Sermons
Jonah Pt 1 - Disobedience, Discipline, And The God Who Saves
(upbeat music) - Would you rise actually for the reading of God's Word this morning? Looks like it's pretty short, so. I comes from second Peter 3.9. It says, "The Lord does not delay his promise "is some understand delay, but is patient with you, "not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance. "Would you please pray with me?" Father, we acknowledge that you are our Creator, we are your creation, and as your creation, we should bow and submit to you as our King. But we confess that that does not always happen, that we sin against you in the ways that we think, the words that we say, the things that we do. We thank you for Jesus, who is perfect, who died for us, and through him we know that we'll be with you forever. Please give Pastor Ryan words of wisdom today, please give us hearts to hear. In your name, we pray, amen. - Amen. Best backup quarterback we ever had, there we go. Good morning Christ community. I invite you to turn in your Bibles to the book of Jonah, the book of Jonah. There are moments in life when we don't have a clear direction or path from the Lord. And what I mean by that is that there are moments when we are presented with two or more options, two good options we could even say, neither are causing us to sin, and yet we have to make a choice. This is something I've talked with many of you about over the years, students who don't know whether to go to college or go to work or to take a gap year, even further what to major in. Others who have a good job here, they're generally happy, but then they have another opportunity elsewhere. It's paying more, not sure what to do. Even others who are wondering, what area of ministry should I serve in? Should I serve over here? Should I serve over there? No wrong options, you just need wisdom from the Lord. And at some point you make a decision and you trust God's providence. And then there are other times when God is clearly leading you by his spirit and through his word and through the words of another. And you know what choice and direction you should take realistically speaking, I would say that there is only one good choice because it's the one that God is wanting for you. What happens then if you don't obey? If you don't listen to that. If you go against that choice, I felt a bit of this concerning desiring and aspiring to pastoral ministry. There was an inward call and yet there was rebellion. I didn't want to do it. Like Moses, I said, I can't speak Lord, I'm not adequate. And there are other excuses that I threw at him, but it persisted. And you reach a moment in your life where you have prayed and God through his spirit and has impressed upon you that you must do this. And sure there's fear, but that's with everything in life. But sometimes I wonder what if I didn't pursue ministry? Never mind not marrying my wife or not being a small part of this wonderful church. What would it have looked like for me to disobey? For me to purposefully go against what God desired. In one sense, that's all of us in our sin, yes, but I'm talking about a life lived in constant rebellion against the will of the Lord. A life lived in constant and conscious rebellion against the commands of God. None of us wants to experience that for our own lives. The internal angst, the fear of the judgment to come, the realization that we are not doing what God intends for our lives. A whole host of reasons come to mind. And yet this morning, we start a brief two week series looking at a prophet who attempted to do just what I described, who attempted to live a life in rebellion to God. This week and next week, we're gonna cover the book of Jonah. And I think that God through his word has much to teach us concerning this rebel prophet. A rebel, because he didn't want to obey. Jonah was a prophet during the time of Israel, during the eighth century, who prophesied to Israel according to 2 Kings 14. And he prophesied during a time of constant upheaval. Israel and Judah have been split into the northern and southern kingdoms for a few centuries now, and there are constant wars every few decades. Constantly someone seeking to conquer you. And Jonah grows up as a prophet of God within this northern kingdom of Israel. He is loyal to Israel. He loves his country. He even prophesies in 2 Kings that their borders will expand, that God will somehow expand their borders. But here's the problem. Their kings were garbage. They were idolaters. They didn't follow God. And so you have Jonah's contemporary prophets, both Amos and Hosea, who made this clear, judgments coming to the house of Israel. And these prophets, Amos and Hosea, were even saying that this judgment of Israel will come at the hands of the Assyrians. And then Jonah gets a call from the Lord to go to them. You see, sometimes I think in our Christian circles, that Jonah is depicted as dumb, or not smart for his actions. I'm sure there's an argument to be made there in the grand scheme of things. But really, I think Jonah's smart. Jonah's putting the pieces together. He sees what's happening in his country. And although he loves God's people and he loves his country, he's putting together these prophecies from his contemporaries. And then God tells him to go to Nineveh, a stalwart city of the Assyrians, and Jonah can't do it. In his mind, he will not do this. He will disobey. Ultimately, he doesn't want them to be saved. This morning, we're gonna cover chapters one and two of Jonah. And chapters one and two are actually mirrored in a way in chapters three and four. So both chapters one and three have Jonah speaking to God, speaking about God, two Gentiles. And then chapters two and four, you have prayers, or rather Jonah's communication with God. And so looking today at chapters one and two, the main point of the chapters, if you're taking notes in the outline provided is this. God alone is sovereign over salvation. God is sovereign over