In Jonah 2, the huge fish that swallows Jonah looks like his doom but turns out to be his deliverer, God’s unexpected “friend” in the midst of chaos. Trapped for three days under stormy seas, Jonah cries out, “Salvation belongs to the Lord,” and the fish deposits him safely on dry land. That same uncertainty, wondering if Jesus is a friend or a threat-played out in his own time. Yet John 3:17 makes it clear: Jesus didn’t come to condemn the world but to save it, just as the fish served God’s saving purpose for Jonah. Both accounts underscore that God’s plan is designed to rescue us, even if it doesn’t look like what we expected.

Automatically Generated Transcript

[00:00:01] But anyway, it’s a warm welcome. I want to extend the welcome to everyone here today. I’m glad to see you here. If you’ve just rocked up at church and you’re kind of wondering what’s going on, we’ve been going through the book of Jonah together. And today we’re up to our second chapter and our second talk in this four-part series. And I’m really looking forward to going through this chapter with you. And in this chapter, we get to look at Jonah inside the belly of the fish. And I think a lot of people have heard of the book of Jonah. One of the first things that come to mind when they think of Jonah is the fish. Well, today we’re going to dive into this. I hope you can swallow this story. I hope you’re looking

[00:00:38] forward to this moment of looking at Jonah inside the belly of the fish. Just a bit of housekeeping, if you walked in through the foyer, you might have had an opportunity to get the handout for today. If you didn’t get one and you’d like one, feel free to put up your hand and Matt can come and give one to you. Essentially, this gives an outline of the talk points for today. An opportunity for you… There’s a hand from Fian. I don’t know if you’ll take notes though, Fian. An opportunity for you to write notes, to fill in the points, to draw and doodle if you’d like. I’m not bothered if you don’t want to do that, but it’s just an opportunity for you to engage in that way if you find that helpful. All right, so let’s do a quick recap of Jonah chapter one

[00:01:19] just to set the stage of what we’re looking at for today. So, the book of Jonah began with God delivering an instruction to Jonah. He said to Jonah, arise and go to the city of Nineveh and speak out against them for their wickedness has come up before me. And if you missed the talk last week, essentially Nineveh is the capital of ancient Assyria and is the bad guy of this time. The city of Nineveh contains the people who are known for conquering all the nearby regions in the Middle East. And these people were so bad. They were murderers, they were rapists, they were torturers, and they were a wicked people. When God calls them wicked, he’s not using that term lightly. And so when Jonah receives this instruction, God says, go, Jonah says, no, and he

[00:02:07] flees. And his mode of transport is to go down to the port city of Joppa to get on a boat and travel as far as he can away from the city of Nineveh. And it is on this boat when God sends a storm to chase him down. And in this storm, the punchline is that the sailors throw him overboard and the storm ceases. And that is how Jonah chapter one finishes and where we’re gonna be picking up today in Jonah chapter two. So I’m just gonna pray. I’d like to bow your heads. Let’s commit this talk and this moment to God. Heavenly Father, we pray that you would speak to us today help us to understand more of who you are and your character and the lengths that you go to extend your mercy to us. We commit this time to you in your precious name. Amen. All right, so the title of this talk that I’ve given it is Friend or Foe?

[00:03:04] And I want us to think about this question throughout this talk. As we think about the fish, I want you to ask this question, friend or foe? And later on in the talk, I’m gonna be talking about Jesus and the parallels between the fish and Jesus’ death and resurrection as well. And we’re also going to be asking this question, friend or foe, in the way that people engage with Jesus at that time. So keep this in mind, friend or foe. The last verse of chapter 1 says this, So chapter 1 really ended with a cliffhanger. If it didn’t clarify the amount of time that Jonah was in the fish, perhaps you would think he’s dead. He’s been swallowed by the fish. He’s been eaten and he is no more. And I think it’s interesting because as Jonah chapter 1 finishes,

[00:03:57] we don’t really know what’s going on and why this fish has swallowed him. And we’re going to find out more across these next few chapters. So last year, in about February, there was a real story of someone being swallowed by a whale. And it was actually caught on video. So a father and son were kayaking just south of Chile. And the father was filming his son, really excited to be out on the water together. And while he was filming it, this whale jumps up and actually swallows the sun. It wasn’t for three days, it was for three seconds. And the sun gets spat out. And a lot of talk was going on in that time. Oh, you know, Jonah, Jonah, swallowed by a whale. You know, this is this real thing that’s happened. And I think it connects to the story of Jonah, of course,

