The Book Of Jonah Part 1
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The Book Of Jonah Part 2
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The Book Of Jonah Part 3
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My Sermon Notes:
THE BOOK OF JONAH
This is not a fish or whale story and it’s not a story about Jonah, and it’s not about the city Nineveh.
This is a story about the greatness revival in history.
This city had about 600,000 people in it, and the whole city repents and turns to God.
And it’s also about our loving gracious Father who had every right to destroy a prophet who disobeyed him, but he didn’t.
Instead he went after Jonah and made it easier for him to obey than to run.
So this story is going to show us that we have been like Jonah?
It’s a story about a Father who gives us second chances.
We’re going to see that this man of God starts off his book by showing his disobedience to God.
If we were to write a book on our Christian walk with the Lord, would we start off this way?
Nineveh is in Syria and they were known for their torching of people.
Jonah didn’t like the Syrians; it’s like asking you to go to Iraq somewhere like that where they don’t like Americans, and to witness to them.
Most of you are proud to be an America, and you are loyal to this country you also pledge allegiance to it.
I owe all my allegiance and loyalty to God only. Look at what America is doing.
Some of us are the same way in our religion; we give more loyalty to it than the Lord.
It’s just like Moses putting the people before the Lord in
Ex 32:31-32
31 And Moses returned unto the Lord, and said, Oh, this people have sinned a great sin, and have made them gods of gold.
32 Yet now, if thou wilt forgive their sin; and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast written.
1 Now the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the son of Amittai, saying,
2 Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me.
You hear from the Lord first, and then do.
You better make sure that the Lord is the one who tells you to go on a missionary trip, and not some pastor or leader in a church, or this is something you want to do.
And if the Lord does want you to go, you don’t have to raise the money to go because he will supply it for you, just like here, God supplied the money, but Jonah used it for a different reason.
Also Jonah thinks that if he doesn’t go then Nineveh then they won’t get saved.
Oh how we think sometimes, some of us believe that if we don’t go to those people they will die in their sins, let’s see what it says in
Matt 3:7-9
7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?
8 Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance:
9 And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.
If God wants these people to hear about salvation, it’s going to happen whether we go or not.
This seems like a pretty simply command from the Lord, doesn’t it?
He’s given us the same command, which I have taught on already.
The Lord is ready to bring judgment on them, it sounds like a pretty easy task to do, go preach to them, repent or judgment is coming on you.
We’re the same?
3 But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord, Jonah a preacher, a Christian, went the other way from what the Lord said to do.
When the Lord wants to use you, and you do it, you will be bless. Amen. and went down to Joppa; and he found a ship going to Tarshish: so he paid the fare thereof, Notice here that God didn’t take his money away from him.
I say that because the prosperity preachers preach that if you have money it’s because you’re in obedience with God, and if you don’t have money it’s because you not in obedience with him. and went down into it, to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. And being a Christian man, I’m sure he knew that God is everywhere and you can’t hide from him.
By the way for those of you who believe you can lose your salvation, like the Pentecost do, here is a prophet who is willfully disobeying God, but it doesn’t show anywhere in this book of Jonah that he lost his salvation.
This is a pretty bad sin, worse than what king David did, he only killed one man, Jonah is putting over 600,000 men to death, he thinks.
4 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.
The Lord didn’t want to let Jonah off the hook, so he brought this storm in the sea, and almost cause the ship to sink.
When we disobey the Lord, like on witnessing it can affect others?
5 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.
This was a bad storm, these men who had been through many storms were afraid, and they pray to their god, these were lost men, because god has a small g,
This was not a passenger ship, it was a cargo ship, and they started to throw cargo off the boat,
Jonah went down into the ship has to hide, and was sleeping, you know you can get pretty tried from running from the Lord.
6 So the shipmaster came to him, and said unto him, What meanest thou, O sleeper? arise, call upon thy God, if so be that God will think upon us, that we perish not.
They found him and said, we have called on our gods and it isn’t working, so we need you to call upon your God, to save us.
7 And they said every one 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.
This verse shows me that Jonah didn’t pray to the Lord like they asked him to in verse 6 it’s kind of hard to pray to God when you’re running from him?
So now they’re going to cast lots (casting lots was done in the flesh, when you are making God answer you right now, they believed that it was determining God’s will or his influenced was going to be the outcome, it was kind of used like the eight ball), but now we have the Holy Spirit to tell us what to do in all situations.
They did this many times in the bible, but many times it went against the will of God.
And it just so happen that the lot fell on Jonah
8 Then said they unto him, Tell us, we pray thee, for whose cause this evil is upon us; What is thine occupation? and whence comest thou? what is thy country? and of what people art thou?
9 And he said unto them, I am an Hebrew; and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, which hath made the sea and the dry land.
