Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] On the back of your bulletin, so maybe close it. Flip it over to the other side. That's. We're going to be not in John today. We're going to be in Jonah. We're going to take a break from John for a little while, and we're going to start Jonah today, and then we'll do another book after Jonah before we go back to John.
[00:00:17] Let's pray. And then we will jump right into this.
[00:00:22] This book.
[00:00:23] Join me.
[00:00:24] Lord Jesus, we are grateful for. For your love for us, your care for us, that you not only love us, but you love us as a God who comes near to us.
[00:00:37] Even though we have this problem of sin. You still came close.
[00:00:41] And you showed us that we were made for more than being separated from you for eternity. And so you did the work so that we could come to be in relationship with you. So thank you for your.
[00:00:55] Your death on the cross, your substitutionary work that you did. You took our place, and we're grateful for that this morning. We'll remember that in a time of communion later on. And Lord, so even as we think about that, as we prepare for that, that you would work in our hearts as we look at this text here before us, that you would show us your great mercy for us that you have that a relationship you desire to have with us, Lord, that you would move our hearts and our minds in a powerful way, that your spirit would do that work. In Jesus name I pray. Everyone said amen.
[00:01:28] Does anyone here like fishing?
[00:01:31] A few. A lot more than I thought.
[00:01:34] So we're all familiar with what a fish story is then, right?
[00:01:39] And maybe if you don't like fishing, but you talk to people who do like fishing. They come back from fishing trips and they tell you that they caught a fish, and you ask them how big the fish was, and they said it was this big. And then you say, can I see a picture? And it was really maybe this big.
[00:01:57] Fish stories are often stories, we say, that are a bit exaggerated, stories that are beyond what actually happened. And sometimes they're exaggerated to make a point. Sometimes they're exaggerated to make someone look good, Especially if you were the fisherman and you wanted to say, I caught a fish that was just that big. So people would ooh and ah and ooh and awe at your stories of this great fish that you caught. Now, the Book of Jonah offers us one of the biggest fish stories in the Bible.
[00:02:31] But the question is, is this story exaggerated or is it true? Is it larger than life, or did it actually happen? Because this book if you've read it before, you know the story, you might have watched the veggie Jonah, right?
[00:02:47] You've heard the stories of it many times. For people who've grown up in church, this is one of the first stories that we tell. But the book of Jonah is actually almost written like satire. There is 15 times in the book of Jonah that we see the word giant or massive or huge. And no one is playing the roles that you would expect them to play.
[00:03:10] The prophet Jonah, the one who is to speak for God, he's actually the hard hearted one.
[00:03:17] The pagans that we find on the boat that we'll see later on in the city are actually the soft hearted individuals.
[00:03:28] Sometimes people consider God in the Old Testament as being this judgmental character. In the book of Jonah, we find him as one who is merciful.
[00:03:38] And Jonah, the only named character outside of God is in this book.
[00:03:44] Well, that's strange too. Why is he the only named individual? So I want to offer, before we really start into chapter one, an overview of this book in three ways. Can someone say three ways? Three ways we're on the right page. All right, three things. So the first is this.
[00:03:58] Want to speak to the authenticity of the book. Secondly, want to speak to the history that we're looking at here. And then thirdly, the personality of the prophet. So the authenticity, the history and the personality of, of the prophet that we're looking at, because those are important foundational points for us. Before we jump into all, how many chapters Does Jonah have?
[00:04:18] 4. And on my Bible you don't even have to flip a page to get to the end of the book. So not many verses here, but it's a powerful point. So the first one, if you were writing things down, I said there's three, there's overview of the book. There's three things. The first one was the authenticity. So the question is, is this book true? Did it really happen? Now just a few things to consider with this one. Jesus references this book, doesn't he? He says that just as Jonah was in the belly of the fish, we'll get to that fish for three days and three nights. So must the Son of Man be in the belly of the earth.
[00:04:58] Secondly, the book is not written like an allegory or like a parable. Now there's something called a historical narrative and there's something else called a histor. Historical, historical parable. And what that means is, okay, so maybe it was history that Jesus was referencing, but that was something that people had told stories about, but wasn't actually something that occurred. So maybe when Jesus was. Some say when Jesus was referencing Jonah, he wasn't saying it actually occurred, but that people believed that it occurred. So when I say that people believed that it occurred, that's the historical parable versus that it actually occurred. That's the historical, historical narrative. So there's some questions about did this actually occur? But in my opinion, and I think many, many others view Jonah as a historical narrative, it actually occurred. It's not just a big fish story, but it actually happened. Because one of the other things that we see thirdly is that it's well organized, it's detailed, and we see actual locations that occurred. One of the reasons that people might assume, and lastly, before we move on to the history piece, people might assume that this didn't actually happen is because why can't really find a fish out there big enough to hold a man and keep him alive for three days. And so if I can't find a fish big enough out there and some of the other things here, that just seems larger than life. And so maybe it didn't really occur. And I would submit this to you this morning, that if we believe that God with His Word spoke the world into existence and with his own power, could heal people just with his word. Can you say Nineveh? Right? The big city that we're talking about that Jonah was sent to, Nineveh is the superpower of the day. There's a map on the screen. It's about 550 miles or so from where Jonah is, or near Joppa, where Jonah's going to end up leaving Tarshish, which we'll talk about in just a moment, was quite far away. That was actually like the end of the known world at the time.
