Download III. He supports Jonah with astonishing power

JONAH.
#8 – The Lord renews His commission to Jonah.
Jonah 3: 1 - 4
Sermon by:
Rev. E. Moerdyk
PUBLISHED BY THE
PUBLICATIONS COMMITTEE
OF THE
FREE REFORMED CHURCHES OF NORTH AMERICA.
(April 2006)
(N0 8 of a series of 10)
LITURGY:
Votum
Psalter 174
Law of God
Psalter 144
Scripture Reading: Psalm 116
Jonah 3
Text: Jonah 3: 1 - 4
Congregational Prayer
Offerings
Psalter 72
Sermon
Psalter 310
Thanksgiving Prayer
Psalter 366
Doxology: Psalter 316
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Beloved congregation,
Did you know that there is a small group of churches that at one point carved their
pulpits to look like the open mouth of a great fish? They got this idea from the book of Jonah,
and tried to make it as life like as possible. They would place the pulpit against a wall, and then
put the door to the pulpit directly behind the pulpit. Every Sunday, the waiting congregation
would see their pastor come out from what looked like the throat of a great fish, to stand in the
mouth of the fish and preach the word of the living God to them.
There is something remarkably beautiful about this. Because it captures what it means
for a gospel preacher to bring the word of God to the congregation. It captures the fact that the
pastor is a sinner in need of grace himself, just like anyone and everyone who is listening. The
reason why your pastor can stand here is not because I am holier or better than you are. But
because God has broken my stubborn sinful rebellion by pursuing me in sovereign grace.
Making your pulpit look like the mouth of a fish is beautiful for another reason: it symbolizes the
NT gospel of the greatest prophet of the church, the Lord Jesus Christ. Just like Jonah was 3
days and 3 nights in the belly of the fish, so the Lord Jesus was three days and 3 nights in the
grave. With respect to his body, that is. It is as an ambassador of the crucified and risen Lord
Jesus Christ that any gospel preacher stands in this pulpit. It is as a preacher of the terrors of the
Lord for willful sinners and the mercies of the Lord for repenting sinners that every gospel herald
does his work. It is really not such a bad idea to carve a pulpit that looks like the mouth of a
large fish! God used the events of the previous 2 chapters as preparations to equip Jonah for the
work God wants Jonah to do.
This has something to say to office bearers. It also has something to say to
congregations, and to individual believers. You are not prophets. But you are called upon to
speak God’s truth to a dying world in various ways. God uniquely equipped Jonah for the task
Jonah had to do. I hope you will come to the discovery during this hour that God has also
uniquely equipped you for the task of world wide evangelism to which he calls all of us and each
of us.
Theme: The Lord renews His commission to Jonah
I.
He calls Jonah again to his prophetic office
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II.
He summons Jonah again to the same assignment
III.
He supports Jonah with astonishing power
Congregation, we already thought about the amazing grace and faithfulness God has
shown to Jonah both in saving Jonah from the depths of sea, from his watery prison, and in
calling Jonah again to do the work God wanted him to do. Yet there is more here that we need to
see if we are to fully realize all that is involved in God’s goodness towards this stubborn sinner,
his servant Jonah. God takes the very events that displayed the depths of the sinfulness of
Jonah’s heart, and uses those events through His sovereign grace and power, to make Jonah more
equipped than he ever was before to be a prophet to the city of Nineveh. Have you ever stopped
to think about this? Jonah in chapter 3 is much more equipped than he was in chapter 1 to do
God’s work. All the events in chapters 1 and 2 are divine preparation for chapter 3.
Now we need to guard this very carefully, otherwise we could draw the wrong
conclusion. This does not excuse Jonah’s sin. It will not excuse your sin. It may not lead us to
use the words of Romans 6 to conclude, let’s sin then that grace may abound. The truth that
Jonah’s experiences in chapters 1 and 2 uniquely equip him to preach to Nineveh is not a
recommendation to copy Jonah’s sin, but an opportunity to magnify God’s grace and
faithfulness. God can use even the sins of Jonah to shape Jonah into precisely the kind of person
God wants him to be. God can use even the sins of Jonah and His own grace in response to this
to make Jonah into a key that fits into the lock Nineveh. A God who can do this is a God of
sovereign mercy and faithfulness so astonishing that you can only stand in awe of him! Such a
God can also use a sinner like you to advance His kingdom.
