Jonah – A Sign and a Cycle!

Good afternoon, brethren. Two weeks ago, while we were enjoying Thanksgiving here in the United States, a very different situation was unfolding in Indonesia. I’ll read an article to start here, get right into it, it’s titled, “Horrifying moment man cuts his brother’s body out of the belly of twenty-three-foot python.” There have been numerous instances of pythons attacking, killing, and even swallowing their human victims whole, as workers find themselves working closer to their natural habitats.

“This is the chilling moment a dad of three’s body was cut out of the belly of a twenty-three-foot python that swallowed him whole.” This is from, I believe, The Mirror paper out of the UK. “Indonesian farmer and dad of three, Peco, age thirty, was collecting sap for making brown sugar when the serpent coiled around his body shortly after dusk on Tuesday,” would be the Tuesday before Thanksgiving here in America.

“The giant snake crushed the father to death in the North Luwu Regency region before eating five-foot-three-inch Peco whole. Concerned for Peco’s safety, his brother-in-law, Wawan, went out to look for him but returned home. He then spotted the snake with a full stomach and rushed to get others to help.” “They’re a danger that everyone knows about.” Here’s a quote from one of the villagers. I’m not sure if it was the brother. “I can’t explain...” Ah, it is the brother. “I can’t explain how my brother was caught by one. He was very experienced.”

“Police later confirmed that Peco was inside the python and had died. They’re not looking for anyone else in connection with the death, and his family’s been notified,” and goes on to give more details. Tragic, tragic situation, something that, of course, won’t happen in the kingdom, but it sets up what we’re going to talk about because it has been happening through history. The wild animal attacks, or even swallowed by these mammoth reptiles. And it makes what we’re going to read here in Matthew chapter twelve, if you turn there, Matthew chapter twelve, all the more amazing.

Here, in Matthew twelve verse thirty-nine, we read about what is probably the greatest sign or miracle in history to this point. Matthew twelve thirty-nine. “But he...” Christ, “...answered and said to them, an evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and there shall no sign be given to it but the sign of the prophet Jonas.” Jonah, in Hebrew.

“For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly...” left for dead, of course, “...so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and condemn it because they repented at the preaching of Jonas...” who, of course, survived this ordeal. He emerged after three days, we’ll see that, just as Christ emerged from the earth. “...and behold, a greater than Jonah is here...” speaking of himself.

Now, we often focus on the sign itself, and it is all-important. That was the sign given, the chief sign that Christ was Christ. There were many signs, many unmistakable ones, but that’s the one Christ singled out when addressing the generation that He spoke to two thousand years ago. But there’s even more we can glean, we can learn from the account surrounding that forerunner, of Christ being in the grave for three days and three nights.

What we can glean, more lessons we can glean from the story of Jonah and what he went through. And that’s what we’re going to look at today. Some of the lessons that occur from that account, where that man was swallowed whole. But unlike Peco, emerged and was used to give us one of the books of the bible. So we’ll turn to Jonah one, and we’ll start there. We’ll be in Jonah a lot of the time today, so if you have a ribbon or a bookmark, you may want to place it at the start of the book.

Jonah one verse one. “Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah, the son of Amittai, saying, ‘Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it, for their wickedness is come up before me’ “Now, this was a city that was full of enemies of Israel, and here, you have this prophet of God told by God, “Go to that city.” It would not have been a pleasing task. It would have been dangerous in and of itself. Who would want to go to your mortal enemies and speak to them, let alone tell them hard things? Very difficult.

But that’s the first lesson that emerges from this account that we can take from this account as Christians. Christianity is often about doing hard things. Christianity is often about doing hard things. God asked Jonah to do something challenging. When we were called, God was asking something challenging of us. Will you walk away from the life you live? Will you walk away from your acquaintances? Will you, maybe in some instances, walk away from your career if it interferes with the Sabbath? Will you stop associating with certain friends who are going to pull you in the wrong direction?

It was hard just coming into the church, but we know that life can be hard beyond just coming in. In general, in life, the most successful people are those who do things that others can’t or won’t do. The most successful people are those who do things that others can’t or won’t do. You know, pull back for a minute. Don’t consider it in the light of Christianity but in other pursuits in life.

Think of an Olympian. There might be somebody who wants to be the greatest boxer, or the greatest runner, or the greatest pole vaulter ever to have walked the earth. And they might have the drive, they might really want to do that, but if God didn’t give them a superabundance of the right kinds of muscle fibers or a highly efficient heart, or a dense bone structure, they can want to all that they want, but they won’t be able to do it. On the other hand, you might have somebody who is a highly developed athlete from birth just based on the gifts God gave them physiologically, but they’re lazy. They won’t do it. Others can’t do it.

But it applies to every arena of life. Leadership. There’s a certain amount of intelligence that a person has to possess. A certain amount of experience that a person has to possess. The desire and the ability has to align. We’ve been called to a life that offers the ultimate success entering the family of God. And we know we can do it because God wouldn’t have called us were that not the case. He would never set us up for failure. He’s given us an amazing opportunity, and He’s given us the ability to succeed.

