Getting Up and Entering in

Study Notes

Getting Up, Entering In, and Carrying Through

Jonah 3:1-10

     “The word of the Lord came to Jonah… (Jonah 3:1).”

     With those words, Jonah 3 opens the second half of the story of Jonah.  Have you ever seen those words before?  They are exactly the same words that Jonah 1 opened with.  However, a lot has happened between Jonah 1 & 3, hasn’t it?  Jonah rebelled and ran.  God first punished him by sending him into a big fish and then showed him mercy by having the fish vomit him out onto the shore.  It is a very different day when, in Jonah 3, God’s Word says, “The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time.”

     What God does is give Jonah a second chance to live differently -- and to go and give Nineveh what would for them also become a chance to live differently.

     Today’s Question:  What is there that you sense God is calling you to do or to cease doing? 

     I want you to take a moment right now and write down what it is that you think God might be calling you to do or stop doing in your life. Write that down right now. 

     We’ll come back to that question later.  Now, as we come to Jonah 3, I want us all to look at Jonah’s second chance given to him one day by our God’s of the 2^nd chance.  Let’s see what he did that God used to bring a metropolis to its knees.  What steps lead to such a movement of God?

#1:  Get up – at the call of God.  The word of the Lord came to Jonah.  “Arise… (3:1).”

     Many of our English versions do not have that word “arise” in v.1 – but, believe me, it’s there.  The Hebrew word is קוּם (qum) and it is God’s command for Jonah to get up off the shore onto which the fish spit him out.  In the story of Jonah, the language of going up or going down is very important.  In ch. 1, Jonah got up only to go down.  After he got up at God’s call, everything else in his life was downward.  In ch. 3, when God called a 2^nd time, Jonah got up and he turned his face upward toward God and God’s calling.  In chs. 1-2, each time Jonah went down, he turned father away from God.  You can see where leaving God out of his life led him: Into depression, suicidal thoughts and into the belly of a fish. 

     Do you remember pastor Jeff’s sermon last week?  From the depths of that fish, the rebellious Jonah had cried out to the Lord when he was at the deepest and darkest place in his life.  He had rebelled intentionally against the Lord and deserved nothing.  However, with great mercy and compassion, God had delivered him.  That changed Jonah.  When God’s call came this second time, Jonah did not run.  He arose and turned his face toward God.

     Another Question:  What do you think made the difference between Jonah’s response to God’s first call and his response to God’s second? 

     After my sermon from Jonah 1, a number of people from our church who come from places Around the world where the church is being persecuted spoke to me about how hard it is to go and speak to the ones who have persecuted you.  One of the things that I love most about our church here at LAC is that we have people who come from so many places – so that we can learn from one another.  And, I tell you now, I do appreciate the fact that what God asked Jonah to do was very, very hard.  The people of Nineveh were brutal and had persecuted the people of Israel and Judah in ways as extreme as we are now witnessing in many nations.  In fact, Nineveh was in what is now Iraq.  The kind of brutality we hear of toward Christians in that country was exactly what God’s people were facing in Jonah’s day. So, again – why did Jonah obey at God’s 2^nd call?

     Some have said that Jonah said yes because he didn’t want God to send him into the belly of a fish again.  And there may be a measure of truth in that.  I’m sure that, having already experienced the consequences that come from rebelling against God, he was afraid of doing it again.  However, I really don’t think that fear motivates us for very long.  I believe the main thing that changed Jonah was that he had personally experienced God’s rescue from a mess he had gotten himself into.  He knew God had dealt with him in mercy.  Gratitude is a more lasting motivator than fear.

     Let me try to explain.  The question we might naturally ask is why did God even bother to ask Jonah a 2nd time.  Jonah had already messed up big time.  More than that, he had intentionally and stubbornly disobeyed God.  Do most of us take the person who has just failed miserably and then send him in to a place to represent us?  I don’t think so.  But, when I read the Bible, I see that God does.  What we see happening in Jonah 3 is consistent with what God always does throughout the Bible, i.e., God brings death out of life.