Let’s look at how He does this. Look at how chapter 2 ends. The LORD speaks to the
fish, and it spits out Jonah on dry ground. God has heard the prayer of Jonah, and has of sheer
grace and sovereign mercy given Jonah his life again. If God were to do nothing at all with
Jonah for the rest of his life, Jonah would have enough reason to sing God’s praises, and to be
eternally grateful.
But that is not all God does. Chapter 3:1 says that the word of the Lord came to Jonah
the second time. Do you realize what this means? In the days of Israel, the only people to whom
the word of God came directly like this were the prophets. Whenever you read this expression,
the word of the Lord came to so and so, you automatically know – that person is a prophet.
Verse 1 tells us that God is saying to Jonah – Jonah, you are not just one of my people, you are
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still my prophet. This is amazing grace too. To use the words of the Holy Spirit in John 1, Jonah
can surely say out of His fullness I have received grace upon grace. The grace of forgiveness,
the grace of my life, and now even the grace of restoration to office.
This already has an application for us this morning. There are always office bearers and
individual Christians who struggle with whether God could ever use them in his kingdom. They
look at the sings of long ago, or the sins of last week, and they conclude, I am useless baggage in
the kingdom of God. My sin has made it impossible for even the living God to use me. I am
more of a liability than an asset in the kingdom of God. There are people sitting in this building
who think this very thing. I don’t have to look very far. There are times in my own life where
conviction of my own sins makes me wonder if any opportunity for usefulness and fruitfulness in
His kingdom is left to such as I am.
We find our answer in verse 1. The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time. God
is a God of second chance ministry! Now understand me carefully here. This does not mean God
is a God of second chance grace. This would be to think too lowly of God. After all, you can
blow a second chance just as easily as you blew the first chance. God is the God of redeeming
grace. Once God redeems you, you are redeemed. You don’t get a second chance. You are a
new creature in Christ. This also does not mean God is a God of the second chance testimony.
What do I mean by this? Your sin may have turned someone else off to the church and the
gospel. You may never get the chance to set that straight.
But God is frequently the God of second chance ministry. That is why a Peter who
denied his lord can still be an apostle and a pillar in the church. This is why a Moses who blew it
the first time when he killed the Egyptian, could still become God’s deliverer for Israel. This is
why Jonah who became a deserter can still become God’s mouthpiece. God in sovereign mercy
can use sinners who have blown it, to advance His kingdom. He can even choose to put them in
office again, and make them trophies of his free and sovereign faithful grace. Because that is the
kind of God He is. Praise be to His name, and to His name alone!
God does not just put such people back into circulation in his kingdom, He also uses even
their very experiences of sin and grace to equip them even more for the work He calls them to
do. Look at how he does this. For one thing, Jonah hears the renewed commission to the office
of prophet as a sinful man who has been forgiven. What happens when you are forgiven, and
you know it? It makes you reverent, submissive, and grateful towards God. Jonah has a deep
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and healthy respect for God’s sovereign majesty as judge, for God’s discipline as father, for
God’s kingly gift of forgiveness. Does Psalm130 not say, there is forgiveness with thee, that
thou mayest be feared? Jonah fears the Lord now more than he ever did. Because he fears the
Lord His God, he reverently submits to what God wants him to do.
Look for another confirmation of this in Psalm 51. In verse 11 David prays, cast me not
away from thy presence O Lord. Restore to me the joy of thy salvation. Why? Verse 13. Then I
will teach transgressors thy ways, and sinners shall be converted unto thee. You would think –
David can never again open his mouth to anyone about God’s ways. He will have lost all
credibility. Not if God is gracious to David. Did this not happen in the life of Isaiah too? Why
does God call Isaiah with a vision of His own holiness? So that Isaiah will say, woe is me, I am
a sinful man. But after God has graciously touched Isaiah’s lips with a coal from the altar, and
said your sin is forgiven, what happens next? God says whom shall I send? Isaiah says, here am
I, send me.
