Jonah Ch.1: Running From God

If you have your Bibles, I want you to turn to the Book of

Jonah chapter one. If you're new to the church, you don't know who

I am. I'm Brandon. I'm the lead pastor of the church. Really

appreciate that you have chosen to join us here. School starting the NFL season

starts today. The number one question I got asked in the lobby is why

I was not wearing raider gear today, and that is because my wife would

not let me. But raider's role. Jonah chapter one, verse one says,

the word of the Lord came to Jonah, son of Amati, go

to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it because it's wickedness has come

up before me. But Jonah ran away from the Lord and he headed for

Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for

that port. After paying the fair, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish

to flee from the Lord. I want to talk to you today about why

is it Jonah would rather die than go to Ninevah. I want to ask

everything to buy your heads, close your eyes, and I want to ask

you to repeat this prayer after me. Everyone say dear Jesus, speak to

my heart, change my life in Jesus name. Amen. I'm gonna bet

that the vast majority of you at least know the basic plot of the book

of Jonah. They say this that if you were raised in church and you

went to Sunday School as a kid, they estimate that you have been taught

the story of Jonah at least once a year. Some of you you learned

it. Let me ask the grandparents. If you're a grandparent, wave,

I want to see who you are. I know this, grandparents like honor

and grandparents today. I have a grand dog now, so I have a

dog, So I don't know if that counts. I'm like a third of

the way there. But you'll remember this if you're a grandparent. We used

to teach kids the story of Jonah through a flannel graph, Remember flannel graphs.

I didn't go to church at that point in my life, so I

don't know what a flannel graph is. I've only discovered what a flannel graph

is from TikTok because they have them all over the place on TikTok. Some

of you, like my kids, My kids learned the story of Jonah from

veggie tales. We know the basic plots, the story of a great city

guy named Jonah and a whale. As the story goes, Jonah is supposed

to go to Nineva, doesn't want to go, hops in a boat,

ends up in the water, gets swallowed by a whale, and thankfully Jonah

lives to tell us the story. And so we all know the story of

Jonah. Jonah is simultaneously pathetic, ironic, and hilarious. Jonah is the

story of God fulfilling his purpose by way of Jonah, even though Jonah remains

thoroughly uncooperative to the very end. One of the number one things that scholars

have debated for generations is the authority in the authenticity of the actual book of

Jonah. There's many people that believe that Jonah is actual historical narrative, that

it happened exactly the way the Bible says. There's others that believe that Jonah

is simply an allegory about disobedience and running away from God. All I know

is that the prophet Jeremiah, who wrote Second Kings, refers to a man

by the name of Jonah and his father in Second King's fourteen. I also

know that Jesus himself referred to the man Jonah in Matthew twelve. So we

know that Jonah was a real person. We know that Ninevah is a real

city. In fact, Ninevah has been excavated. It's right outside It's in

the country of Iraq, right outside of Mossul, and it's been excavated,

So we know Ninevah was a real city. We also know that Joppa is

a real port. I have stood in the port of Joppa, and we

know that whales are mammals that look like fish. So all of the key

elements in the story of Jonah are true. So odds are. Jonah is

an actual story of something that happened. But it starts this way. It

says, the word of the Lord came to Jonah, go to the great

city of Ninevah and preach against it, because it's wickedness has come up before

me. So God gave Jonah two commands. He asked him to do two

things. He said, Number one, I want you to go to Ninevah.

And he said, and when you go to Ninevah, I want you

to preach against it. In other words, I want you to preach that

they need to repent, preach against their sin, call them to repentance.