It’s up to us to desire to take him up on that offer, of course. But we’re perfectly positioned to be able to do it. It’s just a matter of if we want to do it. If we want to do the hard things as they come our way, if I could put it that way. Turn back to Matthew, and again, if you have a bookmark, it would be helpful to keep it in Jonah. Back to Matthew this time to chapter seven. That principle applies to anything, musicians. Somebody might want to write great songs, but if they don’t have an aptitude for music, if God didn’t give them an aptitude for music, they can try and try and then they can reach a certain level of success, but not the pinnacle.

On the other hand, somebody may be highly gifted, but just not really want to succeed or develop that talent. Matthew seven. Christianity is often about doing hard things. Verse thirteen, “Enter you in at the straight gate...” Christ said, “...for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat.” It’s easy to go with the flow. It’s easy to go the easy way of life, to make the same bad decisions everyone else does, to wind up in the same position everyone else does, “…because straight is the gate and narrow is the way which leads to life and few there be that find it.”

It’s a very precise course. And we’ve been given the blueprint for walking that narrow path, if I could put it that way. We’ve been told what is the narrow path and equipped to walk that narrow path. We have the ability to walk it. We have the desire to walk it. We have the ability to do those hard things that will take us along that very treacherous path, if I could put it that way, tackling whatever life throws at us. Ecclesiastes nine. Ecclesiastes nine.

It is not just a path, it’s a race. Paul called it a race. Well, Ecclesiastes nine talks about racing and gives an interesting window into how we have to run that race. Ecclesiastes nine, ten, “Whatsoever your hand finds to do, do it with your might for there is no work nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in the grave where you go. I returned and saw under the sun that the race is not to the swift...” It’s not always the fastest person who wins the race, Solomon is saying, “...nor the battle to the strong...”

We’re not the most talented people. In fact, God tells us He’s calling a lot of people who are not necessarily talented to confound those who are, to say, “Look, look what I was able to do with these people that you scoffed at and mocked at in your lives.” He can tell the masses, “Look, look how far they’ve come by relying on me. Now they’re going to be your teachers.” It’s an amazing thing. It’s an amazing dynamic he’s going to use to confound the mighty.

“The race is not always to the swift, not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to men of understanding, nor yet favor to men of skill, but time and chance happens to them all.” We are the weak of the world, but we’re undergoing the greatest race there is, and the race is not always to the swift. There’s a play on that phrase that I really enjoy. I found it while I was preparing this message. Someone that it’s an unknown attribution, said the race is not always to the swift, but to those who keep running. The race is not always to the swift, but to those who keep running.

If any of you have done any amount of racing, I’ve done a fair share of racing, track in particular, track and cross country, you know, any one of us who’s ran a race know that stopping, ugh, the hardest thing to start again. Giving up, that’s the worst you can do. The race is not always to the swift but to those who keep on running, who keep moving, who despite the hard things that life presents, just keep on keeping on as the saying goes. Who are simply willing to walk the treacherous path and stick to it no matter what. Back to Jonah. Jonah was asked to do something difficult just as we’re asked to do difficult things.

Now, this is a very unique situation that Jonah was experiencing, but his example is to hold lessons for us just like all stories in the Bible, counts in the Bible are to teach us lessons. We can draw on parallels. Jonah was asked to do something hard there in verses one and two,. Verse three, “But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish.” He decided not to do what God asked him to do. Here in verse three, “To flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord and went down to Joppa and he found a ship going to Tarshish so he paid the fare thereof and went down into it to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.”

God asked him to do something and rather than jumping on the opportunity or even just talking to God, “God, this is just hard. Can you please give me strength?” Whatever he might’ve said, his conclusion was instead to try somehow to escape the God of the universe by getting on a ship. Buying a train ticket and getting out of town, so to speak. We live in the Laodicean era. We live in an era where the people think they know better than God. And we’re not immune to that. We can fall into that same state of mind. But here Jonah was basically saying, “I’m not going to do what God has planned for me.”

Who knows all the thoughts that were going through his mind, but we see his decision. And he obviously arrived at a terrible decision. Verse four, “But the Lord sent out a great wind into the sea and there was a mighty tempest in the sea so that the ship was like to be broken.” There was an immediate response to Jonah’s terrible rebellious decision. Which leads us to the second great lesson from the book. And these lessons could be broken out in different ways. You’ll see certain lessons that I didn’t highlight, or maybe the way you think of it is a little different from the way I frame it.

These are by no means, of course, all the lessons from the Book of Jonah, just some big principles I wanted to highlight that I think would help us. This second lesson from the book is that trials come when they need to. Trials come when they need to. Turn to Romans eight, Romans chapter eight. Jonah made a bad decision. Sometimes in life we make a bad decision and the fruits of that decision are delayed. We don’t necessarily feel the sting immediately. In many cases that is the case, but here we get a very real-time account of cause and effect when it comes to disobeying God. A trial came, a sore trial came.