Beloved, are you equipped this way to speak to others the gospel of Jesus Christ? Not
because of your sins, but because God’s gracious response to your sins means you have a
message to tell? Have you been forgiven by God? Do you know what it is to sing – how blessed
is he whose trespass has freely been forgiven, whose sin is wholly covered before the sight of
heaven? Has God then not uniquely equipped you to speak to others? You feel this in your
heart, don’t you. A forgiven sinner is a sinner eager to serve God. If God has forgiven you, then
don’t keep looking back. Unless it is to magnify God’s grace, rather than dwell on your own sins.
Look ahead. Say here am I, send me. To the neighbor across the street. Or the jungle tribes
across the sea.
There is a second way in which Jonah’s experiences of God’s grace have uniquely
equipped Jonah to be God’s prophet. Jonah is not just a sinful man who has been forgiven.
Jonah is a prayerful man whose prayer has been gloriously answered. Jonah knows that God is a
God who hears and answers prayer. Jonah knows by experience that God can answer prayer in
even the most desperate circumstances. There was Jonah at the bottom of the sea in the belly of
the great fish. Yet he prays. What is more, God hears his prayer and answers.
How does this answer to prayer equip Jonah to be a better prophet? For one thing, it
convinces Jonah that he has really been forgiven. Why is this important? You can be sure that
Jonah has been shocked to discover the depths of the sin and rebellion in his own heart. He will
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not be easy to convince again that he is back on the right track. Jonah will be suspicious of his
own heart. He will be afraid of fooling himself. Rightly so.
The fact that God answers his prayer is proof that Jonah has really been restored to
uprightness, and to a pure heart before God. For Jonah knows his Psalter. He knows the words
you have sung before from Psalm 66 – if in my heart I sin regard, my prayer He will not hear.
God does not hear the prayer of sinners – that is, God does not hear the prayer of a sinner who
cherishes his sins in his heart. He only hears the prayers of sinners who confess their sins and
grieve over those sins. The very fact that God heard his prayer says to Jonah but truly God has
heard my voice, my prayer has reached his ear.
This has applications to you and I. For one thing, it says to the one whose prayers God
does not hear, maybe the problem is that you are not sincere. That you regard or cherish your
sins in your heart. This is not the only reason God does not answer prayer – but it is one of them.
Think about it. Ask yourself, am I asking God for things as if He is a waiter in a restaurant, who
is supposed to jump at my beck and call, rather than praying to Him as the sovereign Lord of the
universe?
But the reverse is also true. When you plead with God in prayer, and God answers you by
helping you through your trial, does this not confirm His own work in you? Does it not make
you eager to serve Him? Does it not give you the confidence that God is no longer against you?
When God discipline you for your sins, it is easy to get that impression. But when God hears
your prayers, is that not proof that He is still your God? God’s answer to Jonah’s prayer makes
Jonah confident in his God. It equips Jonah for ministry. Has God answered your prayers too?
Should this not equip you for ministry as well? Should it not equip you to be an evangelist to
those around you?
There is another reason why God’s answer to Jonah’s prayer equips Jonah for his work as
a prophet. Think of where Jonah is about to go. To Nineveh. Remember what kind of place this
is? It is a huge city. It is famous for its violence and wickedness. It is the kind of place where
you have to watch your step so you don’t trip over the latest homicide victim. It is a place where
you have to keep both hands on your wallet. It is the place where you are likely to get run over
by a horseman or whipped by a chariot driver. These people are as bad as the Nazis were. Who
in the world would want to go there? What is more, Jonah is going to threaten them in the name
of God with coming destruction. You know what happens when you tell people they are sinners
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on their way to God’s judgment. They either laugh or get very angry with you. The people of
Nineveh are not the kind of people you want mad at you. Jonah is about to do something
humanly speaking that seems as foolhardy as walking up to a lion and slapping it in the face.
How can Jonah do it? Because Jonah knows that the God who sends him is almighty.
