The Book of Jonah - Guest Speaker Van Jones
First B Jackson
2025-08-17

Automatically transcribed. Where this and the recording disagree, the recording is the record.

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So, I know I know that y'all have been going through the book of Acts and going through that that crazy journey that the apostles and that Paul and everybody went through but today, we're going to be in the book of Jonah and you know, another journey from the Old Testament that we're going to walk through together and just kind of one of the things that drew me to it when when we're, hey, I was asking Ray what what I should preach on if I should just roll in with Acts or what and he was like, is there anything in here? I was like, great. Yeah. That really narrows it down, you know? So, but and I've been going through this Bible reading plan and one of the days of Jonah like start to finish and we all know about the book of Jonah especially the fish and everything and but this time when I read it or a month ago or whenever it was, it really just like hit me in a different way.

Like, I am just like Jonah in in ways that are not good and and and I think that we all can say that to some degree or another and so, I'm excited to go through that today but just kind of wanted to start out with with a little a little bit of a story. So, ten years ago, I actually got to come here and and there's a friend of mine that was going to church here. No, had no, would never dream that I'd be standing here ten years later but I was on a path that I thought would be like bringing a lot of purpose to my life of how I can go fight evil overseas. There's a lot of terror stuff obviously been going on for a while but especially at that time like just attack after attack and I was like, I want to go like my response like Jonah's response is, I want to go fight. I I want these enemies to be killed.

Like that that was my the go to and there's a time and a place for that, right? But but that was where I was headed and long story short, the Lord just kind of redirected and appointed different things in my life and and I'd later met my wife and and her life that led us to instead of taking a rifle overseas, we we're able to take this overseas and love people that we consider to be enemies and really realize like we are all enemies apart from Christ. Like without his blood, we are condemned, right? And so, that I really resonated with Jonah specifically with just that wrestling that that we that I specifically dealt with. So, there's so many different themes.

In Jonah, we could talk about Jonah for a long time. We're gonna go through the whole book today. So, I hope you plan to just skip lunch and we're just gonna keep going. No, but it it will be a challenge. So I might go a little bit too fast.

But the the theme that that we're gonna pull today is is God calls Jonah to do hard things. And so there's there's really six of those that will hit on today. But you'll see in the story, there's this process that that God has us on, that God has Jonah on, and this this call to repentance, to turn from evil and and turn to God and then receive grace from God which fuels obedience like we can't be obedient on our own power. We can't do these hard things that we're called to on our own, right? We need God and his grace to go and do these hard things for his glory.

So, the first one is God calls Jonah to obey him. We see that right off the bat. If you have a Bible, open it up to Jonah. It's there's the 12 minor prophets at the very end of the Old Testament and he's right there kinda in the middle. Pretty sure he's the fifth one.

So, you can turn there if you want or you can just look at the screen. I'm gonna read off the screen today. And so, verse one through three. Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah, the son of Amittai, saying, arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it. For their evil has come up before me.

But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish. So, he paid the fare and went down into it to go with him to Tarshish away from the presence of the Lord. And and it wouldn't be a first B sermon without one of these. So, we've got an awesome map and that A right there is where Jonah was in Israel and when he's called to go to Nineveh like Northeast to Assyria which is like a very much of an enemy of Israel.

He decides to go south and then west on this ship that goes all the way to the West like edge of the world like the known world was not like it is today, right? They didn't know much outside of that. So, so Tarshish over there where the sea is is where he was headed. Just let's just quit and go as far from doing what God wants as possible. That was Jonah's mindset.

So, really crazy to think about just like he thinks that this is a good idea but it it to be fair to Jonah like the Nineveh is the capital of one of the biggest enemies. They're the so violent and just nasty people like so hard to love people like that. Like in our country has countries that are like that too, right? That we couldn't imagine to go and and give mercy to people that have been beheading Christians or you know, whatever the thing is like that is the that time, the equivalent. Yeah.

So, he, yeah, and he, so he doesn't, he doesn't obey, right? He he abandons the call but I got ahead. So, the greater Jonah, Jesus, has a call on his life, right? But he doesn't do what Jonah does. He accepts that call, sweats blood in the garden, and goes to the cross obediently to to pay for our sin, right?

To to to save us from what we deserve. Yeah. So, the second hard thing is, you know, Jonah's going is about to go through this storm where God initiates obedience or he he in a way, it's kind of weird to think about it but like God is basically choosing for him to obey. It's like, hey, you don't have a choice here. So, we'll read about that in verse four But the Lord hurled a great wind upon the sea.

