Through the Bible | Jonah 3-4 - Brett Meador

it's kind of strange going through these little uh tiny minor prophets uh some of the books of the bible took us over a year to get through but uh jonah's like a week and a half for us which is is great uh i like to remind people these uh minor prophets are not minor in the content uh but they're packed powerful uh you know little uh messages of real uh real good truth that we need to embrace so uh we looked at chapter one uh last wednesday or at least most of it and then on sunday we took the last verse of jonah uh chapter one and all of jonah chapter 2. and just if you're just joining us just a quick recap don't forget we've got you know basically the call that god gave to jonah and he rebelled against god god said go jonah said no and we saw that last week where he was told to go to nineveh that scary city we can't lose uh you know sight of the fact that nineveh was known to be extremely violent and godless and wicked and god says i see the wickedness of nineveh so i need to send you there jonah and jonah says i'm not going to nineveh so he went the opposite direction 2500 miles in the opposite direction was his goal but as it turns out the lord prepared a big fish to swallow him up um and took him back the direction he was supposed to be going and we ended really last last sunday really um where jonah was barfed back up on the beach um now we don't really know exactly what happened between chapters uh two and three like was it right after the barfing that we come to chapter you know three or um was there a little bit of time and and um and i'll let you kind of be the judge as we read this but it's it seems almost like we get a total reset about everything one of the things i'm really thankful for god uh in his nature is the heart to let us have a reset and he forgives us for our you know stubbornness and our sinfulness um remember when peter denied jesus three times in the rooster crowed i love that jesus gave peter three times to say you know i love you lord remember that i don't think jesus was just rubbing it in i think jesus was giving peter a chance for every time he denied him he gave him a chance to declare his love for him and this is the god we serve who loves us and gives us the second chance and the third chance and the 80th chance i'm just so thankful for our patient lord and jonah's going to see the patience of the lord and you and i might even lose patience with jonah tonight when we watch this guy he's frustrating but the lord just patiently hangs in there with jonah in his uh weirdness and his insecurities and you're going to be shocked if you haven't really read the book of jonah most people you know colored the picture in sunday school of the little man inside the big fish but we didn't really see the whole story a lot of us and it's kind of a strange story so we pick it up you know after jonah gets barfed out of the big fish now he's somewhere we don't even know what beach jonah was barfed on was it somewhere near caesarea or joppa or was it somewhere a long ways away we don't really know but this is where we pick it up here in chapter 3 of jonah it says in verse 1 chapter 3 and the word of the lord came to jonah a second time saying arise go unto nineveh that great city and preach unto it the preaching that i bid thee so jonah rose and went to nineveh according to the word of the lord um we see here you know jonah is called by the lord a second time don't you sense the patience of the lord in this okay now jonah listen i want you to go to nineveh he could have said okay go do what you already knew you're supposed to do the last time i told you what to do he didn't do that he says he just kind of goes through almost like the same verse two of chapter one now we have the same verse uh chapter three verse two rise go to nineveh go to that city you know and by the way i want you to note that god calls nineveh a great city isn't that interesting uh and he calls it twice you know we see it right here in chapter one verse two and chapter three verse two go to that great city and preach unto it the preaching that i i bid thee so um so interesting you know this is just jonah learning to be matured in the things of the lord he had to go through quite a thing to learn maturity to be swallowed by big fish travel in a ship and be thrown overboard like that's a pretty dramatic i mean i mean we could see some ptsd if we're not careful here i mean jonas had to do some serious stuff but this is all god's plan to mature joan aren't you glad the lord matures us that's what oftentimes the trials that we go through are meant to mature you that's why you know paul says i rejoice in tribulation why because tribulation tribulation builds hope patience and experience it's a maturing work that god wants to do and i'm thankful that god does that i'm thankful that maturity is something that happens to most people most people i mean think about it i love would you have you ever noticed like a baby that's like you know nine months old uh you know no matter where you are if that baby's not happy it lets you and everybody in the whole room and restaurant know it you know that baby just starts remember when you're you're a new parent of your first child you take your baby to the first time at a restaurant you're like our baby's amazing and an angel um but it's funny how the demons come out at the restaurants um uh you know where they start screaming their heads off and and and everybody's looking at you with disgust especially in portland you can bring your dog in the restaurant but don't do to bring your baby into a restaurant in portland uh uh but but anyway you know there's this uh you know this thing where you know you know a baby you get it all ready and spiffy and get it all cleaned up and then you fancy little dress just before you're leaving for church and all of a sudden uh oh not the diaper you know baby just does that right there there's there's no thinking i probably better wait nope a baby is not mature in those things can you imagine if we had adults never learned those just those two things here we are in church you know and you're kind of unhappy with something i say like wouldn't it be that'd be a little embarrassing if you're an adult up here just screaming your head off we're like oh man where's the deacons you know or security maybe um uh but but you know the adult crying under control that there you are in that you know big you know board meeting around the fancy table and when somebody says something you don't like you know you you cry and then you poop your diapers as well i mean just um people are like well anyway that man i'm i'm so thankful that you and i we tend to mature now um by the way have you ever noticed some parents don't help their children to mature in this thing of the crying thing uh i know someone i see some awkward mother's one yeah i'm talking to you now if you're a mom who's just doesn't ever want to see your child learn to cry and stuff like that and your husband's saying honey we should probably just not just listen to the husband um the lord's wired us differently mom's got nurturing and compassion those are very important things of course but there's also this thing where we want our children to mature out of that little crying mode and you know what i've noticed there's there's some adults that they may not scream their heads off but they still have this thing where i think it was maybe something that was never quite fully learned when they were tiny learning to deal with difficulty or tough it out through difficult times and i think sometimes we as