This God has pursued Jonah with a storm, and saved Jonah when he prayed in desperate
circumstances, circumstances in which God alone could hear and help. Jonah knows by
experience just what kind of a God His God is. A God who governs everything in the universe,
from the winds of the sea, to the fish of the deep. This is the God to whom Jonah can pray as he
does his work in a wicked violent city. Only God can get Jonah safely through what Jonah has to
face. God’s answer to Jonah’s prayers show that this God is as close by as a prayer.
Isn’t this what we read about in Psalm 116? I love the Lord because he has heard my
voice and my supplications. Because he has inclined his ear to me, therefore I will call upon him
as long as I live. The Psalmist is saying – God’s answers to past prayers make me want to pray
for the rest of my life! This is how Jonah can do his work. God has taught Jonah in a deeper way
than Jonah has ever known before, in his own experience, just how much of a prayer answering
God He is. Jonah knows experientially that when things are desperate, God is still in control,
and to use the words of Psalter 310, delighting ever to afford his help to me in time of need.
You may say to me – I am not equipped for usefulness in God’s kingdom. I am not cut
out for evangelism. I am not educated. I don’t know all the answers. I am not that good at
discussing things with others. But maybe you are asking yourself the wrong questions. Has God
heard your prayers in the past? Has He helped you through difficult situations? Have you
afterwards been able to say – He is a God who hears and answers prayers? But you will say –
my desperate prayers were because of my own sin, and the consequences of my own sin. Isn’t
that precisely the kind of prayer God forced Jonah into in chapter 2? God put Jonah with his
back against the wall, in a corner, with no way out except a God who hears and answers prayer.
Has God done this to you – and then answered those prayers? Then God has been busy
equipping you. He is teaching you that when faithfulness to his great commission puts you
humanly speaking in impossible situations, He is a close by as a prayer. He is a God who hears
and answers prayer! By answering your prayers, and giving you an experiential knowledge of
the God who hears and answers prayer, the God without whose help you can accomplish nothing
in God’s kingdom. Knowing this fits you by His grace for usefulness in His kingdom.
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We have seen that God’s gracious response to Jonah’s sin has uniquely equipped Jonah
for usefulness in his Kingdom. As a forgiven man, Jonah is now ready to obey. As a prayerful
man whose prayer has been gloriously answered, Jonah has now been prepared for the most
difficult task of his life – facing Nineveh. Not only does God renew Jonah to the prophetic
office.
II.
He summons Jonah again to the same assignment
Look at verse 2 of chapter 3. Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it
the preaching that I bid thee. It sounds almost identical with the first commission, doesn’t it.
Jonah is sent to the same city, which has not changed. Yet there are subtle differences. Compare
with me the two times God gives Jonah the assignment to preach in Nineveh. Look at the
wording back in chapter 1 verse 2. There God says – arise, go to Nineveh, that great city – so far
the words are exactly the same. But in chapter one God says to Jonah – cry out against it. Look
now at chapter 3:2. Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I
bid thee.
Did you catch the difference? It is a difference that is so small you could very easily miss
it. In chapter 1 Jonah is to preach against the city. Jonah is to appear as the prosecuting attorney
of the living God, and to thunder against them God’s judgments. Literally, the Hebrew says
Jonah was to preach upon them. He was to dump the message of God’s judgment upon them.
When you preach against someone, you announce a message of a God who is their enemy. In
chapter 3:2 Jonah is to preach to the city. As we will see, the message of judgment still sounds.
But there is a subtle difference. When you talk to someone, you could be for them as well as
against them. Do you see the change? God in this subtle change in words reveals His purposes
to Jonah. Jonah’s message of judgment, coming from a God who judges, is not just evidence of
God’s wrath. It is evidence of God’s mercy, as a God who is willing to preach his message not
just against sinners, but also to sinners.
This subtle change in the wording of Jonah’s assignment does not just let us see inside
God’s heart. It also lets us see that something has changed in Jonah. No longer can Jonah stand
on his pedestal and preach against these wicked sinners whose sins have gone up before God’s
face. Jonah has himself been a wicked sinner whose sins have gone up before God’s face. He
now has to preach to them. He has been put on an equal level with them. He has to speak as one
sinner to other sinners. There is a big difference isn’t there between talking down to someone,
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and talking next to someone.
