Today's Word Radio

Brett Meador: As we as Christians, are we in the same place as Jonah? No, we should learn from Jonah, who was called to go and preach, and he said no. And we have to ask that question. Has God told you to go, but you're like, no? God said go, we said no. Is that you?

Guest (Male): In today's word, Pastor Brett Meador will reflect on the call of God going unanswered. Isaiah the prophet began his ministry when he replied to God, "Here I am, Lord, send me." However, when God said go to the prophet Jonah, he said no. As Pastor Brett Meador delivers today's study from the book of Jonah, we find him discovering how rebellion carries consequences. Yet through a raging storm, we'll see God's sovereignty and mercy revealed in today's word.

Brett Meador: Jonah. We're going to read this story and talk about this reluctant prophet, this guy that the Lord gives a very clear calling, but Jonah, well, let's read verse one of chapter one of Jonah. "Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah, the son of Amittai, saying, 'Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it, for their wickedness is come up before me.'"

Now Nineveh was the capital city of the Assyrian people, which is today in modern-day Iraq. But the ancient Assyrians go down in history as truly one of the most brutal people of all ancient people. Archaeological discoveries show the heinous, barbarous treatment inflicted on prisoners of war as well as some of its citizens. They were gruesome. It was just a horrible, horrible group. You've got to understand this, because how would you like the Lord to call you, "Hey, I want you to go to Nineveh"? There's just no place equivalent of that today.

If you're Jonah, you're thinking, "You want me to go where? Nineveh? That's like the worst place on the planet I could ever imagine going." Brutal people, godless people. He was going to go preach. It says there, "and cry against it." What would Jonah's cry be? If we fast-forward and read in Jonah chapter three at the end, we hear what his cry is. It's eight words. It's this: "And Jonah began to enter into the city a day's journey, and he cried and said, 'Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.'" That's his whole message.

"Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it, for their wickedness is come up before me." Well, verse three, it says, "But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord, and went down to Joppa, and he found a ship going to Tarshish. So he paid the fare thereof and went down into it to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord." What does Jonah do? God says go, and Jonah says no.

Perhaps he had more fear than faith. We see here he's called to go, and he says no. He really had no heart for the Ninevites. He said, "Whatever, I don't care about them, and I don't want to go, because if I speak my eight words that I'm supposed to speak, then they're all going to repent," and he says, "I don't want that." That's interesting. We'll see that in chapter three.

But be that as it may, let's go on to verse three. It says, "But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish," and notice what it says, "from the presence of the Lord." And then at the end, it says he went down to the ship to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. When you are going in the wrong direction of what God has for you, you're leaving behind his presence in your life. Do you know that?

Do you remember when I shared with you Matthew 28, the Great Commission? I shared you that scripture. Let me show you it again, but notice what it says at the end of that. When it says there in verse 20, we're supposed to go into all nations, baptizing, teaching, "teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I commanded you; and lo," it says, "I am with you alway, even to the end of the world. Amen." When is the Lord with you? Always when you're doing what? Going into all the world, preaching the gospel.

At the end of Mark, it says go and preach the gospel, but it also says at the end of Mark, when you go into the world and you're preaching the gospel, you could handle deadly serpents and you won't die. You might drink deadly poison and you won't die, because I'm with you and I'll protect you as you're going. Now there's some goofy churches in the deep South that handle serpents in church because they think it says you can handle deadly snakes and you'll be fine. But they missed the context. That means when you're in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, and there's a snake that comes up, the Lord will protect you from those snakes.

Or like our missionaries in Vanuatu, there are snakes in there, and the Lord protects us when we're in those things. But I love it: "Lo, I am with you always." One guy was fearful of flying. He was a Christian guy and his buddy said, "Man, you're a Christian. Why are you afraid of flying? Matthew's Gospel, chapter 28, verse 20, the Lord says, 'Low, I am with you always.'" L-O-W? No, L-O. Different.

Anyway, the Lord is with us always. I love that, because when we're doing what God calls us to do, he goes with us. We're in his presence. But I find it interesting that two times the Lord reminds us when Jonah said no and he did an about-face and went the opposite direction, he was leaving the presence of the Lord. The Bible makes a real point of that. I think that's important.