parents come to rescue maybe just a little too early at times and and and spiritually people need to be matured and grow and so the lord allows us to go through difficult times at times and sometimes the lord is the one who sends the difficulty um what are the two things quiz time that god has already sent and prepared in the story give me one the storm is number one and then of course the fish god god sent those the bible says that it doesn't say there was a fish no god prepared a fish god sent the storm um and why did you he's growing uh you know this uh this guy jonah to become hopefully more mature uh we'll see how that goes um but as as it turns out you know that's the challenge so verse 3 jonah rose and went to nineveh now that's maturity we're seeing growth in jonah's life last time he said no and he ran this time he goes to nineveh according to the word of the lord i love that now let's talk about that great city nineveh it's an interesting city we we've talked about the ninevites and how they were a bloodthirsty scary people we talked about that last wednesday but we really didn't talk about the archaeology did you know that before 1847 um so-called scholars declared you know all the skeptics you know they were even back before 1847 they were saying there's no place called nineveh that's just a bible invention and blah blah blah and and man i'll tell you uh archaeological people they need to just go with the bible uh because every single time they're proven wrong this one they were proved wrong back in 1847 um when they dug up the the giant city of nineveh and its greater nineveh metro area um and it's kind of an interesting thing they there were the huge walls and the perimeter of the main city of nineveh was all dug up and found uh interestingly enough but what's kind of sad i've got some good news and some bad news the bad news first did you know the isis war the isis people went and totally blew up uh huge regions of nineveh the isis if you follow what's what's happened in the middle east there one of the things isis loves to do is destroy anything historical that has that's not linked to islam if it's even linked to the wrong kind of islam but you can bet if it's a biblical jewish history from the hebrew bible like the book of jonah do you think the isis guys are going to let that stand no interesting in a hurrett's article from nineveh to jonah's tomb isis war on history now by the way if you're wondering where nineveh is on the map just a quick kind of point of reference that fertile crescent there the green area it's up at the northern region of that and um really what was my what is modern day mosul some of you might even have been to mosul if you're in our military or armed services um i i know some people have been to mosul and there was some real battle going on there but all that to say um the ancient city they found these walls that um it's the greater it was kind of the fortified area of the city um and some people say well that's that's kind of a small little city if you look at the you know the the one kilometer mark there on that it's a small little town well you gotta remember bible cities were small but nineveh was not small now we'll talk about that in a second but islamic state rampaged through the whole region deliberately destroying anything un-islamic the biblical jonah was believed to have been buried in mosul as it turns out iraq which has been part of the ancient city of nineveh which is interesting so um the over the eons of time because they thought jonah was there just like in jerusalem and israel they always build temples over stuff that they think were holy so they converted this ancient city part where jonah was buried and they built big churches christian churches and then in the 14th century they turned it into a large sunni mosque um which remained dedicated to uh nabi eunice the prophet jonah in arabic um so it was a place whose sanctity was honored by believers in the the great religions as they call it in the herets uh article um and it was all there and there was even a big library that was there to show the ancient history and kind of documented the whole history of jonah and the region and the ninevites and all that stuff until isis destroyed the whole thing the tomb and the library and the whole region back in july of 2014. and reportedly it only took isis one hour with their explosives that blew away the monument whose roots go back thousands of years um the the ruins of this ancient city that they had were about uh 12 kilometers in circumference and um and um and all that to say um you know just isis has destroyed many cities in that whole region in much of the middle east they've destroyed with their explosives and what have you um that's the bad news uh if you want to go see that today there's two reasons why you probably shouldn't one isis ii um there's nothing to see anymore they blew it all up except for one thing if if you look at there's an article that came out recently by the way this is a artist rendition of the beautiful and great city of nineveh this is um using historical uh descriptions of what the city looked like this is this is an artist's rendition so it was apparently a beautiful city uh and what have you um but as it turns out these these walls that they found this was before they were kind of blown up um and what have you but then there's another article that you could uh look at if you want christian today isis destruction of jonah's tube leads to discovery of biblical kings ancient palace this this is great to me uh they're trying to destroy history actually confirms history one of the things that's largely lacking by the way in history is the message of uh remember how we call him sennacherib in the bible um it's really more like sanharif is the way you say his name um but this ancient king um when they um when they blew up that part of the city um and blew up jonah's tomb guess what underneath the tomb of jonah was another strata of history and they found all kinds of records about san harif which is just more proving the bible and what have you so kind of a cool kind of a cool thing all that to say breaking israel news reported all about that so when the bible calls it an exceeding great city by the way this is the picture of jonah's tomb after they blew it up this that's what was left in this area but right under all that rubble they found uh that amazing that amazing city well anyway all that to say when the bible calls um nineveh an exceeding great city it was with so many and for so many reasons um by the way so when it says exceeding great some people say well bret that's supposed to be size and if it was only 12 kilometers in circumference around the ancient city that's no big deal true i mean but in bible times that's still a huge city in bible times generally speaking but most scholars believe that nineveh there were really three walled cities there was nineveh proper uh cala and corzavod nineveh became the capital of this these three major areas it might be a little bit like you know you might say tigered beaverton portland as they were kind of adjacent to each other and there were the walled areas for fortification but the city kind of ran together outside of those walls when there was a an enemy attack everybody go within the walls but much of the city lived outside of the walls it was a huge area and when the bible talks about jonah going to nineveh it's probably referring to this whole greater nineveh area um it's quite interesting when you when you go back to even the book of genesis let me give you a little scripture here you can jot down