10th May 2025

10th May 2025


Pray (ACts)


Read (Jonah 1)


Message (Scott Woodburn)


The story of Jonah is so familiar to us that we could probably recite it with almost 100% accuracy. He was a reluctant prophet who ran away from God. Unfortunately for Jonah, he ended up in the belly of a great fish but finally came to his senses before heading to preach in Nineveh. Yet one of the most fascinating aspects of Jonah’s story comes between chapter one and chapter two.


As chapter one ends we are told that Jonah has been swallowed by a great fish and is there for three days and three nights. Chapter two begins with Jonah calling to the Lord in prayer. But what happened between these two chapters? Usually debate surrounds the identity of the great fish and whether or not it would be possible for a man to survive in such a scenario. I’m fairly convinced that Jonah didn’t survive his plunge into the ocean.


How so? Because Jesus compares His own experience with that of Jonah. The Lord said “For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” (Matthew 12v40) Now we know that Jesus died and was in the tomb for three dies. I think Jonah also died and was in his own fishy tomb under the water for three days and so what we see in chapter two is a man being brought from death to life.


If you read Jonah’s prayer it is one of faith. The reluctance has gone and he longs to worship the Lord. Now Jonah is by no means the finished article. He preaches to the Ninevites and there is wide spread salvation but Jonah takes himself outside the city and has a wee huff. Even so, I think we see in Jonah a picture of regeneration. He is brought both to physical and spiritual life. His eyes are closed in the darkness of the deep but even in such awful circumstances the Lord moves and the light of the Gospel shines.


There is no-one and nowhere off limits to the Lord. As Jesus told Nicodemus, the Spirit blows where He wishes and it is the Spirit who breathes new life into spiritually dead sinners such as you and I. Last week the street preacher wanted to know if I was saved. I am. I’m sure I am. But it isn’t because I have done anything to deserve it or anything to help God achieve it. I am a saved man because once upon a time I lay in a dark spiritual tomb without hope and without God in this world. Then in the fulness of time the wind of God blew into my tomb and regenerated me. The Lord gave me a new heart, He caused me to be born again and with a new will and desire for God, I called upon the name of the Lord and was saved. This is nothing short of a miraculous, supernatural work of God. Brothers and sisters, rejoice at the glory of the Gospel!


Pray (acTS)


Sing


WSC


Q80 What is required in the tenth commandment? The tenth commandment requireth full contentment with our own condition, with a right and charitable frame of spirit toward our neighbor, and all that is his.
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