[00:06:55] Where that would be today is like the other side of Spain, the western side of Spain. And then after that there's just an ocean and at the time was unexplored for many of them. Nineveh, which you can see there on the screen, actually is a very old city referenced first in Genesis chapter 10, starting small with someone named with Nimrod.
[00:07:15] And there's actually connection with Nimrod and the worship that happened there with this God called Nanshee and Dagon. And those were known as the Fish God or Dagon. This individual was half man and half fish. Now, I'm going to side note here, because I was a kid once and watched VeggieTales, Jonah, and you saw that the people were terrible in Nineveh in this Veggietales movie. And they were fish slappers. So some of you might have been thinking, where did the fish slapper thing come from in that movie? If you've seen it before, it came from this.
[00:07:51] There was actually a connection to their worship of fish. So, anyway, we'll move on a little bit further. This was a massive city. It started small in Genesis 10, and then over the years, and this is in Assyria, it began to continue to grow and grow and grow. And not only was this a massive city, some say that it was about eight miles or so of walls around the major city of Nineveh. And then there was city space outside of the walled portion of Nineveh.
[00:08:21] It was probably about 60 miles across, which is pretty big for a city, isn't it? To start at one end of a city and then 60 miles all the way to the other side. So this was a massive city, and for much of the time was the capital of Assyria. But not only was it a huge city, it was also a terrible city. They were incredibly cruel, the people there. And they prided themselves in being very, very cruel. They held onto the power that they had tightly. And so when they would go into other nations to conquer other nations or just to demonstrate their power, things like great torture that they would do to their enemies, not just killing them quickly, if you will, but they would find ways to torture them in terrible ways to show how evil really they were, how powerful they were, for the purpose of bringing fear into people's lives. So Nineveh was not only huge, but it was.
[00:09:13] It was bad. It was an evil nation.
[00:09:17] So when we hear about God saying, I'm paying attention to this nation now, you would assume that somebody like Jonah would say, oh, good, finally, right? Because the people of Israel, you see, it's not far from Israel. They would have known about how terrible Nineveh was. Everybody would have known.
[00:09:34] So let's talk about the prophet's personality. We saw the authenticity, the history, and now the prophet's personality. Jonah at first might assume that this man of God would be pretty excited. All right, God is going to pay attention to this nation. They're a bad group of people. He's finally going to see them. But we see that Jonah, was he happy about this?
[00:09:56] Not at all.
[00:09:58] Not at all. While other prophets usually are called to speak to the nation of Israel, which isn't very big, the nation of Israel, and call them back to repentance and maybe even to speak negatively about other Gentile or foreign nations, Jonah is the first recorded prophet that we see who's actually sent outside of the nation of Israel to go and speak about God or on God's behalf, and not calling them, just simply to calling judgment upon them, if you will, but rather saying, hey, there's an opportunity for your repentance. And we see. We're going to see in a minute that the call of God upon Jonah to go and warn Nineveh was not something that Jonah was excited about. Here's why.
[00:10:40] Because when God calls Jonah to say, give a warning to the nation of Israel, what a warning implies is this. Don't miss this. A warning implies patience.
[00:10:50] God was willing to be patient with them. And here's what Jonah wants. Not God's patience and God's mercy upon the nation of Israel. Jonah wants God's judgment, particularly in the form of destruction and death upon this nation.
[00:11:05] Now, as you might assume, and then we'll get into the outline that you have, as you might assume, this doesn't seem like a very godly trait for a man of God, does it?
[00:11:13] God's like, I want to show mercy. And the man of God says, why don't.
[00:11:18] Doesn't seem like a good man of God right now. What's interesting about Jonah is this. We don't actually know a whole lot about this individual outside of the book of Jonah, other than in second kings, chapter 14, verse 25 tells us something. He's interacting with someone with a particular king, Jeroboam ii. And if you know anything about some of the first kings, Jeroboam ii, he was not a good king. He allowed idol worship to happen in the nation of Israel. But what's unique is this. Jonah, the prophet of God, offers praise to this bad king.
[00:11:53] So the short little bit that we see about Jonah outside of the book of Jonah isn't one that shows us that Jonah actually reflects God's heart.
[00:12:03] Which is interesting, isn't it, for the person that's supposed to be showing God's heart to the people, demonstrating the heart of God to people. So there's kind of your background of personality, your history, authenticity of the book, kind of have that maybe in your mind, we're going to jump right into chapter one. Now, chapter one gives us three kind of big ideas. We have a strange assignment, a strange storm, and a strange solution. And you're gonna write in six points here in your outline. Let's just start off right now in verse one of chapter one. So if you have your Bibles, we're just gonna read through this and comment on it as we Go through the story together. I'm not gonna read through the whole thing first. We'll just read through it all together as we go through your outline. So chapter one, verse what?
[00:12:43] One. Let's look together. So now.
