It's my joy and privilege to be with you and renew fellowship with you today and we come seeking God's blessing as we pray together. Let's come and bow before God. Our Father God, as we bow in your presence this morning, we pray that you'd come amongst us and give us a sense of awe and a sense of worship. Take from our hearts and minds everything that distracts and hinders us from coming in communion with yourself. We thank you for this lovely morning. for this season of mellow fruitfulness for all the beauty and variety that we see in your creation we see your wisdom and your power and your goodness in all that you have made and we pray that we may worship you for that but our Father we see your glory most clearly revealed in your word we see the truth about ourselves and about your character and we thank you that your word reveals to us the way of salvation We thank you that the word reveals to us the record of the life and ministry and death and resurrection of our Saviour. We thank you that we have a risen and glorified Saviour and it is in his name that we come and present ourselves today. It is in his name that we bring our prayers and we seek to find acceptance. And we pray our Father today that our worship may be pleasing to you and bring you honour and glory. do bless us then and be with us for Jesus' sake Amen Our scripture readings this morning are both from the Old Testament the first one is found in 2nd book of Kings and chapter 14 just reading a small section at the end of the chapter from verse 23 in the 15th year of Amaziah the son of Joash king of Judah Jeroboam the son of Joash king of Israel became king in Samaria and reigned 41 years and he did evil in the sight of the Lord he did not depart from all the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat who made Israel sin he restored the territory of Israel from the entrance of Hamath to the sea of the Arabah according to the word of the Lord God of Israel which he had spoken through his servant Jonah the son of Amitiai the prophet who was from Gathipha for the Lord saw that the affliction of Israel was very bitter and with a bond of grief there was no helper for Israel and the Lord did not say that he would blot out the name of Israel from under heaven but he saved them by the hand of Jeroboam the son of Joash now the rest of the acts of Jeroboam and all that he did his might how he made war and how he recaptured for Israel from Damascus and Hamas what had belonged to Judah are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel So Jeroboam rested with his fathers, the kings of Israel. Then Zechariah, his son, reigned in his place. I'd like you to turn over now to the minor prophets, please. The minor prophets and to the prophet Jonah. Jonah chapter 1. Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah, the son of Amitiai, saying, arise go to Nineveh that great city and cry out against it for their wickedness has come up before me 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 but the Lord sent out a great wind on the sea and there was a mighty tempest on the sea so that the ship was about to be broken up 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 laid down and was fast asleep so the captain came 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 and they said to one another come let us cast lots that we may know for whose cause this trouble has come upon us so they cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah then they said to him please tell us for whose cause is this trouble upon us what is your occupation and where do you come from what is your country and of what people are you?" So he said to them, I am a Hebrew and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven who made the sea and the dry land. May the Lord be pleased to add a blessing to his own precious and infallible word. This morning's call may help me, I'd like to direct your attention to the prophet Jonah. And we're going to consider the opening verses of the book of Jonah and our message is about the runaway prophets. Now I think there are several reasons why we should study the book of Jonah. The book of Jonah is perhaps the best known and most commonly read of all the minor prophets. One of the reasons, of course, it's quite short. And when we look at Christian history, I look at Spurgeon's list of the commentaries on Jonah, and there are more commentaries on Jonah, nearly, than all the other minor prophets put together. And I looked at my shelves and I've got six modern commentaries on the book of Jonah, but very few on the other minor prophets. and so the trend has continued. Now I wonder why it is that preachers and people are more ready to turn to the book of Jonah than they are to perhaps the book of Obadiah or some of the other minor prophets. Well I think there are several reasons. For one thing it's the only biographical prophet. And reading a biography is easier to read than reading a book of prophecy or merely messages of truth. And the Bible is so wisely constructed that it gives us examples of the life of faith as well as warnings of stumbles in the life of faith. And I think another reason why we turn to the book of Jonah is because it's fascinating. There's a drama about the book of Jonah. It's got a story and it's got things that puzzle us and make us ask ourselves, why did he behave like that? And it gets the little grey cells going, or it should do. And then there's surely a book about a man who came to know God in a very personal way. He was a man who came to realise that he lived in the present on an inescapable sovereign but compassionate God. And it's a spiritual autobiography. And our relationship and our walk with God is surely of paramount importance as we live our lives before him. But I suspect also there's another reason why the Book of Jonah has been turned to very You see, I think sometimes it strikes an echo in our hearts. Because it's a book that mirrors our own reluctance at times to obey God. Wasn't it