Romans chapter eight, verse twenty-eight, “And we know that all things work together for the good of them that love God, to them who are called according to His purpose. For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom He did predestinate, He also called, and whom He called, them He also justified, and whom He justified, them He also glorified.” There’s no escaping trials. All things work together for our good. They’re there for our benefit. No escaping them.

Matthew thirteen. Back to Matthew. We’ll see just how disastrous the trial that came upon Jonah is shortly. For right now, we’re zeroing in on the fact that trials come when they need to. Matthew thirteen, verse eighteen. There’s no escaping them. “Hear you the parable of the sower,” Christ said. “When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and understands it not, then comes the wicked one and catches away that which was sown in his heart. This is he which received the seed by the wayside. But he that received the seed into the stony places, the same as he that hears the word and anon with joy receives it...” is excited about what he or she has heard.

We’re contacted by great numbers of people who are excited about what they hear. But this or that comes up. I know this has prophetic application but look at it from the basic lessons of life here. This or that comes up. That initial excitement wears off. That’s the difference in many regards between being in this room or continuing doing your own thing. Walking that broad way we read of. Walking that wide path. It’s the difference. “...yet he has no root in himself but endures for a while. For when tribulation, when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word by and by, he’s offended.”

Not if, when. Tribulation and persecution will arise. Trials come when they need to. As mentioned earlier. “He also that received seed among the thorns is he that hears the word and the care of this world and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word and he becomes unfruitful. But he that received seed into the good ground is he that hears the word and understands it. Which also bears fruit and brings forth some a hundred, some sixty, and some thirty.” It’s a person who endured those trials. Who was willing to do the hard things through those trials. If I can marry those first two points.

God is building in us His character. He wants us to be His sons and daughters. He wants us to be examples to the rest of the world. He wants us to be like Him. He wants to perfect us to the point where we will be God. But that won’t happen if these trials don’t come when they need to. Now sometimes they come because we bring them upon ourselves. But there are other times where God just wants to develop a certain feature in us. A certain character attribute in us or strengthen a certain character attribute or rid us of a certain character attribute. And He’ll send a trial our way.

Maybe we didn’t learn to be organized or something as a child. He might let something get unorganized in our life and cause a disaster, and then we’ll say, “Okay, I need to be organized.” It’s not necessarily that He sees we’re rebelling and wants to immediately send us a trial. It could just be to perfect His nature in us. But there are other times, of course, such as this case with Jonah, where a trial results because of rebellion, or because we’re not as close to God as we should be, or because we have hard lessons to learn because maybe we’re distracted. God doesn’t want us to fall prey to those pressures and distractions and cares of life that Christ spoke of. They’re coming either way.

First Peter one. First Peter one. When we make mistakes, God’s merciful, but He also wants us to learn lessons. Maybe things we’re missing, things that impede our growth. First Peter one, verse three. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ which according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that fades not away reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”

We’re alive at the end here. It’s an amazing time to be alive. We’re seeking to be among the last who go first. “Wherein you greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, you are in heaviness through manifold temptations.” Life can get hard, but trials come when they must. “That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perishes, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.”

Now when gold is refined, it’s refined in the same way it’s been refined for thousands of years. There are certain chemical processes that are today used, but by and large, if you have a large amount of gold, you refine it with fire. You heat it to a certain point, and the alloy, if there are any other metals mixed in or any impurities mixed in, will rise to the top. The dross will rise to the top. Same with silver. And then it’s skimmed off and thrown away, and you’re left with pure gold but it requires high heat. Refiners fire.

We’re being refined and built through the process of tribulation, the process of refinement, it involves heat. A loving God wants us pure. A loving God wants those trials to bring the dross to the top, if we can use the analogy, so that He can skim it off and throw it away, and He’ll be left with the desire of His hands. He’ll be left with the work He’s doing in us. He gave us these physical parallels so that we can understand what He’s doing with us.

He wants us precious. He wants to remove those impurities, and that’s what He uses trials to do. They have to come. Psalm one-thirteen, Psalm one-thirteen. He’s actually going to do that to the entire world. This is an amazing verse. Psalm one-thirteen. Yes, it was Psalm one-nineteen. I’m sorry. Psalm one-nineteen, verse one-thirteen. “I hate vain thoughts, but your law do I love. You are my hiding place and my shield. I hope in your word. Depart from me, you evildoers, for I will keep the commandments of my God. Uphold me according to your word, that I might live.”

Verse one-sixteen. “And let me not be ashamed of my hope. Hold you me up, and I shall be safe and I will have respect unto your statutes continually. You have trodden down all them that err from your statutes for their deceit is falsehood. You put away all the wicked of the earth like dross. Therefore, I love your testimonies.” God’s ultimate goal is a world wherein dwells righteousness. His ultimate goal is a world at peace. His ultimate goal is a world where people are keeping his commandments, either in route to eternal life, or ultimately with eternal life, a life of harmony.

And if people given every opportunity to live God’s way, don’t want to live God’s way, He’ll put them away from the earth like dross. He’ll treat those very people like dross, like the impurities that need to be removed. It’s a graphic picture, but ultimately an act of love. He won’t allow people like that to plague others for eternity. The same thing He does in our personal lives. Removing the chaff, removing the impurities, removing the dross. He’s going to do on a worldwide scale. It’s easy to understand. He won’t allow dross to remain.