Well, let's take a look at verse four. "But the Lord sent out a great wind into the sea, and there was a mighty tempest in the sea, so that the ship was like to be broken. Then the mariners were afraid and cried every man unto his god, and cast forth the wares that were in the ship into the sea to lighten it of them. But Jonah was gone down into the sides of the ship, and he lay and was fast asleep."

"So the shipmaster came to him and said to him, 'What meanest thou, O sleeper? Arise,'" same Hebrew word there in verse two. Arise. Now the shipmaster is saying the same thing to Jonah. "Hey, get up, let's go, let's roll. Call upon thy god, if so be that God will think upon us, that we perish not. And they said everyone to his fellow, 'Come, and let us cast lots, that we may know for whose cause this evil is upon us.' So they cast lots, and the lot fell upon Jonah."

Don't you love how the Lord uses these weird practices of these people? You want to cast lots? Okay, I'll make it work out. You want to know who? Okay, cast your lots, and I'll make that happen. It's like the Lord in our rebellion, God sends storms, saints, and sinners. Do you understand that? When you're rebelling against the Lord, don't be shocked. When God has a path for you and you're on a whole other path, God will send in your life storms, saints, and sinners.

What do you mean, Brett? Well, did you notice it says here, "But the Lord sent out a great wind in the sea"? The storm came from God. And sometimes God himself will cause things not to go perfectly in your life, because he wants to wake you up and change your direction. Have you ever had a day where you just sense everything's going in the opposite direction? Have you ever been on the highway on the road?

One day you can go out there and everybody's waving to each other and being kind and letting you go first. And then the next day people are flipping you off and cutting you off and mad at you. Have you ever noticed that? One day from another can be very different. And then that whole day it's just like, "Why is everything going so badly today?" You might want to say, "Lord, am I on the wrong path today? Are you sending the storm?" Sometimes God himself will send the red light.

"Why have I hit every red light today?" The Lord is saying, "Because I want you to stop and pray at each red light. It's time to seek my face while you're racing to your destination." I wonder, does the Lord send red lights? I think he does. But he also sends saints, other believers to come alongside of you and help you when you're in your bad rebellion.

There's a pastor I know of down in Southern California, a big church, megachurch. Bible teacher. He had an old life of kind of the party animal thing, and before he was saved, he kind of was a wild dude. But he'd been pastoring for 25 years and was kind of walking with the Lord. But he had this real moment where he was just down and depressed and sort of feeling low, and he just got this urge to go and to get some Coors from the 7-Eleven.

He was a former raging alcoholic, and he'd been sober for 20-something years. But he went down to the 7-Eleven and he bought the Coors, kind of looked around, hoping nobody would recognize him as the pastor. And he sat down in his car with the six-pack on his lap and he was thinking about, "Okay, I'm just going to drink this right now."

Well, right then, the pastor looked up and guess who was standing at his window? Greg Laurie, the pastor of Harvest, one of the biggest churches in Southern California. He says, "Hey," and he says, "What are you doing here?" And the guy's like—the Lord sends saints sometimes to just remind you, don't do it. Don't do it. And it was great before this guy had a chance to sort of blow his sobriety, the Lord sent one of the other Christians to come alongside him.

By the way, I love that about being a part of a big church. And as a pastor, more and more I'm seeing all of you guys all out and about. I had breakfast this morning at Elmer's and we saw like three different tables of people that we knew. It was great. And it's like awesome, I love that. And it's funny because I find it to be great to know it's like the saints are there, and I love that there's saints all around. It's really cool.

And that's a healthy pressure to keep us all walking on the straight and narrow. We need that. So the Lord will send the storm, he'll send the saints, but he'll also send the sinners. That's what we see here in our text. The mariners, all these sailors on this ship, they go to Jonah and say, "What are you doing? Like what's going on? Why are you sleeping here?"

And the question is, how is Jonah fast asleep? I think we're going to get a sense that Jonah could care less about his life. In some ways we're going to see he'd rather die than to go and do what God called him to do and go to Nineveh. We'll see that as we go. So he's perfectly fine. So what? The ship's in peril. I'm just going to sleep it off, and if the ship goes down, it goes down.