When he said I’m a Hebrew, they knew that this man was under God Jehovah, not just any god, but he didn’t say I’m a preacher, when we’re not walking with the Lord and people see this, you’re not going to tell them, I’m a Christian.
10 Then were the men exceedingly afraid, and said unto him, Why hast thou done this? For the men knew that he fled from the presence of the Lord, because he had told them.
Verse 5 they were afraid, but now they’re exceedingly afraid, they now know what God brought this storm and what he can do, and how you can’t run from him.
Then they said, why are you running from your God, they knew he was running because what he said in verse 9 “I fear the Lord” but he doesn’t tell them why.
Even these lost men know you can’t run from God, because they said “how can you do this”
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.
They have found Jonah guilty, and ask him what we should do with you, to calm this storm
12 And he said unto them, Take me up, and 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.
Jonah is a type of Jesus, willing to die so others may live.
Like it says in
Matt 12:39-41
39 But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas:
40 For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
41 The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: because they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here.
You know that there is a another way of dying without a physical death, and that’s when you are ready to give up self – to tell friends, family, give up being popular, to witness to them.
13 Nevertheless the men rowed hard to bring it to the land; but they could not: for the sea wrought, and was tempestuous against them.
Jonah told them what to do to get saved, but they didn’t listen, they wanted to do it their way? And they failed.
This shows that they are good people who are lost?
14 Wherefore they cried unto the Lord, and said, We beseech thee, O 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.
After trying it their way, they gave up, and called upon the Lord, and they beg the Lord that they shouldn’t die because of this man’s sin, and not to hold them responsible for his death, this storm was sent by you, for him.
15 So they took up Jonah, and cast him forth into the sea: and the sea ceased from her raging.
Then they did it the way God told them to do it, and they were saved, not only from a physical death, but a spiritual one also, which we’ll see.
Notice that after they did it Gods way the storm was gone?
16 Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly, and offered a sacrifice unto the Lord, and made vows.
The word feared here means respect, they knew about blood sacrifice, for forgiveness, and one of the vows they made was not praying to their gods, because back in verse 5 they saw that praying to their god did no good.
You see sometimes you may need to give up your religion to live for God.
We see that Rom 8:28 says “that all things work together for good” even though we have this preacher who is disobeying God, men got saved.
Don’t be an idiot and think well I’ll be like Jonah so people can get saved.
We see also I also see in verse 5 that they threw the cargo off the ship, so I would think that they couldn’t continue to where they were going without the cargo.
So I would think that they went back to Joppa and started telling everyone what had happen, started witnessing.
17 Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.
They have some religions that would say, well he quit walking with the Lord, so the Lord should have killed him, and he lost his salvation, that’s what he deserved, we’ll see that’s not true.
Scientist decided to call whales mammals, just like they’re trying to call man animals, and I’m not an animal, I was made in the image of God, Gen 1:26 “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness”
God call it a fish, and Jesus called it a whale in Matt 12:40 that we just read, and know that God and Jesus are the same.
There are two kinds of fish that can swallow a man whole and one is a Sperm whale, and it has been proven that a great white shark can do the same.
Even if this hadn’t been proven that it can happen, I would believe it because the word of God says it.
This was a divine appointment by God, you think that great fish just so happen to be there, no, because we’re going to see what we thought was death was salvation?
We think giving up our life is like dying, but Jesus says its life.
Mark 8:35 For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel's, the same shall save it.
Chapter 2
1 Then Jonah prayed unto the Lord his God out of the fish's belly,
2 And said, I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the Lord, and he heard me; out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice.
It stinks when we’re not in God’s will
He begs to the Lord for trouble he got himself in. (do we think of ourselves here)
Jonah died, and went to Sheol, just like Jesus said in Matt 12 that Jonah was a type of Christ
Matt 12:39-41
39 But Jesus replied, "Only an evil, adulterous generation would demand a miraculous sign; but the only sign I will give them is the sign of the prophet Jonah.
Pentecostals they need a sign of speaking in tongues,
Look at all the signs Jesus did while he walked the earth, signs don’t save you,
The Lord wants you to have faith in him from your heart.
There will be no signs except the sign of Jonah
Jonah was a type of Christ, and also just like man?
40 For as Jonah was in the belly of the great fish for three days and three nights, so will the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights.
In those 3 days Jesus went to preach to the lost in Sheol.
1Peter 3:19 “By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison;”
You might say how’s he going to preach to them if their dead?
Luke 16:22-24
22 And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried;
23 And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.
24 And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.
And then Jesus was resurrected and went to heaven.
Jonah went into the heart of the whale and was alive just like Jesus, but he wasn’t resurrected, he was brought back to life if you believe he died, like Lazarus, but not with his new body.
41 "The people of Nineveh will stand up against this generation on judgment day and condemn it, for they repented of their sins at the preaching of Jonah. Now someone greater than Jonah is here—but you refuse to repent.