[00:04:44] because someone was followed by a whale and a fish. But it raises questions that a lot of us ask ourselves. What does the book of Jonah mean? Is this fish a real fish? Did it really happen? What’s going on? And I hope by the end of this talk today, we can actually have a better answer to that question as to is this really something that happened? I think the answer is yes, and I’ll explain to you why. But lots of people have been comparing this event that was caught on video to the book of Jonah. And I want to just take a moment to recognize that Jonah being swallowed by a fish and being in that fish for three days isn’t an ordinary thing that happens. It’s extraordinary. Chapter 1 finishes by God saying that he appointed a fish to swallow Jonah. And I think if you find it hard to swallow this story

[00:05:36] and to grapple with the fact that Jonah is inside a fish, that’s okay, because it’s an extraordinary thing that’s happening. And I want to take this moment to say that if you come to church with doubts and concerns and questioning the truth of the Bible, I think that’s a good thing that you care about the truth and that you’re willing to find out about the truth. And I hope that we can do that together today. And we worship a God of miracles and a God who can do extraordinary things like sending a storm and swallowing someone inside a fish. All right, so let’s look at verse 1 of chapter 2. From inside the fish, Jonah prayed to the Lord, his God, and he said, In my distress, I called to the Lord, capital letters, Yahweh, and he answered me, From deep in the realm of the dead,

[00:06:29] I called for help, and you listened to my cry. So let’s stop. Think of things from Jonah’s perspective. We know how the story unfolds, but from Jonah’s perspective, this big storm was sent to chase him down. As a result of him running away, he gets thrown into the storm, and as he’s sinking down in the water, this gigantic creature comes and swallows him. So I’m sure in that moment he would be terrified. He doesn’t know that this fish is coming to rescue him. He probably thinks this fish is coming to be the final boss battle that he’s going to lose and die to. And inside the fish now, he’s reflecting on what just happened and recognizing that in my distress, sinking down in this ocean, I called out to the Lord, and you answered me. And from deep in the realm of the dead,

[00:07:22] I called for help, and you listened to my cry. He’s talking about the fish and the fact that the fish has come to save him. And Jonah is a prophet. He’s not an ordinary person in this time. God didn’t just pick a person and say, hey, go to Nineveh and deliver this message. He picked Jonah, who has already done prophetic work, speaking on God’s behalf. And when God gives an instruction and a message to a prophet, and that prophet says, no, thank you. I’m going to run away. I don’t want to do that. The consequences of that are actually severe. The consequences of that is death. And so as Jonah runs away in the storm, chases him down, and is thrown into the water, Jonah is thinking that this is the end. That he is deserving of death. And this fish is going to deliver that for him. Verse 3.

[00:08:19] You hurled me into the depths, into the very heart of the seas, and the current swirled about me. All your waves and breakers swept over me. I said, I have been banished from your sight, yet I will look again towards your holy temple. The engulfing waters threatened me. The deep surrounded me. Seaweed was wrapped around my head. To the roots of the mountain I sank down. The earth beneath barred me in forever. But you, Lord my God, brought my life up from the pit. And what is he referring to? The fish. So this brings me to my first point of this talk. Which is that God’s mercy shows up in unexpected ways. God’s mercy shows up in unexpected ways. So there’s two parts to this. One, mercy. Jonah, the prophet of God who has run away, is deserving of death.

[00:09:18] Yet God isn’t finished with Jonah, and God is choosing to save him and to spare him, despite him running from him. When God does not give the thing to Jonah that he deserves, that’s mercy. And then the second part is that it’s unexpected. I know if I was in the ocean and a gigantic fish was coming towards me, I’m not thinking, yay, God’s showing me mercy. I’m thinking, run for your life. And God, who is this God of mercy, operates in our lives in ways that sometimes we don’t understand, we don’t appreciate, and we don’t expect. And it’s funny, because to a certain extent, we should expect the unexpected. I know that’s cliche, but when it comes to God, he is capable of anything. And the way that he will deliver mercy to us, which is unexpected at times, is something that we should expect.

[00:10:16] And that’s hard to get your head around. So if we think about different times in history where God’s mercy has shown up in unexpected ways, I wonder if you can think of what this is, and times at which God has done a significant act of mercy and it’s surprised people. And if you think about the story of Jesus and the fact that the Messiah came to earth, I think that this is another example of, sorry, of God’s mercy showing up in unexpected ways. You see, when Jesus was born as a baby in a cradle, God had a plan for Jesus to ultimately save the world. And this surprised people 2,000 years ago as Jesus showed up. And they had lots of warning, lots of prophetic prediction of God coming in this Messiah, yet when it finally came, it took a lot of people by surprise.