in your notes genesis 10 verses 11 and 12 out of that land went forth asher and builded nineveh and the city rehoboth and kela and reason between nineveh and kela the same is a great city so even way back in genesis and the table of nations in genesis 10 nineveh was called a great city it's interesting that all throughout the bible nineveh is constantly called a great city but it was never great because of its integrity or morality or godliness it was always great in the sense of size and also perhaps technology and beauty and so the bible constantly calls it that uh isn't it interesting that all the way through the word of god the greatness of the city's emphasized um and that's that's probably what it's defining now there is an interesting um ancient writer he was a greek physician and historian named tezius spelled c-t-e-s-i-a-s if you want to look this up tesius he describes nineveh as a city whose circuit was uh 480 stadia which was a measurement of their time which would mean that the circumference of the greater nineveh area was over 27 miles if you kind of went around the perimeter so it was a huge huge city with hundreds of thousands of people living there um and the reason why i mention all this is not just uh for our health but it actually goes on in verse three it says so jonah rose went to nineveh according to the word lord now nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days journey and you say okay so jonah barfed out and then it took him three days well there's no place really jonah could have been barfed out from the sea and have a three day's journey um uh unless he had a you know an airplane or a car uh or something like that even a chariot it'd be tough to make that journey in three days but um but all that to say uh most scholars believe that what jonah did was a three days journey around the circumference of the city of nineveh and there's some evidence of that uh in other places and when you read the original text so a lot of scholars believe he was doing the circumference of none of a three-day walk which would be more like the 27 miles that we just talked about so so jonah obeys god it goes to this great beautiful city that's full of a bunch of wicked violent horrible people that's that's the situation well verse 4 it says and jonah began to enter into the city a day's journey so he walked a whole day's journey into the center of the city um and um he cried and said now here's his whole message this whole sermon uh some of you are like brett you should make your sermons this short he said yet forty days and nineveh shall be overthrown uh interesting cry from uh jonah just a short message um it's sort of a fire and brimstone sermon you know you got 40 days and you're all toast is basically what he's saying um interesting that the lord before we get to that the actual message itself you know i love that jonah's finally doing what god called him to do and one thing i want to point out is i believe god cares just as much about jonah as he does care about the ninevites don't forget that god's using jonah to be the voice to speak the word of god to the ninevites but he also cares about jonah and we'll see that as we get further into this um i wonder if jonah kind of felt like thanks a lot lord for making me the victim you know i'm the one who has to go to this city is probably gonna chop my head off and put my skull on top of all the other skulls outside of their cities and stuff like that um you know like maybe they'll put skin me alive and fly my skin as a flag like they did all those other people remember we talked about all that horrible stuff jonah could have been you know thinking what is what is the what is the lord trying to do with me here but i i love that the lord has a plan and a purpose for his people and even jonah i'm reminded of jeremiah 29 11-13 for i know the thoughts that i think toward you saith the lord thoughts of peace not of evil to give you an expected end then shall you call upon me and you shall go and pray to me and i will hearken unto you and you shall seek me and find me and you shall search when you shall search for me with all of your heart a lot of people love to quote the first part of this i know the thoughts i think toward you say lord thoughts of peace not of evil to give you a future and a hope is one of the translation says or as a unexpected end but there's also another thing that we are supposed to do there call upon the lord pray seek uh find and then the lord says when you search for me with all your heart you'll find me this is what the lord wants from us but he has thoughts of peace and not of evil for jonah and i think he also has thoughts of peace and not of evil for you you might feel like why does the lord have me in this situation why am i having the job that i have now or the or the boss that i have or what i have to live where i live or do what i do but you know what the lord he's got a plan for you thoughts of peace not of evil um you know some of you when you were kids your parents wouldn't let you do stuff and they they made things harder on you from your perspective but then you get older and you realize oh man my character my parents cared enough for me to not do those things or not allow me to go to those places and a lot of you as as you know as you grew out of that immaturity you realize man mom and dad actually were thoughtful and caring um i remember watching this not as much you know it's harder to see sometimes on yourself but i watched this with my parents and my sisters especially when it came to my sisters getting to that age where they started to you know date young men i remember this like it was hilarious because my my sister's just a little older than i was i was always a blessing for me because like when i got to high school a lot of freshman young boys uh you know they all all that everybody hassles the new freshmen right when i got to high school all the seniors and juniors said hey brett whatever you need you just let me know why because i have these beautiful sisters so you know what i mean and these guys are like yeah you bro you're my bro and i'm like wow this really worked out nicely for me but what's funny is um about that was uh um i i would watch boys come and see my dad's very old-fashioned uh when when a guy wanted to take my sister out he had to go in and meet my father and they'd sit down and and uh talk and my mom was part of that discussion too so my mom and dad would sit down with the young man now i saw several young men come and go in different ways like one guy came in he true story he came in with a porsche he was like just out of high school driving this nice porsche and uh and he and and this guy wanted to go with my sister tammy and so jenny and i we were watching from upstairs out the window we saw the guy total clean cut man short haircut which in the 80s that was unheard of like a guy with clean cut hairdo and fancy clothes in his porsche and he walked in and sat down with my parents and we're like yeah he's going to go out with my sister tonight on a date so we're like well this is a slam dunk he's got a porsche that's what i was thinking but after about 20 minutes of talking to my dad i saw the young man walk with his head down and he walked out and went in his porch and the porsche had left and we ran out and said what's going on and my dad would just say we didn't really have a piece about him and tammy was and she was you know not happy about the whole situation understandably about porsche um i remember uh oh a year about oh so after that there was another guy that stumbled into our driveway and he had