In Ch 3 we’re going to see that Nineveh repented, so it says here that the people of Nineveh are going to condemn it, speaking about the generation of Jesus.
Remember the teaching I did on the Last Days, how we’re going to be with Jesus on judgment day.
Jesus is saying I’m greater than Jonah, but you refuse to accept me.
3 For thou hadst cast me into the deep, in the midst of the seas; and the floods compassed me about: all thy billows and thy waves passed over me.
4 Then I said, I am cast out of thy sight; yet I will look again toward thy holy temple.
God, not the sailors, had Jonah casted into the sea, like I said before, that the Lord can use lost people to do his will.
Jonah says I am cast out of thy sight Jesus on the cross said the same thing“My God My God why has thou forsaken me”
Jonah did not lose his salvation, because he says I will look again toward thy holy temple. he knew that he would see the Lord again.
Just like when Jesus told his disciples that he would come back.
5 The waters compassed me about, even to the soul: the depth closed me round about, the weeds were wrapped about my head.
Jesus had thorns wrapped around his head.
6 I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; the earth with her bars was about me for ever: yet hast thou brought up my life from corruption, O Lord my God.
Jonah is speaking about how bad it is to be separated from the Lord.
Did the Lord leave him there?
Jonah got very personal with God, when he says “my God”
7 When my soul fainted within me I remembered the Lord: and my prayer came in unto thee, into thine holy temple.
Has Jonah saw he was falling deeper and deeper from the Lord,
He knew that he needed to come to the Him
8 They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy.
“lying vanities” thinking you can run from God and still please him.
And by doing this you’re separating your self from Him.
Question, what whale has the Lord had to use, to get your attention, to chastise you.
On some of us he has to use a whale something big to get our attention.
Wouldn’t it be better if we just obeyed him?
9 But I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay that that I have vowed. Salvation is of the Lord.
I will sing songs of praise to you, Jonah is still in the whale, so he’s realize he was wrong and repenting here whether the Lord delivers him from the fish or not.
He’s repenting for not going to Nineveh.
Salvation is of the Lord, that statement means so much, we mess up and God is there to make it right, if we want him too.
10 And the Lord spake unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land.
This is our Lord, the seas listen to him 1:15 and the fish listen to him, the fig tree, everything. But man do we listen like them?
Are you seeing who your Lord is?
He cares enough to chastise you, so you will repent and come back to him, instead of what some religions say “lose your salvation”
In chapter 3 Jonah going to obey, but his heart isn’t right.
It’s like wives that submit, but they really don’t want to.
But God doesn’t just want us to obey, but to do it with the right motive.
We’re going to see a preacher a Christian who repents and obeys, but God isn’t satisfy with that, he wants submission to come from the heart.
Chapter 3
1 And the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the second time, saying,
2 Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee.
We need preachers to preach what the Lord has told them to preach,
The church has gotten to were they don’t want to offend any body, positive thinking kind of preaching.
They preach what people want to hear, that’s why you have such big churches.
In the book of Luke 4:28 they wanted to kill Jesus for what he preached, and vs 32 the people he preached to were astonished at his preaching.
3 So Jonah arose, and went unto Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days' journey.
Jonah finally did what the Lord told him to do.
Look at all this time he wasted. Sometimes its years before we finally listen to God, and receive our blessing.
We’re the same way, we have to try it our way first, then the Lords.
4 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.
Jonah is preaching, repent or you will go to hell (destroyed), you don’t die?
The Lord has told us to do the same thing, go tell, Matt 28:19 “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost”
What are we teaching them?
Acts 2:38 Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.
5 So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them.
This is the biggest revival in the history of man, over 600 thousand persons were saved, and the number of people you can find in the last verse of this book.
Look at what one man can do when he listens to the Lord.
And Jesus said in Matt 12:41 “greater than Jonah is here”
If one man can witness and a whole city gets saved, imagine what we can do because the one who is greater than Jonah lives inside of us!!!!!!!!!!!!!
6 For word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and he laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.
He took off his authority, his lordship, that’s dying to self.
Covered with sackcloth and sitting in ashes was a sign of mourning, he was showing the death of himself, and his people.
7 And he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste any thing: let them not feed, nor drink water:
Not only the king but by the rulers of the different kind of tribes they had.
He proclaims a fast to all people, and animals.
8 But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God: yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands.
He tells everyone to do what he has done.
“As for me and my house we will serve the Lord”
What do you think they were crying out to the Lord about? Their evil ways.
Before the flood in Gen 6:11 “The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.” Meaning unrighteousness, lawlessness, and ungodliness.
9 Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not?
The king is saying lets do all this and hopefully, God will change his mind, and not destroy us.
Gen 6:7 And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.
He was not repenting from a sin, from making a mistake, it means change his mind.
