Jonah's Prayer

We're in Jonah 2 and verse 1.

About 700 years before Jesus Christ walked on the earth, God said to a prophet named Jonah, go east to Nineveh, go to the Assyrians, tell that barbaric people to repent.

And as we know in the story, Jonah's response is, that is just not a good idea.

No, I'm going to head in completely the opposite direction, 4,000 kilometres east.

You want me to go, that was west, you want me to go east, he says, I'm going to go west, to the ends of the world.

There is a time in history when there was a sign at Tarshish, basically near the Rock of Gibraltar, that said, Ne plus Ultra.

Any people that know their Latin know what that means?

Nothing beyond, nothing beyond.

Can you pick up the sense of irony?

There is a time in history, people said, there is nothing beyond these gates of the Mediterranean, and that's where Jonah went.

He was basically saying, Lord God, I would go to the ends of the earth, literally, rather than do what you have asked me to do.

And some of us can relate to the story, at least at some point in our lives.

I'm sure.

Lord, I just don't want to do what you've asked me to do.

I'm going in the opposite direction.

So God sends a storm upon the boat that Jonah is on.

He's out in the middle of the Mediterranean.

We're just thinking a bit of revision from last week.

It's a big storm.

The boat's about to break up.

They don't know what to do.

Ultimately, the sailors throw Jonah overboard.

And then in the end of verse of Jonah 1, it says, the Lord provided a huge fish to swallow Jonah.

And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.

And that's where we pick up the story.

Jonah chapter 2, the prayer of Jonah, verse 1 of chapter 2, from inside the fish, Jonah prayed to the Lord his God.

You always want to put the text in context.

And so, the context of the prayer is inside a fish.

It's a unique and odd context.

I think the first question to ask about this context is the one that we touched on last week.

Is this a real story?

Is it a real story?

Is Jonah really inside a fish?

Is he alive?

Is he dead?

What is going on?

And I think the answer is we don't know for sure.

I think if I was to do a survey, which I'm not going to, maybe the majority of us just want to say it's said it in the Bible and that settles it.

Like, don't question.

But for others of us, we do question, is this allegory?

I mean, did it really happen?

I think in our pursuit of an answer, it's worth heading over to Matthew 12 and verse 38.

It'll be on the screen as I read it.

Then some of the Pharisees and teachers of the law said to Jesus, Teacher, we want to see a sign from you.

He answered, a wicked and adulterous generation asks for a sign, but none will be given except the sign of the prophet Jonah.

For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the son of man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

The people of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it.

For they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now one greater than Jonah is here.

The queen of the south will rise at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to listen to Solomon's wisdom, and now one greater than Solomon is here.

Jesus says, no sign will be given to that generation in the first century other than the sign of Jonah.

So it would seem that this idea of the sign of Jonah is clearly very important.

Would you agree?

No other sign will be given, but it's also problematic, because all you have to do is go to the Gospel of John and there are the seven big signs.

I mean, there's lots of signs in the Bible, certainly in the Gospel of John.

And Jesus says, no sign will be given even though the water gets turned to wine.

Blind people see lots of supernatural stuff, certainly him rising from the dead.

What is this sign of Jonah?

Well, I think he says it, and most of us would agree, three days, three nights, as Jonah was in the belly of the fish.

So the son of man will die, three days later, he will rise again.

The sign of Jonah.

What would an antagonistic person, a skeptic say to this idea of the sign of Jonah?

Well, let's explore it for a little bit.

So Jonah was alive, they might say.

He was alive when he was thrown off the boat.

Yes.

He was alive, they say, when he sank down in the water.

Yes.

He was alive when he was inside the fish, as Cody showed us.

Yes.

He was alive when he prayed.

Yes.

He was alive three days later when he was spat out on the shore.

Yes.

And then they may ask, was Jesus alive in the tomb?

And we say, no, no, that's paramount to the Gospel that he was dead.

And they say, but how is that the sign of Jonah if Jonah was alive and not dead, but Jesus was dead?

It's a fair point.

It's a fair point.

And furthermore, the skeptics might argue, so the sign of Jonah is three days and three nights in the belly of the fish.

And they might then say, Jesus was crucified 3 p.m.

