WK 42 JONAH – 1: THE MAN WHO WAS OPPOSED TO MISSIONS

JONAH – 1: THE MAN WHO WAS OPPOSED TO MISSIONS

SCRIPTURE LESSON: JONAH 1:1-17
JONAH 1:1 The word of the LORD came to Jonah son of Amittai:
2 “Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because it, because its wickedness has come up before me.”
3 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. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the LORD.
4 Then the LORD sent a great wind on the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up.
5 All the sailors were afraid and each cried out to his own god. And they threw the cargo into the sea to lighten the ship.
But Jonah had gone below deck, where he lay down and fell into a deep sleep.
6 The captain went to him and said, “How can you sleep? Get up and call on your god! Maybe he will take notice of us, and we will not perish.”
7 Then the sailors said to each other, “Come, let us cast lots to find out who is responsible for this calamity.” Hey cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah.
8 So they asked him, “Tell us, who is responsible for making all this trouble for us?
What do you do? Where do you come from? What is your country? From what people are you?”
9 He answered, “I am a Hebrew and I worship the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the land.”
10 This terrified them and they asked, “What have you done?” (They knew he was running away from the LORD, because he had already told them so.)
11 The sea was getting rougher and rougher and rougher. So they asked him, “What should we do to you to make the sea calm down for us?”
12 “Pick me up and throw me into the sea,” he replied, “and it will become calm. I know that it is my fault that this great storm has come upon you.”
13 Instead, men did their best to row back to land. But they could not, for the sea grew even wilder than before.
14 Then they cried to the LORD, “O LORD, please do not let us die for taking this man’s life. Do not hold us accountable for killing an innocent man, for you, O LORD, have done as you pleased.”
15 Then they took Jonah and threw him overboard, and the raging sea grew calm.
16 At this the men greatly feared the LORD, and they offered a sacrifice to the LORD and made vows to him.
17 But the LORD provided a great fish to sallow Jonah, and Jonah was inside the fish three days and three nights.

INTRODUCTION
The Church as the Body of Christ is required to carry out the mandate and mission of Christ. As we celebrate the 270th anniversary of John Wesley’s Alders gate experience which ushered in the evangelical Awakening in England, sparking off missions in the world, we need to brace ourselves for missions and make sure that all Jonahs among us respond to Christ’s call “to go and make disciples of all nations” (Mt. 28:19).

Jonah is often called ‘the disobedient prophet/preacher’ for refusing to heed God’s call to go to Nineveh to preach the message of repentance to them.

EXPOSITION
The prophet Jonah, son of Amittai was from Gath-hepher in Galilee. Jonah and Jesus were the only prophets from Galilee. But Jonah was disobedient while Jesus was obedient. God sent Jonah to the city of Nineveh, capital of the ancient empire of Assyria. The Assyrians were very wicked people. They were noted for the act of flaying people – that is, skinning people alive.

Jonah decided to run away from the Lord. His reason was that God was a merciful God who could change his mind and not punish the Ninevites. If that happened Jonah would be put to shame. So he headed for Tar shish (Spain) and went down to Joppa (modern-day Tel Aviv) on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea.

The prophet’s thoughts were rather childish. He thought that God was in Israel alone and so if he fled to another place he could ‘dodge’ God but the Lord is omnipresent. We say in Akan: Wo dwane Nyame a wo hye n’ase – that is, “if you run away from God, you are still under him”.

In Ghana, the Methodist Church has some mission areas like the Ga Rural Mission in the Accra Diocese, Gwira Mission in the Sekondi Diocese, Mo-Dega in the Wenchi Diocese, Afram Plains in the Koforidua Diocese and other difficult areas like the Volta Region and the Northern Ghana Mission Diocese. It is not easy to work in these areas but the church must labour in these parts also because God loves the people there and the Master has need of them too. Ministers and other church workers sent to these areas sometimes feel reluctant to go. But those who heed the Lord’s call and work well will be blessed by the Lord in this life and in the next.

WORD IN OUR LIVES
Who are the Jonahs of our time? If a minister is transferred from one station to another by the hierarchy of the Church and he refuses, is he/she not a Jonah? And if his church members protest against his transfer thereby aiding and abetting, are they not little Jonas’s. If a local preacher refuses to honour his/her preaching appointment at a place he/she does not like, is he/she not behaving like Jonah. If a minister to a station backbites his predecessor or “destroys” his successor to the congregation before he leaves for another place, does he not have the Jonah spirit? If God is calling someone into the full-time (ordained) ministry or the evangelist order and he is refusing, is he not a Jonah? Similarly, if the Spirit of the Lord is telling you to give money or materials in support of kingdom business, and you refuse, are you not another Jonah? If God is calling you to offer yourself for a task in the church, like being a Class Leader, a Local Preacher, a Sunday School Teacher, a Counselor, a Society/Circuit Steward and you keep on turning down the offer, are you not a Jonah? If we fail to pay our tithes, our Methodist Development Fund (MDF) levies, our harvest contributions and refuse to patronize other fund-raising activities which will support church’s missionary endeavours, are we not Jonahses? May the good Lord deliver us from this rebellious and unproductive spirit of Jonah. “Answer quickly when He calleth, Here am I, send me, send me!”

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:
What could be Jonah’s reason for try to flee to Tarshish?
Jonah invested his resources wrongly – paying the ship fare to Tarshish – instead of going to Nineveh. What are some of the wrong ways we invest our resources?
God wanted Jonah to go to Nineveh but Jonah went the opposite direction – to Tarshish. What are some of the ways in which we go the opposite direction to God’s leading?
What does Jonah in the belly of the fish for three (3) days and three (3)nights typify/illustrate?
Identify a place which you consider very difficult to evangelize. Give your reasons for choosing that place. How can the church or individuals plan a mission to such a difficult place?

BIBLE LESSON APPLICATION
This week, examine yourself to see whether you have been acting as Jonah. Resolve in prayer to obey God’s call to your mission.
Share the gospel with at least one person.
Share the outcomes with your group.

DAILY BIBLE READINGS
Monday Exodus 3:7-13 Excuses of Weakness
Tuesday Isaiah 6:1-6 A Man of Unclean Lips
Wednesday Jeremiah 1:1-6 don’t know how to speak
Thursday Judges 6:11-13 Who Am I
Friday Matthew 25:41-46 there is No Need
Saturday Luke 14:16-20 I Don’t Have Time
Sunday Jonah 1:1-4 Jonah