You'll hear like a lot of hurling right here. So he hurled a great wind upon the sea and there was a mighty tempest. So the ship threatened to break up. And then the mariners who are experts in all things, you know, ships and water and storms, they were afraid and each cried out to his God and they hurled the cargo that was in the ship, into the sea to lighten it for them But Jonah had gone down into the inner part of the ship and had laid down and was fast asleep. And then they said to him, so skip to verse 11, what shall we do to you that the sea may quiet down for us?

For the sea grew more and more tempestuous. And he said to them, pick me up and hurl me into the sea, and then the sea will quiet down for you, for I know it is because of me that this great tempest has come upon you. Wow. Like, is it not interesting to think like God cares so much about Jonah's development, his process? He's like, you quitting and going over there is not an option.

Like, this is it and then, you know, Jonah decides to sacrifice himself for the for the sailors' lives. Like, he he knows that wrath is due him and that's what is causing the storm, right? And so he sacrifices his life and appeases that wrath and the storm just stops immediately. And there's a parallel again to Jesus who's the greater Jonah who went to the cross and took on our the wrath that was due for us, right? And sacrificed himself even though he didn't deserve it and paid for all of our sin and so, huge difference but you can see like this this connection in the story.

The the next hard thing is that God calls Jonah to repent. And and it's really interesting in the in the text like so obviously, y'all know the story. Jonah gets hurled into the sea. God appoints the fish to eat him or swallow him, right? And he's in the fish for three on the third day.

So he goes a whole one, two days at least until finally the third day, his hard headedness is broken at this low point to finally pray. Like, super stubborn but we we're really stubborn too, right? So, so after those on the third day, he, the whole, all of chapter two is pretty much this prayer that Jonah has of repentance. So, we'll read a few verses of that starting in in chapter two verse five. The waters closed in over me to take away my life.

The deep surrounded me. Weeds were wrapped about my head at the roots of the mountains. And I went down to the land whose bars closed up, closed upon me forever. So this is like he just he sank like a long, like a deep way, right before he got swallowed up. Yet you brought up my life from the pit, oh Lord my God.

When my life was fainting away, I remembered the Lord and my prayer came to you into your holy temple. Those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love. Salvation belongs to the Lord and so, you know, we see like this this isn't like a normal prayer of repentance, right? Like, you don't hear Jonah really like humbling himself and and recognizing his idols in his own life like he's referring to others who pay regard to vain idols and without he's not realizing like he's holding on to like his patriotism, right? Like, he he doesn't want to do what God is calling him to do.

He would rather be committed to his country and and not help the enemies of his country and his enemies and so he's he's put his country over God and you know, we'll see later like the this repentance is just a partial but it's just enough to get to the point where God appoints the fish to vomit him out and so and when you think of vomiting, like that's disgusting, right? Like, that's gross and it was ironic about it is like Jonah is like a gross person in the story like he's disobedient. He he isn't willing to give mercy and so he's, you know, comically vomited out on the on the land and and that brings us to this this fourth point. This fourth hard thing that that God that God calls him to do is is he's got a second chance to obey and so we see that in chapter three verse one and it's almost the same as chapter one verse one. It says, then the Lord, then the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time saying, arise, go to Nineveh, that great city and call out against it the message that I tell you.

So, Jonah arose and went to Nineveh according to the word of the Lord. So, that's great, right? Like, he's figured it out now, right? He's in this process and so he is taking steps of obedience but what we'll see is that when he gets there and and does proclaim the word. So, later verse four, he calls out, yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown and he's like, well, that's my obedience.

He definitely still hates the people that he's speaking to, okay? Which is so crazy to think about but what's even crazier is that like just that little step of obedience, that little proclamation of the word that God told him to speak, Not because of his gifted speak speaking or how he related to the people and loved them so well but because of the spirit moving in these people and God's word changing them, we see that the the people repent. So, verse five chapter three, and the people of Nineveh believed God. From that little five Hebrew word sermon, they believed God and they called for a fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest of them to the least of them. The word reached the king of Nineveh.

So this is the king of the capital of the of this huge powerful nation. And he arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes, and he issued a proclamation and published through Nineveh. By the decree of the king and the nobles, let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything. So he's calling it fast on all all the people. Let them not feed or drink water, but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and let them call out mightily to God.