one of those i forget it was like a datsun b210 remember those b210s ugliest car that ever was made some of you guys like them still and you rebuild them and all that but um but yeah he drove it it was an old beat up you know bucket of rust you know and he comes you know burned right in and he steps out and and he's got hair down to his waist he just kind of struts in wearing some kind of raggedy clothes and and uh tammy and i are watching this time because this is jenny's date my sister jenny and um and teddy our watch from the window we're like oh no way and taberna we did we i'm not kidding we said is he stoned i think he's wasted i think he's high that's what we thought i'm not kidding and he comes walking in and then you know and about 10 minutes later jenny and this guy walks out hand in hand and he gets her you know opens the door for her and his old jalopy uh b210 and they drive off and tell me like what what happened that guy's my brother-in-law now corey graper truly truly one of the greatest guys i know i mean i mean it really is hilarious how like the one of the best guys i know and um and and corey's been a huge blessing to our family and he probably was high at the time it's really a funny thing i don't know maybe he was maybe he wasn't i'm not sure um but he got saved uh and don't don't say i'm condoning missionary dating i'm not saying that um but i but i do know that when we when tammy and i ran down the stairs dad what's going on he said i had a piece about that guy and we're like no way i didn't tell you this the first guy ended up in prison yeah he ended up in prison corey ended up being one of the greatest guys i could ever imagine like it's amazing when you let the lord lead and guide but what i'm saying is parents you know father's father really knows best there's something to that father knows best especially when you're talking about the father which is in heaven right um so jonah's get this thing i got to go to nineveh and talk to these crazy violent people and but father knows best and he knows what he's doing and man it's better to obey the lord than to whine and whimper or you know like god forbid you run like jonah ran but the lord he's merciful and gracious and he knows what's good for you now by the way uh this kind of this this chapter three sort of reminds me of two things god's sovereignty but also human responsibility you know we see this in this um sort of um you know chapter i guess with both god sovereignly is working everything out but also notice with me there in chapter three it says so jonah arose and went to nineveh that was his human responsibility the first time he didn't do it in chapter one this time he finally does it so it's his human responsibility but we also see god's sovereignty he's getting the people ready for nineveh he's gonna make jonah and end up going there whether he likes it or not um you'll see what i mean as we get going we see both here human responsibility but also god's sovereignty in this single chapter but anyway i digress his message was as he'd cry out there he'd say yet forty days and nineveh shall be overthrown man i think that's um a powerful uh message so it says there in uh um in verse five so the people of nineveh believed god let's just stop right there what why wouldn't that be great if that little i would take those words right there for the sermons i'm preaching about god it wouldn't be great if just everybody every sunday just oh we believe god it doesn't even say i'm thankful they believed in god because even satan believes in god isn't that correct does satan believe in god yes but does satan believe god no there's a difference and this whole city repents this is the greatest evangelistic thing that ever happened um maybe in the whole world even the day of pentecost when the church was first formed you know it says 3 000 people were saved on that day that was a glorious moment in bible history but here the whole city now there's debate by the way of how many people were in nineveh some people say 120 000. i'll show you why in a little bit some people say up to 600 000 in the greater you know nineveh area um which should be a lot of people but uh whatever group we're talking about here it says the people believed that's pretty cool um i wonder you know if if joe what like you know we can wonder about jonah and and there's some things i want you to remember about jonah as as god's authoring his life um and and before we get to the salvation all these ninevites um don't forget these three things you should know about what god and especially if you're going through hard times right now remember number one god loves you john 3 16 for god so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son don't forget that that whoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life and then that brings us to the second thing don't forget god doesn't want anyone to perish remember first peter 3 9 talks about the lord oh i would that none should perish but that everyone would come to repentance and then thirdly that he knows that the promise of salvation is for everyone um and and it says whoever calls on the name of the lord acts chapter 2 verse 21 i love the whosoevers in the bible um you know whosoever believeth on me will not perish but have everlasting life whoever calls on the name of the lord will be saved the bible teaches so these are the things we need to know about jonah but also about these people god is merciful and god loves people and he doesn't want anyone to perish including these ninevites this is these are things you should remember about humanity especially when you and i as christians are thinking about or talking to the world today we're going to see a guy here jonah who could care less about ninevites that's going to be the sad part of this story and i worry that there's a lot of jonah-esque people who could care less about people today and we're seeing the love of many grow cold as the bible says the last days would bring with it there's people that even christians uh that are running around uh saying well i'm glad i'm saved they wouldn't say it like this but i'm gonna say it crudely i'm glad i'm saved and i could care less about those people that are a vaccinated or b unvaccinated you know or a masked or be unmasked it's like we've got these funny little things that divide us on on stuff and well they're just the other side we hate them and we don't care about them we're actually seeing that literally carried out in some hospitals where if if you didn't get the vaccine you could go to the hospital with something else and they won't give you care because you didn't get the vaccine so you're gonna die sorry you don't get the heart transplant like that's actually happening um and it's just because you're on the wrong side of the politics of the whole thing um i'm so thankful that the lord loves us god doesn't want anyone to perish and he knows that um he's made that promise whoever calls on the name of the lord will be saved um so the simplicity of jonah's message man 40 days and you're going down by the way 40 days 40 in the bible remember numbers have great meaning um does anybody want to take a stab what's the number 40 a symbol of in the bible yes you never said it over here judgment um and there's there's several things by the way about that that um we we see um remember the number of judgment israel wandered for 40 years and that was the before that generation would die off and that was a judgment upon the people of israel um it rained 40 days and 40 nights uh during the uh you know flood of the earth and noah was on the ark for over