[00:12:46] Now that we have all the background, that we have the context, we know who we're talking about now, the word of the Lord came to Jonah, and right out of the gate, you can write this in point one in your outline is the assignment. Verses one and two is what we're gonna read the assignment. Now, the word of the Lord came to Jonah, the son of Amittai. And right out of the gate. We have a bit of satire here because Jonah means dove and son of Amittai. Amittai means faithfulness. So right out of the gate we have. So the Lord came to Jonah, which means son of faithfulness. Do we see faithfulness in the personality of Jonah?
[00:13:24] No.
[00:13:25] So what does the lord say? Verse 2. Arise. Here's the assignment. Arise and go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it for their what evil has come up before me. Their wickedness has come up before me. So God speaks to Jonah in some unique way. And what we don't see is this Jonah going, was that God?
[00:13:46] We know that Jonah heard from the Lord. He knows that it's God who desires him to move here. And then notice what he says, their wickedness or their evil has come up before me. Now, it's not that God doesn't see all evil or all wickedness, but when we see something like this in scripture, it's to say, their wickedness is terrible.
[00:14:09] Terrible. It's not. Well, they've messed up here and there, but it is bad. Think of Sodom and Gomorrah. Remember that Genesis 18. The Lord says, I heard about their wickedness, or it's come up against me. The outcry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great. It says in Genesis 18:20, none of man's wickedness, though, is heard.
[00:14:28] But when you think about what we know about Jonah, who lives where you can reply, what nation does he live in?
[00:14:36] Israel. He knows that Nineveh is a cruel, terrible nation who worships idols. Nineveh and Israel are not friends. So when Jonah gets this assignment, you and I might assume, wouldn't he be scared to go there?
[00:14:51] That could be terrifying. His life would be on the line. One pastor or commentator says this. It would be like in 1940, asking a Jew to stand on the streets of Berlin and call out against Hitler. How's that Going to go for him.
[00:15:05] Not well at all.
[00:15:08] Maybe Jonah could have been scared, but we don't see actually in any text in this book is that Jonah was actually scared of the Ninevites. Rather he just wanted their destruction. He was angry at them. He had hate for them. In chapter four, we're going to see why Jonah actually decides to do not what God calls him to do, but does something else. Let's look at point two. So we have the assignment. Go to Nineveh and call out against it, because their evil is great. It's come up against God. Verse 3.2 on your outline. We have not just the assignment, we have the runner.
[00:15:44] But Jonah. Can you say that with me? But Jonah, I hope that's never said of us. God gives us assignment. But Duba did something else.
[00:15:56] But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish. You saw that map earlier on the screen. 2,500 miles or so in the opposite direction. But notice something run from the presence of the Lord.
[00:16:10] He went out to Joppa. 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 him to Tarshish, away from the presence of the Lord. Now there's a few things we need to pay attention to here in verse three. Look at it. But Jonah, he fled.
[00:16:25] He went to flee to Tarshish. What was he running away from? Was he running away from Nineveh?
[00:16:31] He was running away from the presence of the Lord. Do you see that there?
[00:16:37] Why was he.
[00:16:39] What is he thinking here? He didn't just stay there. He could have said, well, I don't want to do it, God, and I'm just going to sit on my chair and not go anywhere. But he doesn't do that. And here's why. It's because there was a belief actually, actually that even exists for us today, that the location that you are in might speak to the presence of God in that place. So for Israel, they believe that God was more powerful in the particular location of Israel and even more so, for example, in the temple. So that would demonstrate God's presence. So when it says that he's running away from God's presence, we're speaking about the nation of Israel. Because why, if I'm rejecting God, which would I want to stay in his presence? It's like this for us today. You did what in church?
[00:17:22] I mean, it's one thing if you do it somewhere else, but you did it in church. It's like we have this belief that There is more presence of God in a particular location. You know what I'm talking about, right?
[00:17:33] And it's the same thing true for Jonah in this case, I want to. I've been called by God to do something. For example, maybe us in church. God spoke to me here, but I don't want to do it. And so I'm just not going to go back to church because God might find me again there. Like he can't find you somewhere else and ask me to do it there. So Jonah says, I'm going to leave from the presence of the Lord. Even though, as we know in Psalm 139, can you flee from the presence of God?
[00:17:59] No. David writes this. Where can I go from your spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I ascend into heaven, you are there. If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.
[00:18:08] If I take on the wings of the morning, in other words, if I leave, I dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea.
[00:18:12] Even there, your hand shall lead me and your right hand shall hold me. You can't escape from the presence of God. Jonah clearly hadn't read that chapter, because if he had, he would have maybe caught on. But he thinks I'm going to flee from the presence of God. Notice something else in these verses here in your Bibles. It says this. He went down to Joppa, and then he says he paid the fare and he went where?
[00:18:36] Down into the ship, away from the presence of the Lord. Maybe something to write down here is this. When you are running from God, down is the only direction you will find yourself going.
[00:18:48] And something interesting about Jonah is we often right now we're gonna find him going down and going down, and later on we're gonna find him not just going down into the ship, but down into the sea.