“Therefore, I love your testimonies.” This plan excited David. He was pleased to be able to think on a time where there wouldn’t be any wicked people on earth, just as we are. Our hope, of course, is that they change. They don’t know better right now. In certain regards they do, but they don’t know better right now. Our ardent hope is that we would help them. We will help them, and they’ll change. They’ll respond, they’ll react, and they won’t be a part of that dross. But ultimately, there’ll be a world at peace. We can’t wait for that.

“My flesh trembles for fear of you, and I’m afraid of your judgments.” Now, when we go through these trials, when we’re presented with these trials, whether we bring it on ourselves or whether it’s thrust upon us, because God wants us to learn a lesson that we wouldn’t have otherwise learned. It’s how we respond that makes all the difference. This is all easy to understand. They’re easy to understand concepts. Just looking at it through the lens of an account where it’s easy to go back and read those short few books and bring the lessons to mind, jog the memory, but it’s how we respond. Acts nine.

Saul... Verse one. Acts nine, one. “Saul...” Paul, before he was converted, “...yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest, and desired of him letters to Damascus to the synagogues, that if he found any of this way...” the way of christianity, “...whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem.” He was such a fervent Pharisee that he wanted not only to correct true Christians, he wanted to capture them and bring them to justice. He wanted to kill them. That’s how zealously misguided he was.

“And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus, and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven, and he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying to him, ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” Here was a trial. This shocking experience was the front edge of it. “And he said, ‘Who are you Lord?’ And the Lord said, ‘I am Jesus whom you persecute. It is hard for you to kick against the pricks.’” It’s hard for you to go against me. “And he trembling and astonished said, ‘Lord, what will you have me to do?’” That was his attitude when he realized, “Oh, I’ve messed up. I’ve done something wrong.” He said, “God, I’m in a wrong way. What will you have me to do?” Immediate attitude of repentance began to manifest itself. “I want to change. What do you want me to do?”

“And the Lord said to him...” the latter half of verse six, “Arise and go into the city, it shall be told you what you must do. And the men which journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice, but seeing no man. And Saul arose from the earth, and when his eyes were opened he saw no man. But they led him by the hand and brought him to Damascus.” So, accosted by this voice from heaven, told he was in rebellion, and blinded, Saul trial, but what was his attitude? It was, “Lord, what will you have me to do? I’ve made a mistake. I want to change.”

“And he was three days without sight, neither did eat nor drink. And there was a certain disciple at Damascus named Ananias; and to him said the Lord in a vision, ‘Ananias.’ And he said, ‘Behold, I’m here Lord.’ And the Lord said to him, ‘Arise and go into the street, which is called Straight, and inquire in the house of Judas for one called Saul of Tarsus, for behold, he prays...’” He’s seeking me. He got the message of that trial, and he immediately changed his attitude. “‘And he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias coming in and putting his hand on him that he might receive his sight.’ Then Ananias answered, ‘Lord, I have heard by many of this man, how much evil he’s done to Your saints at Jerusalem. And here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all that call upon His name.’”

Ananias was just double-checking; this guy may actually hunt me. I’m sure he had the greater church in mind, but there was probably some save his own skin involved too. “This man has literally been going around and capturing the brethren, are you sure I’ll be okay in his presence?” “But the Lord said to him, ‘Go your way, for he’s a chosen vessel unto me to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel. For I’ll show him how great things he must suffer for My name’s sake,’” because all of God’s servants have to go through trials.

Here was the first of many that Paul had to endure, shipwrecks, beatings, fastings, thefts, animal attacks. There’s a long list in Second Corinthians eleven. Just the front edge of the trials he experienced. Yet, the way he responded in this trial is why God could go on to use him for great things, just as the way we respond to trials ultimately determines how God can use us. There are some people who collapse in the face of trial, who don’t draw on God for strength. It’s deeply tragic, or who even worse, rebel.

Trials will come, but it’s how we respond to them. How we respond, frankly, can determine whether the trial gets better or more severe. Just our attitude is often enough to turn the tide. If God sees we’re learning the lesson, He may reduce the severity of the trial. Did Jonah learn the lesson? Jonah Chapter one again, Jonah one. We’ll continue. Did Jonah have a “Lord, what will you have me to do moment” when the tempest grew? Depending on how we respond in the face of trial, things can get worse or better.

Verse five, “Then the mariners were afraid...” the shipmates, “...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.” They knew it was a life-or-death situation; the cargo was inconsequential at that point. The prophet from the journey didn’t really matter if they were all going to die. “But Jonah was gone down into the sides of the ship, and he lay and was fast asleep.” He’s a unique person, right? Not only did he rebel against God, but he’s able to sleep through this tempest just to sound slumber. I don’t know. So the shipmaster came to him and said to him, “What mean you, O sleeper? Arise and call upon your God. If so, be that God will think upon us that we perish not.” People by and large were more, we could say, religious back then.

