see the circle? You see the plan? It's here, encapsulated, I say, in the book of Jonah. If Jonah fails, if you fail, if the church fails, then Nineveh is in trouble.

For outside of the message that Jonah knows, there is no hope for Nineveh. Outside the gospel, there is no hope for our world. But Jonah, verse 3, ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish.

It's not too easy to pinpoint Tarshish in terms of a specific location. At least not in my, admittedly, far from adequate researches. Tarshish I take to be proverbial for the expression of the extreme of the world.

The end of the world. The place beyond which there is no further point. Have you ever tried to get there? You know, your circumstances were such, you should go east, but you went west.

You tried to get to that place which was so far removed from where you were or where you ought to be because you thought that west was better. Do you remember Francis Thompson? This man who tried to escape God throughout the whole of his life and ultimately when God caught up with him, he writes that great poem, The Hound of Heaven, and he speaks of the Holy Spirit who dogs his footsteps ever drawing near to Francis Thompson until he's got him. Thank God he doesn't give up on those of us who back away from what we know to be his known will and purposes.

To Tarshish, well, that's perhaps the sort of voyage of which a boy might dream. But Jonah is not engaged in any romantic notions as he gets down to Thomas Cook's at Joppa and there barters for a decent ticket as opposed to the arm and leg that I'm having to pay to go to Tokyo. Why is Jonah doing in that travel agency? You see, away with the notion you're dealing with a young fellow, the first year, hot from Bible college, who's run into a little bit of difficulty so he's turning tail and showing a clean pair of heels.

In one sense, that could be excusable. Believe me, the ministry is an awesome business. You see, this is a famous man.

If we had time, I'd take you to 2 Kings 14. There you would discover that Jonah unusually came from the north. The political environment of his day was bad when he was a boy.

The kings were almost all duds in north Israel. Syria has always been a problem to Israel. It is today, it was yesteryear.

The Golan Heights obviously were still there and down the heights came the Syrian armies, pillaging and ravaging the villages and the towns of northern Israel. Amitaia, the father of Jonah, must have been proud of his lad. The Spirit of God falls upon Jonah and he proclaims that the Syrians will be routed as a result of God taking the fairly poor king, Jeroboam II, poor in terms of spiritual quality.

And the Syrian hordes are pushed back and Jonah becomes a legend in his own day. This is the man who's at the travel agency, taking out his shackles, bearing the inscription of King Jeroboam II and barging to get out of the will of God. Do not think, my friend, I speak personally as I identify with the circumstance, that simply because you've clocked up some years of maturity, somehow you are invulnerable to pressure and wanting to get away from it all.

Joppa, does that mean anything to you? History has a delightful way of re-repeating itself. I think there's a German philosopher who said that, actually history teaches us, think this one through, history teaches us that history teaches us nothing. That's a complicated way of saying that we all make the same mistakes and it comes back in every generation.

The French call it déjà vu. Joppa, turn the clock on, let a thousand years or more go by and here is someone else and his name too is Simon Barre, Jonah. Peter, you remember, he's in Joppa.

Why is he in Joppa? Well, for this reason. He's had a vision. And in the vision there is a sheet that's unfurled that's come down from heaven.

You can read of it in the 10th chapter of the book of Acts. And within the sheet there are all manners of unclean animals. And Peter is told to go and eat and he, being a Jew, refuses.

And the bottom line is this, Peter is being taught by God that he is not to call unclean that which God calls clean. He is not to render hopeless that which God sees as having potential. In other words, the problem of Jonah is repeated in the experience of Peter Barre Jonah.

Jonah, number one, does not want to take the message of God to Nineveh. Jonah, number two, does not want to take the message of God to the Gentiles. Oh, how difficult we make it for the sovereign God to achieve his purposes.

But don't be overcritical of Jonah one or two because we've got 500 plus Jonahs who knock around the precincts of the tab and who in their more honest moments will say, yes, there are times when I have been to Joppa bartering for a ticket to Tarshish to go to the ends of the earth and to get away from my responsibilities. Then the Lord sent, verse 4, a great wind. There's a lot of great things here in Jonah.

There's a great wind. There's a great fish. There's a great city.

There's a great job. But best of all, there's a great God. He sends a great wind.