Like he did with Sodom and Gomorrah.
Can we see the love of God here, he warns before he brings judgment.
He doesn’t have to do this; he could have just destroyed the city because that’s what they deserved.
10 And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not.
The Lord saw their repentance?
They became that new creature in Cor 5:17 that it speaks about.
And just like they changed, God changed his mind on destroying them.
Sodom and Gomorrah didn’t.
Chapter 4
1 But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry.
Jonah was very angry, because he knows God, verse 2 will show why.
Jonah did what the Lord told him to do, but with a wrong heart, (give example, obeying but not submitting) give example - tithing
2 And he prayed unto the Lord, and said, I pray thee, O Lord, was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish: for I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil.
This is the reason Jonah disobeyed God.
Nineveh was a city of Syria, which was a very wicked country, they were worse than Hitler on the Jews, they torcher people in unthinkable ways,
And Jonah didn’t want God to let them live, fearing that they would over power Israel and do the same to them, which they did, but it wasn’t till 100 years later.
How many times have we thought that a certain person deserve hell?
We want Gods mercy on us, but for people we think shouldn’t have it.
We need to be like Paul in:
Rom 9:1-4 TLB
With Christ as my witness, I speak with utter truthfulness. My conscience and the Holy Spirit confirm it. My heart is filled with bitter sorrow and unending grief for my people, my Jewish brothers and sisters. I would be willing to be forever cursed—cut off from Christ!—if that would save them.
And that is why Jonah disobeyed God; he thought he knew better than God on what should happen?
If this King is truly born again, is he going to continue in his ways?
3 Therefore now, O Lord, take, I beseech thee, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live.
Jonah thinks he has it all figure out, Nineveh will live, and go destroy Israel, and he would rather die than to see that happen. This is Jonah thinking in the flesh.
4 Then said the Lord, Doest thou well to be angry?
The Lord is not saying; I understand why you’re angry.
The Lord is saying; do you have the right to get angry?
Instead of Jonah looking at it with spiritual eyes, how thousands upon thousands got saved.
He looking at as God doesn’t know what he is doing.
Sounds like us many times.
5 So Jonah went out of the city, and sat on the east side of the city, and there made him a booth, and sat under it in the shadow, till he might see what would become of the city.
He made himself a little shelter to see what was going to happen to Nineveh, he’s still hoping that Nineveh really repent and that God will destroy the city. Is that a heart of a Christian?
6 And the Lord God prepared a gourd, and made it to come up over Jonah, that it might be a shadow over his head, to deliver him from his grief. So Jonah was exceeding glad of the gourd.
God took over; it’s like God said, let me take care of you.
A big leafy plant
Because God made him comfortable, Jonah was very happy.
7 But God prepared a worm when the morning rose the next day, and it smote the gourd that it withered.
The Lord gives and the Lord can take away.
When things go wrong we will say that the devil took it away, and sometimes he does.
But this story isn’t about the devil, the Lord took it away.
1 Thess 5:18 In every thing give thanks
8 And it came to pass, when the sun did arise, that God prepared a scorching east wind; and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah, that he fainted, and wished in himself to die, and said, It is better for me to die than to live.
Are there times you feel this way, Lord just take me on home?
The Lord is really chastising Jonah here; he’s going to teach Jonah a lesson.
This is the second time he asks to die. He’s not letting him off so easy.
9 And God said to Jonah, Doest thou well to be angry for the gourd? And he said, I do well to be angry, even unto death.
God said do you think it right to be angry, because of the plant.
We rejoice when God gives us a blessing, that we don’t deserve.
But then we get mad when he takes that blessing away, hey you didn’t deserve it in the first place.
The Lord is worthy of our praise, our worship, not because he gives, but just because of who he is.
We should be happy with our salvation that he has given us.
Jonah is angry, he wants to die, and his heart is in the wrong place.
In these next 2 verses, God is going to change all that.
10 Then said the Lord, Thou hast had pity on the gourd, for the which thou hast not laboured, neither madest it grow; which came up in a night, and perished in a night:
The Lord said you feel sorry for the plant I gave you, which you did nothing to put it there.
The leaf was taken away, and he’s not the one who put it there.
11 And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much cattle?
God is saying there are more than 120,000 people living in spiritual darkness, speaking about children here, not to mention all the animals. Shouldn't I feel sorry for such a great city?"
You feel sorry for the plant I gave you, which is some material thing I gave you, but you don’t feeling sorry for over 600,000 souls.
Jonah’s heart should have been ready to go and try to get those people saved.
He preached to them, but with the wrong heart, he had no mercy for them.
We feel sorry when a cat or dog or some animal is run over, but it doesn’t affect us knowing that there are people all around us dying and going to hell?
Many of us are fighting with God, because we don’t want to do it his way?
You might as well quit, because God always wins, and we suffer while being in disobedience.