a year but it rained for 40 days and 40 nights to cause the flood remember jesus would take it out and then was tested for 40 days um like it says it's a number that's always associated the bible with judgment um and that's what jonah declares on the people in the 40 days and this city will be overthrown and that's all he had to say and so it says they believed god which basically tells us this is a genuine conversion and we're gonna see evidence of genuine conversion um but um but i i just think i love the simplest jonah preached eight words and they believe god the end it's like an amazing simple plan that god carries out here but let's read on verse 5 so the people of nineveh believed god and proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest of them even to the least of them for the word came into the king of nineveh and he arose from his throne and he laid his robe from him and he covered him with sackcloth and sat in ashes um interesting you know um this the idea of fasting and sackcloth of ashes that's historically in the middle east mourning and grieving these guys were repenting yes but there was a morning and a grieving saying man why have we done these things there's true repentance here um i think that's kind of an important thing to see here notice notice you know number one the simplicity of jonah's sermon i think that's so cool just a simple simple sermon but also notice the reality of jonah's message the reality what what gave jonah the authority well i think first of all god told him to do it so he's obedient and i believe the lord just by the spirit gave jonah authority but i almost wonder if maybe his experience gave him a little authority too i mean here comes this guy i remember we talked about jonah and the results of being in the gastric juices of a fish for three days and three nights with seaweed wrapped around his head um did he have time to take a shower did he just walk into nina and be like oh we're gonna repent you stink but man whatever you say just as long as you leave us we'll repent i don't know but there was a reality in jonah's message somehow and maybe his own experience of being in the fish in the storm and being barfed maybe that there was a reality to what hey i know about judgment i know about what i'm saying and he just said it maybe with some kind of authority listen the reason i say that is the reality of jonah's message was that god was going to do what he was going to do and jonah was simply the one speaking it if you are declaring truth make sure you're speaking what the bible actually says so many people are so quick to give advice and you know we all think we have wonderful advice for everyone so wonderful is our advice that maybe you don't even really listen to what the person's talking about you're just kind of listening you're like oh i can't wait to give my advice because i have amazing fantastic advice um but you know it's like it really doesn't matter there's no authority except the lord really and jonah's speaking the word of the lord if you want to be on good ground speak the word of god that's always a good thing um but but here you know i see the simplicity of the message but the reality of jonah's message those two things were here and then the one of the greatest evangelistic crusades that ever happened happened all of this town believes i love that um now it says um in verse 7 you know the king verse 7 he caused it to be proclaimed and published through nineveh by the decree of the king and his noble saying let neither man nor beast heard nor flock taste anything let them not feed nor drink water but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth and cry mightily unto god yea let them turn everyone from his evil way and from the violence that is in their hands who can tell if god will turn and repent and turn away from his fierce anger that we perish not um so this is their prayer oh who can say if if what jonas because jonah didn't did you leave he did you notice he didn't leave any wiggle room and john says four days you guys are toast that's all he said so there was no hope really of salvation from jonah jones didn't say 40 days you're going down unless you all repent where zach often ashes then then the lord will relent no um he just says you're going down and so the king and all the people are are very seriously repenting and sorrowful for their sins that's that's a sign of repentance i suppose right here now notice the word repent i've got to say it again because some people get really hung up on this word the king james old english they always use the word repent most of your newer translations say relent because there's a difference god doesn't repent or change his direction or mind just accidentally god is intentionally going one way and then he turns and goes another and that's what they're hoping for is that the lord will turn his fierce anger away from them that they die not verse 10 and god saw their works that they turned from their evil their evil way and god repented or relented of the evil that he had said he would do unto them and he did it not what an amazing amazing thing they deserve death these ninevites but because they were one prayer away of fasting and prayer and just saying lord we're sorry and ask us for forgiveness what a large-scale repentance minimally 120 000 people could be closer to 600 000 depending on how you do the math on these ancient this ancient city of nineveh um but it's an amazing thing by the way i think it's so funny who's the most successful prophet in the old testament you have to give it to jonah it's amazing when you give out awards for for the prophets if we had an award ceremony tonight um i i'd have to say okay but wait do you see the rest of the story i think jonah's kind of the biggest loser prophet in the old testament even though he gets the most successful prophet award um by the way who would get the most unsuccessful award jeremiah 42 years of just heartfelt preaching and not one person listened to him in 42 years jonah says whatever you're all going to die and then the whole city turns right like i wonder if jeremiah's just up and having stupid jonah now so jonah gets most successful jeremiah gets least successful um but what i love about this um is jeremiah the prophet is the most quoted prophet of the old testament by jesus himself don't you love that it's like jesus said i like my bro that jeremiah he was he's my man and he quotes him over and over and over again as jeremiah the prophet said you know jesus would say that because jeremiah was giving the word of the lord just nobody listened but um we have to be careful how we measure our success the world has a way of measuring and oftentimes quantity is is often the measurement but let's see how god shows jonah uh going down in this story how how does the story end well this is where we get to chapter four um let's read verse one it says but it displeased jonah exceeding exceedingly and he was very angry now is this what billy graham would have done if you know all of portland would have repented i'm really mad that the lord saved portland um what's going on with jonah we'll check it out it says verse 2 and he prayed unto the lord and said i pray thee o lord was not this my saying when i was yet in my country therefore i fled before unto tarshish for i knew that thou art a gracious god and merciful slow to anger and of great kindness and relented or repented thee of the evil therefore now o lord take i beseech thee my life from me for it is better for me to die than to live wow jonah he's mad that this whole city gets saved so much this is why