He's got this sort of throw it all away kind of mentality, which happens when you're in rebellion against God. Sometimes you almost could care less for your life anymore. And I think that's what's going on here with Jonah. You'll see what I mean in a few minutes. But they say, "Rise up, call upon your god, just like we called on our gods," they're saying. "Why don't you call on yours? You should be helping us, you sleeper. And don't you understand we're going to perish?"

Now some of you might be seeing a parallel here, don't you? Where Jesus was also in a storm sleeping in a little boat with the disciples. What's the difference? Jonah was sleeping because I think he could care less. Jesus was sleeping because he was at peace and was powerful. When they woke Jesus up, Jesus stood up and said, "Peace, be still," and the storm went away. It was a whole different story. Jesus was in obedience and calmed the storm. Jonah was in rebellion and was in despair because of the storm.

So there's a very different kind of thing. It's interesting to compare the two. But they say, "Rise up, seek your god." And then they said, "Let's cast lots to figure out which one of us is the guilty party." So, it says in verse eight, "Then said they unto him, 'Tell us, we pray thee, for whose cause this evil is upon us. What is your occupation? And whence comest thou? What is thy country? And what people art thou?'" Man, it's like forty questions here. Who, what, when, where, why, how? These mariners are grilling Jonah. "What's going on with you, and why did the lot get cast for you?"

And listen to his answer, verse nine. This is interesting. "And he said unto them, 'I am a Hebrew, and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, which hath made the sea and the dry land.'" Now you can circle verse nine in your Bible and right next to that, write "Liar." Because, question: if Jonah was really a god-fearing man, would he be there in that boat right now? No. He's almost in denial. "Oh yeah, I'm a Jew of the, you know, God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Jehovah." That's the word "Lord" there in verse nine. "I'm a Hebrew person," which is interesting.

The Hebrew has a covenantal relationship with the Lord. That's the, by definition, what the Jewish people were. And he's saying, "I have a covenantal relationship with the Lord, and I fear Jehovah, the God of heaven, which made the sea and the dry land." But this is interesting. He's kind of in a place of not really being honest with himself, because he's not fearing the Lord. He was fearing Nineveh or fearing them getting saved.

Verse 10: "Then were the men exceedingly afraid and said unto him, 'Why hast thou done this?' For the men knew that he had fled from the presence of the Lord, because he had told them." He said, "Man, I didn't go to Nineveh and I ran away and I'm fleeing from the presence of the Lord." And it's interesting because here the Lord's got him.

Basically verse 10 brings to light his rebellion. He's just rebelling. And the people are like, "Why have you done this rebellion?" Even the non-believers are like, "You should have done what your god told you to do." It's almost like these sinner pagan guys that were the mariners of the ship, it's almost like they understood more what Jonah should have been doing than he did.

Sometimes I think the world knows what you should do as a Christian more than Christians know what to do. Have you ever been called out by a secular worldling? "Aren't you a Christian? Like should you really be here?" I've seen that before where Christians are doing stuff they shouldn't be doing and the world's like, "I'm confused. You're supposed to be a Christian. Why are you here, and why are you doing this stuff?"

That's one of the most awkward places to be, by the way, if you're a Christian and you're doing stuff you shouldn't be doing and the world sees it and knows it and they're confused by your behavior. That's one of the most brutal situations. Like awkward, uncomfortable, but also destructive. Numbers 32:23, it's like the Lord finds him out here. It says in 32:23, "But if you will not do so, behold, you have sinned against the Lord: and be sure your sin will find you out." That's the situation Jonah's in. His sin now has caught up with him. His running from God has caught up with him and happens every single time. Be sure of this, your sin will find you out, the Bible says.

There was an interesting story in the 1870s, a British sailing ship round the Cape Horn in the 1870s. And they were in this ice of the ocean was very icy and it was kind of a problem. But there was a big mutiny. And Captain Frank Shaw, the captain of this large ship, there was a big argument and the men of the ship were going into mutiny against the captain. So what they did is they shot him in the head and threw him overboard and this guy's body, dead body, fell on a big iceberg.

They sailed off and went around the Horn, but when they finally got back to London or England, they made up this story about how he'd fallen very, very sick and he died on the journey and had a burial at sea. And that was the whole crew's story. And they made it really clear and there was a hearing and there was a big investigation, but they ended up believing the story.