[00:11:19] And in a moment, we’re going to talk about that as well. But let’s talk about who Jesus is. So, Jesus is the Son of God. He is the Messiah. He is the friend of sinners. He is the Savior. He is the Lamb of God. I’m just going to read some of those verses and you can listen. Luke 2, verses 11 to 12. Today in the town of David, a Savior has been born to you. He is the Messiah, the Lord. You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger. John chapter 1, 45. We have found the one Moses wrote about in the law and about whom the prophets also wrote, Jesus of Nazareth. That’s referring to Jesus being the Messiah. Matthew chapter 9, verse 10. While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. The tax collectors at the time,

[00:12:21] they were people that were well known for being filthy sinners, yet Jesus is eating with them. He’s a friend of sinners. Luke chapter 19, 10. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost. And lastly, John chapter 1, verses 29. Look, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. So as we read through these descriptions of who Jesus is, we can think about this question of friend or foe. And if we look at that list, friend or foe, which one will we lean towards? I think friend. And it’s describing Jesus as someone who cares about people, who comes to save them. And the extent to which he does that is not just for the righteous, but also for the lost and the sinners. Now, that’s my understanding of who Jesus is. And people were discovering this 2,000 years ago while he was on earth.

[00:13:21] But not everyone saw Jesus as a friend. In fact, there’s a group of people who very specifically saw him as a foe. And that group of people were the Pharisees. So if you ask me to describe a Pharisee, they are a member of a religious party known for the strict adherence to the Jewish laws. So in some senses, that can be a good thing. But at this time, so long ago, they got really fixated on the rules and a little less concerned about their relationship with God. And so when Jesus came, it was so unexpected to them that they didn’t even recognize him as the Messiah. And where we’re going with this is that we’re going to look at some of the interactions that the Pharisees had with Jesus and then talk about how Jesus references Jonah in the fish back to them.

[00:14:24] And then once we go through that, we’ll return to the book of Jonah. So how did the Pharisees interact with Jesus? Here’s a couple of exchanges with them and Jesus. Mark chapter 2, verse 6 to 7. Now some of the teachers of the law, the Pharisees, were sitting there thinking to themselves, why does this fellow talk like that? He’s blaspheming. Who can forgive sins but God alone? So clearly, they don’t think Jesus is God. Matthew chapter 12, 24, but when the Pharisees heard this, they said, it’s only by Beelzebul, the prince of demons, that this fellow drives out demons. So not only do they not think he’s God, they think he is demonic and part of the demon factions. Mark 3, 6, then the Pharisees sent out, went out and began to plot

[00:15:19] with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus. So what’s clear from these verses is that when Jesus was doing his ministry 2,000 years ago, the Pharisees viewed Jesus as a foe and they viewed him as not who he said he was, but what they thought about him, their opinion of him. And that’s actually something that we today have to come to our own opinion of as well. We have to come to opinion of how we see Jesus and whether we see him as a friend or a foe. And if you’re indifferent, if you’re on the fence and you don’t care, you’re actually making a decision to see him as a foe because he says that he is the son of God, and he came to this earth to save you, that’s what he says, the Bible says about him. And if you don’t care, and you don’t recognize that, then you’re actually seeing him as a foe.

[00:16:17] And so I want to summarize this in the second point of the message, which is that God sent his son to save the world, not to condemn it. So as we grapple with this question, Jesus, friend or foe, in some senses to us, it might seem obvious, of course he’s friend, but that’s not the opinion that everyone has. And a lot of people view Jesus as a judge, and as a condemner, and as a Pharisee type person himself. But it says in John chapter three, verse 17, God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Now I couldn’t resist leaving in a meme in the sermon. I’ve done this talk in the past with more memes, and I thought as I preached to congregation, I should take lots of the memes out.