i think jonah he he he was kind of suicidal the whole this whole story he wants to die in the ship yeah let's throw me over the board you know not turn the boat around let's go back just throw me overboard um that was his word he was he was ready to die because he was so not into what god was wanting to do through him and here he's like lord just kill me now because you you um it seems to me like jonah's a little bit bummed that his words didn't come to pass when jonah said you're going down in 40 days you're going to be you're going to be annihilated and god doesn't do this and it sort of makes jonah look like maybe he jonah's worried about how he looks in the whole thing they're going to think i didn't know what i was talking about but as it turns out the whole city repents he should be leaping for joy he should be activating himself into discipleship mode he should be walking around the city saying um now here's what it means to be a believer in god and if you want to follow god here's the word of god like he had work to do here but he's saying i'd rather die lord kill me now uh what a what a it's almost like he said i knew it the lord was gonna be merciful um i wonder if you and i have this where we're more concerned about our reputation than actually truth or we're more concerned about people getting what they deserve than we care about love and grace and mercy and kindness um you know what what are you angry about you know when god is merciful and gracious to people well but they're sinners they deserve to be judged yeah um you know when when you find yourself saying i can't wait till god returns and justice will be brought out in this world some of us have this sanctimonious idea that god and his justice is going to come and people are going to get what they deserve you know what i always kind of have to remind myself is well i sure hope that doesn't happen because justice would mean me burning in health for all eternity that's what is just i don't want justice i want god's grace and mercy not just on me but on the whole world that's that's my heart and as it turns out that's what god says he wants to do i want everyone to repent and be saved that's not going to happen but man the lord is patient long-suffering and it's amazing sometimes i wonder you know if there's going to be a bunch of people in heaven that you're gonna see there you're gonna what how did you get here you know i smell smoke but you're here yep that's god's grace it does does it do us well to be angry well let's keep reading it says there in verse 4 the lord then said the lord do us thou well to be angry i love the lord's patience if i were the lord i'd i think i'd just smite jonah dead that's what he asked for oh you want to be dead okay just a little bug on a windshield that's all god would have had to do but but um the lord is just so patient and to say this it's almost if i were jonas i'd probably scream after this the lord's saying do us that well to be angry like like this just would this just make you more angry i don't know i i'd probably get more angry maybe not if it was lord but who i don't know i i think we should bring this phrase back even the king james version do us that well to be angry there you are driving into the 10 o'clock service your family and there's people piled everywhere cars parking in the planter boxes and have you guys seen that people are like planting anywhere there they can uh um and you're driving in and and you're getting irritated i can't hold on and and wouldn't it be great wife if you just said yours would do us that well to be angry uh maybe i wouldn't recommend that maybe that's not the best play but that's kind of what the lord's doing here to jonah is it really a good plan for you are you doing a good thing here by being angry um jonah's he's he he wants to see these people destroyed and it's almost like he wants to hope that it's still coming check it out verse 5. so jonah went out of the city and sat on the east side of the city and there made him a booth or a like a lean-to sort of shelter and he sat under it in the shadow till he might see what would become of the city see he's just sitting there going well let's see what happens it's almost like he's hoping come on lord just send a little fire and brimstone come on just a little and and it's sad because he's wanting to watch destruction he was hoping for a blasting rather than a blessing on these people so it says in verse six now this is where it gets a little strange check it out verse six and the lord god prepared a gourd and made it come up over jonah that it might be a shadow over his head to deliver him from his grief so jonah was exceeding glad for the gourd huh um what's going on here uh with this you know this gourd that grows up over his head well first um first time we we see jonah glad in the story the first time we see him glad is with his gourd he's glad about a gourd so we got to kind of say well what is the lord preparing the lord prepared a fish you know in chapter two or chapter one at the end in chapter two but now he prepares a gourd the hebrew word is kikayon uh it's a hebrew word for a cast it's like a a fast-growing castor bean plant um and they grow really fast you know how sunflower seeds grow really fast um in the same way you know this castor bean plant in the middle east can grow like 12 feet in very short amount of time with huge leaves you know these big leaves and um and the lord um it says here god sends a gourd to come up over jonah that it might somehow deliver him from his grief he's just really bummed out that the ninevites are gonna not be destroyed so the lord says i'm gonna i'm gonna give you something to give you a little piece or so maybe he's into plants or something um some people say it was providing shade over his head maybe but he built a lean to already and he was sitting in the shade of the lean-to but um you know it's funny how the lord you know shows compassion on jonah and this little gourd grows up to be a big gourd and he's like oh i like my little gourd um i wonder how many of us have things the lord's blessed us with the lord's like well you're just such an angry little person i wanted to give you something to sort of take your mind off of it for 10 seconds what is it that the lord has given you it's a little blessing just to give you a little relief but be careful the lord giveth and the lord also what check it out let's read on it says but verse 7 but god prepared a worm [Music] when the morning rose the next day it smote the gourd that it withered oh um a worm now mark the word worm there for you bible students it's an important type of worm that's used here the hebrew word tolith it's a toilet worm if you know what that is that's you know it's kind of an amazing thing in the bible we really don't have time um to cover it but psalm 22 6 talks it's a messianic psalm about jesus uh going to the cross but it and it says i am a worm the word toleth but the word tolus is a kind of worm this this worm attaches the mother worm attaches itself to a branch on a tree and then this little worm uh gets pregnant if you would and has little baby worms but the baby worms sort of grow inside the mother and the mother becomes sort of this cocoon attached to this tree sort of like a butterfly cocoon but this cocoon is attached to the tree well them the baby worms the way they survive is they eat the mother they eat the body of the mother and then they break out of the little chrysalis cause cocoon thing and the little baby worms go out the little toe lifts go out well it's interesting because when the the baby worms