The Odd Couple

Have you ever met an odd couple? For instance there is a married couple in France who some consider quite odd. The husband is 6’ 1” and his wife is 3’ 1”. He is three feet taller than his wife! Maybe you’ve heard about the husband and wife who had the same first AND last name BEFORE they got married: Kelly Hildebrandt. Or maybe you’ve heard about the couple with the greatest age difference. A man from Somalia who was 112 married a 17 year old girl…it was his 6th marriage. Or maybe you heard about the Russian couple who were married for only 3 days before they were separated because of war and found each other 60 years later! Or maybe you heard about Herbert and Zelmyra Fisher who had been married for 86 years at the time of Herbert’s death in 2013.

Those are definitely some odd couples, but I find an interesting match God decided to make thousands of years ago between the prophet Jonah and the wicked city of Nineveh. Although it was a match made in Heaven, Jonah wanted to have absolutely NOTHING to do with meeting or preaching to the Ninivites!

Sermon Introduction

Keep in mind Jonah was already a prophet of God when God speaks to him in Jonah 1. We know from 2 Kings 14 that Jonah had already preached the Word of the Lord to wicked King Jeroboam. It was through Jonah’s preaching that Jeroboam II fixed Israel’s border that had been weakened during earlier conflicts with Assyria. So Jonah had already answered the call to be a prophet, He just wanted to do it on his own terms. We don’t get to pick and choose how, where and when we are going to do God’s will. We must do God’s will, God’s way. As explore this introductory message to Jonah this morning I find three interesting things I want to call your attention to.

Notice Jonah 1:1-3:

The first thing I notice from this passage is that:

Nineveh Needed Jonah

Explanation

God’s Word came to Jonah and revealed to Jonah that Nineveh needed a prophet of God to go and tell them the TRUTH in hopes they would repent and the truth would set them free. Nineveh needed Jonah for a couple of reasons:

Nineveh was located in one of the most powerful nations in the world at the time (Christ Centered Exposition, Jonah, p. 6). It has been called the “greatest capital of the ancient Assyrian empire, located on the left bank of the Tigris River in what is known today as Iraq. (Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary). Imagine what might happen if the people of this city would repent at Jonah’s preaching! Imagine the influence they could have upon the rest of the nation and the world for that matter. Not only was Nineveh located in a powerful nation, but it was a powerful city. One historian tells us that the walls of Nineveh were so wide three chariots could be driven, side by side, over them. They city had streets that were 20 miles long and walls, that were in some places, 100 feet high! It was a massive, impressive city with a population of about 120,000 souls! (A Fresh Look at the Book of Jonah, Laurie, p. 13). Cities need the truth!

Nineveh needed Jonah because it was a VERY SINFUL place! Notice again what God says in Jonah 1:2:

Jonah 1:2 ESV

“Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me.”

Like an overflowing septic tank their wickedness stunk to high heaven (Laurie, p. 13)! God was aware of their wickedness! Nahum the prophet talks about piles of bodies laying in their streets (Nahum 3:3-4). He also tells us the city was full of whoredom and witchcraft! It was a SINFUL city! Historians also tell us about Nineveh's atrocities. They were known for their brutality. For instance, to torture their enemies they would literally skin them alive and leave them out in the sun to die a torturous death. Their wickedness had confronted God and now God was going to confront their wickedness!

They were also the sworn enemies of the Israelites. The sworn enemy of Jonah and his people.

They were a wicked, depraved people. They were like the Nazis or the Isis of their generation. However, wicked, depraved people need the TRUTH that can set them free!

Illustration

I think this is the very reason Jesus spent so much time with wicked and depraved people. Jesus was often criticized for sitting down with “tax collectors and sinners.” He was known as a “friend to sinners.” One day when He was asked about being a friend to sinners and He told three parables that illustrated why He chose to minister to these people. You may remember them as: (1) The parable of the lost sheep, (2) The parable of the lost coin, and (3) the parable of the prodigal (lost) son. Each of these things were lost and they needed to be found! The shepherd left the 99 sheep in the fold and went searching for the little lost lamb and brought it home and rejoiced with his friends. The lady lit the lamp and swept the house until she found the lost coin and when she found it she celebrated with her friends. The day the father was looking down the road and saw a lone, familiar figure headed toward home, was a day of great rejoicing and reconciliation!