the Apostle Peter who once said to the Lord, who spoke to him with a vision, he said, not so, Lord! And if we're honest with ourselves, there are times when God calls us to walk a path or obey him in a certain matter that we find a struggle to do. And in our hearts we find it hard. Peter found it hard to break from his traditions. And we may find it hard whether it's wrestling with a besetting sin or accepting inevitable changes in our lives. But I love it also because it's a missionary book. It's telling us about the grace of God reaching out beyond the confines of Israel and Judah And how wonderful is that? To be reminded of God's power that reaches out into the most unlikely places, to the most unlikely people. We live in a post-Christian and a post-modern society, where at once people pay lip service to Christian values and Christian truth. That is all gone. And mission is no longer to the dark continent of Africa, Probably there are more people from Africa working as missionaries in our land than there are British people working in Africa today. We don't need to go to the deepest jungles to find pagan unbelief, it's on our streets today. And this book is a tremendous encouragement to us because it reminds us of what God can do. And of course, it's a book that foreshadows the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Jonah's burial in the sea and his resurrection to go and save Nineveh is but a lovely picture of the gospel of our Lord Jesus. So I believe there are some of the reasons why the book of Jonah has such an attraction to the people of God in all ages. But then I want to remind you about Jonah and his time. That's why I read that passage in the Book of Kings, because it sets the backdrop to when Jonah lived. And it reminds us that he was a man who had other messages than those that he took to Nineveh. It needs to be reminded in the days in which we live that this is a sober record about a prophet of God. This is a real man from history. It's not just a gripping yard. but it's the truth of God. We know that Jonah was a prophet of God. He was a son of Amityai, he came from Gath, Ephah, a small community about three miles from Nazareth. And God chose him at his mouthpiece. We don't know how early he was called to serve God, but elsewhere prophets are called seers. That is a person who sees into the purposes of God. and he was a man called to serve God in his generation now he was born in a time soon after the ministries of Elijah and Elisha and it may well have been that Jonah was prepared of God in the schools of the prophets You had Philip Eveson here yesterday. Well, Elijah and Elisha were the equivalent of Philip Eveson in their generation, and men like Jonah were trained and prepared for the ministry of the Word under them. And so he may well have known personally Elisha, or at least like Elisha's successors, and he would have perhaps been amongst men of like mind, being prepared to serve God. And he was in that line of faithful men called to be witnesses and testify of the truth of God. So this is Jonah. Can you say that you've been privileged like that? To have known the truth of God, to have been taught the truth of God, to have been established in the truth when you're young? That's an enormous privilege. To be like Jonah and to be prepared and to have the kind of fellowship that was a strength and a help and an encouragement to him. The most wonderful thing, to have the fellowship of like mind and good teaching of the word. But also Jonah was a prophet to Israel. Let me remind you of Israel. Let me remind you after Solomon had died, the kingdom split. Ten tribes, two tribes. And the northern tribe, the ten tribes in the north, soon lost the purity of faith. and paganism was tolerated, there was a kind of hybrid religion that took its place, and yet God was gracious. He raised up faithful people, Elisha and Elijah were followed by Jonah and Amos and Hosea. And that reference we read in 2 Kings tells us about what was going on when Jonah was a prophet. Reminds us that the king, the 14th king of Israel, was a capable and a busy ruler, and he had victories over the Syrians and extended the borders of Israel. And it was one of the most prosperous times that Israel had ever known. So materialistically, it was a good time to live in. But having said that, there was still the worship of the golden cards. and there was iniquity in the land. This is how Amos, a near contemporary of Jonah, described the situation. He says in chapter 2 of his prophecy, they sell the righteous for silver and the needy a pair of sandals. They trample on the heads of the poor as on the dust of the ground and deny justice to the oppressed. Father and son use the same girl and so profane my holy name. They lay down beside every altar on garments taken in a pledge. In the house of their God, they drink wine taken as fines. Can you see the similarity? Good times materialistically, prospering economically, but spiritually and morally they are bankrupt. They had no regard to God's law, no sense of accountability to Him. Individuals decided for themselves what was right and wrong. Women were exploited and used as sex objects. Any religion was as good as any other. Truth didn't matter, it was all relative. Can you see how that was happening? Just like it is today. And yet, though God was going to judge them in due time, God was still gracious, he was still raising up men of God, like Jonah, to bring the word of God. And it was Jonah who came with a message to the king, that though they deserved to be punished, God was going to be gracious to them, for his own name's sake. So this is Jonah's background, the times in which Jonah lived. And how you and I know, that the times in which you and I live are times in which, because of the good things we have all around us, there is the great danger of our hearts becoming cold towards God. Perhaps that's what happened to Jonah. So, we've seen the relevance of the book, we've seen the background of