Everyone was calling on his God so that they wouldn’t perish. “And they said everyone to his fellow, ‘Come, let’s cast lots that we may know for whose cause this evil is upon us.’” So they cast lots and a lot fell on Jonah. God, of course, guided that. Then said they unto him, “Tell us, we pray you, for whose cause this evil has come upon us. What’s your occupation? And where have you come from? What’s your country? And of what people are you?” It was evident that Jonah was the cause of their problems. And they wanted answers. They wanted to get to the bottom of it.

They knew their lives depended on it. And he said to them, “I am a Hebrew, and I fear the Lord.” Well, we could say kind of. I mean, he’s in the midst of great rebellion. But “I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, which has made the sea and the dry land.” Which leads to the next lesson here, the next great lesson. And that is that our example is all important. Our example, the example we set is all important. Now, in one sense, Jonah was setting a bad example. It was for God’s greater purpose. I mean, he had to be swallowed by this fish. Unless God, after he was swallowed by the fish, just chose to use that as the lesson.

It’s not as though Jonah was destined to rebel God. He had the choice of acting correctly from the beginning. I don’t mean to say that at all. But Jonah had the opportunity to be an example to these mariners. And in one sense, he professed, I believe in the true God and I fear him. And they could tell something was different about this man. I mean, he was a prophet of God and they took real note. Because his example was all-important, just like ours is all important.

Verse ten. “Then were the men exceedingly afraid and said to him, ‘why have you done this?’ For the men knew that he fled from the presence of the Lord because he had told them.” They were religious and they could tell something was different about this situation. I mean, look what was happening. They could see a very real divine being was angry. They knew there must be something to this God that Jonah served. “Then they said to him, ‘what shall we do unto you that the sea may be calm to us?’ For the sea wrought and was tempestuous.” The trial was getting worse and worse. Because Jonah wasn’t repenting. He was persisting in that mindset.

Notice he didn’t cry out to God here and say, “God, I repent. I’m sorry. Please leave these men alone. I’ll do what you’ve asked of me.” Nothing like that. And he said to me, he said to them, “Take me up and cast me forth into the sea. So shall the sea be calm to you. For I know that for my sake, this great tempest is upon you.” And in one sense, it’s a little bit of a selfless act. Okay, I don’t want to harm you. Just throw me into the sea. But still not what God was looking for. So the trial has to go on. “Nevertheless, the men rode hard to bring it to land….” They probably feared throwing out this man of God.

“…But they could not for the sea wrought and was tempestuous against them. Wherefore, they look at what Jonah’s example did. Look at what our example can do. Maybe not immediately in life, but long term. Wherefore, they, these mariners, these men who were moments ago praying to all these foreign pagan gods who could do nothing for them, they cried unto the Lord. The capital L-O-R-D there. They cried out to the true God based on this brief interaction with Jonah, and said, “We beseech you, O Lord. We beseech you. Let us not perish for this man’s life and lay not upon us innocent blood.”

In other words, “We’re going to take Jonah up on his offer and we’re going to throw him in the water. Please don’t be angry with us. Lay not upon us innocent blood for you, O Lord, have done as it pleased you.” So they took Jonah and they cast him forth into the sea. You know, maybe they were just hedging their bets with this prayer, but it worked out for them it appears. Cast him forth into the sea, and the sea ceased from her raging. Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly. Not Jonah, the men. These unconverted sailors who presumably had never come into contact with the true God or anyone representing the true God.

This one example, this one extraordinary case led to a ship full of converts who regrettably threw the only man who could have taught them anything more about God overboard. Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly and offered sacrifice unto the Lord and made vows. Now, not good to make vows, that’s a different discussion, but they were zealous. They’d seen real power. Jonah’s example, the example God showed them through Jonah, made a lasting impression, First Peter three. Now, this is an extreme example, but they could see Jonah was different.

And I dare say, those we know, family members, friends, people, hotel staff at the feast, whoever it may be, they can see we’re different. And they’re not automatically asking to come to church or praying to the true God based on our interactions with them. Again, we’re looking at an extreme example that teaches valuable lessons, but it has a real impact. First Peter three and verse thirteen.

“Who is he that will harm you if you be followers of that which is good?” Peter asks. “There’s nothing that can happen to us of great consequence. I mean, even if we lose our physical life, it doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things,” he’s saying. “Who is he that will harm you if you be followers of that which is good? But in if you suffer for righteousness sake,” now he’s also saying, if you live a good life, you’re not going to suffer. You’re not a threat to the government or anyone else. There’s an element of that too.

“But in if you suffer for righteousness sake, happy are you, and be not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled, but sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asks you for a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear.” Our example can sometimes lead to a question. That’s how I was called. Somebody’s example led me to ask, and I learned that there was a church that seeks to obey God. The rest is history, as the saying goes.

That person was ready to give me an answer, and I got a satisfactory answer, and it eventually led me here. We learn by example. You think back to someone, maybe a special teacher or a parent or whoever it may have been who influenced you early in life. You looked up to that person. You seek to emulate certain characteristics of that person. People inherently learn by example, Romans fifteen. Romans chapter fifteen. Romans fifteen and verse four, Paul writes, “Whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.”

