Key Verse:

Jonah 1:2 NKJV

“Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before Me.”

Introduction

May 26th of 2013, Harrison Okene was in a terrifying situation. His tugboat flipped over in a terrible storm far off the coast of Nigeria and sank straight to the bottom of the ocean. In the chaos, all his crewmates were lost, but somehow, Okene found a small pocket of air inside the sunken boat. It was dark and freezing, and he was all alone. But Okene remembered a text message from his wife, a Bible verse that said, “Save me, O God… God is my helper.”

For three long days, Okene held onto that verse and prayed. He was almost out of air and losing hope when he saw a strange green light in the water. It was a team of divers, sent to bring up bodies, not to find survivors. Imagine their surprise when Okene’s hand reached out and grabbed them! Harrison Okene, trapped underwater for days, was miraculously alive.

This morning, we will be studying of a man who was also rescued after being in the depths of the sea for 3 days.

The Setting of Jonah

Open your Bibles in the Book of Jonah.

Jonah 1:1-2 NKJV

Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, [2] “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before Me.”

Without any fancy opening, the story begins by introducing the main character of the story – Jonah.

The expression “Now the word of the LORD came” is used in the Old Testament when God is about to call or is calling his prophet.

Now, usually when someone is called to prophetic office in the Old Testament, the call is usually succeeded by a reason of refusal.

Exodus 4:10 NKJV

Then Moses said to the LORD, “O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither before nor since You have spoken to Your servant; but I am slow of speech and slow of tongue.”

Jeremiah 1:6 NKJV

Then said I: “Ah, Lord GOD! Behold, I cannot speak, for I am a youth.”

One, if not familiar with the story, might assume that the same is true with the story of Jonah. But we find the opposite…

Jonah 1:2-3 NKJV

“Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before Me.” [3] But Jonah arose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD. He went down to Joppa, and found a ship going to Tarshish; so he paid the fare, and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD.

Here in this story, we find no reason or whatsoever of why Jonah chose to refuse to fulfill his mission. That is much likely because he has no reason at all.

It is possible that Jonah, unlike Moses, is already very eloquent. It is possible that Jonah, unlike Jeremiah, is in the “proper age” (if there’s ever such a thing).

Growing up, hearing the story of Jonah and hearing sermons about it. It seems to me that the moral of the book is simple: Don’t be like Jonah.

We can be tempted to look at the story of Jonah, and look at him as someone who is weak and cowardly.

But this morning, I want us to look at it in another perspective and that is:

Are we repeating the same mistakes that Jonah had?

Have we, as a church, been running from our command of God?

Lessons from the Book of Jonah

Arise – A Call to Obey

Jonah 1:2-3 NKJV

This is the first time in prophetic literature where a prophet is called to witness to a pagan country.

It was shocking first because it was a call for a Hebrew prophet to leave Israel and go out to a Gentile city. Up until then prophets had been sent only to God’s people. While Jeremiah, Isaiah, and Amos all pronounced a few prophetic oracles addressed to pagan countries, they are brief, and none of those other men was actually sent out to the nations in order to preach. Jonah’s mission was unprecedented. (View Highlight)

Often times the commands of God in the Bible doesn’t make sense.

God commanded Abram to get out of his country, his security, his friends and family to a place which he has never seen before!
God commanded Abram to offer his son after he had waited for years for his birth.
God affirmed Peter to walk on water.

But that’s where this idea of Arise comes in.

As You can see, the world is teaching that one must see to believe. That one must have all the answers first before he can come to follow Jesus.

But that’s totally foreign and strange to the concept of the Bible. Because in Scripture, it tells us to believe and then you will see.

Others are tempted to know the blessings first before following Jesus, but blessings will only be given once we follow Jesus. Not the other way around.

As you can see Jonah wasn’t given a reason behind his call.

He might have been tempted to ask,

“Lord, isn’t Assyria our enemy?”
“Lord, didn’t you prophesied that Nineveh will be destroyed. Why not just fulfill it now?”

All he can see in his eyes and in his mind are questions. Nothing seems to align.

He was asked to step out by faith.

We as Seventh-Day Adventists are also bombarded with questions we have not an answer for?

What’s special with the Seventh-Day? What we only know is that God rested and God blessed that day. But why He chose that day, we don’t have an answer.

More than that, we ourselves, on a personal level are faced with experiences that we don’t have an answer why such an event took place.

Why did I fail?
Why did my loved one have to die?
Why, out of all the people of the earth, am I the one to experience such trauma?
Lord, why me? Why my family?

There are questions that we might not have answers right now, but that shouldn’t stop us from following God.

Out of all the people in the Bible, the one that has all the right to ask and walk away was Job. Yes, he asked. But did he ever walked away from God?

Job 1:21 NKJV

And he said: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, And naked shall I return there. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; Blessed be the name of the LORD.”