Jonah, and now we find Jonah is commissioned of God. What direction did God give Jonah? Verse 2, rise up go to Nineveh the great city and cry out against it for the evil has come up before me. So Jonah is directed, not this time to go to his own people, not to go to the king with a message saying that God is gracious although you don't deserve it. Jonah is told to go north-east to Nineveh, the capital of the cruel Assyrian superpower that was dominating the world at this time. It was a huge city on the Tigris, built by Sennacherib, had a fantastic palace with 18 rooms, the city walls were incredibly thick and impregnable, there were the 15 gates if you were to go to the British Museum you could have seen some of the carvings that stood outside the gates the city had water from canals and it had municipal gardens with plants and animals and this impressive city with ramparts and towers and parks and avenues of trees was one of the highlights of the known world Some of you may have seen clips of the building that's going on in China. These cities are skyscraper after skyscraper that rivals or has overtaken New York already. And here is Jonah, an Israelite prophet from a tiny hamlet, a tiny insignificant nation, being sent to this place of power and affluence and magnificence and wealth and learning. God sent him there. It seemed as if the Assyrians had it all their own way. It seemed as if their power and their intelligence and their creative ability had caused them to be dominant in the world. But God was not looking at the grandeur they created. God was looking at their heart. And God sent Jonah to Nineveh to cry out against their sins. You see, in Nineveh there was obscene self-indulgence. There was unconscionable behaviour. They had made their own gods in their own image. And God called Jonah to go and tell them what God thought about them. Before he had a message of encouragement to his people, but now he had a word of warning and a word of imminent judgement to a nation that had so offended the world and brought so much suffering into the world. You can imagine how Jonah felt. He gladly took a message of encouragement to his own people. But this wasn't the sort of message he wanted to deliver and it wasn't the sort of people he wanted to go to. You know, sometimes God's word is an uncomfortable word. Sometimes God sends his servants with a message that's a word of rebuke and a word of warning. Those who bear it feel the responsibility of bringing it. Servants of God like to bring joy and encouragement to the people of God, but sometimes it's necessary to bring things that rebuke. You remember the Prophet Jeremiah, he faced this dilemma. The people didn't welcome the messages he brought. But he said, that if I say I will not mention him or speak any more in his name, his word is in my heart like a fire, like a fire shut up in my bones. I'm weary in holding it in, indeed I cannot. And a true servant of God will be faithful even when he knows the message that God gives him to deliver is one that will not be well received by everyone. The prophet John in the revelation, The Apostle John in Revelation said in his vision, I went to the angel and asked him to give me the straw, he said to me, take it and eat it, it will turn your stomach sour but in your mouth it will be as sweet as honey. You see eating is a symbol for attentively digesting and understanding the word of God. So whilst the word that came to John wasn't difficult to understand, it was pleasant to understand, the bitter effects that followed its delivery was hard because it brought persecution. So Jonah had this burden. He's directed to go to Nineveh and he's directed to cry out against it. And let me say to you today, before I go any further, The gospel means good news. But people will never want to receive the good news until they wake up to the bad news of the seriousness of their condition. You see, take it in medical terms. You will never welcome an operation. You will never welcome certain medicines until you know that that's the only cure, the only answer for your condition. It's only when you're confronted with the seriousness of a medical condition that you welcome the medication or the treatment that will be the cure for your condition. And the same with people of the world. Until people realise the bad news, the bad news that our hearts are bad. The bad news that God is holy and just and he will not bypass sin, he will not overlook the way we've lived and the mistake that we have. But he will deal with sin at the joy of judgement. Until we wake up to that bad news we will never welcome and receive the good news of God's love in sending his son into the world to be the saviour of the world and all who repent and come to him in faith. Telling the bad news may not be the most pleasant part of the prophets of God's duty, but it is an essential one, absolutely vital, because until people realise the bad news, they will never welcome the good news. Have you heard the news of the gospel? Have you recognised that there is bad news that God is holy and you're sinful and you're going to face a judgement one day and God is inescapable as we all see in Dirk Jones' life you must come there and when you come there you'll be ready to welcome the good news that you can't save yourself you can't make yourself good enough you can't change your own heart you need God in his grace to come into your life you need the Lord Jesus Christ to pay the price of your sins and bring him to God well that's Jonah's direction what was Jonah's reaction? Jonah's reaction was to distance himself from God but Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish he went down to Joppa where he found a ship bound for that port and after paying the fare he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the Lord Prophets of Israel had never been sent to heathen nations like this before and Jonah didn't intend to be the first. And can you imagine the conflict in his heart? He couldn't face going