Yes, Jesus is a friend to sinners because sinners need Jesus!

Application

Thousands of years later nothing has changed! Sinners still need Jesus and sinners still need the TRUTH that can set them free. As believers, God, in His sovereignty has chosen to use us to GO to cities like Nineveh and people like the Ninevites and proclaim the TRUTH that can set them free! That may mean there are people right here in Erie that God is wanting you and calling you to minister to that you are uncomfortable with! Maybe God knows that YOU are exactly what they need!

The Nineveh's of our world need us to take the GOSPEL to them! They need us to share the TRUTH! They need us to live the TRUTH we share. Nineveh needed Jonah and your community, your family, your workplace, your school needs YOU, regardless of how wicked, vile and detestable their rebellion against God is! Jesus has called YOU to be SALT and LIGHT and He doesn’t want YOU to stay in the salt shaker and spend your time lighting empty rooms…He wants us to GO and make disciples! YOU ARE NEEDED in the Kingdom of God!

I believe the most practical place for this to start is in our HOMES! Our children, our brothers and sisters, our parents, our relatives need to SEE us living out our LOVE for God by seeing us living lives of holiness, observing us LOVING our neighbor as ourselves, and hearing us share the TRUTH of the Word of God spoken from a heart FULL of love.

Not only do I find that Nineveh needed Jonah, but I also find...

Jonah Needed Nineveh

Explanation

As you read through the book of Jonah you find that not only did Nineveh need Jonah and the truth that he would bring, but Jonah needed Nineveh too. Jonah didn’t want to go to Nineveh and God knew this. God could have chosen many people to go to this wicked city, but He chose an unwilling prophet. God in His foreknowledge knew how Jonah would respond, but He chose him anyway. He knew that Jonah would run. He knew that Jonah would try to hide from His presence. I believe the very reason God chose Jonah to go to Nineveh was because He knew Jonah needed Nineveh and the lessons He would teach him through this experience, almost as much as Nineveh needed Jonah...

Jim Berg said in his book, Changed Into His Image:

God is commanding the prophet to demonstrate love for Him by obeying His command. God is also commanding the prophet to demonstrate love for his neighbor by doing what his neighbor needs most. Jonah refuses, exposing his rebel heart. Rather than face his assignment and his rebel heart, Jonah runs.

While chapter one doesn’t reveal everything that’s going on in Jonah’s mind, we find some more insight into what Jonah was thinking in chapter 4. For instance we see:

Jonah’s heart was not in tune with God’s heart. Jonah knew God was gracious and merciful and patient and full of love and kindness (see Jonah 4:2). He knew that the very reason God was sending him there was because God cared for the Ninevites and desired for them to repent. Jonah would prefer to die early (see Jonah 4:3) than to live and see God’s mercy on the Ninevites. Jonah was so enraged at the Ninevites that He was OK with them all being eliminated, regardless of whether or not they would repent of their wickedness!

Jonah could see their sinfulness, but not his own. There is no doubt the Assyrians were living in outright rebellion against God and His Word. They were vicious people who deserved to be wiped off the face of the earth. However, it seems that Jonah ignored the seriousness of his own rebellion. God’s Word came to him directly and gave him clear instructions and Jonah took off in the opposite direction. Jonah was more bothered with the Ninevites sin than his own.

Jonah cared more about his own personal comfort than the eternal souls of people. At the end of the 4th chapter Jonah sits outside the city and throws a pity party for himself. God graciously gives this rebellious prophet a plant to provide him with some shade from the scorching sun. He finally found something to be happy about. However, to demonstrate to Jonah how selfish he was, God appointed a worm to come and to devour the plant and the shade was gone, and in its place God sent a scorching east wind and allowed the sun to beat down on his head. Once again Jonah prays to die (Jonah 4:8). God reveals to Jonah that he had more pity on the plant that was consumed than he had toward the 120,000 people that were about to die in Nineveh. Jonah cared more about his temporary comfort than the eternal destiny of thousands of souls. God uses this object lesson to expose Jonah’s self-righteous pride.