This is crucial for all God’s servants to learn – whether you are an office bearer or not. If
you talk against someone, if you talk down to someone, they will notice it. They will feel that
you think you are different or better. You can say to them – I am also a sinner. But subtle things
in your tone of voice and your body language will send them a different message. When God
has convicted you of your own sins, and disciplined you for your own sins, it will put you in a
position to have compassion on others and to talk next to them, rather than against them. Isn’t
this true? Ask yourself – those times when I spoke God’s word to others, and they did not listen
– could it be that I talked down to them rather than to them? This is not the only factor, to be
sure. But it certainly plays a role doesn’t it.
There is more in this renewed assignment with a subtle difference. The experiences of
sin, discipline, and grace that Jonah has been through in chapters 1 and 2 fit Jonah for his
renewed assignment in another way. It gives Jonah confidence that God will do exactly what He
has said. When God says 40 days and Nineveh will be overthrown, Jonah knows God means it.
After all, Jonah knows experientially what it is to face God’s wrath. Jonah has seen the storm
winds blow, and felt the waves surging. Jonah has felt God’s waves and billows tumble him into
the depths. He has been in the dark, hot, humid, slimy, smelly belly of the fish. So when Jonah
gets inside Nineveh, and he preaches – 40 days and Nineveh will be overthrown, there is no
doubt in Jonah’s mind that God can do precisely what He said. Jonah is not saying to himself – I
don’t see any evidence of this. There are no storm clouds hanging above the city. There is no
army ready to lay siege. Jonah says – things may look like all is well, but God can change that in
a moment. Look at what God did to me. So Jonah walks through the streets shouting his
message – only 40 more days and Nineveh will be overthrown!
This is crucial for all God’s messengers – whether in office or not. One of the ways God
can give you confidence in His word is through the very discipline by which God deals with your
own sins. So that when you have felt the arrows of conviction of sin boring through the layers of
callous in your own heart, you know God means it when he says he hates sin. When you have
felt God’s heavy hand upon you, you know that all that He says in His word about His response
to sin is the truth. Do you see how even your own experiences of God’s anger against your sin,
can fit you to speak God’s word to others? You say – I am not equipped to evangelize. I am a
sinner whom God has had to discipline and pursue. Yet on the basis of this passage of scripture I
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say to you – your sins, or better said, God’s dealing with you because of your sins, uniquely
equips you by His grace to speak His word. You can speak with conviction in your soul
knowing that this word is truth.
There is more to God’s renewed assignment to Jonah. We have looked at the subtle
differences in wording, and in the person who hears the assignment. We now need to look at
what is the same. Jonah has to go to exactly the same place. In 1:2 God refers to the city as that
great city. In 3:2 God refers to it precisely the same way. Why repeat these words? God in
emphasizing the greatness of this city stresses the impossibility of Jonah’s task. God wants
Jonah to despair of his own strength and wisdom. The last thing that God wants is a servant who
faces his task with the thought – I can handle this, I can take them on.
This is key to anyone being useful and fruitful in God’s kingdom. You need a sense of
your own helplessness. So that as you face speaking to someone in the name of the Lord, you
fully realize - my words can’t penetrate their hearts. God alone can get me through this. Do you
ever feel this way? When faced with ministry responsibilities as an office bearer? As a parent?
As someone who has the task of bringing the gospel to the world? When faced at the thought of
witnessing to the belligerent person or the indifferent person? That feeling of helplessness is one
of the keys to usefulness in God’s kingdom. Because it makes you dependent, and then alone
can you be fruitful and useful. So those times when God makes you feel helpless – you are not
useless at all in God’s kingdom. As long as you are looking to your God for help, you are
precisely where you need to be.
Look at how God supports Jonah in this. Jonah does not just get the reminder that
Nineveh is a great city. Jonah gets a tool with which to do his work in that great city. Did you
notice what it is? The word of the Lord came to Jonah, saying arise, go to Nineveh, that great
city, and preach to it the message that I tell you. So Jonah went according to the word of the
Lord. Here is the key in it all – the word of the Lord. That is all Jonah must take with him – it is
what Jonah must use once he gets there. Nothing more and nothing less. God says Jonah,
preach to them the message that I tell you.