to Nineveh, he couldn't face obeying the Lord and he trudged down to the Mediterranean coast. Can you imagine the pressure upon him? The thoughts that were going on in his heart? He'd always thought that Israel was so special, and he'd always hated the sins of Israel's enemies. He's quite happy to go to the people of God, but to them, his own people would never understand, they would be seen as a traitor. So he went to flee from the presence of the Lord. To flee from the presence of the Lord. I'm suggesting to you that Jonah was a man who came from the schools of the prophets? Had he never read the Psalms of David? Had he never read Psalm 139? Where can I go from your spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go down to the heavens, I'll go up to the heavens, you're there. If I make my bed in the depths, you're there. Hadn't he ever read that? Had he digested the omnipotence of God? That God was in his state? No, I don't think Jonah was freeing from the fact of God's omnipresence. I don't think he ever doubted that for one moment. Jonah was freeing from God's felt presence. He was running from the place where God promised to be in grace and power. He was leaving the place where God was worshipped and where God was sought. He was running from the place of service that he'd been appointed to. He was avoiding reminders of God's will for his life. Isn't this what generally people outside in the world do today? They don't like reminders of what God expects of them. and what God rightly demands of them in their lives. They don't even like to hear the Bible read or hymns being sung. They don't even like going to church or weddings and funerals because it reminds them of a living God before whom they are accountable. But there may be others who are like Jonah. We live in days when sadly sometimes Christian parents grieve. over children who turn their back upon the Lord. People who are brought up in Sunday school or go to church and their hearts are cold. They don't enjoy the services. They begin to drop off meetings because it makes them uncomfortable. Preaching gets under their skin. So they go where their conscience won't be troubled. Jonah's native contemporary Amos put it like that. Woe to you who are at ease in Zion, untroubled by a call to obedience. What about you? Is there sometimes in your heart a desire to run away from God? To run away from the place of duty? to run away from where God wants you to be, to run away from the presence of God, the reminders of what you ought to be, holy, sanctified and righteous. So Jonah goes to Joppa. Today it's Jaffa. It's a harbour in Solomon's time. He gets a ship. He's got enough money for the fare. Now remember that this is a long haul. This is not just taking the bus down the road. This is a long journey. He's aiming to go right across the Mediterranean to the far side to Tarsessas in Spain. He's going as far west as he can away from his call to go east. But he gets there and he's got enough money. I don't know where he got the money from. It would have been expensive. There's a ship there in the port. He pays his fare, he engages the sailors. And God stopped him. He got what he wanted. He got on board the ship. Can you imagine his feelings at this time? We may see this later. Perhaps he began to think, well, God's let me off. Perhaps the Lord has got another duty for me to do. Perhaps he'll find something for me to do in Tarsus in Spain. God is merciful after all. You know, isn't it often that people can be like that and they can let God's providence guide them instead of God's will? People will say, well I felt it was right because this and all that happened. Do you ever say, well, look, that's wonderful, there's a ship going to Tarset, that's wonderful, I've got the right money to pay the fare. And they're willing to take me, oh it's all working out alright after all. They must have felt good. The question must always come back to this. It's not how we feel in life that matters, but are we doing the will of God? Our lives should never be governed by circumstances. You know the devil often has a ship waiting for us. Imagine a believing husband in marriage difficulties and along comes another woman who is so kind and understanding and she could easily become the ship to Tarsus. A young girl is longing for a stable relationship and along comes a handsome young man who is just there ready for her and he could easily be a ship to Tarsus. If we have a heart to be wayward, Providence will always give us an opportunity to express our waywardness. Those who will go a wayward way away from God soon find themselves in a storm. Jonah's voyage was a very expensive voyage. He paid all that money when he never got there. And the wages of sin are very expensive. When you and I reap what we sow, if we rebel against God, Jonah lost out in every way by his rebellion and resistance to the will of God. Jonah distanced himself from God. I want to say to you so strongly this morning that the path of blessing is obedience. To know the joy of the Lord and the presence of the Lord and the peace of God in your heart is like being submissive to the will of God. Regular worship, commitment and involvement to the people of God, living a consistent life, living a holy life. Being selfish and willful and wayward is disastrous. An army brings tears and heartache and suffering into your life. Hear the voice of Jonah this morning. The voice of Jonah, the man who went the opposite direction to what God called him to go. Then I just want to close with four thoughts on Jonah's disobedience. What really gave rise to this disobedience? Well, I think he was weak in his face. He looked at the difficulties of the task God gave him. Let's be fair, we can't really throw any stones at him. How would I like to go to Baghdad or Tehran today? The culture, the climate, the language, the attitude. He could have expected nothing but hostility or ridicule. And our task today is no easy one in sharing the gospel in a society