There are things in your heart right now that you’re wrestling with.
Matt 5:7 Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.
This is not a fish or whale story and it’s not a story about Jonah, and it’s not about the city Nineveh.
This is a story about the greatness revival in history.
This city had about 600,000 people in it, and the whole city repents and turns to God.
And it’s also about our loving gracious Father who had every right to destroy a prophet who disobeyed him, but he didn’t.
Instead he went after Jonah and made it easier for him to obey than to run.
So this story is going to show us that we have been like Jonah?
It’s a story about a Father who gives us second chances.
We’re going to see that this man of God starts off his book by showing his disobedience to God.
If we were to write a book on our Christian walk with the Lord, would we start off this way?
Nineveh is in Syria and they were known for their torching of people.
Jonah didn’t like the Syrians; it’s like asking you to go to Iraq somewhere like that where they don’t like Americans, and to witness to them.
Most of you are proud to be an America, and you are loyal to this country you also pledge allegiance to it.
I owe all my allegiance and loyalty to God only. Look at what America is doing.
Some of us are the same way in our religion; we give more loyalty to it than the Lord.
It’s just like Moses putting the people before the Lord in
Ex 32:31-32
31 And Moses returned unto the Lord, and said, Oh, this people have sinned a great sin, and have made them gods of gold.
32 Yet now, if thou wilt forgive their sin; and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast written.
1 Now the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the son of Amittai, saying,
2 Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me.
You hear from the Lord first, and then do.
You better make sure that the Lord is the one who tells you to go on a missionary trip, and not some pastor or leader in a church, or this is something you want to do.
And if the Lord does want you to go, you don’t have to raise the money to go because he will supply it for you, just like here, God supplied the money, but Jonah used it for a different reason.
Also Jonah thinks that if he doesn’t go then Nineveh then they won’t get saved.
Oh how we think sometimes, some of us believe that if we don’t go to those people they will die in their sins, let’s see what it says in
Matt 3:7-9
7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?
8 Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance:
9 And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.
If God wants these people to hear about salvation, it’s going to happen whether we go or not.
This seems like a pretty simply command from the Lord, doesn’t it?
He’s given us the same command, which I have taught on already.
The Lord is ready to bring judgment on them, it sounds like a pretty easy task to do, go preach to them, repent or judgment is coming on you.
We’re the same?
3 But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord, Jonah a preacher, a Christian, went the other way from what the Lord said to do.
When the Lord wants to use you, and you do it, you will be bless. Amen. and went down to Joppa; and he found a ship going to Tarshish: so he paid the fare thereof, Notice here that God didn’t take his money away from him.
I say that because the prosperity preachers preach that if you have money it’s because you’re in obedience with God, and if you don’t have money it’s because you not in obedience with him. and went down into it, to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. And being a Christian man, I’m sure he knew that God is everywhere and you can’t hide from him.
By the way for those of you who believe you can lose your salvation, like the Pentecost do, here is a prophet who is willfully disobeying God, but it doesn’t show anywhere in this book of Jonah that he lost his salvation.
This is a pretty bad sin, worse than what king David did, he only killed one man, Jonah is putting over 600,000 men to death, he thinks.
4 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.
The Lord didn’t want to let Jonah off the hook, so he brought this storm in the sea, and almost cause the ship to sink.
When we disobey the Lord, like on witnessing it can affect others?
5 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.
This was a bad storm, these men who had been through many storms were afraid, and they pray to their god, these were lost men, because god has a small g,
This was not a passenger ship, it was a cargo ship, and they started to throw cargo off the boat,
Jonah went down into the ship has to hide, and was sleeping, you know you can get pretty tried from running from the Lord.
6 So the shipmaster came to him, and said unto him, What meanest thou, O sleeper? arise, call upon thy God, if so be that God will think upon us, that we perish not.
They found him and said, we have called on our gods and it isn’t working, so we need you to call upon your God, to save us.
7 And they said every one 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.
This verse shows me that Jonah didn’t pray to the Lord like they asked him to in verse 6 it’s kind of hard to pray to God when you’re running from him?
So now they’re going to cast lots (casting lots was done in the flesh, when you are making God answer you right now, they believed that it was determining God’s will or his influenced was going to be the outcome, it was kind of used like the eight ball), but now we have the Holy Spirit to tell us what to do in all situations.
They did this many times in the bible, but many times it went against the will of God.
And it just so happen that the lot fell on Jonah
8 Then said they unto him, Tell us, we pray thee, for whose cause this evil is upon us; What is thine occupation? and whence comest thou? what is thy country? and of what people art thou?
9 And he said unto them, I am an Hebrew; and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, which hath made the sea and the dry land.
When he said I’m a Hebrew, they knew that this man was under God Jehovah, not just any god, but he didn’t say I’m a preacher, when we’re not walking with the Lord and people see this, you’re not going to tell them, I’m a Christian.