     Think about it:  The Apostle Peter may be the best example of this because he failed so often.  After Peter thought he could walk on water only to give up faith and sink, he looked to Jesus and Jesus rescued him.  After Peter had rebuked Jesus for talking about dying in Jerusalem, Jesus had to say to him, “Get behind me Satan.” Soon afterward, Jesus gave Peter the assurance that he was the one who would be given the “keys to the kingdom of God.”   And, even after Peter had denied the Lord 3 times, Jesus came to him personally in John 21 with a new commission to ministry.  Indeed, Jesus even called him “son of Jonah” in Mt 16:17.

     I’ve been tempted to call this point about God using those who have failed the “Peter Principle”.  But, that phrase has already been taken.  Let’s call it the Jonah Principle: Those who have been humbled by failure and then been shown God’s mercy are those most prepared to be used by God.

     On Jonah’s side, he needed to get up -- out of his depression and sense of exhaustion and go in simple obedience to God.  But, Jonah had to get up and obey God.  Failure can only turn a person into a world changer if the person turns to God and says, “I have failed but I am yours.  If you want me, count on me to be available to you.”  Failure can either turn you inward or outward: inward into self-pity or outward into complete reliance on God.  I say to you today:  Don’t waste your failures.  Get up and surrender to Him.  God is ready to use you again just as he did Jonah.

#2:  Enter in – to the lives of people.  Jonah obeyed the word of the Lord and entered into Nineveh (3:3).  

     Have you ever tried to imagine Jonah going into Nineveh?  After being three days in a fish, he had to have looked and smelled terrible.  What had the stomach acids done to his skin and his hair?  He must have been quite a sight.  And, he was a Jewish man from a smaller town going into one of the most powerful urban centers in the world.  What did he understand of the culture?  How well could he function in their language?

     But, as is always the situation when God does his work, God-empowered ministry is always incarnational, life-on-life.  When he calls us to do something, he goes with us. 

     As you know, this is the way of Jesus.  He entered into lives of people that everyone else of influence ignored: sinful tax collectors, lepers, demonized Gentiles, and prostitutes.  He did not embrace their morals or live as they lived.  To the contrary, he would say, “I do not condemn you but go and sin no more.”  Jesus offered forgiveness, belonging, and a new way of life to all who came to him by faith. 

     Jonah was sent in the same way to the Ninevites.  For Nineveh to hear from God, a messenger from God had to enter into their city and into their lives.  As the Apostle Paul said in Romans 10, “How can people hear unless someone goes and preaches to them.” 

     It was hard for Jonah to go because they were brutal persecutors.  He didn’t want to go.  We know that for sure.  And, I imagine, he didn’t feel equipped to go.  Still, after experiencing God’s salvation himself, he found the courage entered into the city.  That’s where ministry always begins. 

     As you know, this call to “enter in” to the people of our world is central to much of our ministry here at LAC.  Earlier in the service, you heard how Lisa Summers chose to enter into the lives of people who are homeless in our own neighborhood – and has begun to see God work in her and through her in marvelous ways.  The same is true of those who are serving God by visiting those in prison, or assisting those getting out of prison, or struggling to succeed in public schools, of finding it hard to raise a new child as a single parent.  I could go on and on.  After the service, we will have ministry partners in the lobby who will be ready to share with any who will stop by what has happened in their walks with God – because they have taken the time to “enter in” to the lives of people simply because of the call of God. 

     The Incarnational Principle:  When you enter in to people’s lives out of obedience to God, you begin to see the needs of our world as you never have seen them before.  You begin to see people with a depth that you have never seen before. And, you will see God working through you in ways you have never seen before.

     That’s what happened to Jonah – and brings me to my third point.

#3:  Carry through – in obedience to God’s prompting.  Jonah began by going a day’s journey into the city, proclaiming, “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown (3:4).”

     God decided to change the megacity of God.  How?  He besieged the evil world-class city of Nineveh with an army of one.  God had chosen Jonah and was calling him to change the world!

     I read this chapter last week and I thought of a story I’ve told you before, i.e., of my son Brandon being called to serve one day in a mostly African American church on the south side of Chicago.  (I’ll show pictures of it.)  We had been there before and, each time, the pastor and worship leader asked Brandon to play electric guitar.  But, in that church, they never had chord charts or arrangement with notes to play.  In fact, the worship leader often led out into a song that would come to his mind and all the musicians had to figure out the key and melody and join in. 