Now, a lot of what was written aforetime were accounts, examples, people we could decide to copy, or people who were disobeying God who we could decide not to copy. We’re looking at one of those things written in the book of Jonah. We’re looking at a story and gleaning lessons from it. The Bible is full of examples that God gives us to learn from, First Corinthians ten. Whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning.

First Corinthians ten verse one. “Moreover, brethren, I would not that you should be ignorant how that all our fathers were under the cloud and all passed through the sea and were baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and did eat the same spiritual meat, and did all drink the same spiritual drink.” For they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ. But with many of them, God was not well pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness. They had bad examples. Now these things were our examples to the intent that we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted.

“Neither be you idolaters, as some of them, as it is written, the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play. Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed and fell in one day twenty and three thousand, three and twenty thousand. Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed of serpents. Neither murmur you, as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer. Now all these things happened unto them for in samples, and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come, wherefore let him that thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.”

They laid some bad examples. There were others who laid good examples. But God is making us the ultimate examples for all mankind who’ve ever lived or who will come after us. He’s going to say, “Look what I did with these peculiar people. Look how they overcame. Look how they grew. Look how they eventually entered my family.” You can have that too. But what we’re doing right now can have a very real impact on those around us.

Family members, friends, acquaintances, people we see at the grocery store who we’ll never see again during this physical life. It can have a very real impact in a way we’ll read in First Peter two. First Peter two. We’ve got to stand out from this crooked and perverse generation as Paul called it. But we’ll turn to First Peter two. We have to be blameless children of God in the midst of this generation.

First Peter two verse nine. “But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people, that you should show forth the praises of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.” Which in times past were not a people, but are now the people of God, which had not obtained mercy. We were in the same category as everyone else, but now have obtained mercy.

Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims. We’re now the standouts in this world. A pilgrim makes a journey. A pilgrim is a stranger in the land to which he or she goes. A pilgrim brings a different way of life. We’re now pilgrims and strangers on this Earth. We have to abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul. Having your conversation, your conduct, honest among the Gentiles, among the unbelievers, we’re surrounded by. We have to be an example to them. We have to be above reproach. Basic honesty sets us apart in this life now. Manners, just all the facets of living God’s way. Respect for other human beings.

These little things, particularly in the midst of the crooked and perverse generation in which we find ourselves, go a long way now. They really set us apart. Having your conversation, your conduct honest among the Gentiles, whereas they speak against you as evildoers. They might, “Ah. This crazy religion. They go to church on Saturday, blah, blah.” Whatever they might say, they speak against us as evildoers, but they by your good works. They may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation.

These little interactions or maybe these frequent interactions with family and friends where we’re not willing to bend, but at the same time, we’re upstanding in character, we’re loving, we’re kind, we’re the example that others are seeing. We’re an example of God’s way of life to these people. They’re going to recall that and glorify God in the day of visitation.

Our example is all-important. And not only will they glorify God in the day of visitation, imagine them saying, “Wow, you know what? I was really unkind to that person, yet they took the high road, and now they’re my teacher, and they’re not holding it against me.” Imagine how we’re positioning people like that for success by being these strangers and pilgrims living good examples in this way of life. Now, we don’t want to be doormats. I’m not advocating that. We have to stand up for what’s right, but they’ll respect that too. We just have to do it in a Christian way.

“Submit yourselves therefore to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake, whether it be to the king as supreme, or unto governors as unto them that are sent by Him for the punishment of evildoers, and for the praise of them that do well. For so it is the will of God that with well-doing you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men.” With well-doing, with living the right example. Not so that they begin praying to God like in the instance of Jonah, but yes, so that they begin praying to God as with the instance of Jonah. Just there’s a delay. There’s a delay. There’ll come a day when they’re going to wake up so to speak, and where our example will make a very real impact.

You think about all the different people, even us in this tiny church at the End of the Age. All the different people we’ve come into contact with throughout our years of conversion. Was everything perfect? Of course not. We all grow. We all have bad moments where we learn from them and we get better.

Imagine how many people the people of God have interacted with down through the years, just casual acquaintances, and what an impact that’ll be. As free, and not using your liberty for a cloak of maliciousness, but as servants of God. Not, “Oh, I’m not like these others here. I’m better than every...” No. We don’t want to use our liberty as a cloak of maliciousness. We don’t want to have evil intents toward people out in society just because they don’t understand what we understand. No.

All the more, it should drive us to live in a way that will make them realize, “You know what? This person, I might not understand everything about the way they live. I might not agree with everything regarding how they live, but they’re different.” And then when their time comes, maybe it’ll come in this life, unlikely, but when their time comes to actually realize what’s going on, what an impact we can have on them just through our example. “Honor all men, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the king’s servants, be subject to your masters with all fear, not only to the good and gentle but also to the froward for its thankworthy if a man for conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully. For what glory is it that when you’re buffeted for your faults, you take it patiently?