Nahum, who's a sort of contemporary, at least fairly near Jonah in history, he says, the Lord has his way in the whirlwind. Now he's speaking spiritually, but the point applies. You see, when you're caught up in the vortex of a whirlwind, the circumstances that you cannot control, when bereavement might knock you for six, when your job is gone or suddenly you go to the doctor and he's actually said that you have a malignancy, the Bible says that in the whirlwind there is God.

God can send a whirlwind. God does send the whirlwind. Ultimately for your good, though, you would not appreciate somebody reminding you of that at that moment.

But the sovereignty of God is so absolute that he never abdicates his responsibility. In all the minutia of life, God does work through his purposes. In all the mistakes and errors, the crass disobedience that you render to the Lord, his overarching sovereignty can even cause your failure to be turned ultimately to your good.

Not that God will ever congratulate you for your mistakes, but he can use the failures of life to give you more metal, more iron placed into your soul. Then the Lord sent a great wind on the sea. Here is Jonah and he marches up the gangplank.

There's no one else who's opted for this luxury cruise to Tarshish. He's on his own. They lift up the anchor.

They get their sails into the wind. There's a smile on the face of the captain. Jonah looks out to the land where he's been brought up as a lad.

He can see his own village in Nazareth disappearing on the horizon. And then the wind comes with such ferocity that the smile is moved from the face of the captain as he realizes that he and everyone else is in difficulty. That is a fated vessel.

If Jonah remains on board. You have to congratulate these men for their seamanship. They do the best thing when the wind gets so high.

They jettison the cargo to lighten the ship. When a man finds God's company not very choice, he also generally becomes unsociable. That is true.

It's not just an aside from the preacher. Jonah had gone down below deck. Whenever you move out of the purposes of God, the preposition down becomes very important.

Look at verse 3. He went down to Joppa. He went down to the harbor. When he gets on the ship, he goes down into the belly of the ship.

Down, down, down, down. And soon he'll be out. The purposes of God, or rather I rephrase that, the purposes of the devil are always to bring you down.

If you are the son of God, come down from that high point and worship me. Come to the level where I am. The devil always endeavors to dethrone the dignity of man.

The dignity of God reflected in man. Jonah goes down below the deck where he falls into a deep sleep. There's something about the storm that breaks that causes this captain to be somewhat suspicious.

It's interesting how naval men can have a sort of religious mysticism about them. The psalmist says of sailors, they that go down to the sea in ships, they know. They know something of the majesty of nature, the greatness of the handiwork of God.

They may not always know God, but they see something of his splendor. Often they can become very superstitious and spiritually sensitive men. The captain discerns that something is quite striking about the experiences through which he's passing.

His men have already started to pray to their own gods, to the Baals, to the Ashtoreem, using what primitive theology they have in an endeavor to still this storm which threatens their lives. The captain goes into the hull of the ship, with the water sloshing around, into the darkness where the berths are, and here he finds this Hebrew asleep and says, how is it that you can sleep through this? Get up and start praying. Maybe your god will take notice, for clearly our gods have not taken notice.

And those equally suspicious, but religiously inclined sailors come to the conclusion that fate is dealing them a cruel blow and the only way to find any solution to the problem is by casting lots to discover who has offended God. They cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah. So they asked him, tell us who's responsible for making all this trouble? Verse 8. What do you do? If the wind was angry, how much that question seemed to be below the belt equally as far as Jonah is concerned.

What do you do? Joseph's brothers were asked that question centuries before by Pharaoh. What do you do? We're shepherds. Oh, that Jonah might have been able to say, well, I'm a shepherd in Israel.

Oh, if Jonah had been able to say that I'm discharging my pastoral obligations in terms of a preaching ministry. What do you do? Where do you come from? I am a man sent from God. I come from the very throne room of God.

I come to declare a message to the West. No, Jonah can't appeal that way. Why? Because he's a reluctant prophet.

He is a renegade missionary. Here is the symbolism of the church acting in a way which brings disgrace and dishonor to the name of God. But in the overarching sovereignty of God, he will work out his purposes.

From what people are you, ask these men in the third question in their inquisition. And Jonah responds, I'm a Hebrew. And he takes one look at the scene.

And here you start to admire Jonah. Not a novice, you remember. A man who has had experience of God.

Not without some understanding of theology. More than the equal. Indeed, very much the superior to these pagan mariners.

I am a Hebrew and I worship the Lord, the God of heaven who made the sea and the land. The sea! So the men are terrified. You see, they're pretty cute.