salvation. It's his choice and his prerogative over who receives his grace and his mercy. Let's jump in and read the first two verses. Jonah chapter one, beginning in verse one. The word of the Lord came to Jonah, son of Amatiah. Get up, go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it because their evil has come up before me. Four points for us to consider this morning from Jonah. The first is this, the call to go, the call to go. The word of the Lord comes to Jonah, and he tells him to go, tells him to go. And as I said, he is known amongst Israel as one of the Lord's prophets. He has a relationship with the Lord, a close fellowship with him. And this was standard for the prophets of God in the Old Testament. They heard the word of the Lord, then they are to do what it says. The spirit of God impresses upon them what to do or what to say, and they are to obey. That's the relationship. Sometimes that involves actions for themselves. Other times they are to communicate God's words to his people. And this particular command is for Jonah, get up and go. Now that command to go in and of itself isn't super difficult. We're reminded of the call of Abram to leave your country and go. Now the command to go isn't super difficult. He knows that God will get him there. God will get him there safely even. It's what is attached to that go that Jonah has a problem with that causes him grief. Go to that great city of Nineveh and preach. Preach against it because their evil has come up before me. Nineveh was both a city and really a greater region. It's evil had come up before the Lord. And so let me just paint this scene just a little bit more for us so we get the background. The Assyrians and therefore the Ninevehts who are Assyrians are pagan idolaters. What that means is that they worship idols, they worship other gods besides Yahweh. So we have to remember that the Israelites are living in a world that has no concept like we do of Judeo-Christian values. They have no concept of that, that we live in the West and get to experience. Even those who are atheists who do not like anything to do with Christianity don't often recognize that they borrow from the Christian worldview when it comes to the teachings and the morality and how you are to treat one another. They have no foundation for why that is. As historian and author Tom Holland has made abundantly clear, those who don't even identify as a Christian in the West today often live out the Christian values and teachings as just assumed truth. They don't even recognize what they are borrowing from. And really this is just God's common grace to them. But this was not the case in the ancient Near East, not at all. They are living in a world that is rank with idolatry and child sacrifice and the unjust treatment of anyone who is considered an enemy. That's what life outside of Israel just looks like. Further, Israel has been conquered by the Assyrians before and then gained their independence back. And so Jonah as I said, he's heard these rumblings from his fellow prophets that judgment is coming notably at the hands of the Assyrians. So think of that history. Put yourself in Jonah's shoes for a moment. You have fellow Israelites. You have your friends whose uncles and grandparents, maybe even your friends and other family members who have fought against the Assyrians. Maybe even been killed by them. And they've heard the stories and not to gross you out, but this is what it was like. But stories of conquering Assyrian kings who had cut off soldiers' legs and cut off one arm so they could shake the remaining hand in mockery as they were dying. They would have decapitations and force the family members of those who were decapitated to parade their heads around on a pole around the city. There are uncovered reliefs or paintings that show Assyrian kings gloating in their victories and how the planes were littered with the bodies of their enemies. And then they would burn your children in front of you. And there's more than I'm cutting out. One writer has aptly termed the Assyrians during this time as a terrorist state. So that's what Jonah is dealing with. Most of you, my age or older, can remember exactly where you were when you heard about 9/11. You can maybe even remember watching the live footage as the second plane hit the towers. But do you remember the state of our country in the days and the weeks after that? There was a unity that people write about that had not been seen for some time. And that's what a tragedy can bring about, some camaraderie and some unity. We had a common enemy. We as a nation had suffered at the hands of these people and we were desiring that justice would be served. And you're living then, and the word of the Lord comes to you. I need you to go to Afghanistan and to preach to the Taliban. Their wickedness has come up to me. I need you to proclaim the gospel to them. You have no idea what will happen, whether you will live or die, but God tells you to go. And so in part, yes, I know that analogies are never perfect in and of themselves, but this is what Jonah is experiencing because his people are going to know that it was him. He's gonna be the traitor. All of Israel will hear how one of their own is going to this major Assyrian city called Nineveh and telling people of God's coming judgment and of his grace if they repent. Can you imagine the dilemma that he feels in his soul? Maybe now we can relate to Jonah just a little bit more. So before we get to Jonah's choice and what he does with this dilemma, we are confronted by this text as well. God's word must be applied to us. And I know that God through his spirit will search us and we know that the grace of God is evil, even able to save the most heinous of sinners. Yes, and amen, the grace of God is able to save us. But my friends, if there are people that we hate because of ethnicity, because of their political views, because of differing viewpoints than us, then that is sin and we must