[00:17:17] But I really like Star Wars, and this meme makes me laugh a lot. I don’t know if you’ve seen Star Wars before, but essentially Luke Skywalker is trying to figure out where Obi-Wan Kenobi is, and he’s actually spent a lot of time with this man who happens to be Obi-Wan Kenobi, and only like into their friendship does he discover this. And I think it’s funny because the Pharisees are accusing Jesus, do you even know who God is? And of course Jesus knows who God is. He is God, and he takes it very humbly in the same way that Obi-Wan Kenobi does. Okay, let’s continue. Verse 38. So, sorry, Matthew chapter 12, verse 38. This is now talking about an exchange between Jesus and the Pharisees, and in this exchange, Jesus is going to bring up Jonah,

[00:18:11] Jonah chapter 2. So what does he say, or what happens? Then some of the Pharisees and teachers of the law said to him, teacher, we want to see a sign from you. They’re saying to him, prove to us that you really are who you say you are. And Jesus responds saying, a wicked and adulterous generation asked for a sign, but none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. And this is the sign of death and deliverance, where Jonah came out of the fish in the same way that Jesus plans to come out of the grave. And he’s starting to talk about the sign of the prophet Jonah. And notice what the Pharisees are doing here. They ask him, Jesus, teacher, sorry, we want to see a sign from you. And Jesus’ response is actually acknowledging that they don’t ask this question earnestly.

[00:19:12] Jesus can see their heart and can see that they’re not open to the truth. And they’re actually already decided to reject Jesus. They’re just asking tricky questions to try and to trap him. And it’s such a shame that the Messiah that these Pharisees are waiting so long for is standing right in front of them, but they can’t see it. Verse 40, For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, Jesus is marking his death and resurrection in the grave, according to the story of Jonah, and Jonah being in the belly of the fish for three days and for three nights. And when people ask me, hey, do you think this Jonah story is real? Do you think someone was really swallowed by a fish for three days and lived inside it and then was spat out and continued on with life and while it can be

[00:20:16] hard to believe or understand, the greatest answer I have for why I believe it is because Jesus did and Jesus references the story of Jonah and living inside of the fish as a way of comparing his own death and resurrection. It doesn’t make sense to mark your own death and resurrection, a true historical event that happened with some allegorical story that didn’t take place. Jesus believes that the book of Jonah and the story of Jonah Fish is real, and that’s why I do as well. And I want to take a moment to pause and appreciate this comparison, especially in the lead up to Easter. And two weeks from now, when we look at Jonah chapter 4, will be Easter Sunday, and we will again be looking at this comparison. But Jesus is saying that this is a sign, what happened to Jonah and the fish,

[00:21:15] where it looks like death has won, is actually going to be a sign for what happens to me, where I will be killed, and I will be out of action for three days, but will return once more. So, as we start to transition back towards Jonah, a sub-point here is that both Jesus and the fish are God’s instruments of mercy. The fish was a way of saving Jonah, and Jesus is a way of saving us. All right. So, we’re going to look at Jonah chapter 2, verses 3 to 9. I forgot to bring up my Bible, which has them on the slides. Could you put it on the screen briefly, and then we’ll return to this? And I’m just going to read to you the last verses here of Jonah. If you’ve got some elevator music, just imagine that it’s playing. All right. Thank you. All right. Jonah chapter 2, verses 3 to 9. Verse 3 to 10. Thank you.

[00:23:27] So, just to take a moment to talk about Jonah’s prayer inside the fish. It can be quite confusing, because he’s saying a lot of words, and these words actually have a lot of meaning behind them, because what Jonah is doing as he prays inside the belly of the fish, is he’s actually recounting Psalms. So, if you carefully go through his prayer and go through the book of Psalms, it’s actually a combination of Psalms that he is talking about. And I’m just going to take a moment to show you some of these comparisons. And as we go through these comparisons, I want to reflect on the fact that Jonah, who is a prophet, he is someone who knows the Scripture really well.

[00:24:26] And in the next two chapters, we’re going to be comparing how well Jonah knows the Scripture and knows God’s character with actually sharing God’s heart and living it out. But we’ll talk about that later and instead look at Jonah’s impressive knowledge of the Psalms. And back in the day, this is quite a common way for prophets and religious people who know the Scripture to pray and to engage with God, is to use Psalms as a way of reflecting on what’s going on in their life and with talking with God. Okay, so let’s look at some of these comparisons. Jonah 2.2, In my distress, I called to the Lord and he answered me. Psalm 120, verse 1, I call on the Lord in my distress and he answers me. Jonah 2, verse 3, I don’t know if your plagiarism radar is going off, but it’s not a bad thing in this context.