Job 13:15 NKJV

Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him. Even so, I will defend my own ways before Him.

When God commanded Jonah to Arise,

It was a Call to Obey

From a human viewpoint it seemed as if nothing could be gained by proclaiming such a message in that proud city. (View Highlight) – Ellen White

But here, instead of trusting despite not having all the reasons with him, Jonah decided to run away.

Arise – A Call to Humility

Jonah 1:2 NKJV

“Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before Me.”

Now the word for Arise comes from the Hebrew word qum.

קוּם

Up. Get Up. Stand Up.

Let me give you a map to illustrate this even more.

Here you can see that when God called Jonah, He was calling him to go North-east.

Qum – Up!

But Jonah decided to go the other way around. Instead of going east, he went west.

But Jonah’s escape from God isn’t only horizontal – West. It’s vertical.

Jonah 1:3,5,12,17 NKJV

But Jonah arose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD. He went down to Joppa, and found a ship going to Tarshish; so he paid the fare, and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD. [5] Then the mariners were afraid; and every man cried out to his god, and threw the cargo that was in the ship into the sea, to lighten the load. But Jonah had gone down into the lowest parts of the ship, had lain down, and was fast asleep. [12] And he said to them, “Pick me up and throw me into the sea; then the sea will become calm for you. For I know that this great tempest is because of me.” [17] Now the LORD had prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.

The Down Trajectory of Jonah

Down to Joppa
Down to the Ship
Down to the Lowest Part of the Ship
Laid Down
Down into the Sea
Down into the belly of the fish

This gives us an important lesson that whenever we run away from God. It is not only horizontal but vertical.

Whenever we run away from God. We are plunged deeper to sin. I was sinking deep in sin as the song says.

And we can see this in the book of Jonah, that as he runs away from God, he was morally sinking deeper and deeper and deeper.

Jonah 1:5-6 NKJV

Then the mariners were afraid; and every man cried out to his god, and threw the cargo that was in the ship into the sea, to lighten the load. But Jonah had gone down into the lowest parts of the ship, had lain down, and was fast asleep. [6] So the captain came to him, and said to him, “What do you mean, sleeper? Arise, call on your God; perhaps your God will consider us, so that we may not perish.”

Notice, that while the mariners are doing their best to save themselves, Jonah wasn’t helping.

Notice, that while the pagans were praying to their gods. Jonah wasn’t. He even needed to be reminded by the captain (which is a pagan) to pray to his God!

He was sinking morally.

This is a constant theme in the book of Jonah, where the pagans performed religiously better than the Prophet of God.

So here in the first chapter of Jonah, we see that Jonah was sinking down. He was called to go up! Arise! Qum!

But instead he was sinking deeper below.

But also notice this, Jonah didn’t pray when he was in the ship, right?

he didn’t pray when there was a strong storm.

he didn’t pray when he was drowning in the sea.

But he prayed when he was at the belly of the fish – which if we look at our slide on the trajectory of Jonah’s descent was the lowest point of his life.

This tells us an important lesson:

It is only when you reach the very bottom, when everything falls apart, when all your schemes and resources are broken and exhausted, that you are finally open to learning how to completely depend on God. (View Highlight)

How many of us can testify to that? is that true? isn’t that a sad reality? That we remember God only when we hit rock bottom.

But God uses these rock bottom moments of our lives that we might come to our senses and realize that we need God.

You never realize that Jesus is all you need until Jesus is all you have.

The way up was, first of all, down. The usual place to learn the greatest secrets of God’s grace is at the bottom. (View Highlight)

God wanted Jonah to Arise, but Jonah went the harder route which is the route we often also need to take.

Arise is a Call to Humility

(Personal illustration)

Arise – A Call to Show Up

Let’s continue the story. There was a severe storm. The sailors are throwing stuff that they don’t really need. As they are getting some stuff from the basement, they saw Jonah sleeping…

Jonah 1:6 NKJV

So the captain came to him, and said to him, “What do you mean, sleeper? Arise, call on your God; perhaps your God will consider us, so that we may not perish.“

While Jonah was fast asleep, he was awaken by words that are very familiar. Words that he had heard from Someone before.

“Arise, call on your God, that we (the Pagans) may not perish.”

It’s the same Hebrew word, qum. It’s the same message! Arise, that they might not perish!

The irony of this story is that it was a pagan Captain that reminded Jonah of his mission.

While the Pagans were perishing, the Prophet was asleep.

Are we asleep while someone at our community is perishing?

(Book Stand Ministry – Ano po ung SDA?)

Are we sleeping while our community is perishing?

Are we like Jonah? Do we have to wait before the community shouts at us? Or are they already shouting at us?

When someone is suffering because of a disease, the community is shouting, “We need you to help us! We need your health message.”