10 Then were the men exceedingly afraid, and said unto him, Why hast thou done this? For the men knew that he fled from the presence of the Lord, because he had told them.
Verse 5 they were afraid, but now they’re exceedingly afraid, they now know what God brought this storm and what he can do, and how you can’t run from him.
Then they said, why are you running from your God, they knew he was running because what he said in verse 9 “I fear the Lord” but he doesn’t tell them why.
Even these lost men know you can’t run from God, because they said “how can you do this”
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.
They have found Jonah guilty, and ask him what we should do with you, to calm this storm
12 And he said unto them, Take me up, and 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.
Jonah is a type of Jesus, willing to die so others may live.
Like it says in
Matt 12:39-41
39 But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas:
40 For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
41 The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: because they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here.
You know that there is a another way of dying without a physical death, and that’s when you are ready to give up self – to tell friends, family, give up being popular, to witness to them.
13 Nevertheless the men rowed hard to bring it to the land; but they could not: for the sea wrought, and was tempestuous against them.
Jonah told them what to do to get saved, but they didn’t listen, they wanted to do it their way? And they failed.
This shows that they are good people who are lost?
14 Wherefore they cried unto the Lord, and said, We beseech thee, O 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.
After trying it their way, they gave up, and called upon the Lord, and they beg the Lord that they shouldn’t die because of this man’s sin, and not to hold them responsible for his death, this storm was sent by you, for him.
15 So they took up Jonah, and cast him forth into the sea: and the sea ceased from her raging.
Then they did it the way God told them to do it, and they were saved, not only from a physical death, but a spiritual one also, which we’ll see.
Notice that after they did it Gods way the storm was gone?
16 Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly, and offered a sacrifice unto the Lord, and made vows.
The word feared here means respect, they knew about blood sacrifice, for forgiveness, and one of the vows they made was not praying to their gods, because back in verse 5 they saw that praying to their god did no good.
You see sometimes you may need to give up your religion to live for God.
We see that Rom 8:28 says “that all things work together for good” even though we have this preacher who is disobeying God, men got saved.
Don’t be an idiot and think well I’ll be like Jonah so people can get saved.
We see also I also see in verse 5 that they threw the cargo off the ship, so I would think that they couldn’t continue to where they were going without the cargo.
So I would think that they went back to Joppa and started telling everyone what had happen, started witnessing.
17 Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.
They have some religions that would say, well he quit walking with the Lord, so the Lord should have killed him, and he lost his salvation, that’s what he deserved, we’ll see that’s not true.
Scientist decided to call whales mammals, just like they’re trying to call man animals, and I’m not an animal, I was made in the image of God, Gen 1:26 “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness”
God call it a fish, and Jesus called it a whale in Matt 12:40 that we just read, and know that God and Jesus are the same.
There are two kinds of fish that can swallow a man whole and one is a Sperm whale, and it has been proven that a great white shark can do the same.
Even if this hadn’t been proven that it can happen, I would believe it because the word of God says it.
This was a divine appointment by God, you think that great fish just so happen to be there, no, because we’re going to see what we thought was death was salvation?
We think giving up our life is like dying, but Jesus says its life.
Mark 8:35 For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel's, the same shall save it.
Chapter 2
1 Then Jonah prayed unto the Lord his God out of the fish's belly,
2 And said, I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the Lord, and he heard me; out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice.
It stinks when we’re not in God’s will
He begs to the Lord for trouble he got himself in. (do we think of ourselves here)
Jonah died, and went to Sheol, just like Jesus said in Matt 12 that Jonah was a type of Christ
Matt 12:39-41
39 But Jesus replied, "Only an evil, adulterous generation would demand a miraculous sign; but the only sign I will give them is the sign of the prophet Jonah.
Pentecostals they need a sign of speaking in tongues,
Look at all the signs Jesus did while he walked the earth, signs don’t save you,
The Lord wants you to have faith in him from your heart.
There will be no signs except the sign of Jonah
Jonah was a type of Christ, and also just like man?
40 For as Jonah was in the belly of the great fish for three days and three nights, so will the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights.
In those 3 days Jesus went to preach to the lost in Sheol.
1Peter 3:19 “By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison;”
You might say how’s he going to preach to them if their dead?
Luke 16:22-24
22 And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried;
23 And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.
24 And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.
And then Jesus was resurrected and went to heaven.
Jonah went into the heart of the whale and was alive just like Jesus, but he wasn’t resurrected, he was brought back to life if you believe he died, like Lazarus, but not with his new body.
41 "The people of Nineveh will stand up against this generation on judgment day and condemn it, for they repented of their sins at the preaching of Jonah. Now someone greater than Jonah is here—but you refuse to repent.