escape it leaves a bright red spot on the tree and then um after a few days that bright red spot turns as white as snow and it starts to become flaky and after a little wind and a little weather the white flaky piece where the chrysalis was attached becomes freed and it falls like snow to the ground and during certain times of the year all those toeth flakes come down and people say it looks like it's snowing outside it's an amazing picture really as jesus hung on the cross and we were to eat of his body and drink of his blood and communion and that jesus gave his life that we might have life and you know the blood of the stain but your sins be a scarlet they'll be white it's like there's this amazing correlation but it's interesting that god prepares a tolith worm that's a specific word in the hebrew hebrew tolith that's being talked about here and the lord's using that to take away his little gourd that made him happy what's the lord doing it's the same thing he did with the preparing of a fish he's trying to mature jonah he's trying to get jonah to get where he needs to be mentally spiritually maturity wise and so he prepares a a fish number one uh you might even say god prepared a storm uh in chapter one um there in in uh in verse four of chapter one so you got god preparing a storm he's got a god preparing a fish god prepares a gourd in verse six there but god also prepares a worm isn't it interesting all the things god's preparing for jonah by the way on this the lord gives and the lord's taking away it comes from job job knew about this didn't he if you know the story of job he says naked came i out of my mother's womb and naked shall i return thither the lord gave and the lord hath taken away blessed be the name of the lord job's a guy who recognized the lord gives and he takes away and we need to be good with that because god knows what's good for us so the lord prepares a worm and and now jonah's losing his gourd and that's a bummer but the lord's not done preparing stuff for jonah what what else does he prepare we'll check it out verse 8 and god it came to pass when the sun did arise that god prepared a vehement east wind and the sun beat upon the head of jodah so the wind the gourd is withered he's sitting out in the sun the sun beats on his head and he faints and wished himself to die and said it is better for me to die than to live what an emotional wreck jonah was man up and down and first he's happy oh we got a gourd oh the gourd died oh the sun i'm gonna die i'm faints i'm going to die um this guy is really in bad shape and verse 9 god said to jonah do us thou well to be angry for the gourd oh if he wasn't angry then i think he's probably now and this is funny and he said i do well to be angry even unto death then said the lord thou hast had pity on the gourd for the which thus not labored neither made us it grow which came up in a night and perished in a night and should not i spare nineveh that great city where are more than six score thousand or that's 120 000 persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand and also much cattle the lord's saying you care more about this little weed that gruda grew up overnight this gourd and you got all attached to it and you loved it and then it died in just one night and you have this care for it now you want to die and and and the lord's sort of trying to work into jonah his illogical thinking don't you don't you see i care more about these people 120 000 people that are saved now because of you you know sharing the message i care more about these people and you care more about this gourd who cares about the gourd it's just a a plant that came and went overnight was eaten by a worm jonah is angry because the ninevites didn't get what he thought they deserved i wonder if you and i have the heart that's a little bit jona-esque when we see our enemies or people that we don't like or people that irritate us or the people on the other side of the political spectrum when god's saying you care more about not wearing a mask or wearing a mask you care more about a vaccine or no vaccine or truckers or no truckers or like like i'm not trying to make a political statement either way i'm just saying people care passionately about things but they could care less that people are going to hell that people are going to be destroyed for all eternity burning in hell um it's it's a perspective that we we get all into our myopic little microcosm where we kind of say well this is what really matters to me and could could it be that we care more about gourds than we care about people that's where jonah was at lord's saying you've got to grow up jonah time to mature so the lord sends a wind sends a worm sends a gourd sends a fish sends a storm and it's all part of this process and we don't ever get you say brett what's where's the rest of jonah how did it turn out the answer we don't know and i think the lord did that on purpose because we asked that question about you and me how does it turn out for us are we ready to love people the way god wants us to love them and care enough about them to talk about salvation and preach even a simple message um i'm reminded in mark chapter five once you keep your finger here we're almost done but mark chapter five there's a similar story it's in mark 5 where there was a a person that was of the gadarenes do you remember the people of gad they were the reuben gad and the half tribe of nasa they settled on the east side of the jordan river remember those guys that was not a good place for them to be there was jews that never really entered in the promised land well fast forward you know a couple thousand years and you get to these gathering people the gadites and they were living on that side jewish people and guess what they were doing they were pig farmers that sound like a good jewish thing to do that's what happens when you separate yourself from god's people you still think you're god's people but you're doing stuff that's looking a lot more like the world than god you know so these people are pig farmers and they're all everything's great except they've got this one problem a lunatic crazy young man who's demon possessed and so what they do is they chain them up and they put them outside of the town and make them live among the tombs of the dead this poor guy and uh you know he's a guy that's been a problem for them the lighting house is on fire and doing horrible things like that and so he's they just chained him up bound him up put him up in the tombs and that's that was the end of it for them meanwhile there are just happy pig farmers eating their bacon and all that stuff nothing wrong with that in my opinion but this is where we pick it up in mark chapter five um you know it says you know that jesus came to this man of the tombs and he cast out the demon and suddenly this guy is no longer freaking out and breaking chains and doing all this crazy demonically possessed stuff he's like normal he's just sitting there and clothed with normal clothes he's not running around naked shrieking with craziness and suddenly the townspeople hear oh the man of the tomb somebody healed this guy and the message you know came came out that this guy was healed well check out what it says in verse 14 of chapter five and they that fed the swine fled and told it in the city and in the country and they went out to see what it was that had been done and they came to jesus and saw him that was possessed with the devil and had the legion sitting and clothed and in his right mind and they were afraid that's always a worldly response by the way when you see someone who's a