Friday.

If He rose again on Sunday, He was certainly in the tomb only 2 nights.

One full day.

So how could Jesus say that the two things lined up exactly 3 days and 3 nights?

Some would argue that the sky went dark on Friday and that's the third night.

But you can see that there is an argument, there is a pushback to say these two stories don't exactly seem to line up.

If that's what it's all about, what do you think?

I think when you read what Matthew tells us about this sign of Jonah, maybe it's not so much about us proving to ourselves and others that someone could last survive in a fish or be there exactly the 3 days and 3 nights.

I think the point of the sign of Jonah is this, sin, disobedience and rebellion will always result in judgment, isolation and separation from God.

And when sin takes you to that place of isolation and separation from God, confinement in your sin, no one gets out of that place unless God chooses to save them.

When we run away to our own tarshish, disobeying God, running away will always ultimately take us down into confinement.

Have you noticed, just like Jonah has discovered, sin promises freedom, but produces slavery.

Jonah's story is a wonderful picture of that, isn't it?

Confinement, slavery, claustrophobia in that sin.

Sin disobedience and rebellion to God will always result in judgment, isolation, and separation from God.

The story of Jonah, the sign of Jonah, tells us that our God is a rescuing God.

Amen?

He is a rescuing God.

After three days, Jonah is rescued.

And three days is a symbol of waiting in the Bible.

There are lots of times all the way through the Old Testament and New, where three days is the period, like 40 days.

It's a period of waiting.

So how does Jesus fulfill the sign of Jonah?

I think that's an easy answer.

Jesus Christ lived the perfect life that we could never live, to die the death that we deserve to die.

He was loaded up with our sin, is what the Bible tells us.

That's the gospel.

He took our punishment upon himself.

And in becoming sin on that cross for us, in our place, he experienced the judgment, the isolation, the separation from God.

To a degree, this separation that broke his heart at the end when he said, God, why have you forsaken me?

To think that the father and the son had this split.

It's beyond our comprehension, but it's what happened.

He took the judgment, the isolation, and experienced ultimate separation from God, which is what sin does.

It brings about death.

He took it on our behalf, and then he rose again from the grave, as Jonah was spat out of the fish.

There is only one person who can save us, both from the hell that awaits us in the afterlife, if we have our sin with us through death and into the judgment we face before God.

There's only one who can save us from an eternal damnation, and the hellish existence of life without Christ, this side of the grave.

And his name is Jesus.

We've been singing about this.

So let's finally come to the text.

I think that's the background, the sign of Jonah is a very important aspect of the story of Jonah.

Chapter 2 of Jonah says that our God is a God who hears the cry of the powerless, and he raises the dead.

Jonah says, In my distress, I called upon the Lord, and he answered me.

Jonah was already walking with the Lord, which I find interesting.

This is for Christians as much as non-Christians.

He found himself running away even though he knew God, and we can do the same.

And he gets to the place where his sin catches up with him, and he becomes this claustrophobic, enslaved person, and he comes to the point from inside the fish that he cries out, In my distress.

And the word for distress here is tzara.

It means the anguish of childbirth, which is an interesting idea for him to think of when he's sitting inside the fish.

Inside the fish, in his distress, he says, I need to be born again.

From deep in the realm of the dead, I called for help, and you listened to my cry.

The word is she-hole.

It's the realm of the dead.

He's saying, at that point, which I was furthest away from you, God, utterly and entirely helpless and desperate and afraid and in pain in she-hole, I was as good as dead.

He basically says, but God in his mercy caused me, tzara, to be born again.

Hallelujah, that's the gospel.

And we can come like Jonah to the point where we are stuck and we know we need to be born again.

He writes, you hurled me into the deep, into the very heart of the seas, and the currents swirled about me, all your waves and breakers, they swept over me.

I've been banished from your sight, yet I will look again towards your temple.

So it's post temple here.

The engulfing waters threatened me, the deep surrounded me, seaweed wrapped around my head to the roots of the mountain.

That's nice poetry, isn't it?

I sank down the earth beneath me, barred me in forever.

The language here is obvious.

There is no physical hope for me.

I am a dead man.