[00:19:00] A deeper application here before we go on is this when our hope for sinners to be punished surpasses our joy and effort for their redemption. We have missed the heart of God. And in this case we see that Jonah was more set on the destruction of Nineveh rather than the heart of God. About Nineveh, if our hate or dislike or even apathy towards the lost is evident, we must ask God to change our hearts for Jonah. He was happy preaching and spiritually guiding God's people. But when it came to the people he didn't like, he'd rather they. This is harsh. Burn in hell.
[00:19:41] So we find here this prodigal prophet, as one pastor says, and I hope this sort of belief system internally is never True for any of us in this church. I hope that no matter how lost people are around us, we will pray and we will work towards their salvation, no matter how uncomfortable it may make us.
[00:20:00] And as we consider Jonah's response, I pray that we will never move away from the direction that God is leading us, no matter where that may take us. Jonah knew it was wrong, but he did it anyway.
[00:20:12] He followed his heart.
[00:20:15] But his heart wasn't aligned with God's heart, was it?
[00:20:18] So we see we have this runner running from the presence of God. And then, as we know, when you run from the presence of God, you might run into a storm. Number three on your outline, the storm.
[00:20:30] So we have the Lord showed up to Jonah, but Jonah ran the other direction. And then thirdly, but the Lord, he was not done with Jonah, was he? He didn't just let him off the hook. No fish pun intended there. But he didn't let him off the hook and just let him go another direction. He says, I'm going to chase you down. Verse 4. But the Lord hurled the. And that's a powerful world there. That's again, an exaggerated word. Didn't just create a storm, but he threw out or he sent out a great or mighty wind upon the sea. And there was a great or mighty tempest on the sea so that the ship threatened to break up.
[00:21:11] Wow. The Lord was like, I'm gonna get your attention here.
[00:21:17] After Jonah had gone out into this boat. And we don't get this picture. That's the entire Mediterranean Sea. But very possible a localized storm around where Jonah was. Look what happens. How did the sailors feel about this? Then the mariners or the sailors were what, afraid? And each cried out to his God and they hurled the cargo. There's that word. Hurled again. Hurled the cargo that was in the ship into the sea to lighten it. But Jonah had gone down into the inner part of the ship and. And laid down and was fast asleep. Wow, Jonah. So the captain of the ship came and said to him, what do you mean, you, sleeper, arise. Call out to your God. Perhaps your God will give thought to us that we might not perish.
[00:22:04] A few things that's powerful about this storm. One, the sailors recognize this storm is not a natural storm, but a supernatural storm.
[00:22:13] And so it causes them to, one, be afraid, cry out to their God for help. Three, it says they threw their cargo overboard so that it would stay afloat. And four, it ensures that all those on board were calling out to their respective gods to see if those gods would hear them. Now this notes that most likely, most of these people on the boat were probably, or at least sailors were from Tarshish. Because if they had been from Joppa, what country is that in Israel? They would be calling out to the one true God. So that speaks to the pagan nature of the people on the boat with Jonah.
[00:22:47] Now, what is Jonah doing during this incredible storm, this supernatural storm?
[00:22:53] He's sleeping. We say sleeping like a baby, but any of you who have had babies before know that that's not true. So sleeping like an exhausted person after a long day, we'll go with that.
[00:23:04] During the storm, Jonah somehow is sleeping. The question is, how is he sleeping? Now, some of you would sleep through a storm like this. Some of you are just that skilled. They can sleep through anything. Jonah, this might very well speak to his emotional state.
[00:23:17] He was so overwhelmed with what he was doing. He just wanted to escape reality. Do you know what I'm talking about? And sometimes that's true of us. Even today, I'm so overwhelmed, I just want to go to bed, curl up and fall asleep. I just want to be done with the reality that's going on in my waking world. So I would just like to sleep and sleep and sleep. And perhaps it was because the storm outside seemed insignificant to him in comparison to the storm inside of his soul. And so he thought maybe I should just sleep. And even though the storm is going on, his soul, his spirit is having a great storm already.
[00:23:58] The path away from God. Quick lesson here. The path away from God is sometimes a path into a storm. Not all the time, but sometimes. Sometimes when there is a massive storm, when there's a lot of hardship, and if you've experienced hardship in your life before, a few of you, that's cool.
[00:24:18] Sometimes in the midst of a storm, it causes us to say, God, what am I doing wrong? Why is this happening in my life? Sometimes when hard things are going on, it's because you're not doing what God has called you to do. Sometimes it's because you're not walking in the principles of the word of God. Sometimes it's because you're walking in disobedience to him. And some of you have experienced this before and more so have said God, am I in the right place?
[00:24:40] Am I doing the right thing right now? Now, sometimes storms just happen.
[00:24:45] Sometimes like Paul, for example, some thousands of years later, Paul was on this very sea. He hit a storm, didn't he? But he was going and telling people about Jesus. He wasn't in the storm because of something bad. He was doing, but because a storm happens sometimes. But in each of these cases, what we learn is this. When a storm shows up, we are called to look to God.
[00:25:06] When a storm shows up, look to God and check in with him. And so in this perilous situation, we see something incredibly sad. The only one who knew the creator of the storm was sleeping below deck.
[00:25:20] Meanwhile, everyone else awake, terrified, because Jonah was sleeping. He missed the mission field right for harvest, right above his head.