drug addict and who's someone who you know there's kind of this fearful like oh well i don't think it's going to stick or they're not really saved or they're just good for a few minutes or like we always have this negative response sometimes to god doing a miracle in someone's life so they're all afraid and it says in verse 16 and they that saw it told them how it befell him that was possessed with the devil and also concerning the swine remember what jesus did he said you know who are you and he says we're legion we're many and they said you know and he's going to cast them out of this person but instead of just casting them out into you know out of nothing they said let us go into the swine and so jesus said okay and they go into the swine and all the swine run off a cliff and die in the in the sea of galilee there it's kind of a crazy story so um they they they were realizing their pigs were gone and it says verse 16 they that saw it told them how it befell them that was possessed with the devil and also concerning the swine verse 17 and they began to pray him or ask jesus to depart out of the coasts and when he was come into the ship he had been possessed with the devil prayed him that he might be with them how be it jesus suffered him not and said unto him go home to thy friends and then tell them the great things the lord hath done for thee and had compassion on thee and then jesus departed into the decapolis region so um what an amazing story the people of the jews the gadarenes instead of them saying sweet we've got a guy here who can cast out demons and look at this guy the son of the gadarenes this young man who was tormented by all these demons look he's healed a miracle wonderful that wasn't their response it was like ah this is weird we don't know what to do with this guy now that he's clothed and in his right mind and they said man you made our pigs go into the ocean or the sea so get out of our town get out of these parks that's what he's basically asked to do and one of the things we learned about the gadarene people is they cared more about their pigs than they cared about people they cared more about pigs than they cared about people that this one guy had been healed they should have been happy for this man they should have been convicted knowing that they shouldn't have been doing pig farming as jews keeping the law but i wonder if you know the pigs and the jews they just sometimes we want to just stick with our sin and just do our thing and we can care less about other people um do we care more about politics than we care about people do we care about you know our mass more than we care about mankind um it's amazing how things become important to us there are things that are like whether it's a gourd or it's a pig or a wilson volleyball isn't it funny how little objects can become really important to us um and it's about what you're investing your time and energy and affection you know that that castaway movie that wilson volleyball you know you almost feel horrible for this guy when he starts to lose his volleyball you're like no you're feeling as bad as he does it's just the volleyball but it's funny how when you invest time and energy uh you know into something how much you love it and you can start caring for things that really don't matter as much as other things in god's perspective i love the story of the guy who's in prison had 30 years in prison and early in his prison sentence he found this carpenter and a big ant that was walking across and he saved it and put the little ant in a little match box and and he started to train it over the years years in prison and he taught us to do cartwheels and somersaults and and this little ant could just you know just in command it was amazing after 30 years he got out of prison he brought his hand he said i'm going to make millions off this ant and he thought i'll start he goes into his favorite bar and sits it down on the counter and the old hank behind the counter he says oh this will be great he takes the ant out and and says hey come you see this hank's like yeah see i just told you a dumb story about an and some of you are like oh it's not even a true story and some of you are heartbroken and it took me 10 seconds to set you up for that it's amazing what we start caring about what makes you excited and happy jonah was totally backwards on this he was happy about a little plant that meant nothing he was really unhappy that a whole city of people were saved by god's grace through faith um i i just want us to go away tonight with this notion of the book of jonah that this is kind of the main lesson i mean it's a great lesson of repentance and and we learned some stuff about rebellion and all this stuff but i think the main lesson of the book of jonah is really that we've we've got to not have the jonah mindset we need to actually care about people that's what god was trying to work into jonah to actually care and if you don't care about people i'll tell you what god's going to be faithful and he'll prepare whatever he needs to prepare for you a storm a fish a worm a gourd a wind whatever he'll do he'll he'll prepare it for you and slowly but surely hopefully you'll start to actually care more about people than pigs or gourds or whatever we need to be people who care about the you know the lost the unsaved there's so many people today that are lost in this world you and i we're on the front lines here in portland oregon one of the most irreligious places on the planet that's what they say those that study these things you and i live in a place where i think from what they say more people are headed for hell than many places on the planet that's an amazing thing to me so you and i we have work to do go into all the world preach the gospel what if i don't want to i don't care about those people downtown or these people that are living over here or those people that have that world view well that's very jonah-esque god forbid that we have a jonah mindset so some words for us to ponder to think about and then maybe to change some attitudes in our hearts amen amen lord we thank you for this little book this amazing story really um and it's amazing to me that you care about the ninevites so much that you would save a whole city of ninevites that shows us about your amazing grace your massive mercy that you would care about these bloodthirsty people of the ninevite era but at the same time it makes us realize we have no idea who you want to see saved to that level or that degree but help us never to get in the way or be hesitant to be obedient to preach your word and to share the gospel i pray that we would care more about people in their eternal condition rather than the little things that don't matter give us wisdom lord i pray your blessing upon this congregation that our lights would so shine in this dark world we know this life on earth is temporary that gourds come and go but lord we know that heaven is coming for us by your grace so may we have that same heart for you as you have for the unsaved that we might preach the gospel and to all that would hear so bless this study lord and jonah and now we just continue through your word pray that you'd use this time to speak to us lord in jesus name amen

Channel: Athey Creek

Views: 12,632

Keywords: Brett Meador, Bible, Church, Teaching, Study, Christian, Jesus, Oregon, Through the Bible, Athey Creek, Athey Creek Church, Athey Creek Christian Fellowship, sovereignty, responsibility, judgement, repentance, compassion

Id: sj8OZAsOLvI

Length: 63min 30sec (3810 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 09 2022