Yes Jonah needed Nineveh!

Illustration & Application

Before we give Jonah too hard of a time I would dare say many of us need “a Nineveh” in our lives too! Too often we are too much like Jonah:

Can we really say our heart is in tune with God’s heart? Maybe our Nineveh is

the people who are involved in a different political party than we are. Did you know there are Republicans, Democrats, Libertarians and Independents that are dying in their sins and going to an eternity without Jesus? Are we really going to spend our time ripping them on social media, while turning a deaf ear to the cries of their souls?

a different ethnic group that we haven’t taken the time to get to know. Are all of your friends people who look just like you? Are all of the people you invite to church people who look just like you? Did you know that Scripture makes it clear that GOD IS NOT A RESPECTER OF PERSONS and He is not willing that ANY should perish but that ALL come to repentance. Do you actions, attitude and outreach really demonstrate that you are concerned with sharing the love and truth of Jesus to EVERY ethnicity?

Did you know the people you write off as worthless are people that have invaluable worth in God’s eyes because they were created in His image? God’s plan for sinners, regardless of their political party, regardless of their ethnicity, regardless of their addiction, regardless of their financial status, regardless of their background…God’s plan for sinners is for them to hear the truth and repent because He is GRACIOUS, MERCIFUL, PATIENT AND FULL OF LOVE AND KINDNESS. Otherwise where would YOU be today? And you know WHO He is going to use to go to THOSE PEOPLE…He’s going to use YOU! And yes, He’s not just going to send you to people who think like you, who look like you and who act like you . . . He’s going to see YOU to YOUR Nineveh, because when Jesus left Heaven and came to this earth, guess who He was looking for . . . He was looking for YOU! He found YOU in all of your sin, selfishness, rebellion and shame and WE BETTER NOT EVER FORGET WHERE HE RESCUED US FROM or we will get prideful and calloused about reaching others! We better be glad Jesus came to our Nineveh or we would be on the way to eternal hell right now! How dare we refuse to go to to our Nineveh!

It is much easier to see someone else’s sins and excuse or ignore our own. Jesus taught us in Matthew 7:3

Matthew 7:3 ESV

Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?

We typically like to categorize someone else’s rebellion against God as worse than our own. We are even tempted to find ways to excuse our rebellion against what we know God wants us to do, but because our rebellion is a little more acceptable than someone else’s we are OK. We may even try to feel better about ourselves by focusing on the things other people are doing wrong and focusing on the things we are doing right. But listen to what Jesus went on to say in Matthew 7:5

Matthew 7:5 ESV

You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.

I’m afraid, we as American Christians, care about our comforts a lot like Jonah did. We are BLESSED and I’m afraid many of us, including myself, have allowed those blessings to SPOIL us! What if we cried over souls like we cry over Hallmark movies? What if we cared for eternal things like we cared for temporary things? Jonah was more upset over a silly plant being eaten by a worm, than he was over 120,000 people who were about to experience the judgment of God! May God help us to have a HEART LIKE JESUS and get our priorities in order.

Many years ago the story is told of a man who was walking along a boat dock near the Boston Harbor and tripped over a rope. The man fell into the deep water and was unable to swim. On the pier was another man who was sunbathing, and even though he knew how to swim he did absolutely nothing to help the man who was flailing around in the water and unable to swim. The family of the man who drowned was so enraged they sued the sunbather and lost in court. The court basically said he was not “his brother’s keeper.”

We should be horrified when we hear of such stories, yet there are people all around us who are flailing around in sin and drowning in depravity . . . what are we doing to help them?

Whenever there are a group of people who need the TRUTH and there is an individual who God wants to use to get them the truth, be sure the enemy will do his part to distract and detour God’s choice...