Are these sailors? You've got to be a fast thinker to survive the Mediterranean in the days of sailing boats with the treachery of the tides and the unpredictable nature of the storm. What have you done? You know, my friend the only way in which calm can ever come to our world was through the death of our Lord Jesus. You see, when the Bible describes the world in the Old Testament and in the New Testament, it describes it as a very troubled world like a truculent sea with no future that's desirable.

Our Lord Jesus comes and he sees this storm-tossed world and in effect he does a Jonah. He indicates that there can be no peace until an atonement has been made. Until someone has borne the punishment of men's disobedience.

If you want to know peace with God, humankind then send me to that cross throw me from this boat and I will take upon you the responsibilities upon me the responsibilities of your sin and then and only then shall you know peace. The sea was getting rougher and Jonah says verse 12, pick me up and throw me into the sea it is my fault that this great storm has come upon you a greater than Jonah accepts the responsibility not for his indiscretions but for yours and you get a fleeting glimpse of the atoning work of Christ in this Old Testament fascinatingly interesting book If you admire Jonah at this point you also admire these mariners thank God for the pagan who has some decency not everyone outside the Christian Church is primitive in his morality, in fact some outside the Christian Church give a better illustration of morality than those within they cried to the Lord oh Lord please do not let us die for taking this man's life do not hold us accountable for killing an innocent man for you oh Lord have done as you please and then Jonah raised the atison you ever thought of the comparison between the shipwreck of Paul and that of Jonah how different were the circumstances both in trouble as a result of the waves and the wind but Paul whose story you read in the penultimate chapter of the Acts of the Apostles he does not barter at Joppa to get a ticket outside the will of the Lord his ticket is paid for by Caesar himself Paul says to his crewmen I stand in the presence of God Jonah has to say I'm trying to escape the presence of God Paul was fulfilling what was God's plan for his life Jonah was endeavouring to frustrate what was God's intention I tell you that there is no atonement unless there is a sacrifice so Jonah is thrown overboard and the raging sea grows calm and as a result of the immersion of one man salvation comes to several men look at verse 16 at this the men greatly feared the Lord and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and they made vows to him the rest of the narrative you have to tune in next week to hear but look without stealing from the passage Tim will introduce what do you think was the reaction of those men when they got back to Joppa do you think they kept it quiet don't you think that in the fish markets and the bazaars they started to talk sensational activities such as this is not kept under the carpet maybe the story of what had happened filtered its way even to Nineveh which had in its legend in its mythology the concept that one day from the sea would come some mystical figure who would work to the advantage of that great city God is preparing a reluctant prophet teaching pagan men as he goes as well as informing the prophet putting together a scenario so that Jonah reluctant though he was will ultimately be able to go to Nineveh and to speak about the greatness of God Nineveh will never respond to the message of the Gospel I speak of the Gospel I speak of modern Nineveh I speak of Worthing and Wolverhampton I speak of Tokyo and Timbuktu the world will never respond to men until it has seen something of the crucifixion that men have gone through in terms of their own dedication to Christ I am crucified with Christ nevertheless I live yet not I but Christ lives in me I'm not saying that Jonah volunteered obviously he did not but he does come to a point of going through an experience that is equivalent to self-crucifixion and when he is eventually spewed out by the great fish he can speak from the vantage of his experience and his failure and become a prophet who can with eloquence talk about the grandeur and the greatness and the mercy of this God and so we're through the opening chapter of this book a mature preacher who miserably failed a great God who takes that failure and puts the preacher through another period of training and the failure ultimately enhances the credibility of the man and the power of his ministry I speak as a failure to failures I have been to Tarshish too many times I've heard the wind I've seen the waves I've known what it's been to be treated at one level perhaps harshly by God and then to come through and to realize that if there was harsh treatment mine was the cause but within the harshness there was the heart of a loving father who wanted this Jonah back in the center of his will directing him to Nineveh the most uncomfortable place in the world outside the will of God the most wonderful whatever the circumstances may be bang in the center if you've gone some nautical miles away may God get the storm and blow you back on course for his honor for his glory let's sing another lovely hymn Be thou my vision O Lord of my life number 51 when we get to the 5th verse just a slight pause and then we will join in the Lord's prayer then the benediction and that will be the end of our service And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, forever and ever.