     We loved that church but, on this particular Sunday, Brandon didn’t want to play so he insisted that we show up late and that he wouldn’t bring his guitar.  But, the pastor saw him and sent one of the deacons, a strong Chicago Police Officer, over to get him.  He said to Brandon with a strong voice, “The Lord has called you into service.”  Brandon said (less strongly), “But I thought I would just worship today.”  The response: “But no – the Lord has called you into service!”  Brandon still said, “But, I didn’t bring my guitar.”  The response: “When the Lord calls he also provides!”  The officer took his powerful hand, grasped Brandon’s shoulder and said, “Young man, the Lord has called you into service.”

     And Brandon served.  He even played a solo that day.  And he was a great blessing to all that day.

     Jonah, called into service to that massive city of 600,000 people carried through and began walking through Nineveh.  In v.4 Jonah had just begun his walk through Nineveh when the people began to respond to the message.  Then came v.5 – “The people of Nineveh trusted God.”

     It seems that as the common people repented of their sins and trust God, they carried the message all the way to the king of the city. Lo and behold – This powerful man did what we read of no other ruler ever doing in the ancient world:

• He left his throne and place of power. 
• He removed his royal robe – and all the pomp it represented. 
• He put on sackcloth – the clothing of humble contrition and surrender. 
• He joined the rest of the people in the dust on his face.

    Not only were the king’s actions startling.  But also, his call to all his people to repent of violence and sin is almost unheard of in ancient reports about kings and rulers.  “You must repent, each one, of wicked behavior and violence.”  And they did!  The power of God’s Word operated through the witness of Jonah.

     And God showed them mercy – just as he had done with Jonah.  But, I’ll come back to that next week.

     This week I want you to see that all Jonah had to do was faithfully get up – enter personally into the lives of the people – and then carry through with delivering the message God had given him.  God did the rest.

     Know this about God:  He by nature is a God who rescues us and then sends us in his name.  He rarely says something like, “You need a week off to recuperate, Jonah.”  He says, “Arise and go!”  If you have walked with him at all, you know he keeps coming back to you to have your life make a difference in this world.  And, so often, he says to us too, “Get out of your comfort zone.  Out of your safe place.  Out of the familiar.  Out of the sameness.  Arise and serve in my name!”

     We often say we want to be like Jesus – but what Jesus did was that he left the perfection of heaven to come here and rescue us.  And he says, “As the Father has sent me, I am sending you!”

     I can assure you of this:  If you are a follower of Jesus Christ today, he is calling you to serve him somewhere in this world.  Like the Deacon said to Brandon one Sunday morning, I say to you today, “The Lord is calling you into service!”  You need only to listen for his voice – then to get up, enter in and carry through.

     Jonah might have said to God in Jonah 3:1, “I can’t do it. I look funny.  They’ll think I’m strange.  I’m a Jew and Ninevites hate us.  I’m not good at their language.  I don’t have the right gifts and education.”  But, God doesn’t need those things.  He uses those things in our lives.  But, he doesn’t need them in order to use us.

     When I read the description of Jonah’s sermon on that city-changing day, it doesn’t seem he did a great job.  Five Hebrew words are all we have of his sermon. But, when he got up, entered in and carried through with God’s call, God did a miracle in people’s hearts.

     You may say today, “What happened through Jonah can’t happen through me.  I’m too damaged to be used by God in the lives of other people.”  I say, “God will use you and will even use the things that have been hard in your life to reach others.  I’ve seen it again and again.”

     You may say, “I’m too depleted.  I tried serving before and I’m just too burnt out and exhausted right now.” I tell you, “God will use you more in your weakness than he ever did in your strength.”

     You may say, “I’m not knowledgeable or eloquent enough.”  I say, “Look at Jonah.  He only preached, ‘In 40 days, Nineveh will be overturned.’”  Do you think that was an eloquent message?  He didn’t even tell them there was still hope.  You can do better than he did.  But, in spite of his inadequacies, God used him when he got up, entered in and carried through in obedience.

     My Question Again:  Is there anything that God has been calling you to do – or to stop doing.  If you know that he has then I am quite sure he is calling you again today.   

     “The Word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time.”  The word of the Lord comes to you today.  It may be a second time, a third time, a fourth time…”  Has God been speaking to you?  Are you ready to get up at the call of God, to enter in to the lives of people and to carry through in obedience to the Lord?  Like he used Jonah, he will use you too – to his glory.