The Enemy Had Other Plans

Explanation

It seems that the enemy has convinced the confused prophet that he can somehow escape God’s presence if he gets far enough away from Nineveh. Certainly Jonah knew of God’s omnipresence, but when one chooses to rebel against God and His plan, rational thinking seems to fly out of the window. Rather than proceed to Nineveh as he had been instructed, he goes to the city of Joppa. According to the Holman Bible Dictionary, the name Joppa means “beautiful.” Situated on the Mediterranean coast, Joppa is located some 35 miles northwest of Jerusalem (Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary (p. 944). Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.)

Jonah goes to a beautiful seaport city and finds a ship that is headed in the opposite direction! He paid the fare for the trip, got on board to head to Tarshish. He did so to get away from “the presence of the Lord.” Jonah has gone from rebelling against the Lord’s command to actually trying to “ditch” Him. This indicates “full blown rebellion” (Christ Centered Exposition, p. 7). The enemy provided him with a beautiful city and a beautiful plan to try to outrun God’s command.

Illustration

Of course this strategy of trying to run from God was nothing new. Adam and Eve tried to do the same thing in the Garden of Eden. But it was an impossibility and it was something Jonah should have been well aware of. After all King David had already penned these words in Psalm 139:7-10:

Psalm 139:7–10 ESV

Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there! If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me.

Deep down in his heart Jonah probably knew that hiding from God was an impossibility but he thought he would try anyway. The enemy was right there willing to cooperate with him. It’s important to understand that the “Devil Opens Doors Too!” Many people assume if the door is open it must mean it’s God’s will. Remember, the door to go to Tarshish was open, but it was a door the enemy had opened! One preacher who wrote a book about Jonah said this:

Who opened that door? Was it the Lord? Are you sure?

The fact is, if you are a Christian woman who is struggling in her marriage, you shouldn’t be surprised if you meet a compassionate, understanding man . . . But of course it’s a trap. That is not a door God has opened at all.

If you’re a single Christian man or woman looking for romance, there always will be a nonbeliever who wants to go out with you.

If you’re in a fever to make a pile of money in a hurry, there always will be a get-rich-quick scheme within reach. All you have to do is cut a few corners, tell a few lies, and neglect to disclose certain key points of information, and there’s that open door you’d hoped for.

The Devil always will open the doors for you to go in the wrong direction.

You may find your ship, and it may sail right on time. But if you are en route to Tarshish when God has called you to Nineveh, I want you to know something: There’s a storm brewing on the horizon. And before long you’ll go overboard. Why? Because God loves you, and He’s not going to allow His child to go astray without pursuing you. (Laurie, p. 29)

Application

Be assured the enemy will always have other plans for your life and future. Remember he is like a roaring lion seeking who he can devour. If he can’t devour your eternal soul, he certainly wants to try to succeed at devouring God’s plan and best for your life!

FINAL APPLICATIONS

Remember There are People in This World that Need You!

The enemy may have you convinced that your life makes no difference but it’s just not true! We have an entire family that is saved and in our church today because of the way ONE family in our church responded and depended upon God when their son was going through brain cancer. They saw the peace of God upon them that passed all understanding. They heard them talk about God being with them and they realized there was something missing in their life! YOU and YOUR testimony is NEEDED!

When God Commands You to Go Outside of Your Comfort Zone It’s for Your Good and His Glory!

God could have chosen other prophets for this task, but God chose Jonah. God knew that Jonah needed Nineveh almost as bad as Nineveh needed Jonah. You may not always understand God’s commands but you can always TRUST God’s commands!

Be Careful What Doors You Walk Through

Just because a door is open doesn’t mean it’s from God. You may have heard about the lady who was on a diet and she prayed, “Dear God if you want me to have a box of Krispy Kreme donuts please let there be an open parking spot right by the door. If there is I will know it’s an open door.” Sure enough after she circled the block a dozen times there was the empty spot!

What God may ask of you may be very ODD, but God can be trusted! He can feed a multitude with just 5 loaves and 2 fish. He can support a hungry prophet with a widow who has no food.