[00:25:31] People are literally saying, where is God? Who is God who can help us? I'm scared, I'm anxious. I didn't tell my family goodbye. What's going to happen to us? And meanwhile, Jonah is sleeping.
[00:25:45] There are people, even in our life today, friends, who are ready for an answer, who are looking for an answer. And we might even be that neighbor next door to them who is sleeping because we're unwilling to go next door and say, hey, let's talk. Or it's the co worker, or it's the employee, or it's the friend, or it's the family member who is like these sailors, distraught and they're looking for answers. But because we are sleeping, because our eyes are more focused on us, or because we're too busy, we're too overwhelmed with our own stuff, we don't have eyes to look out next door to us or to look to the relationship next to us. I would encourage, encourage you to do this.
[00:26:26] Pray and ask God, am I sleeping right now?
[00:26:30] Am I sleeping right now? Are there things that you've called me to do that I'm ignoring because I just want my eyes to be closed?
[00:26:38] Are you asking me to go somewhere that I'm resisting? Are my ears deaf to the words that you're speaking? Or am I not even listening to the words you want to say to me?
[00:26:46] Look at the next thing. So we have this storm that while Jonah is sleeping, we're going to see the cause of the storm now. Point four, look with me, verses seven through ten. So the captain goes down, he wakes him up, what are you doing? Call out to your God.
[00:27:06] Jonah gets up, probably goes on deck with everybody else, bailing water, whatever they're doing. Verse 7. And they said to one another, they being the sailors and, and maybe other people who are on the boat, come, let us do what?
[00:27:20] Cast lots. Now for us today, we would go, like, what? What? That doesn't seem right. And that's actually very common, would be very normal, particularly when you're trying to figure out what the gods want from you when you're Like I don't know what to do. What does God want us to do? Let's cast lots and ask him or figure it out. The New Testament Christians also did this, didn't they? This wasn't something that was overtly pagan or overtly evil. But it was a way that if they're for some are worshiping false gods, their gods wouldn't have been superintending because their gods are false. But our God can superintend in any kind of situation like that. And we see that God does. God makes sure that. Who gets picked?
[00:28:00] Jonah, we don't know. Are they rolling dice on a ship that's going like this? I don't know what they're doing. Picking straws or something. I don't know what it is. But we know that in some way Jonah gets picked as they cast lots. But notice what else that we see. Let us cast lots that we may know on whose account this storm.
[00:28:18] Is that what it says, this evil?
[00:28:22] They realized this storm is not just a storm. This is an act of God upon the sea around us. So they cast lots and lot fell on Jonah. Then they said to him, tell us on whose account this what evil? So now it shifted from being a storm to an evil. This is God saying, pay attention, people down there. And they seem to have opened their eyes, they've woken up. This is not just a natural storm. This is a work of God. And so they ask Jonah, because he pulled the last straw, or whatever it was, the short straw.
[00:28:55] What's your occupation? Where do you come from? What's your country?
[00:28:59] They ask him really these four questions. What's your job? Where do you come from? What's your origin? Who are your people?
[00:29:06] What is going on? Why is God so mad at you? That's really what they're asking here.
[00:29:11] And then look what happens. Jonah doesn't lie. Why would he? God's found him. And he said to them, I am a Hebrew and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea that is very restless right now. And the dry land. And the men were exceedingly afraid. This is the first time that we see that they're exceedingly afraid. The other time with the storm, they were afraid right now. Because they found out that God is angry at Jonah and caused a storm to happen. Now they're exceedingly afraid and and said to him, what is this you've done?
[00:29:43] Because the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of God. Don't run from God.
[00:29:49] He knows where you're going.
[00:29:51] And he's going to get there before you do.
[00:29:55] This causes an incredible fear in them. God has woken them up. And Jonah, what I love here is he doesn't make up a false story. He says, I'm running from God.
[00:30:07] Are you running from God?
[00:30:10] Are you running from God?
[00:30:13] Maybe write that answer down somewhere. Or maybe an area of your life. You're like, I know God wants me to do this thing, but I don't want to touch that with God right now because I know what he's gonna say.
[00:30:23] Or, there's this one person I need to deal with, but I don't want to do that right now, so I'm just gonna avoid it.
[00:30:28] God can do whatever he wants. He can bring storms up to make us wake up to the reality of what's going on in our hearts.
[00:30:37] And so we see the solution number five. Look with me.
[00:30:41] Then they said to him, what should we do to you?
[00:30:49] Do you see that there? What should we do to you? Not just what should we do, but what should we do to you? This is a perspective of those who would have believed even in pagan gods.
[00:30:58] And we see also of the real God, of the true God is there's a level of appeasement. God is angry at you. How can we make him happy? That's what they're asking here. That's their main question. God is mad at you. How can we make this storm stop? This is crazy. Our boat's going to break apart. For the sea grew more and more tempestuous. So notice the sea didn't calm down when they figured out it was Jonah. It's continuing to go on. Verse 12.
