Jonah 1:17-2:10 - Liam Goligher

Continuing my blogs from New Word Alive here are my notes from the second Bible Reading from Liam Goligher on Jonah.

Jonah 1:17-2:10

3 points:
1. The Salvation of Jonah
2. The Song of Jonah
3. The Sign of Jonah

1. The Salvation of Jonah

1:17 & 2:10 both mention a great fish. We don't know what type of fish it was but it was certainly a huge sea creature.

Salvation is always a sovereign act of God.
God is sovereign in creation.
Nothing in your life is outside of the sovereign control of God.
Jonah has no knowledge/guarantee that he will be rescued.
Jonah is disobedient and God is chasing him.
We finally see Jonah surrendering.
Jonah spent 3 days in the belly of the fish. In Hosea 6:2 we see a reference to three days.

2. The Song of Jonah

Jonah doesn't know that he isn't going to die in the fish. Therefore his thanksgiving from within the fish shows how he knows God. The fish is an indication that the Lord loves him. The fish is an indication of God's provision for him.
There is genuine thanksgiving in the song. He recognises God's hand in putting him there. Though he deserves judgement, he has received mercy.
Jonah is quoting Psalms.
He is utterly cast upon God in this moment.
God has not abandoned him.
However, there is an undercurrent of self-righteousness. There is quite a lot of "I" in the song.
v8 - Jonah's personal idol is his focus on Israel and hatred of idols. See the use of "those" and "I".
The sailors were paying regard to vain idols.
Jonah never prayers here for the pagan sailors.

We worship the opposite of what we fear. What, if taken away, would make you no longer want to live.
Jonah's identity is in his national, religious, pedigree.
1v16 - the sailors feared the Lord, offered sacrifice and made vows. Now they are no dry land whereas Jonah is in a fish.
Jonah can't see beyond himself.

3. The Sign of Jonah

Matthew 12:15-21 - Jesus the 'Servant of the Lord'. "In His Name the Gentiles will hope"
Matthew 12:38-42 - the sign of Jonah
The symbolic death and virtual resurrection of Jonah point to Jesus' real death and resurrection.

We have nothing to contribute to salvation.

I need God to be active in my life.

Helpful quote

"You can nothing of any spiritual significance unless you are abiding in Jesus." John Piper 14/09/08 - The New Commandment of Christ: Love One Another As I Have Loved You

Luke 10 vs 25-37 - Don Carson

Luke 10 vs 25 - 37 - The Good Samaritan - Sermon by Don Carson at New Word Alive 09

There are two dialogues going on here.
From vs 25-28 we see a pattern question, question, answer, answer
Then in vs 29-end we see the same pattern.

1st dialogue

A man stood up to test Jesus - this was a set up.
It was a bizarre question to ask because an inheritance is a gift, you don't do anything to gain it.
Jesus doesn't respond straight away.
In Mark 12 Jesus quotes the same verses as he does here:
Deuteronomy 6 vs 4-5, and
Leviticus 19 v 18.
This lawyer was expecting Jesus to say that his neighbour would be someone with his own country (see Lev 19: 9-18).
v29 "desiring to justify himself"
see Luke 16:14-15
and Luke 18:9-14
The man wanted to be justified in front of the crowd and before God - i.e. to save himself through his good works.

The question was who is my neighbour?
Jesus narrows it down and gets to the burning issue "For whom are you a neighbour?"

If the two commands in verses 27,28 are the gospel then you and I are damned but Jesus tells the man to go and do them.
Having the neighbour question inverted like that shows us how high the standard is and how far removed we are from those commands.

The context of this passage comes after Jesus has told the disciples of His coming death and He had set His face resolutely towards Jerusalem. See Luke 9 vs 44-45, 51.
In chapter 10 the disciples see the kingdom of God advancing but in Luke 10 v 17 Jesus tells them to rejoice that their name is written in heaven - even enjoyment of power doesn't compare to that! In verses 38-end we see that only one thing matters.

Three points to close.

1. Eternal life is inherited. Jesus achieved this on the cross. We are adopted into God's family. Jesus is THE Good Samaritan. He has been a neighbour to me.

2. Jesus expects His followers to act as He does. We should follow in His steps. His death has ethical implications. Genuine faith is never alone, it must be accompanied by works. Gal 6 v 10 - do good to everyone. But this moral consequence is not the ground of acceptance into Heaven.

3. It must be a function of grace - a clear understanding of what the gospel is. The gospel is what God has done.

Jonah 1

With this blog entry I embark on writing up my notes from New Word Alive Week 2 2009. I had a fantastic time, learnt a lot and enjoyed great fellowship and sung worship.

Let me draw your attention to two links:
http://www.newwordalive.org/shop - Very soon you will be able to download sermons/seminars from NWA 2009 for the very reasonable price of £1 each.
http://www.gettymusic.com/ - Kristyn Getty has a beautiful voice and their songs are packed full of great truth and a joy to sing.

So to Jonah. The morning Bible readings were given by Liam Goligher, senior minister of Duke Street Church, Richmond.

Jonah 1

A prophetic narrative resembling Elijah and Elisha.
The key verse to the whole book is Jonah 2 v 9: Salvation belongs to the LORD!
75% of the book is God's dealings with Jonah - one of God's biggest 'problems' is His people.

An inconvenient word

1. Jonah running from God

From 2 Kings 14 vs 23-27 we see the kind of times Jonah was living in and we see that he was a faithful prophet of God.
Amos 3 v 7 we see that the Lord speaks through His prophets. Faith comes by hearing.

God says "Go!" to Jonah. He sends Jonah to Nineveh. Here God is doing something out of the ordinary. He is sending His prophet to speak to another nation, i.e. not to Israel.
Jonah knew that there was a possibility that the people of Nineveh would repent (see Jonah 4v2).
God's Word is a device which identifies the hidden fault lines in us. These fault lines are the limits of our willingness to obey God.
Jonah was running from the presence of God.
His problem wasn't intellectual. It wasn't that he was afraid. His problem was moral and spiritual.

2. Jonah ran into God

It looked like Jonah had got away with his running from God. His disobedience was going very well for him. He managed to get onto a boat and sail in totally the opposite direction. Perhaps he thought God was blessing him because it was going so well.
The easy way is not always the right way.
If you have a will to disobey God there will be an opportunity for you to do it.
The ease of his disobedience was no excuse for it, it was a test for him.
In v4 God gets involved.
There is nowhere to go to avoid God.
Verse 3 shows Jonah's only moment of independence in the whole book.

Jonah's disobedience put others at risk.
The Word now comes to him from a pagan sailor.
Sometimes the world has to wake up the church to say something.

God was pursuing Jonah.
You may run but you can't hide.