But this was Jonah's response. Jonah ran away from the Lord and he headed

for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound

for that port, and after paying the fare, he went aboard and he

sailed for Tarshish to flee from the Lord. I want to put up a

map, So this is where Jonah started, right here in Joppa. He

was supposed to go to Ninevah. Ninevah is about five hundred miles in that

direction. But instead Jonah says, not only am I not going to Ninevah,

I am gonna hop on a boat and go as far away from Ninevah

as I can get, and he heads to Tarshish, which most people believe

is at the southern tip of Spain. Catch this. Ninevah is five hundred

miles in this direction, and Jonah says, no way, and he goes

twenty five hundred miles in the opposite direction. My question for you, why

would Jonah rather die then go to Ninevah. Some of you you don't understand

this. Let's let me apply it for you. This way. You're in

Kordeline. God says, go to Seattle, and you say, no way,

I'm going to Orlando. You go to the opposite direction. We know

it takes about a day to fly to Orlando from there. We have a

Galloner church who actually walked from the west coast and walked all the way to

the east coast. It took her nine months. So back then that's how

they got around. They went by ship or they walked. So this was

not an easy journey. And Jonah said, I am not going to Ninevah.

I'm going completely in the opposite direction. So why would Jonah rather die

than go to Nineveh? Two things that you need to understand about Jonah.

Number one, Jonah was a prophet, He was a pastor, He was

a follower of God. This made up who he was. This was an

important part of who Jonah was. But in addition to that, Jonah was

also a patriot. He loved the nation of Israel. I don't know if

you interact with a lot of Jewish people in your life day and I've had

the privilege of going to Israel eight times, and we have a lot of

Jewish friends, and we know people that are of Jewish descent from many different

nations, and I'll tell you one thing that every Jewish person has in common.

They love Israel. They love everything about Israel. They don't always love

their Prime Minister, but they love Israel. They don't always love their government,

but they love Israel. They love the land, they love the promise,

they love that this is God's place for them. In America, we

think we're patriotic, but for many people, our patriotism is very conditional.

It's conditional usually dependent upon who is in the Oval Office. Like if the

party that we don't love is in the Oval office, I don't know,

Canada sounds really good. But to a Jewish person, they love Israel.

Their goal is to get to Israel. They long and they save money to

go on pilgrimages to Israel. They love Israel. And that was Jonah.

He's this man of God who is also a patriot. At this point in

history, Israel was divided into two kingdoms. Now I'm going to give you

enough information to confuse you even more. Many of you you read the Old

Testament, and it gets confusing because what happened is when Israel started, it

eventually started having disagreements with itself, and it split into a northern Kingdom and

a southern kingdom. And which makes this even more confusing is that it all

makes up Israel with two kingdoms. But the northern kingdom is actually called Israel,

and the southern kingdom is called Judah, but it is all of Israel.

Totally confusing, I get it. Think of it this way. We

live in Snohomish County, but in Snahomish County there is a city called Snohomish.

Now, if you live in Snohomish County, you know that Snohomish,

the city is a really small part of the entire county. So if you

were in Israel at this point in time, you would know there's the northern

Kingdom Israel, the southern Kingdom Judah. So this is the way the world

was set up at this point. And what God would do is he would

send them prophets, and these prophets would come and they would warn them,

and they would speak to them, and they would challenge the people. And

at the time there was a prophet by the name of Amos and a prophet

by the name of Hojoseiah, and they were warning the people of Israel.

The entire country, northern and southern Israel, that God was upset with them.

And I've told you many times that the Old Testament is full of all

of these if then promises, and that God usually speaks it through as prophets,

and if you do this, then God will do this. But those

if then promises, sometimes they're attached to blessing. Sometimes they're warnings. Sometimes

it's if you don't do this, I'm going to do this, back and

forth, these if then promises. But at the time of Amos and Hoseah,

God was upset with the people of Israel, and he was upset with

them because of their treatment of the poor, the marginalized, the broken.

God loves these people, and the people of Israel were ignoring them, and

God, through Amos and Josea, said, if you don't start paying attention

to the people that I love, I'm going to allow you to be conquered

by your enemy, the Assyrians. Well, the Southern Kingdom of Judah,

under the leadership of Hezekiah repented, and when we repent, God relents.

So God held off his judgment of the Southern Kingdom of Judah. But the

Northern Kingdom of Israel didn't listen to God, and God allowed them to be

conquered by the Assyrians. In fact, God allowed them to be wiped out,

annihilated by the Assyrians, brought into captivity by the Assyrians. Years later,

Jonah is now the prophet of Israel. You need to understand the Assyrians.

At this point in history. The Assyrians were the most powerful, ruthless,

evil empire in the world. Before there were Nazis. These were Nazis.

