 |
 |
 |
 |
An interview of agnostics was carried out they were neither committed atheists nor committed believers in God. The interviewers wanted to find out why these people don’t go to church, what they thought about the Bible, and Christianity.
Here are some of the responses; 'The story behind it all just doesn’t interest me at all, it’s just what I believe about here and now you know.' 'My choice is that church doesn’t come into it, and I live my life as I believe I should live it, and make my decisions and hope they are good ones.' Here’s what someone had to say about the Bible 'It’s like the Lord of the Rings, isn’t it? I mean its all about another universe - a middle earth.'
It shows us why when we ask our friends to come to church they aren’t really interested? It’s not that people conclude the gospel is irrelevant because it has lost its power but they just don’t know about it. The survey goes on to show that people see Christianity as being about rules and think it has little to do with real life. There is a gulf between the world, our friends, family and neighbours and the gospel of God’s grace. With some people its worse because they have been inoculated against the gospel because they have met people who claim to be Christians but actually haven’t lived it out, who say they have experienced grace but it doesn’t seem to have affected their living.
Its worth in the face of this just asking ourselves whether we fully understand grace? Could you explain the affect it has on the way you live moment by moment, day by day? Do you, do I, really get grace? In fact I want you to have a go at doing just that; explain to the person next to you what grace is, how it affects you day to day.
As we come to the book of Jonah grace is at the heart of the book, in fact we will see grace in every chapter, Jonah 2:8-9 are, I think, the key verses in the whole book, encapsulating the whole story of Jonah. It tells us what is wrong with the Ninevites, the pagan sailors and Jonah himself - "they cling to worthless idols" and the consequences; they "forfeit God’s love for them", in other words they fall under God’s judgement. But these two verses also tell us of God’s grace, as Jonah acknowledges "Salvation comes from the LORD."
Remember that big theme as we work through the book, and as we look at Jonah because as one of God’s people you would think he gets grace but he doesn’t!
1. A prophet who doesn’t want others to experience grace.
(1)Jonah is a prophet, we first meet him in 2 Kings 14 where we read of one prophecy he made,
he is a prophet to Israel in the time of king Jeroboam II, and Israel at the time is
spiritually backward. Jeroboam’s reign is characterised like this "he did evil in the
eyes of the LORD..." and Israel follow their king.
It is against such a backdrop that Jonah is privileged to hear God’s word and be appointed God’s spokesman to call Israel back to God and his covenant. But (2)Jonah gets a shock he is told to go to Nineveh and what is the message he is to take? "preach against it... its wickedness has come up before me."
How does Jonah react? He runs away(3), why? Jonah doesn’t run away because of fear, it isn’t that he is afraid of the Ninevites or of travel, or of delivering such a message. Turn to 4:2 as a frustrated Jonah reveals why he runs "Isn't this what I said, LORD, when I was still at home? That is what I tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity."
Do you see why Jonah runs away? It’s not because he thinks he can get away from God. He runs away because he knows what God is like, he runs away because God is gracious and compassionate, because God relents from sending calamity. He runs away because he wants to see Nineveh burn, he wants them to pay for their sin! That ought to shock us!
Nineveh is the capital city of Assyria Israel’s enemy and eventually the nation God will use to carry Israel into exile. They are Gentiles, they are not the covenant people of God and Jonah runs away because he wants them wiped out! Jonah is a racist - he believes in the supremacy of Israel, he is fiercely proud to be a Hebrew(9), and he will do anything to protect his people - even giving up his prophetic ministry which is what he is doing as he tries to leave God’s presence.
Jonah is not a nice story it is there to make us ask the question, am I like Jonah, do I get grace? What prejudices do I have? Who would I not go to with the gospel? Are there people we wouldn’t want to share the gospel with? We may say no intellectually but what about functionally?
2. A Gracious God pursues his mutinous Prophet
The hero of every Bible story is God and that’s abundantly clear in this account. Jonah is
clearly not the hero after all who’d want to be like him, and the great fish only appears in
3 verses. But God, well the first chapter is all about him.
Just pick out some of the things it teaches us about God? (1)He speaks, (2)He is judge of the whole world, (4)He sends the storm, (7)He unmasks Jonah, (9)He is the creator, (13)He will not be defied, (16)He is to be feared and is worthy of worship.
God is great! His majesty, sovereignty and glory are revealed, it is futile to oppose him. But more amazingly we see here the grace of this almighty sovereign creating, judging God. It is amazing there is a book of Jonah at all, or that it isn’t the shortest book in the Bible ending at v3 like this 'Jonah ran away from the LORD, and God put Jonah to death for his rebellion.' Jonah is running away from a God who judges Nineveh for rejecting him and living as they please - he deserves judgement.
But the book doesn’t end like that, because God is gracious. Jonah goes to Joppa, gets on a boat and gets so far into the journey before God stops him in his tracks. God will not let Jonah go, he pursues him. With each step Jonah has gone further from God, and the way seems to have opened up for him and amazingly Jonah is at peace with himself. While outwardly the storm rages inwardly Jonah is calm, there is no storm of conscience.
But God will not let Jonah go and he unmasks him as the captain gets him(6) and God points the finger at Jonah through the casting of lots(7) and the crew quiz him about who he is where he is going and why God is pursuing him. There is no doubt in Jonah’s mind who has sent the storm and why or the solution "Pick me up and throw me into the sea," he replied, "and it will become calm. I know that it is my fault that this great storm has come upon you."
God pursues his mutinous prophet. It is futile to flee from God, God pursues his people but his discipline may not be pleasant.
As Jonah’s will and God’s clash there is only ever going to be one winner. It is foolish to take on the God revealed in Jonah 1 and yet that is exactly what we find Jonah doing.
3. How to fear a God of grace
What does it mean to fear God? To listen to his word, obey. This chapter gives us a little
study in how to fear God and how not to. Look at v9 and how Jonah describes himself "I am
a Hebrew and I worship the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land."
That word worship is the same word as fear; Jonah describes himself as one who fears God, yet
his actions give the lie to his words. Fear of God is not going against him, it is reverently
living in the light of his revealed will. Jonah does exactly the opposite, he is a prophet
on the run.
There is a great irony in the ending of the first chapter of Jonah(v15-16), as Jonah the Hebrew is judged by God and thrown to his death - notice that there is no other consideration by the sailors in throwing him overboard they are signing his death warrant as surely as if they pulled the cord on the guillotine or flicked the switch on the electric chair, whilst the pagan sailors have given up their idolatry, greatly fear the lord, and offer sacrifices to him and make vows.
It is the idolators not the Hebrew who show us what fearing God should look like as they respond to his will, his word through Jonah and actively obey. Jonah the Hebrew is cast out whilst the pagan idolators revel in the grace of God. It was exactly as Jonah feared God is a God who is gracious and compassionate even to pagans.
Do we get grace? Is that seen in our living? Do the people I live, work and breathe alongside see the relevance of trusting Jesus. That is what the respondents in that survey were saying - it’s just not relevant, we don’t see the difference it makes, we don’t see the change in attitude, in loving, in forgiveness it makes in those who claim to serve God. So why should we listen to the message!
Jonah makes me a little uncomfortable, it warns me not to flee from God, not to take him on, not to set my will against his. But it challenges me about my prejudices and asks me if I really grasp grace and live it out. It drives me back to the cross to see love without prejudice, to see grace without limit.