[00:31:26] He said to them, pick me up. Notice the word again here. Hurl. We saw that earlier, right? God hurled the storm, they hurled cargo. And Jonah says, hurl me into the sea. He must not have had a plank for him to walk off of. Then the sea will quiet down for you. For I know it is because of me that this great tempest has come upon you. Now, Jonah's reply is incredibly powerful, and it rewards a little bit of time. First off, why did he say that?
[00:31:57] Why did he say, throw me in the sea? How did he come to that conclusion? Did God whisper to him and say, hey, tell them that they should throw you?
[00:32:05] Where did he get that?
[00:32:07] Why not just take me back to shore? He didn't say that, and I'll go to Nineveh. He didn't fall on his knees and repent and say, God, would you please calm the storm? He didn't do that either. Why did he Say throw me into the sea. Now, I don't know that we're gonna have an answer, clear answer for that, because we weren't in Jonah's mind. But here's what most likely occurred. Based on what we know about Jonah.
[00:32:32] He was willing to die instead of submit to God.
[00:32:37] Throw me into the sea, let me die. I'm ready to be done. Trying to sleep away the problem that didn't work. So he's let me die. I'm ready to be done with this. And God said, nope.
[00:32:50] In Hebrew, I think.
[00:32:55] And then we see what happens next.
[00:33:00] Verse 13. Look with me. Nevertheless, these men, it doesn't say this, were more honorable than Jonah. The men rode hard to try to get back to land. But they could not, because they didn't want to throw Jonah into the sea. Because they could not. Because the sea grew more and more tempestuous. Notice what it says there against them, against. It wasn't even just that the storm is getting worse. It was like. And they already know this is the work of God, saying, nope, you're staying over there. Nope, you're staying over there. You're not getting out of this. There is no way you are getting away from me. God says. And the people seem to realize that the pagan sailors realize the hand of God is keeping us right here in the sea. Until they realize, you know what, we didn't wanna throw em over, but look what happens next.
[00:33:47] So they realize the hand of God is upon them, keeping them there. Therefore they call out to the Lord, O Lord.
[00:33:55] These pagan sailors, because of the storm, are calling out to the one true God. Let us not perish for this man's life and lay not on us innocent blood. Which, by the way, God's thinking, not really innocent.
[00:34:07] For you, O Lord, have done as it pleased you. They are submitting to the one true God, doing what even Jonah would not do.
[00:34:16] So they picked up Jonah and. What's that word again?
[00:34:20] Hurl. We're seeing a lot of hurling going on here.
[00:34:23] Maybe because they're on the sea, I don't know.
[00:34:27] Into the sea. And then the sea, what ceased from its raging just as quickly as the sea came up and they saw this is the hand of God, God said, just like Jesus did. Remember that this disciples on the boat, when Jesus stood up and said, what did he say to calm the sea?
[00:34:46] Peace, be still. And the sea became quiet. So too God has the power over the sea. And he does that here as well. And these men, it's like they wash their hands of this. They're like, I don't. He's a man of God. He's doing the wrong thing. We shouldn't throw him overboard, but God wants him overboard. So we're going to do what God wants. This is the solution.
[00:35:09] So we look at the last point here before we point six on your outline. They throw him into the sea.6. You can write this in God's mercy. God's mercy. Then the men, that is the sailors, and maybe anyone else on the boat, other passengers that might have been there. Then the men feared the who?
[00:35:32] The Lord.
[00:35:33] What's the next word?
[00:35:35] Exceedingly. Again, we find a big word. We have giant. We have hurling going on. They were afraid. They were exceedingly afraid. And now we find these men not just fearing the Lord, not just getting on their knees and saying, dear God, thank you for keeping me alive. They fear the Lord exceedingly. And then they did what? They offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows. We don't know what these vows were.
[00:35:59] Most likely we're gonna follow you, God, because clearly you're bigger and better than our own gods.
[00:36:04] So we have two points of God's mercy being demonstrated. Firstly, as we see in verse 16, when God opens people's eyes to his power, that is an act of mercy.
[00:36:16] When God using a terrible storm like this, and then people see that and say, you are the one true God. That is God being merciful, even though it's a terrible, crazy storm going on, that was actually an act of mercy towards people who had never feared God before. So that's mercy number one. Second, you can write this in somewhere if you'd like.
[00:36:37] But the second way that we see mercy is that God, verse 17 does something. The Lord appointed or prepared a great fish to swallow up who Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish for three days and three nights. So how did God show mercy to Jonah?
[00:36:59] One of the few verses about a fish in the book of Jonah. I know Jonah is known for the fish, right? The one, the carrot. It's like that fish story. The fish is only referenced like twice.
[00:37:11] So there's not actually a whole lot of fish involved in this whole story. But verse 17, we see that the Lord appointed or prepared this fish. Now I want you to lean in and listen. Follow me here because this is really significant as we consider God's mercy here. The word that we see about this fish, that God prepared or appointed this fish is used. The word prepared or appointed is used three other times in the book of Jonah. Now follow me here. The other times that it's used might also give us understanding of this particular fish. The other time we're going to see later on that the Lord appointed something is. He appoints a plant to come up over Jonah. You remember that later on if you know the story of Jonah.
[00:37:52] The Lord appoints a plant. By the way, this plant like comes up in a day. That's a fast growing plant, isn't it? The Lord appointed, we might even say a supernatural plant. The Lord then appoints what eats away at the plant.