I'm sure you're like deeply spiritual, so you've never watched or read Game

of Thrones, But for the unspiritual ones, you will understand what I'm saying.

One of the most hated tribes or clans in the book or the TV

show Game of Thrones is the Bolton clan. The Boltons had a sigill,

and their sigill was a man crucified upside down who was skinned alive. Their

sigil was the flayed man. Which you might not know is that George RR.

Martin, who wrote the Game of Thrones, is actually a student of

the Old Testament and he based the Bulton clan on the Assyrians. This is

how ruthless these people were. Around a thousand BC, there was a document

that was excavated by the military leaders of the Assyrians during this day, and

they described what they would do when they conquered an enemy. You got a

picture that this was a brutal military empire that subdued nations with absolute terror.

They would frequently lay people alive. They would be head people. In fact,

there's a story about when the Assyrians went in and conquered two hundred and

sixty people. They chopped off the heads of those two hundred and sixty people

and stacked their heads in the form of a pyramid in front of a city

to warn people, don't mess with us. Their stories. When the Syrians

would come in and conquer, they would kill the children, they'd kill the

babies, they would rape the women, and they would while they were building

a wall around the cities brick men in alive. Others they would skin them

alive, and they would take their skin and they would put it on the

walls that they surrounded the city with. These were horrible people that committed brutal

atrocities to other people. And here is Jonah, this patriotic man God called

to be the prophet of Israel. After the Assyrians had done this to his

brothers and sisters. Needless to say, Jonah hated the Assyrians, and guess

what Ninevah was. Ninevah is the capital city of the Assyrian Empire. It

was the leading city of the world. Historians say that Ninevah was so large

back in this day that it would take up to three days to cross it.

What's fascinating is how Ninevah was even founded. Ninevah was founded. We

read about it in Genesis ten by a guy by the name of Nimrod.

Nimrod was a hunter, and Nimrod's claim to fame is that he led a

rebellion against God. So he led the people in a rebellion against God,

and he founds the city of Ninevah. You are talking church, a horrible

godless place that is the center of everything that opposes God in the people of

God in the world. That was Ninevah. The Ninevites and the Assyrians.

Their primary deity they worshiped was Ishtar. Ishtar is like the most confusing god

ever. Ishtar is simultaneously the God of love and the God of war at

the same time. So they worshiped this crazy god. And they're a horrible

people. And God tells Jonah go to Ninevah and preach and you know what,

Jonah says, I'd rather die. He hops on a boat and he

runs as far away as possible. Are you with me? All right?

Verse four? Then the lord sent a great wind on the sea. Such

a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up. All the sailors

were frayed, and they each cried out to his own God, and they

threw the cargo into the sea to lighten the ship. But Jonah had gone

down below, where he lay down and fell into a deep sleep. The

captain went to him and said, how can you sleep? Get up?

Call on your God. Maybe he'll take notice of us so that we all

won't perish. So at this point when Jonah said, hey, can I

hop on your ship to Tarshish. I'll pay you money, And he told

all the sailors a little bit of his story. He told them, I'm

running from God. And these pagan sailors are like, whatever, just give

us money. We don't even believe in God. You notice how you don't

believe in God until a storm comes that threatens your life. Then you get

super religious really fast. And I mean they're praying to everybody. They're like,

ishtar save us, bail save us, Oprah, save us. I

mean, they're trying whoever they can get to save them, and the water

keeps raging, and they went that dude that's sleeping downstairs mentioned God, and

so the captain runs down and he starts shaking Jonah, how can you sleep?

Do you realize what is going on? We've called to every single god

we know of. Will you cry to your god and see if he'll save

us? And then verse seven, Then the sailors said to each other,

let us cast lots to find out whose response. But for this calamity,

basically, casting lots back then was the equivalent of like a Wuiji board type

thing. They're trying to figure out who's responsible. So the cast lots and

the lots fell on Jonah. So they asked him, tell us, who

is responsible for making all this trouble for us? What kind of work do

you do? Where do you come from? What is your country? From?