In Ch 3 we’re going to see that Nineveh repented, so it says here that the people of Nineveh are going to condemn it, speaking about the generation of Jesus.
Remember the teaching I did on the Last Days, how we’re going to be with Jesus on judgment day.
Jesus is saying I’m greater than Jonah, but you refuse to accept me.
3 For thou hadst cast me into the deep, in the midst of the seas; and the floods compassed me about: all thy billows and thy waves passed over me.
4 Then I said, I am cast out of thy sight; yet I will look again toward thy holy temple.
God, not the sailors, had Jonah casted into the sea, like I said before, that the Lord can use lost people to do his will.
Jonah says I am cast out of thy sight Jesus on the cross said the same thing“My God My God why has thou forsaken me”
Jonah did not lose his salvation, because he says I will look again toward thy holy temple. he knew that he would see the Lord again.
Just like when Jesus told his disciples that he would come back.
5 The waters compassed me about, even to the soul: the depth closed me round about, the weeds were wrapped about my head.
Jesus had thorns wrapped around his head.
6 I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; the earth with her bars was about me for ever: yet hast thou brought up my life from corruption, O Lord my God.
Jonah is speaking about how bad it is to be separated from the Lord.
Did the Lord leave him there?
Jonah got very personal with God, when he says “my God”
7 When my soul fainted within me I remembered the Lord: and my prayer came in unto thee, into thine holy temple.
Has Jonah saw he was falling deeper and deeper from the Lord,
He knew that he needed to come to the Him
8 They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy.
“lying vanities” thinking you can run from God and still please him.
And by doing this you’re separating your self from Him.
Question, what whale has the Lord had to use, to get your attention, to chastise you.
On some of us he has to use a whale something big to get our attention.
Wouldn’t it be better if we just obeyed him?
9 But I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay that that I have vowed. Salvation is of the Lord.
I will sing songs of praise to you, Jonah is still in the whale, so he’s realize he was wrong and repenting here whether the Lord delivers him from the fish or not.
He’s repenting for not going to Nineveh.
Salvation is of the Lord, that statement means so much, we mess up and God is there to make it right, if we want him too.
10 And the Lord spake unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land.
This is our Lord, the seas listen to him 1:15 and the fish listen to him, the fig tree, everything. But man do we listen like them?
Are you seeing who your Lord is?
He cares enough to chastise you, so you will repent and come back to him, instead of what some religions say “lose your salvation”
In chapter 3 Jonah going to obey, but his heart isn’t right.
It’s like wives that submit, but they really don’t want to.
But God doesn’t just want us to obey, but to do it with the right motive.
We’re going to see a preacher a Christian who repents and obeys, but God isn’t satisfy with that, he wants submission to come from the heart.
Chapter 3
1 And the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the second time, saying,
2 Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee.
We need preachers to preach what the Lord has told them to preach,
The church has gotten to were they don’t want to offend any body, positive thinking kind of preaching.
They preach what people want to hear, that’s why you have such big churches.
In the book of Luke 4:28 they wanted to kill Jesus for what he preached, and vs 32 the people he preached to were astonished at his preaching.
3 So Jonah arose, and went unto Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days' journey.
Jonah finally did what the Lord told him to do.
Look at all this time he wasted. Sometimes its years before we finally listen to God, and receive our blessing.
We’re the same way, we have to try it our way first, then the Lords.
4 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.
Jonah is preaching, repent or you will go to hell (destroyed), you don’t die?
The Lord has told us to do the same thing, go tell, Matt 28:19 “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost”
What are we teaching them?
Acts 2:38 Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.
5 So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them.
This is the biggest revival in the history of man, over 600 thousand persons were saved, and the number of people you can find in the last verse of this book.
Look at what one man can do when he listens to the Lord.
And Jesus said in Matt 12:41 “greater than Jonah is here”
If one man can witness and a whole city gets saved, imagine what we can do because the one who is greater than Jonah lives inside of us!!!!!!!!!!!!!
6 For word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and he laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.
He took off his authority, his lordship, that’s dying to self.
Covered with sackcloth and sitting in ashes was a sign of mourning, he was showing the death of himself, and his people.
7 And he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste any thing: let them not feed, nor drink water:
Not only the king but by the rulers of the different kind of tribes they had.
He proclaims a fast to all people, and animals.
8 But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God: yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands.
He tells everyone to do what he has done.
“As for me and my house we will serve the Lord”
What do you think they were crying out to the Lord about? Their evil ways.
Before the flood in Gen 6:11 “The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.” Meaning unrighteousness, lawlessness, and ungodliness.
9 Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not?
The king is saying lets do all this and hopefully, God will change his mind, and not destroy us.
Gen 6:7 And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.
He was not repenting from a sin, from making a mistake, it means change his mind.
Like he did with Sodom and Gomorrah.
Can we see the love of God here, he warns before he brings judgment.