And then he says these beautiful words, but you, God, you brought me up from the pit.

If you read chapter 1, often it says down, down, down.

He went down to Job, he went down to the boat, down to the bottom of the deck, down to the bottom of the sea, and then he starts now talking about coming up.

And some of us know what that's like, to go down, down, and then this happens, this happens.

And we can't stop it, but life is pushing us down.

And it gets to the point where we have some dark thoughts.

No matter where you get, where you get so low that you almost feel like you can touch the bottom, and you think, I think I'm rock bottom.

There's two words that are helpful, but God, amen.

But God brought me up from the pit.

Can I encourage you to use those words?

Everything could be out of control, but God.

But God can save you.

God can reach you.

God can rebuild you and the relationships that matter to you.

What does but God mean for you today?

Jonah goes on to say, When my life was ebbing away, I remembered you, O Lord, and my prayer rose to your holy temple.

Those who cling to worthless idols, he has out of this revelation, he says, forfeit the grace that could be theirs.

They turn away from God's love.

Have you noticed that sometimes you come to church and you just have a conversation out there at the coffee, tea time, and that's the thing you were sent to get.

There's something, it's just a little thing.

I've been preaching long enough to know that people won't remember this whole sermon, that's okay.

But God might give you something and he'll take it and paraphrase it and use it and the Spirit of God will say something.

For me, preparing this sermon, I think the thing that struck me out of it all was this little line, those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the hesed of God, the undeserved, loving, pursuing kindness of God.

The scripture, Jonah tells us from the belly of the whale of the fish, says if you hold on to the worthless, death-producing idols, you won't be able to reach out and grab hold, and let God grab hold of you with his loving kindness and his grace.

Don't do that.

Those who cling to worthless idols, they forfeit the hesed of God.

They forfeit the grace.

Tim Keller has some great teaching on idols.

He talks about idols are whatever you make an ultimate thing.

It's what becomes your functional saviour.

We only have one saviour.

His name is Jesus.

But we can take idols, man-made idols, and cling to them as though our salvation will come from them and they become our functional saviours.

And you know, there are some weird things that become idols in life.

We're going to hopefully run this little course towards life together.

Sometimes people make people a potential spouse or the spouse you have an idol.

Don't get me wrong.

I mean, spouses are amazing.

Like, it's a blessing, right, to have a person who loves you in that relationship or a special friend.

Don't cling to them as though they're your functional saviour.

Amen.

Because only God is our saviour through Christ.

And some of us are stuck like Jonah clinging on to idols.

I wonder if we could have a think about some.

I've just mentioned, relational idols.

Some of us get stuck self-medicating our pain, don't we?

Because life is full of hard stuff.

And we find anything that takes away the pain.

And maybe it's that relationship, like I talked about.

Maybe it's pornography.

It's just a self-administered drug.

Maybe it's food.

You know, you can fill in the gap.

Sometimes I think we don't know what we're self-medicating with.

It has become a functional idol.

You think about it, and sometimes you sacrifice for that idol.

And you dream about when this stuff's over, and that work stuff's over, that I could get back and administer my pain-relieving idol's dopamine, whatever it gives you.

But I think from the belly of the fish, Jonah's saying, I don't know, and I don't care when it is you live in history, but human beings have a tendency to cling to worthless idols, and in so doing, forfeit the unfailing love of God.

Amen.

What are you clinging to?

Is it greed?

Is it the old one that Jesus says you can't serve God and mammon?

It's like money?

Of course, we live in the West, like we think, West, money is going to fix everything.

Surely, if I can just get enough money, or I could get that inheritance, or I could get whatever, it'll take away all the problems.

And who's discovered that doesn't normally happen?

It brings with it problems.

What about envy and materialism?

Can that become your functional saviour?

James says, if you can control your mouth, you're perfect in every way.

It seems that the mouth can take us to places that are both sinful and places that produce idols for us.

Who would have thought that gossip and slander could be an idol?

Gossip and slander could be a pain-relieving idol, but it can, can't it?

I mentioned last week about looking down at my feet, preparing for a church service years ago in the dark, and I had one brown shoe on and one black shoe.

And I talked about last week how the Book of Jonah is a mirror.