that's alienated from God. It seems as if our country is going back to a new dark age of ignorance and godlessness. And sometimes it is easier to run and hide than to share the gospel with people. There seem to be so many barriers we must breach before people can be reached with the gospel. And we feel so inadequate and so weak. But you see, faith doesn't look at the difficulties. Faith looks at our great God, who's able to do more than we can either ask or imagine. Faith leaves everything in the hand of God, success or failure, whether we understand or whether we don't understand. And it seems to me that Jonah tried to rationalise instead of trusting God. You see, the promises of God are what we rest on. When Adoniram Judson, the great missionary, went to Burma, Myanmar as it's now called, a really dark place. Hardly anybody knew anything about it except it was disease ridden and dangerous and impenetrable. And he went there and somebody said, what are your prospects? Well, humanly speaking they were very limited. But he says, my prospects are as bright as the promises of God. And you and I in our task whether we're working with ladies, or older people, or young people, or be working in an office where people are asking us about our faith. Our confidence is in God, in God before us, who can be against us. And Jonah seemed to be weak in his faith when he was commissioned to go to Nineveh. But can I suggest to you that Jonah also was lacking in faithfulness. He was called to go and be faithful to God, and he hesitated, Peter hesitated taking the Gospel to the Gentiles when he was called to Cornelius' house. Remember when Cary stood up with a desire to take the mission to India, well, to form a missionary society to the world, there were some of the men in 1796, no, so it was earlier than that, who said it was preposterous to go and try and spread the gospel in the heathen. But you see, the Bible says in Corinthians, it's required of those who have been given a trust Those who've been given a trust must prove faithful. And you and I are entrusted to guard the Gospel, hold the Gospel fast, and as we have opportunity to share the Gospel, because that's a trust that we've been given. And the nation of Israel was the light of the world. might have only been a small candle in a large world but they were the hope of the world because from Israel and from the people of God like Jonah was to come the Messiah the saviour of the world so we must seek to be faithful but as I suggest that Jonah lacked the fear of God he lacked the fear of God He looked at the potential pitfalls, the potential dangers. He knew about the cruelty of the Ninevites. It was proverbial, their cruelty. Nobody in the world had stood up against them. God was sending them there. And he must have been extremely intimidated. You and I, there may be times when we fear, when we're anxious, And what's the only way to overcome our fears? Well, one is faith. One is a sense of responsibility to our trust. But another is the fear of God. The Bible says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. You see, that's an attitude of awe and respect to our holy God. We'd rather do anything than displease or disobey our Heavenly Father. The fear of God really helps us. to please God and to walk with Him. He is the one that's to be feared. Jesus said, don't be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. And can I suggest to you that as the book of Jonah goes on to show, Jonah was weak in graciousness. You see, he was sent to Nineveh and in the back of his mind he said no he knew he was taking a message of judgement perhaps God will touch their hearts, perhaps they will repent and then they will be equal with me and the Ishtarites in the kingdom of God these people who have ruined the world who've burned cities, who've murdered children and women, who've taken people captive this nation that's ravaged the world so ruthlessly they're going to be alongside me in the kingdom of God What does this mean for the future of our people? And perhaps Jonah was thinking ahead and he wasn't ready to forgive them. He wasn't ready to accept them as brothers and sisters in the Kingdom of God. He felt that it was unforgivable what they had done to so many people in the world. As you know, the grace of forgiveness is a wonderful thing. When we've been wronged, when there's been misunderstandings, when there's been difficulties, when there's been disagreements, to have a forgiving attitude is God-like, is Christ-like. It commends the Gospel. And it seems to me that Jonah was lacking in the grace of a forgiving spirit. So here we have before us the Prophet Jonah. that is in the book of God for our prophet, for our instruction. A book that tells us about the background so similar to our own. A book that tells us about a prophet who's given a task, like you and I have, to live for the Lord. And a prophet who shirks. And a prophet who hardens his arms. because he was lacking in faith, and in faithfulness, and in the fear of God, and in the spirit of forgiveness. Brothers and sisters, let us learn from John. Let us look to our Lord. Let us look above the people of the world. Let us look above the opposition that church faces. Let us look to our glorious God, who's been building this church throughout generations, and is still building his church today. Let's look to him, not to the opposition, because he, for his goodness, is greater than he is in the world. May God grant us this. Heavenly Father, grant us that tender, contrite heart, that submissive heart to your will. Grant us grace to love the light, and to hate the darkness of being away from you. And may your blessing rest upon everyone here today, and may we retain your word in our heart, whether it be a word of encouragement or a word of warning, that it may stick with us and shape our lives to your glory. And now may the grace of our Lord Jesus, the love of God our Father, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all. Amen.