But if when you do well and suffer for it, you take it patiently. This is acceptable with God. For even here on two where you called because,” here’s our example, “Because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that you should follow in His steps.” I think it was Paul, in fact I know it was, who said, “Follow me as I follow Christ.” Paul imitated Christ. We imitate Christ and Paul and others who have good examples. Well, we are going to be the examples to the masses.

Incredible. An incredible opportunity we’ve been given. We’ve got to let our lights shine now for the sake of those we come into interaction with now for their sake now and later. Now, Jonah could have avoided all this, could have avoided all this. Turn back to Jonah one. Yet despite his continued unrepentance, we never want to remain in this state, but despite his continued unrepentance, God didn’t give up on him. But sometimes mercy comes in hard forms. So the trial only intensified.

Verse seventeen, “Now, the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah.” Think of that terrible snake that swallowed Peco, so sad. “And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights, and the trial persisted until,” chapter two, verse one, “Jonah prayed unto the Lord his God out of the fish’s belly.” Presumably at the end of these three days and three nights, imagine being in those circumstances and not crying out to God minute one.

The last time I was swallowed by a fish, I began praying immediately. Yes, see it’s easy to say. This is just such an extraordinary story, but it appears it took three days for him to come around. “Then Jonah prayed unto the Lord his God out of the fish’s belly and said, I cried by reason of my affliction unto the Lord and He heard me, out of the belly of hell cried I and you heard my voice.” This was a type of death. This was a pretty low circumstance to find himself in.

“For you had cast me into the deep in the midst of the seas and the floods compassed me about. All your billows and your waves passed over me. Then I said, I’m cast out of your sight yet will I look again toward your holy temple.” Jonah came to repentance. I’ve been rebellious yet will I look again toward your holy temple? I’m going to seek you again, God. “The waters compassed me about.” Think of just the pressure down below. Now, God had to supernaturally preserve him.

I mean, the digestive juices alone probably would have penetrated his skull in a matter of a day or so. I don’t know the science of it, but God obviously had to preserve him in a way, but at the same time, let him experience the gross state of being inside of a fish swimming around underwater with no food or anything for a few days. Horrible. “Waters compassed me about.”

The pressure. I don’t know what it would’ve been like. “Even to the soul, the depth closed me roundabout. The weeds were wrapped around my head.” When I was little in Sunday school and I’d hear this story, I might have pictured Jonah like sitting on a chair inside the whale’s belly, but in all likelihood, he was just, you know, probably face on the stomach lining, just who knows what else this fish had eaten, how bad it would’ve smelled if the acids were allowed to begin to dissolve his skin.

He had this seaweed, these weeds wrapped around his head. Terrible situation. “I went down to the bottoms of the mountains.” So, this fish went all the way down. There are giant mountains at the bottom of the sea surface. The topography of the bottom of the ocean, some of it hasn’t even been explored. “The earth with her bars was about me forever: yet have you brought up my life from corruption, O God.” Essentially, from death.

“When my soul fainted within me,” when the trial achieved its purpose, “I remembered the Lord: and my prayer came in unto you, in your holy temple.” The purpose of the trial paid off. “They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy. But I will sacrifice unto you with the voice of thanksgiving. I will pay what I have vowed. Salvation is of the Lord. And the Lord spoke unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land.”

Amazing. God communicated with this fish and Jonah learned a lesson. He had a change of attitude. He was repentant, and God said, “Okay. That’s enough. He learned a lesson. I’m going to ease up.” Sometimes the trial will go on, but once we respond, God will respond. Jonah learned, God responded, which brings to light the fourth lesson. Trials, pain as it’s been called, kicks the learning mechanism into gear.

I remember when I was a boy, I really enjoyed playing with clay, building different things, models, and whatnot, but clay was expensive. So sometimes my mother would help me make art dough which was essentially flour, salt, and water and maybe one other substance I can’t remember. Somebody is mouthing it to me in the front row, but I’m not a lip reader. I wish I was because it’s a really neat substance. If you’re a young person, you want cheap clay, essentially.

Well, I wanted to model an orca whale and I love... Oh, it’s the greatest whale, and I... It was looking really good, but its dorsal fin kept flopping over. And so I installed a toothpick in the body of the whale pointing straight up, holding its fin up, and it’s just about done, but something looks wrong with it and I begin to get frustrated. And eventually, I just lose it. And I slammed my hand down on the orca and I pulled it up and there’s a toothpick protruding out of my hand. And it was one of the most painful... I still... It’s probably the first memory of pain that I had as a child.

But literally, I picked it up and the toothpick was sticking out of my hand. I slammed it so hard and it was so perpendicular to the table that it speared me. And I learned not to be as frustrated with projects. The pain kicked the learning mechanism into gear. Now, that’s a physical instance, but the Bible over and over again talks about this. Not about whales and toothpicks and boys, but Ecclesiastes seven. You know, I learned a profound lesson at that moment. Don’t be stupid. And I would say we’ve all had to learn that lesson, and I’ve learned it many more times since. It happens though not in that particular way, but you understand.

Ecclesiastes seven verse three, Solomon said, “Sorrow is better than laughter: for by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better.” When we go through different trials and we take note say, “Oh, you know, that... Maybe I shouldn’t act like that anymore.” And we become better. Our character improves. We grow. That’s the point of it. “The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning; but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.”