Well, about 40 years later, there was a bunch of guys going around the Horn again and they found this big iceberg and they could see frozen deep into the ice, they could see a man's body. And they thought, "That's weird." And so they chipped away and they found this guy in British Navy uniform and they realized that it was this captain and they saw a bullet hole in his head, perfectly preserved there in the ice. And when they came back, they got all the men of that crew and hung them in London because of their mutiny. They thought they'd gotten away with it. Forty years later, be sure of this, Numbers 32:23, your sin will find you out. That's the truth of the Bible.

Well, this is Jonah, he's busted. These guys are like, "What have you done?" So verse 11: "Then said they unto him, 'What shall we do unto thee, that the sea may be calm unto us?' For the sea wrought and was tempestuous. And he said unto them, 'Take me up, cast me forth into the sea; so shall the sea be calm unto you: for I know that for my sake this great tempest is upon you.'"

This is an interesting thing for Jonah, isn't it? Isn't it kind of weird that Jonah's like, "Yeah, go ahead and just toss me overboard. Yep, it's my fault, throw me overboard"? And again, this is where I think he would almost rather die than to say, "Tell you what, it is my fault. Turn the ship around, let's go the right direction and maybe the storm will calm." I would try that first if I cared about my life. "Hey, let's try turning the ship around and then let's see what happens."

But he doesn't even make—"Just throw me overboard." I think this is where we kind of see Jonah saying, "I'd rather die." Well, notice what these men do. I'd be saying, "Okay, see you later," and throw him over. Nevertheless, verse 13, "the men rowed hard to bring it to the land; but they could not: for the sea wrought and was tempestuous against them." Interesting. They didn't want to throw him over, but they couldn't turn the ship around. By that point the storm was too strong.

So verse 14: "Wherefore they cried unto the Lord and said, 'We beseech thee, O Lord, we beseech thee, let us not perish.'" Now notice, these are the secular guys beseeching the true and living God now. This is amazing. These pagan guys are saying, "Lord, we beseech thee, let us not perish for this man's life, and lay not upon us innocent blood: for thou, O Lord, hast done as it pleased thee." I mean these guys suddenly sound like total believers.

So verse 15, "they took up Jonah and cast him into the sea: and the sea ceased from her raging. Then the men feared the Lord," notice the word "Lord" there, Jehovah, "exceedingly, and offered a sacrifice unto the Lord and made vows." Suddenly these guys, "Okay, we believe in you, the God of this guy we just threw overboard. Yeah, we believe in that God," and they make sacrifice. Like these guys are, you might even say they're saved because they now believe in the true and living God.

This is an amazing thing. Jonah's a funny guy because people get saved everywhere he goes, but not because he's a good dude. It's like people get saved because he's a complete idiot. It's a funny thing. We'll see that even later on in the story to an exponential level. So the first souls in Jonah's ministry that were saved were these sailors, these guys that they cry out to God.

It's interesting. Do we become as Christians callous in our work? You almost get a sense of callousness, that Jonah's like, "Yeah, whatever, I don't care what God wants me to do, and I don't care about these sailors, but you know, just keep me off of what God's telling me to do." I think we need to remember to see and learn to keep having passion for newness.

One thing I've seen in Christians is when you're first saved, there's an energy that you have. Remember when you're first saved? You're like the guy, you know, in Jerusalem, walking and leaping and praising God. You're like, "Man, the Lord is so good." But then you get old and crusty as a Christian. Are you an old crusty Christian? I kind of see Jonah that way.

I'll tell you when you see that you're a crusty Christian. Here's a crusty Christian evidence: when you see someone on a Sunday morning raise their hand and say, "I want to accept Christ," you're like, "Oh, the old look up and see Pastor Brett and accept Christ routine." You're a crusty Christian if that's what you're thinking. "What, well they don't know the problems they're going to have after even when they're saved, they're still going to be trouble, and they're still going to sin."

Are you a crusty Christian? Or somebody who's excited about something. "I read my Bible the other day, I read this story!" And you say, "What story?" "Well, there's this story about this guy, Jonah, and he's supposed to go to Tarshish—" "Okay, Jonah and the big fish, yeah, I got the story, whatever." But the new believer's excited about it, but you're the crusty Christian. It's like, "Yeah, I've heard that story a thousand times. You going to tell me about that story? I've heard the story, I know the story."