[00:38:05] A worm. That worm ate that big old plant in a day. That's a really either big worm or amazing worm. That's a supernatural worm right there. Somehow that plant grows up in a day. The worm shows up in a day, eats the plant, the plant dies. And then we see that the Lord appointed or prepared a great east wind. You can read about this later on in the Book of Jonah. This also is a supernatural kind of wind for the purpose of pointing Jonah heavenward. Each of these appointments was not natural normal. But much like the storm, it was this supernatural thing. Now what's the point?
[00:38:42] For years many people have been trying to figure out if this fish or a.
[00:38:48] What was the other thing that people think that swallowed. If it was a fish or a whale that swallowed Jonah. Because it doesn't seem like today there's a fish that could eat a whole man and keep him alive for three days. Now, if this word appointed or prepared is consistent as we see through the Book of Jonah, couldn't it be true that God made a particular fish for such a time as this?
[00:39:14] That even before Jonah got in the boat, God had already made the fish, and the fish was already, whatever kind of fish it was, ready. And not just that. Not only was the fish somewhere swimming around in the Mediterranean somewhere, but it was the mercy of God to one, make that fish and secondly, to put that fish at just the right place so that Jonah would not die and swallow him up. So is there a fish like that today? I don't know. But couldn't God just make a fish like that for.
[00:39:41] And then the fish throws him up on the shore and goes back and God says, all right, your job is done.
[00:39:46] Couldn't God do that?
[00:39:48] Most definitely.
[00:39:50] The fact that God prepared this fish knowing Jonah would disobey and then brought the fish to just the right place shows that God is a merciful God. Knowing that you and I are going to mess up, doesn't he? He knows you're going to disobey. He knows I'm going to. And and yet God, who is rich in mercy, chose to spare this prodigal prophet. Let's bring kind of full things conclusion. If you're writing things down, maybe some questions for you to consider as we consider particularly chapter one. And then after this, we'll go into communion.
[00:40:22] Write these questions down somewhere.
[00:40:25] One, what is God calling you to do?
[00:40:30] Are you taking the time to listen? Some of these questions are very similar. But what is God calling you to do? Maybe in your quiet time this week, ask this question of God.
[00:40:39] How and where do you want me to represent you?
[00:40:44] What assignment have you given me and am I doing it? Ask God that in your own time, God, what do you want me to do? Where do you want me to go? Am I doing that?
[00:40:54] Cause he might say, what you're doing is fine, but I've actually called you somewhere else. It may not be like this Jonah situation where you're running and running away from somewhere else. Maybe it's God, am I too busy to actually listen to what you want me to do?
[00:41:07] So ask him, what do you want me to do? And am I doing it? Am I doing the assignment that you have put before me?
[00:41:16] Are you willing to obey God wherever He calls you, no matter how bad it may make you look to other people?
[00:41:21] What is God calling you to do? Maybe to stop, to start, to pursue, to endure?
[00:41:28] Second question 1. What is God calling you to do? Second question is actually point, not even question.
[00:41:34] If you are here today and you find yourself running from God, know this.
[00:41:41] God wants you back and he welcomes you back with open arms.
[00:41:47] And maybe you find yourself here today not running away from God, because you were once with him, but you are still just running away from God. You've never submitted to Him. And I want to promise you something here today that if you choose to turn towards him and run towards him, he will welcome you with open arms.
[00:42:08] He promises that no matter what baggage you may be carrying, no matter what chains are attached to your legs or what weight you are carrying, God says, come to me.
[00:42:18] Come to me. I want to carry this burden with you, and I will make your burdens lighter. So if you're running from God, run back to him and he will welcome you. And if you've never accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior, if you've always been running away from him, today, say, you know what, God? I'm going to try doing this with you. I'm going to try doing this thing called life with you.
[00:42:41] Thirdly, Jonah was willing to die to save the sailors as messed up as it was.
[00:42:52] But there is one greater than Jonah who offered himself as payment to appease the righteous wrath of God, isn't there? His name is Jesus.
[00:43:04] Jesus died for the ungodly so that we could be saved.
[00:43:09] And if you've never trusted in this Jesus, who said, God has a righteous wrath towards you, Jesus says, I will take the wrath upon me.
[00:43:20] God's not just annoyed about our sin, he's not apathetic. There's actually scripture says he is angry about it. There is a wrath of God, righteous wrath, because you have stood against his authority. And he says, there is a punishment, the wages, the consequence for sin is death. Jonah, it would have been totally just of God to say, you're dying today.
[00:43:41] It would have been totally just of God to do that. But God, who is rich in mercy, said, not today.
[00:43:48] Not today.
[00:43:50] If there's anyone that we're to imitate, it's not the prophet of God in this story, is it?
[00:43:55] No, it's these sailors. It's the sailors who said, whoa, God is working. I'm going to submit to him.