He doesn’t have to do this; he could have just destroyed the city because that’s what they deserved.
10 And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not.
The Lord saw their repentance?
They became that new creature in Cor 5:17 that it speaks about.
And just like they changed, God changed his mind on destroying them.
Sodom and Gomorrah didn’t.
Chapter 4
1 But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry.
Jonah was very angry, because he knows God, verse 2 will show why.
Jonah did what the Lord told him to do, but with a wrong heart, (give example, obeying but not submitting) give example - tithing
2 And he prayed unto the Lord, and said, I pray thee, O Lord, was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish: for I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil.
This is the reason Jonah disobeyed God.
Nineveh was a city of Syria, which was a very wicked country, they were worse than Hitler on the Jews, they torcher people in unthinkable ways,
And Jonah didn’t want God to let them live, fearing that they would over power Israel and do the same to them, which they did, but it wasn’t till 100 years later.
How many times have we thought that a certain person deserve hell?
We want Gods mercy on us, but for people we think shouldn’t have it.
We need to be like Paul in:
Rom 9:1-4 TLB
With Christ as my witness, I speak with utter truthfulness. My conscience and the Holy Spirit confirm it. My heart is filled with bitter sorrow and unending grief for my people, my Jewish brothers and sisters. I would be willing to be forever cursed—cut off from Christ!—if that would save them.
And that is why Jonah disobeyed God; he thought he knew better than God on what should happen?
If this King is truly born again, is he going to continue in his ways?
3 Therefore now, O Lord, take, I beseech thee, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live.
Jonah thinks he has it all figure out, Nineveh will live, and go destroy Israel, and he would rather die than to see that happen. This is Jonah thinking in the flesh.
4 Then said the Lord, Doest thou well to be angry?
The Lord is not saying; I understand why you’re angry.
The Lord is saying; do you have the right to get angry?
Instead of Jonah looking at it with spiritual eyes, how thousands upon thousands got saved.
He looking at as God doesn’t know what he is doing.
Sounds like us many times.
5 So Jonah went out of the city, and sat on the east side of the city, and there made him a booth, and sat under it in the shadow, till he might see what would become of the city.
He made himself a little shelter to see what was going to happen to Nineveh, he’s still hoping that Nineveh really repent and that God will destroy the city. Is that a heart of a Christian?
6 And the Lord God prepared a gourd, and made it to come up over Jonah, that it might be a shadow over his head, to deliver him from his grief. So Jonah was exceeding glad of the gourd.
God took over; it’s like God said, let me take care of you.
A big leafy plant
Because God made him comfortable, Jonah was very happy.
7 But God prepared a worm when the morning rose the next day, and it smote the gourd that it withered.
The Lord gives and the Lord can take away.
When things go wrong we will say that the devil took it away, and sometimes he does.
But this story isn’t about the devil, the Lord took it away.
1 Thess 5:18 In every thing give thanks
8 And it came to pass, when the sun did arise, that God prepared a scorching east wind; and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah, that he fainted, and wished in himself to die, and said, It is better for me to die than to live.
Are there times you feel this way, Lord just take me on home?
The Lord is really chastising Jonah here; he’s going to teach Jonah a lesson.
This is the second time he asks to die. He’s not letting him off so easy.
9 And God said to Jonah, Doest thou well to be angry for the gourd? And he said, I do well to be angry, even unto death.
God said do you think it right to be angry, because of the plant.
We rejoice when God gives us a blessing, that we don’t deserve.
But then we get mad when he takes that blessing away, hey you didn’t deserve it in the first place.
The Lord is worthy of our praise, our worship, not because he gives, but just because of who he is.
We should be happy with our salvation that he has given us.
Jonah is angry, he wants to die, and his heart is in the wrong place.
In these next 2 verses, God is going to change all that.
10 Then said the Lord, Thou hast had pity on the gourd, for the which thou hast not laboured, neither madest it grow; which came up in a night, and perished in a night:
The Lord said you feel sorry for the plant I gave you, which you did nothing to put it there.
The leaf was taken away, and he’s not the one who put it there.
11 And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much cattle?
God is saying there are more than 120,000 people living in spiritual darkness, speaking about children here, not to mention all the animals. Shouldn't I feel sorry for such a great city?"
You feel sorry for the plant I gave you, which is some material thing I gave you, but you don’t feeling sorry for over 600,000 souls.
Jonah’s heart should have been ready to go and try to get those people saved.
He preached to them, but with the wrong heart, he had no mercy for them.
We feel sorry when a cat or dog or some animal is run over, but it doesn’t affect us knowing that there are people all around us dying and going to hell?
Many of us are fighting with God, because we don’t want to do it his way?
You might as well quit, because God always wins, and we suffer while being in disobedience.
There are things in your heart right now that you’re wrestling with.
Matt 5:7 Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.