We hold it up, and we shouldn't sit on our high horse and judge the reluctant silly prophet.

We should let it speak to us in that jarring, pokey way and say, hey, what are you running away from?

What have you made an idol that you're clinging to, that you'd run away with to abandon the love of God and the call of God on your life?

It's a mirror.

But the sign of Jonah is not just one of judgment about the confinement that sin brings.

It's one of incredible liberty.

It's about the scandalous grace of God.

It's about the love that is just so too wonderful for words.

It's the free lunch thing.

It's just like it's not deserved.

And it's for the people of Nineveh.

They don't deserve it.

It's for Jonah himself.

And it's for us, this grace and mercy of God.

And it's what we need to think about in May mission month, isn't it?

That there's a world of people.

Who are bowing down to worthless idols that will not give them life, and we are called to take the message of the gospel in word and deed to the world, that Christ has made a way for them to be saved and born again.

Jonah says, whatever I have vowed, I will make good.

Now, we don't exactly know what he vowed.

But he says, whatever it was, what I have vowed, I will make good.

I think he's saying, I'm sick of running, Lord.

I don't want to be in disobedience.

I think many of us know what it's like to have a prayer like this.

I don't want to keep messing up.

When you ask me next time to go somewhere, I'm going to do it.

Just get me out of this fish.

Anyone know that prayer?

Get me out of this place.

I want to obey.

And the really powerful truth in this story is, he's used to offering sacrifices when you make a vow.

But you can't.

He's in the belly of the whale.

All he can do is let go of the idol and go like this to God.

Have mercy on me, God.

It's just your grace, because I can't give arms to the poor.

I can't do good works.

I can't earn.

I can't offer sacrifices.

Because some of us even still now think you're going to earn God's favour out of this hard spot by somehow doing things that earn his favour.

But it's wrong.

You can't earn his favour.

We're all on level ground at the foot of the cross, saying, Have mercy on me, be my saviour.

I'm stuck.

The Bible says in the New Testament, it is by the grace of God that you are saved.

I think this is the sign of Jonah.

Down into hopelessness, three days, trust in God.

Salvation comes from the Lord.

Have you realised, as we sit here thinking about gospel truth and the sign of Jonah, that we need the sign of Jonah every day?

That's what we need.

That's Galatians 2.20.

It's the sign of Jonah.

The gospel is the sign of Jonah.

Every day, the life that I now live, Paul the Apostle says, the life that I now live, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.

He gave his perfect life as a sacrifice to die the death that I should die in my place.

The life that I now live, I live by faith.

Every day in the sign of Jonah, someone took my rebellion, my judgment, my isolation, my separation from God, took it away from me so that I could get what he deserved.

Hallelujah.

Connection with God forever.

What Jesus deserved.

I need the sign of Jonah every day.

Every day I need to wake up and say, Lord, not by my strength, I can't get out of this confinement that sin brings.

But you can.

This day, I'm gonna live the sign of Jonah.

It's all by your grace.

This day, help me, I'm letting go of worthless idols so that you can grab ahold of me with your unfailing love and empower me by your spirit to live the life you want me to live, even if it means going to Nineveh, my Nineveh.

What's the worthless idol you're holding on to?

Can we shut our eyes and ask the Holy Spirit to speak, continue to speak?

Heavenly Father, we thank you for this story and this prayer.

And the immense power that it conveys to every generation from every epoch of history.

We confess to you that we have so frequently run away from your will, chasing worthless idols that have done nothing but lie to us and lead us to a sense of claustrophobia in that sin, confinement, judgment, isolation and separation from you.

And we're sorry.

And I encourage you to confess that if it's true for you.

And Lord, I want to say we're so grateful, Jesus, that you did everything required to save us, and it's only you who could.

Lord, if there are people in this room and online who don't know you, you're the one, Lord Jesus, who seeks and saves the lost.

I pray you'd save today.

I pray you would save.

And Lord, as we consider again today, your missional calling on our lives, may you empower us to say yes, to remember but God, and to remember yes God, and to go.

Lord, thank you for the sign of Jonah, and thank you for the prayer of Jonah.

We pray you would bless the text to our hearts.

In the name of Jesus, Amen.

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