[00:25:36] It’s just the way that Jonah is praying and engaging with the Lord. Jonah, verse, chapter 2, 9, With shouts of grateful praise, I will sacrifice to you what I have vowed I will make good. Psalm 116, 17-18, I will sacrifice a thank offering to you. I will fulfill my vows to the Lord. So a sub-point here, which is going to be especially relevant in talks 3 and 4, is that Jonah knows Scripture and God’s character. He is very well aware of what the Bible has to say about God. And by the Bible, I’m talking about the Torah and in the context of the Jewish religion back then. And he knows with his head Scripture and God’s character. And yeah, we’re going to be talking a lot about whether he knows with his heart and properly understands it in our next talks. All right, so as we wrap up the ending of chapter 2,

[00:26:39] the final point that I have for you today is a quote from Jonah’s prayer, which is simply, Salvation belongs to the Lord. Salvation belongs to the Lord. This is something that Jonah has been grappling with. In chapter 1, when God sends Jonah to go to the Ninevites and to preach to them and speak out against them, what we’re going to uncover is that he really struggles with this idea of the Ninevites having an opportunity to be saved. And that was quite a motivation for him to run away and to not engage with God’s instruction. And as Jonah is thrown into the sea and swallowed by a fish and saved by this fish, he is saying inside the belly, Lord, I recognize that salvation belongs to you. I, as a runaway prophet, deserve death, yet you have delivered me. And at least for myself,

[00:27:43] I’m seeing that salvation belongs to you. So we’re going to see how Jonah lives this out in the next two chapters. So how does Jonah chapter 2 end? And the Lord commanded the fish and it vomited Jonah onto dry land. And the imagery that I have in my head is a type of projectile vomiting where the fish has gone to the shore close to Nineveh and then is shooting Jonah out onto the shore so that he is then going to give another opportunity to deliver this message to the Ninevites. And that’s what we’re going to be looking at next week. So as we wrap up, I have just three reflections that I want to ask you to think about. Reflection number one. In what unexpected ways has God shown up in your life? Sometimes we get busy and we just live. We go about our day-to-day things and we don’t always take the moment

[00:28:45] to just pause and reflect how has God been working in our life. And sometimes it’s good to do that about how God is working our life right now because we might be in a moment where this gigantic fish is coming towards us and we struggle to see how this could ever turn out to be something good. Yet God has a plan for that fish and God has a plan for us. and so I wonder in what ways have you seen God show up unexpectedly and perhaps working in your life unexpectedly right now? Two, what is your relationship with Jesus like at the moment? So we went through a detour talking about Jesus on earth as friend or foe and we had our point that Jesus did not come to condemn the world but to save it and perhaps a lot of us have heard that before

[00:29:38] and we know, okay, Jesus, he came to save us, he didn’t come to condemn us but do you recognize that in your relationship with God? Are there aspects of your life, areas of sin that you’re holding back from sharing with the Lord because you are seeing him as a condemner? And I want to encourage you to view Jesus as the Savior who wants you to bring to him your sin and your struggles and your burden because he wants to save it and to redeem it, not to condemn it. And so think about your relationship with Jesus and if you are seeing it as Jesus the Savior or the condemner in the way that you speak and operate with him. So you can think about the salvation of others who it’s God’s prerogative to work in those people’s lives and to save them and not encouraging you to sit back and do nothing

[00:30:47] and not be excited to share the gospel with them, you should do those things but are you really trusting in the fact that their salvation isn’t up to you? And more than this, are you trusting that your salvation belongs to the Lord? Are you feeling a little bit like you’re on a treadmill where you’re trying to earn your salvation and earn brownie points with God? There’s nothing that you can do to earn your salvation. Your salvation belongs to the Lord. so that’s what I have for you today thank you for for listening and going to the book of Jonah with me I’m just going to wrap up and pray and then we’re gonna have one more song so if you’d like to bow your heads would you pray with me Heavenly Father we thank you that you are God of mercy who loves us so much that even when we mess up and we run away

[00:31:40] you track us down and you have a plan for us we thank you that you are the author of our salvation and there’s nothing that we can ever do to earn your love or to earn our place in heaven. But instead you had a plan through Jesus where he would die on the cross to pay the penalty of our sin and that he wouldn’t stay dead but three days later he would rise again. And I thank you that the book of Jonah in chapter 2 is a prophetic sign that foreshadows Jesus’ death and resurrection. And I thank you that this book of Jonah allows us to reflect on Jesus being murdered and being dead in the tomb for three days and the comparison that that has with Jonah being inside the fish for three days. So we pray that you would help us to absorb this and to reflect on this and to allow it to draw us closer to you. Pray all these things in your mighty name. Amen. You