Yes. We’re to enjoy life. This doesn’t counter all of those verses. James, James chapter five. James five, and verse ten, James said, “Take my brethren the prophets who have spoken in the name of the Lord for an example of suffering and affliction and patience. Behold we count them happy which endure…” not because of what they’re going through, not oh, wow, he’s going through a trial, oh how happy he or she must be at this moment, no. We count them happy which endure because of what it produces long-term. You’ve heard of the patience of Job and have seen the end of the Lord, that the Lord is very pitiful and of tender mercy”. When we learn the lessons and grow.

He’s the ultimate teacher. It’s that same pressure that made Christ our High Priest, Hebrews four. It’s that same pressure, that same pain that taught Christ. It teaches little boys. It teaches the prophets. It teaches us. It taught Christ. Hebrews chapter four. “Seeing then,” verse fourteen, “that we have a great High Priest that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. For we have not a High Priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities,” who doesn’t relate to our sufferings, could be another way of putting it, we don’t have a High Priest who can’t relate to us, “rather he was in all points tempted like as we are, yet he did it without sin.”

He endured those trials perfectly. He learned every lesson that we must learn. He didn’t make mistakes and have to learn lessons, but again, trials can come even if we don’t make mistakes. Trials come because God is doing a great work in us. Chapter five says, “Though He were a son,” verse eight, “Though He were a son, yet learned He obedience by the things which He suffered.” Suffered means to experience a sensation, usually painful. That pressure transformed Him and being made perfect because of what He suffered. He became the author of eternal salvation unto all that obey Him.

That pressure, those trials, you don’t need to spend long here because we already saw that trials come. This is more so the purpose of the trial. That pressure is transformative. One more verse on this, Second Corinthians four. Second Corinthians four verse fifteen, “All things are for your sakes that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God. For which cause we faint not, but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.” For our light affliction, the pressure we experience, the trials we experience, the tribulation we experience, which is but for a moment, it’s relatively short in the grand scheme of things.

A physical period of time can’t even be represented as a fraction of eternity. It’s but for a moment, works for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. It works in us, these pressures, these trials, toward an eternal weight of glory. Amazing. That’s why Paul elsewhere said we glory in tribulation. If you were to read the rest of Jonah, you’d pick it up in chapter three, you’d find Jonah went to Nineveh. He warned, and there was a response, but Jonah was upset about that. He was upset that these mortal enemies of his people repented. And not surprisingly, God was upset with his new attitude. The rest of the account bears that out.

Jonah lost sight of what we could call the fifth great lesson that we see in this book, and it’s very much tied to being a good example. So, we don’t really need to belabor the point, but we will make a distinction here. The fifth great lesson is that our purpose is to help others. Our purpose is to help expand the family of God. That’s in part what we’re doing by being good examples.

Jonah had the opportunity to convert or at least teach vast numbers to God’s way. And when they responded, he had a bad attitude about it. But thankfully, we’ll read one more verse in Jonah, thankfully God didn’t give up on him because Jonah four, in verse two, actually verse one, “It displeased Jonah exceedingly when God spared these people, and he was very angry, and he prayed unto the Lord and said, ‘I pray you O Lord, was not this my saying when I was yet in my country.’ “We hear more about why he didn’t want to go. “‘Therefore, I fled before to Tarshish for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and of great kindness and repent you of evil. Therefore, now, O Lord, take, I beseech you, my life from me for it’s better for me to die than to live…’” because these people repented.

How confused was this man who was just swallowed by a fish and had to walk a great distance? As another man was telling me last night, I’ve heard it could be as much as 500 miles from where the fish deposited him on the shore. How confused was this man that he was upset that these people repented and spared their physical lives?

But thankfully, the same God who Jonah cited as being merciful, slow to anger, of great kindness, and who repented himself of evil, thankfully, that same God was still working with this man who led a life designed to teach us great lessons. Who led a life that ultimately led to an event that typified Christ’s being in the ground for three days and three nights. God was still giving Jonah trials by the end of the book.

You probably recall or may want to review that gourd that God shaded him with and then sent a worm to devour. To teach him, “You’re upset about those people? You’re upset about this gourd that was shading you, withering away? You wanted all these people to wither away?” God was still working with him because He is that merciful God. He is that slow to anger God. He is that God who wants to give people chances over and over and over again. Who wants everyone to succeed. He was still working with Jonah to the very end, but I would submit that with this attitude, Jonah would’ve had to repeat the cycle that his very... the very events of his life taught us.

He’d have to come again to grips with the fact that Christianity is about doing hard things. He’d have to come to deep grips with the fact that trials will come no matter what, and that his example is important, and that he has to learn from the trials and not keep making the same mistakes. And that he can never lose sight of the big picture of what he’s involved in, in helping other people achieve what he’s seeking to achieve. Brethren, the sign of the prophet Jonah was all important, but so is the cycle of Christianity laid out in his book. Let’s remember, it’s easy to understand lessons.