This is crucial to evangelism as well isn’t it. Jonah is not going to Nineveh to set up a
puppet show, or a play. Jonah is not going to Nineveh to crack jokes to warm up his audience.
Jonah is not going to Nineveh to take a poll and see in what form people want the message to be
brought to them. Jonah is not going to Nineveh to take a marketing survey as to what most
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appeals to them. Jonah is not going with a bodyguard. Jonah has only one thing to take with him
– the word of God. He must speak that word. That is all.
This is something we need to hang onto. God has not given us anything else as a NT
congregation. He gives us His word. It is through His word that people’s hearts are changed.
Not through our arguments. Not through our smarts. But through God’s word blessed by God’s
Spirit. Whenever the church of Jesus Christ looses sight of this, it plunges into a downward
spiral. When the church is faithful to the word, the whole word, and nothing but the word, God
sovereignly gives times of blessing where and when He pleases.
How does Jonah respond to this renewed assignment, with its subtle differences? You
already know the answer. Rather than responding in rebellion, Jonah now responds in faith. The
most important thing to Jonah at this point is not his fears, his reluctance, or his own motives,
whatever they might be. The word of God is what Jonah looks at. God has spoken. That is all.
That is enough.
This is the test of all true faith. How can you know if you believe God? If you take Him
at His word, and take His word with you in all that you do. If you say – God has spoken, and
that is enough. If you look first of all not at your fears, your motives, or your insufficiencies, but
if you tackled whatever problems God sends your way armed with nothing but the word. Did not
the Lord Jesus Christ say man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds
from the mouth of the Lord? Ask yourself this – have you ever failed when you responded to
your own sin, to your trials, to the difficulties you face in life, when you faced them according to
the word of the Lord? You have not – and you will not, as long as you live by faith in this word.
God has given you what you need for life, and for evangelism. You have His word. A fuller
word that Jonah had. Do you believe it? Do you live it? Can you speak not only of times when
you responded by running away, but also times when to use this chapter you went according to
the word of the Lord? If not, then you are not yet a child of God. But you are called to repent
and believe, according to the word.
God not only gives Jonah this impossible assignment:
III.
He supports Jonah with astonishing power
We are not going to spend much time here this morning. We will simply note this now in
passing, and deep it out next time. God sends his servant into the lion’s den, into a hornet’s nest.
But Jonah is not alone. Jonah preaches. And the response is not boos, hisses, laughter. The
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response is not a whip, the butt of a spear, or the den of lions. The response is a city that humbles
itself before God, in a revival the likes of which the world has seldom seen. The power of God
falls upon the city. And this city that is famous for its wickedness, this city that is a giant in
perversity and violence, is changed.
So you see that weakest means fulfill God’s will, and silence mighty enemies. There
goes Jonah – a man uniquely equipped by God to preach to Nineveh. Jonah has been crafted by
God’s grace and faithfulness with as much precision as a locksmith crafts a key to fit a lock.
Jonah is a forgiven man who knows mercy. Jonah is a prayerful man whose prayers have been
heard. Jonah is a sinner who should no longer be able to talk down his nose to others. Jonah has
the word of the Lord. Humanly speaking, you would say – this man can’t get it right. Would you
trust Jonah to this mission? A forgiven man, a man who knows what it is to be desperate? A
man who has only some words? That is all he has going for him, humanly speaking? But this is
how God equips His servants for usefulness in His kingdom. If you are such a person, then God
has equipped you to some degree as well to be a messenger with his words. His power can make
you a useful instrument in His kingdom too.
That is why it is not really such a bad idea after all to carve the pulpit of a church in the
form of the mouth of a fish. That is really how every pastor does his work. It is how every office
bearer does his work. It is how every Christian does his work. It is almost worth starting a new
trend, isn’t it – carving your front door in the form of a fish, so that when you walk out in the
morning to go to work, you remember who God is, and who you are? What a God this God is –
who can by His grace and power take sinners and make them instruments of blessing in the
world! This kind of a God is worthy of worship, obedience, and love, right? Give Him then the
glory due his name. Amen.
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