What people are you? We have cast lots and the lots are on

you. Who are you? And in that moment, Jonah tells all of

these pagan sailors, I'm a Hebrew. I worship the Lord, the God

of heaven, who made these seas that are raging and all the dry land

by says that this terrified them, and they asked, what have you done?

You see, Jonah had already told him that he was running from God.

Why would Jonah rather die than go to Ninevah? Did you know that?

Likely you have been misled your entire life about what the story of Jonah's

really about. You thought it was about a fish, You thought it was

about a disobedient prophet, you thought it was about a great city. But

today I hope you're actually gonna find out what the book of Jonah, what

it's intent, is really about. Well, Jonah sees all these people,

and he sees that because of them or because of him, their life is

on the line. And it says the sea was getting rougher and rougher.

So they asked him, what do we do to make the sea calm down?

Before us? Jonah is a crazy book, and that it's totally backwards.

The Ninovites are terrible, horrible people. You and I we would look

at this story and we'd think about how vile and terrible the Ninovites were and

the Assyrians were, and we will conclude one thing. Ninovah deserves to be

wiped off the planet. They should be destroyed. God should open up the

earth and suck them in. God should judge the Ninovites. And in a

twisted way, instead of judging the Ninovites, God is judging the man of

God. God is judging Jonah. I know what you're thinking. I don't

even go into that city because the last time I was there my car got

broken into. I would never put my kids in that school system. They

will indoctrinate my children in godless values. No way. Come on, now,

how the graffiti, the crime? Now, I don't even go there.

I wish it didn't exist. I'm ashamed of it. You get,

Jonah. But in a weird, twisted turn of fate, God doesn't judge

Ninevah. He judges the Christian avoiding Ninevah. Crazy. So Jonah says,

why don't you pick me up and throw me into the sea. As soon

as you throw me into the sea, the sea will become calm. I

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

I read it and I paused. I wandered around my office, and

I prayed, got down on my knees. I repented I read it again,

and I thought, I don't know why this thirty years of serving Jesus,

this has never hit me, and says instead, the men did their

best to row back to land. So these pag and godless men are trying

everything they can, even risking their own life to spare the life of Jonah.

That's how much they care about someone. They don't even know that.

They're willing to do more for Jonah than Jonah was willing to do for them.

But then the story goes that but they could not, for the sea

grew even wilder than before. Then they cried out to the Lord. They

said, Jonah talked about his God, and so now they're praying to God

and they're like, please, Lord, don't let us die for taking this

man's life. Do not hold us accountable for killing this innocent man. For

you, Lord, have done as you pleased. And they took Jonah,

and they threw Jonah overboard, and the Bible says that the sea grew calm,

and then it said at this the men greatly feared the Lord, and

they offered a sacrifice to the Lord, and they made vows to him.

What does that mean? That is Old Testament for they repented, they surrendered

their life to God. They made commitments that they would then serve God the

rest of their lives. Every commentary that I read on Jonah, every scholar

that I've studied on Jonah, makes this qualification about Jonah, and I want

to read it to you. They say this, They say, don't call

Jonah a martyr. Martyrs die for God's glory. Jonah would rather die than

obey God. Jonah would rather die than see his enemies saved. So why

would Jonah rather die than go to Nineveh? Why? Because Jonah knew the

heart and character of God. He knew what David wrote about in Psalm one

forty five. He knew that the Lord is gracious and compassionate, that he's

slow to anger, rich in love. You see, church, Jonah is

not a book about a fish. Four times in the Book of Jonah it

mentions a fish. Jonah is not a book about a great city. Nine

times in the Book of Jonah, Nineveh is mentioned. Did you know that

Jonah is not even a story about a disobedient prophet? Eighteen times in the

Book of Jonah, Jonah's name is mentioned. Jonah is about God. There's

thirty eight references to God in the Book of Jonah. In fact, if

you took God out of the story of Jonah, it doesn't make sense.