Let everyone turn from his evil way and from violence that is in his hands. Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish. What a response. Like, there's so much irony in this story, right?

Like, you got the man of God who is responding really poorly to everything that God is telling him and then you have the pagan sailors and these like hiddens that are totally responding in an amazing way when they hear Yahweh's name and when they hear the the truth of who God is and this chance that maybe, who knows? Maybe, God will repent and they go through the the the act of humbling themselves and turning from their evil and and a true full repentance unlike the man of God's partial repentance. The next the next hard thing, number five, God calls Jonah to forgive and love his enemies. I'll read that in in chapter three verse 10. When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them and he did not do it.

But it displeased Jonah exceedingly and he was angry. He was angry that God gave them mercy. That a total disconnect, right? We do the same thing. You know, we've we've got this like Jonah, this log in our own eye.

This blinding us from seeing things the way God does, and we're casting stones at people that have a speck in their eye, right? Jonah can't see how God can have mercy like this. Next next little section of scripture. So, verse two, and he prayed to the Lord and he said, oh Lord, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? This is why I made hates to flee to Tarshish.

So, he's explaining to God why he disobeyed, right? He's like, this is why. I knew you were like this. So, I knew that you were a a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love. This is a critique.

And relenting from disaster. Therefore, now, oh Lord, please take my life from me for it's better for me to die than to live. The second time that he's choosing, he wants to die than to see his enemies receive mercy. He's upset because he knows God's character. He can't imagine like having mercy on people like these Assyrians, the Ninevites.

There there's there's more to who God is than just that though. So, not should have had another another slide for Exodus 34 but Exodus 34, Moses is is wanting to see God's glory and and God says, hey, go in this cleft of the rock. I'll I'll cover it up, pass by, and then you can just see my see me from behind and so, I'll read that a little bit here. Exodus 34 verse six, the Lord passed before him Moses and proclaimed, the Lord, the Lord, a god merciful and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. All this sounds familiar, right?

Keeping steadfast love for thousands. Forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin. But who will by no means clear the guilty? Oh, he didn't mention that. Jonah doesn't mention that part.

Who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children to the third and fourth generation and so we're like, wait a second, like, God's not just this God of mercy. He's he has a judgment side, right? And they clash in this story like how if you're Jonah or us reading it, like how can God forgive all of the horrible things that the Ninevites did? Like they would cut people up and have their family members watching this and parading that like heads on sticks, like like nasty, nasty, miserable stuff. But it's God's prerogative on who he chooses to show mercy and and we'll talk more through this how this tension plays out.

So, verse five, chapter four, Jonah went out of the city and he sat to the east of the city and made a booth for himself there and he sat under it in the shade till he should see what should become of the city. So, in his mind, he's thinking, maybe, my little prayer to God will mean that actually he will, you know, destroy this city. So, he's like toddler style, pouting, you know, mad, sitting under this little thing he made, hoping that he gets to see destruction. There he is. So wild.

What's interesting too, like, a lot of this a lot of this info that I that I had studied is coming from a book by Timothy Keller called Rediscovering Jonah. Highly recommend it. But but Tim Keller says like another parallel that I wouldn't have thought of is you got a man that that walks out of the city hoping for condemnation but then the greater Jonah, Jesus, walks out of the city, takes on the condemnation, do us, right? And becomes our salvation, our means of salvation. So, just such a such a greater Jesus is so much greater than Jonah and and all people of all time, right?

And and so we've got evidence here that Jonah's repentance really was only partial when he was in the fish. Like he's looking at this city and hate hating it and he hasn't he hasn't made as much progress as we might have thought when he chooses to obey but unlike Moses who who just sees the back of God's glory and and here in how Jonah is only seeing this partial picture where you just can't imagine how God can show this mercy. We've got the full picture on this side of the cross. This this mystery revealed, right? Where the cross is where that mercy and judgement meet and is satisfied on the cross.

The the mystery that that God calls all people from all nations to to come and and put their faith in him and repent and turn from their evil ways to follow the Lord. So, yeah, the sixth and last thing, the hard thing that that God calls Jonah to do is to humble himself and this really continues to be to prove very difficult for Jonah. So, this is the the last five verses of of the of the book. Verse six, now the Lord God appointed a plant which you can kind of see. There's a little plant right there.

Okay? He appointed a plant and made it come up over Jonah that it might be a shade over his head to save him from his discomfort. And so Jonah was exceedingly glad. Remember before he was exceedingly mad. Now he's exceedingly glad because of the plant.