You'll know you're a crusty Christian when you don't rejoice with those who are rejoicing in things of the Lord. And man, you've got to peel back those callouses in our walk and have a passion with the new believers and a reverence for the Lord. And crusty Christians kind of say, "Ah, prayer, I don't know, we've prayed and God's going to do whatever he's going to do." There's like this crusty callous kind of mindset, and we see that in this guy Jonah. And we don't want any part of that.

Now in the story of Jonah, what do we learn? So far, you know, in 1 Corinthians 10, don't forget it says now all these Old Testament stories, if you read the context of 1 Corinthians 10, "these things happened unto them for examples: and are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come." So we're told that the types—and then it says these things are types. And remember there in 1 Corinthians 10 it says the rock that was smitten by Moses that followed them was Christ.

There's types in these stories, but I want you to kind of see a few types that I see in this story that are kind of important. We see type number one: the ship, which is the world, and the sailors, the worldlings. The sailors are the people in the world, and then there's Jonah that sort of represents the believers. And as we as Christians, are we in the same place as Jonah?

We should learn from Jonah, who was called to go and preach, and he said no. And we have to ask that question. Has God told you to go, but you're like, no? God said go, we said no. That's part of our Christian witness, part of that serving. Or maybe it's outside of the church that the Lord's called you and he said go, and you're saying no. Don't be a Jonah.

We see the type of the sailors there who are the people in the world. And it's oftentimes through our own struggles and even in our own rebellion, the Lord can use that to wake up a nation of people and save people. But the ship is a picture of the world. Don't be like a Jonah, be like a Jesus. As Jesus was sleeping in the boat trusting in the Father, going the correct direction, don't be the Jonah who was sleeping to his own peril and just kind of in a stagnant place. Great lessons.

Guest (Male): Pastor Brett Meador, pausing at the end of just the first of a verse-by-verse study series of the book of Jonah with a challenge that we stand ready to answer God's call on our lives. And Pastor Brett will be closing in prayer to conclude today's word in just a moment.

But first, today's word is the radio ministry of Athey Creek Church in the Portland, Oregon area where Pastor Brett Meador is the senior pastor. We invite you to find out more by going to todayswordradio.com. If you've missed any portion of our study, you'll find all of his messages online at todayswordradio.com. I also want to mention that in addition to the main Athey Creek campus in West Linn, Oregon, we also have locations in Hillsboro and McMinnville. For more information, go to todayswordradio.com and click on the link "Locations." Again, todayswordradio.com and click the link "Locations." Well, here again is Pastor Brett Meador to close our program in a word of prayer.

Brett Meador: Lord, we are thankful. What a great story of the Old Testament. It's interesting, Lord, how we've loved this story since so many of us were kids. We find it interesting the world hates this story because it's a powerful story of a miracle of something that happened, and so much that many people in the world try to deny it even happened.

I pray that Lord our faith would be built, for faith comes by hearing and hearing by your word that you've given to us. And Lord, for those who've been called to go but have said for whatever reason, "No" to you, I pray that you'd stir their hearts. Lord, don't let us be the crusty Christians who are rebellious like Jonah, but help us to be full of faith, putting our trust in you, doing your will and your purpose for our lives.

Help us to learn from this book, Lord, and go on the right path. Lord, if there are those in this room that are walking the opposite direction right now, I pray that you'd just soften their heart and even if it's hard, even if it's scary or difficult, would you soften their heart and have them turn back around, Lord? Take whether it's a storm or a saint or a sinner, send whoever you will, Lord, to put them back on course, we pray. So we bless you, we thank you for this passage, and we pray blessing on the rest of our study in Jonah. In Jesus' name, amen.

Guest (Male): Amen. Pastor Brett Meador on today's word. And that's all the time we have. Next time Pastor Brett will continue in the book of Jonah, and we'll learn why we should choose the easy path of obedience instead of the hard way of rebellion. Today's word with Pastor Brett Meador is an outreach of Athey Creek Church in West Linn, Oregon.