When families are being torn apart, the community is shouting at us, “We need the message of Christian home as expounded in the book Adventist Home.”

When family members are suffering grief and distress because of the loss of a loved one, they are shouting at us, “Hey we need the message of eternal life here!”

When someone is fed up with what’s happening in the world, they are shouting at us, “We need the message of the 2nd coming of Christ. We need what you have! We need you to tell us that all of these will soon come to an end!”

Are we like Jonah? Do we have to wait before the community shouts at us? Or are they already shouting at us?

Jonah is not bringing the resources of his faith to bear on the suffering of his fellow citizens. He is not telling them how to get a relationship with the God of the universe. Nor is he, relying on his own spiritual resources in God, simply loving and serving the practical needs of his neighbors. God commands all believers to do both things, but he is doing neither. His private faith is of no public good. (View Highlight)

I want to emphasize this even more.

Corporate Ministry.

How’s our ministries as a church?
How’s our church board meetings? What’s at the top of the agenda? (Be reminded that we are counseled by our church manual that our first agendum in every church meetings should be evangelism)

Personal Ministry. Let’s bring this to a personal level.

How’s your ministry? I mean your personal ministry? Are you still sharing when no brother or sister is by your side?
How’s your ministry to your neighbors? your workmates? Classmates? Friends? Families?

When the Captain said, “Arise” to Jonah. He means, we need you to show up. We need you to help us.

Arise is a Call to Show Up

Arise – A Call to Stand Apart

Jonah 1:6 NKJV

So the captain came to him, and said to him, “What do you mean, sleeper? Arise, call on your God; perhaps your God will consider us, so that we may not perish.”

Jonah 1:6 CSB

The captain approached him and said, “What are you doing sound asleep? Get up! Call to your god. Maybe this god will consider us, and we won’t perish.”

Later on Jonah revealed that he was a Hebrew prophet.

The captain is basically saying, “What are you doing? Why are you, a Hebrew, a Prophet acting in such a way?”

This teaches us an important lesson.

The world is observing us.
The world has the right to ask.

The world has every right to ask when we are not acting the way we should be acting! When we are not living the way we should be living.

Probably, you have heard the expression “Aren’t you a Christian?” “Aren’t you a Seventh-Day Adventist?”

They say these things because they assume, and rightly so, that Christians ought to live differently!

They are expecting us not to blend in. They are expecting us to arise! To be above the crowd! to be different than the rest of the world.

What’s disappointing here is that instead of Jonah telling the pagans how to live, it is the pagans who told Jonah how a prophet should act.

And often times, we are reminded not only by our fellow believers, but those of the other faith, how we should live and act!

They remind us that we are not just somebody, we are the chosen people of God.

Arise is a Call to Stand Apart.

What is this? God sent his prophet to point the pagans toward himself. Yet now it is the pagans pointing the prophet toward God. (View Highlight)

In the time of Noah, it was the righteous that are in the boat, and it’s the pagans who are outside.

In the book of Jonah, we find the opposite, it was the pagans that are inside the boat, and it’s the prophet who is outside.

It is as if the writer of Jonah would like to emphasize that the one that is ought to be at the boat isn’t living as he ought.

And even emphasizing that those outside the fold are sometimes and even often times are much better than us.

Conclusion & Appeal

The 1st chapter of Jonah tells us of the story of the runaway prophet. He was too scared. Too afraid. Too doubtful of the calling that God has given him.

And again, we can easily dismiss the story and just say that Jonah was too weak and cowardly.

But I want to ask again.

Have you been running from God?

Have we been running from God

Have we fulfilled the command to arise?

Our world, like in the days of Jonah, is dark and sinful. The world is waiting for someone to arise.

When day comes we step out of the shade,

aflame and unafraid,

the new dawn blooms as we free it.

For there is always light,

if only we’re brave enough to see it.

If only we’re brave enough to be it.

– Amanda Gorman, The Hill We Climb

In Church, we’ve always talked about how God can put an end to all of this misery and wrap up this Great Controversy, we’ve always talked about finishing the work, engaging in ministry, we’ve always talked about how we are living in this dark and sinful world, and that many souls are dying without having the chance to hear the message God entrusted to this church.

We’ve always talked about this things and expect as if somewhere and somehow God would provide the answer. Not realizing that we are the answer.

Amanda Gorman was right, there is always light.

If only…

if only we’re brave enough to see it.

If only we’re brave enough to be it.

The command is still echoing today.

Arise. Be brave enough to obey.

Arise. Be brave enough to be humble.

Arise. Be brave enough to show up when needed.

Arise. Be brave enough to be set apart.

God is still commanding, as he commanded Jonah, Arise.

Would you answer God’s call to arise?

May our hearts say, Here I am.

May God bless us all this morning.