It's nothing more than a fairy tale. The story of Jonah is much more

than the will of God and how we respond to it. The story of

Jonah is about the compassion of God, the love of God that he has

for all of humanity, and how he demonstrates that love to those who serve

him and those who don't. Jonah isn't a story about a guy who gets

swallowed by a whale. Instead, it is the story of God's love,

compassion, and retemption for even a brutal hate it enemy. Jonah didn't want

to go to Ninevah because he hated the Assyrians. And he knew if he

went to Ninevah and he shared about the love that they could have in God,

the forgiveness that they could have in God, he knew the message of

the Gospel is the most compelling message that exists. And he knew they'd respond

and they'd repent, and because God is gracious and loving, he would relent

just like he did for you. And Jonah was like, you can forgive

anybody God, but do not forgive my enemies. You're ready to get get

real here, I'm dead, sirs, You're ready to get real. Jonah

was a Christian nationalist before we started using the phrase. The issue that I

have with a Christian nationalist is that oftentimes their patriotism supersedes their theology. Their

love for their country is much greater than their love for their Jesus. Because

I will tell you, Church, it is impossible to be truthful about your

love for Jesus if you do not love who Jesus loves. And he loves

your enemies. He loves the people that are the least lovable people that you

possibly know. He desires that none would perish, but that everyone would come

to repentance. You see, God called Jonah to go to Ninovah because he

not only loved Jonah, but he loved the Ninovites. And that just made

Jonah mad. How can you love these people? God? How can you

forgive these people? Jonah wanted the Assyrians judged and he wanted them destroyed.

And he knew, man, if I tell him about God, They're gonna

repent and God's gonna forgive him. We've been talking for years and Jesus is

the hope of the world. The Gospel changes lives, and the thing the

person of Jesus, this is the most compelling person in human history. If

you remove the stereotypes that people have about Christians out of the equation and you

just share the person and message of Jesus, people are gonna want to follow

him. They're gonna want a servant. Instead of sharing your opinions, preaching

your opinions, you just crack open. I went to a service on Friday

night and the preacher talked about the Bible is Jesus in the flesh, Like

this is the flesh of Jesus. This is all about Jesus that if you

preach this book, this will transform someone from the inside out, even your

enemies. Did you know that this book? Did you know that the person

of Jesus it can save San Francisco? Did you know that the person of

Jesus in this book it can transform New York City? Did you know that

the person of Jesus and the Gospel of Jesus, this can turn Chicago around,

This can change Ninevah. Do you know this can change Seattle? Why

would Jonah rather die than go to ninevah. Bottom line, he did not

want his enemies say. I want to ask everybody by your heads and close

your eyes. I'm here today as a person that deserve to be judged by

God, and he didn't. I'm here today as a person it was not

worthy of Jesus to forgive, but he did. Your eyes closed as you're

hearing my voice. I want you to know you are surrounded by people in

this place. They weren't worthy of it. They've done things, they've said

things, they've thought things, but at just the right moment, Jesus crossed

their path and changed everything. And just like he changed our everything, he

can change yours. So if you were here today and you do not know

Jesus but you want to, I'm going to count to three. When I

say three, you can raise your hand. And I bet there's some of

you. You've prayed prayers before, you've gone to church. But if you

were to be brutally honest, you'd have to say, Brandon, I am

far from God. But if you're here today and you want to leave this

place knowing you are right with God, when I say three, I want

you to raise your hand too. So here I go one, two,

raise your hand right now. Three as that's awesome. Hands up everywhere you

can put them all down. Can I ask everybody to stand up on your

feet. I'm going to invite every single person that's here to pray a prayer

with me, and then Die's gonna come up and close the service. But

for those of you that raise your hand, if you pray this prayer and

you mean this prayer, this is for you. Like you get to leave

this place knowing I'm in a right relationship with Jesus. You get to watch

the Seahawks play the Rams, knowing I'm in a right relationship with Jesus.

You get to watch the Raiders beat the Broncos, knowing I'm in a right

relationship with Jesus. So I want everybody to buy your heads, close your

eyes, repeat this prayer after me. Everyone say, Dear Jesus, I

stand before you today and I admit that I've messed up. I've made mistakes.

But today I ask you to forgive me, and I invite you to

come into my life and to change me. I choose from this day forward

to serve you with my life. Thank you for forgiving me and for sayaving

me in Jesus name Amen