[00:44:03] Which usually that's not the takeaway. But let's be like those sailors. When we see God working, let's check in. God, am I doing the right thing? Because if I'm not, I want to submit to you. I want to do what you want me to do. I'm going to pray and then we're going to step into a time of communion. Dear Jesus, we are so grateful that you chose to show this great love towards us, this great mercy. And as we journey with Jonah and a few other characters in this story of mercy, I pray that you would remind us each time we look at this text, this book, even through the week, as we consider this story, that you are a God who is great in mercy, that you are truly hurling mercy at us because you want us to be with you. You want us to be in right relationship with you.
[00:44:52] So we're grateful for that today.
[00:44:55] Help us to have a listening ear, that we would not be sleeping, but that we would be attentive to your voice in our life. In Jesus name, amen.
[00:45:07] As we. A few days ago, we celebrated a big holiday. What was it?
[00:45:12] Fourth of July. Fourth of July celebrates what in one word?
[00:45:16] Independence Day or freedom. Right. And if we think about communion, it points us back towards the last supper of Jesus, when Jesus sat with his disciples and they did that, this last supper, this Passover meal, to remind them of what? Something else before that.
[00:45:35] This Passover that took place in the country of Egypt. When God said, I'm going to come over this nation, and through death you will have freedom. Isn't that what happened? The angel of death went over Egypt and because there was death, the Israelites had freedom. We fast forward thousands of years, we see Jesus, one who died so that we could have freedom. Amen. And as we fast forward a little bit more, we see even today in the country that we live in, people died so that we could have freedom. As we consider this communion, for us, it commemorates and it celebrates our freedom. Freedom through the death of our creator.
[00:46:23] Romans chapter three says this.
[00:46:26] No one is righteous. No, not one. No one seeks God. All have turned aside. Together they have become worthless. No one does good, not even 1.
[00:46:36] Romans 3, verse 23 says, for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. This was all of us before Jesus, fallen short of the glory of God. And for those who haven't trusted in him, we are still, as Scripture says, short of the glory of God, unable to meet the requirements of God's perfection.
[00:47:00] And then verse 4 of Ephesians 2 says this, but not. But Jonah, like we saw, but God, being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places. In Jesus Christ. Verse 8 says this. For by grace you have been saved through. Through faith. This is not of your own doing. It is a gift of God. If you're here today and you've never trusted in Jesus today, you can say, lord, I have faith in you. I can't see you, but I believe in you. I believe in the sacrifice that you made for me. You died so that I don't have to die. That's what it is to trust in Jesus.
[00:47:50] I'm confessing my sin. I'm turning around, not running away from God. I'm turning towards him, away from my sin, and trusting in him for the gospel, for salvation. That is the gospel.
[00:48:03] And so in communion, what we're doing is we're commemorating. We're remembering the work that Jesus did when he said, I will be your substitute and I will go to the cross in your place. I will die. I will take the wrath of God upon me so that you don't have to take the wrath of God upon you. So if you're a Christian here today, we invite you to join us in commemorating the sacrifice of Jesus. We do that by taking a cup and drinking some juice away for it and eating that in remembrance of, as Jesus says in first Corinthians, the body and the bread.
[00:48:37] So I'm gonna invite the ushers to come down, and I'll distribute the plate in just a moment. And as they're coming down, as we pass the plates, as you're thinking, the music's playing, I want you to do three things.
[00:48:49] They all start with C because they can help us remember.
[00:48:52] One, we want to confess. Check with God. God, is there anything in my heart right now that's not properly aligned with you?
[00:48:59] Am I in the wrong place with somebody that I need to fix? Maybe I want to not take communion because I'm not right with this other person. I want to confess. God is there, right? Am I in a right place with you? Secondly, I want to commemorate. I'm going to say, thank you, Jesus, for the cross.
[00:49:13] Thank you for the work that you did there. Thank you for taking my place.
[00:49:17] And then thirdly, we're going to celebrate. Jesus says we can celebrate because we are redeemed. We are free because of what he has done.
[00:49:30] In First Corinthians, chapter 11, it says this, Paul speaking, calling the church to remember in this way.
[00:49:38] It says, for I received from the Lord that which I delivered to you, the Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed.
[00:49:44] He took bread and your cup. You have two cups slightly in front of you. One of them has a little wafer in. It says this, verse 24 of 1 Corinthians 11. And when they had given thanks, he broke it.
[00:49:57] And he said, this is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me. Let's take and eat together.
[00:50:12] What we know from Scripture is that the consequence for sin is death.
[00:50:19] And there is no remission, no cleansing of sin apart from the juice from the blood. And we drink the juice to remember that. It says this in verse 25 in the same way he took the cup after saying this. He says, this cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it.
[00:50:36] Remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and you drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.
[00:50:42] Let's drink together.
[00:50:46] Lord, this morning we proclaim your death.
[00:50:50] Not because it was a beautiful thing in regards to what happened on the cross, but it was a beautiful thing because of what it brought about for us.
[00:50:58] We proclaim your death because your death brought us freedom. Your death brought us a right relationship with you. Your death demonstrated great mercy and grace that you have for us. Your death we know we need. Because without it, we would be the ones eternally separated from you. So today, Lord, we declare. We proclaim your death until you come again, making all things new.
[00:51:24] We are grateful, Lord, for your work. We thank you for the sacrifice that you made. In Jesus name, amen.