But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the plant so that it withered. And when the sun rose, God appointed an east wind, scorching east wind. And the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so that he was faint. And he asked that he might die. Third time.

It's better for me to die than to live. But God said to Jonah, do you do well to be angry for the plant? And he said, I remember he's really hard headed, right? Yes, I do well to be angry, angry enough to die. And the Lord said, and God is so patient here.

Right? Like what think about all the things God could respond with. But God said, you pity the plant for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night and perished in a night. And should I not pity Nineveh, that great city in which there are more than a 120,000 people who do not know their right hand from their left and also much cattle. Like God cares about the cows.

You know, like he this cool. It's really neat. So the third time that he would rather die and and he he's just he's not there. That and it ends here and we don't know Jonah's response. But one other thing to point out like God is sensitive to these people.

He says, these people don't know their right hand from their left and and we hear like an echo of how Jesus was was looking on the people that were killing him and said, father, forgive them for they know not what they do and and so he he is gracious and merciful. Time and time and time again. I told the same the same illustration in the 9AM but if you think about like Jonah has this very very specific way of seeing people and seeing the world, right? And he's got in his mind, who should be a recipient of mercy and who shouldn't? And and if you don't agree with the way that Jonah thinks, then, then, Jonah, it hates you, right?

And so, we do the same thing. It was small scale like if you're speeding down the road, like you're late because the past was like insurpassable and you go a long way and you're speeding down the road and and you get pulled over. And you're like, oh man. Like, surely this policeman will understand my situation. You know, he'll give me mercy in this situation.

The pass was closed. Like, of course, I was speeding. But then we're walking our kids in the neighborhood. Right? And a youngster zips on by and we're like, hey, arrest him.

Like he almost ran over my kid, you know, but he's speeding just like you were. It's the same but in our minds, we see him as the the bad guy, right? And we're not. And it's the it's the same, it is very similar thing here where Jonah can't open his himself to the way that God sees the world. So, yeah, leaves us at a cliffhanger.

What is Jonah ultimately do? More than likely, the author leaves it like this so that the reader, us, can consider what do we do with that story and and how are we like Jonah? Like, how are we not humbling ourselves to be able to see who God is and what his character is like and how we're we're different from him. You know, maybe maybe we're close a little closer than Jonah of like being able to understand how God works but but often times, you know, we try and do this this on our own like in our own strength and that that doesn't work out. We didn't really read the part about how the sailors responded to when Jonah said, hey, the solution to the storm is just hurl me out but right after that, the sailors valiantly tried to row him to safety so that he wouldn't have to drown.

But it didn't work. Like that wasn't God's plan. That was trying to overcome on your own accord is not gonna work out. Like we have to look to Jesus to to bring us through these hard times and give us the strength to forgive people that seem unforgivable and and maybe it's our neighbor, maybe it's someone overseas, maybe it's a really big decision in your life that you just can't imagine taking that step of obedience or maybe it's a small thing, right? My wife, Lauren, was reading this Elizabeth Elliot devotion and the the day that I'm it was close to the day that Ray reached out and and put this out there for us to come and visit and it was really interesting like it there was an analogy for like being obedient to God and and the the the illustration is, hey, take a piece of paper and write two words on it.

No. And Lord. And then you have to cross out one of them. So you could cross out no. Right?

Like no, I won't take the step of obedience. I'm saying that wrong. Yeah. Forgive me. Okay.

You can cross out, no, I I yeah, won't You have to write. Yeah. Yeah. You cross out the disobedience and have, you know, the obedience to Jesus or you cross out the Lord like Jonah did, right? And you go the other way, okay?

So, and it really is that simple. It isn't super complicated but humbling ourselves really is a hard thing that we all need help with. So, in conclusion, we like Jonah need grace and mercy from God to be more like him, to see the world as he does, to love our neighbor neighbors, even the evil ones as he does. To be sacrificial with our time and our resources and our whole lives. Moving from this self centeredness to God centeredness, right?

If you want to know about the bus, I can tell you after. You can you can go go see me. Super random. I really don't know. I'll put it up there.

But if y'all want to come up to to go to the next song, I'll pray through just everything that we heard. Lord, thank you so much for today and and for the opportunity to for all of us to be here. It's no mistake that that every single person in this room is here in this room. I pray that that you would be glorified with all of our lives and that we would take your word to heart and let it change us and and bring us closer to you. In Jesus name, amen.