repent. Our doctrine of creation and our doctrine of original sin would go against those very things. And so we must be honest with ourselves in a time when there is so much hate within the culture at large, has that seeped into your heart? Has it seeped into your heart? Do you hate those who disagree with you? Doesn't mean that there aren't viable things to be outraged by, but there is a line that is easily crossed. Jonah, to be sure, had some animosity towards Assyria in some ways, rightly so, but God called him. God told him what to do. God told him to go. And God has called us to love our enemies. But Pastor Ryan didn't you preach on an imprecatory song a couple of weeks ago or what it means to pray implication against the enemies of God. Yes, yes I did. And so we hold these intentions. This is what I'm arguing. This is what I'm seeing in the scriptures. We hold these intentions. We can at times pray, as I said, that God would exercise his covenantal justice, that the wickedness of individuals when peoples would cease and that God would judge them. But that's not the only type of prayer that we pray. We pray as well for their salvation, that God would save them as he did us. And in our personal interactions with others, we love sacrificially. We hold truth and grace together, not sacrificing one for the other. And further, when we look at the grand storyline of scripture and how Jonah fits into it, Jonah's call to go to a Gentile nation is a foreshadowing of us in here as Gentiles being included in the family of God. That's God's covenantal relations for us. That his covenantal relations are now no longer tied to Israel, but to all who are by faith united to Christ and clothed with his righteousness. For Jonah, these were enemies of Israel and they should not even be given a chance at salvation. And yet, God is highlighting, God is teaching that he is merciful and he is forgiving. And it is his prerogative to be such. We don't get to decide who receives God's mercy. God does. And so friends, we must guard our hearts, pressing into this a little bit more. We must guard our hearts from the callousness that can creep in towards others. Even guard our hearts from being callous towards the evangelism of our LDS neighbors. I get it. We are surrounded. Terminology can be confusing because words are hijacked and given different meanings. Shoot, even the term Christian is now seeking to be used by them. And yet God is calling all of us to make disciples. And some of us, dare I say, in particular, have been reticent to embrace that. You've been annoyed by those that you live near. We've been dragging our feet on having those neighbors over for dinner because we know the conversations that will take place. We've been rebelling against the spirits leading to talk to that particular co-worker because of how the relationship might change afterwards. Let us learn from Jonah in our day and age. The gospel is to go out to all from every tribe, tongue and nation and let us Christ community be excited that we get to be a part of that. We get to be a part of seeing God's kingdom go forth. That's exciting. And while we can be excited, Jonah definitely was not. Chalk it up to a host of reasons, but Jonah is adamant that he won't go. And as I said, we can sympathize with him, learning more of the background. We can come to understand why. But sympathizing with someone never approves of their disobedience. Point number two, the refusal to obey. The refusal to obey. Look with me at verse three. Jonah got up to flee the tarshish from the Lord's presence. He went down to Joplin, found a ship going to Tarshish. He paid the fare and went down into it to go with them to tarshish from the Lord's presence. Simple obedience will characterize more of our Christian lives than we realize. I grew up in a generation and in particular in a youth group where everyone was told in the church that you're gonna go and do these amazing and grand and glorious things for God. Part of me is like yes and amen. But what they often don't tell you is that grand and glorious and amazing things for God can often look like loving your spouse daily. Leading your family in devotions. Being hospitable. Seeking faithfulness in the day to day. A faith filled obedience characterizes more of our lives than we realize. And so here in verse three, we aren't told much of the inner turmoil and the rebellion that Jonah is experiencing. We're gonna see more of that in chapter four. That's gonna come later. No, what we are told of is simply his refusal to obey. His disobedience. And did you notice the writer's emphasis in that verse? Three times, I had to say the word three times. Three times he's going to Tarshish. Where was he supposed to be going? Nineveh. The writer is emphasizing that Jonah is rebelling. Now to put the matter simply, Jonah is going to try and flee to the furthest possible place that he can go. Tarshish was a part of Spain. And in the known world at that time, it was the furthest possible place most people understand that he could sail away to. And in some ways they're kind of opposite directions, but that's not the point. It's the distance. He has to get away. He must get away. And he attempts to do just that. Jonah hears a clear command from the Lord and he refuses. But so let me just explain this a little bit more. I mentioned earlier the doctrine of original sin. And I wanna explain that to us because it puts us all in the same playing field and helps us to understand this disobedience from Jonah. Original sin, to put it simply, means that in Adam, we too have sin and fallen short of the glory of God. In fact, in Adam who represents us as our covenant head, we are in rebellion to God. So that means that now in Adam, we are born naturally sinful and we sin. Both things are true. And so in our flesh, we are naturally in rebellion to the things of God and naturally to varying degrees, go against his commands. And that's why we needed a perfect sacrifice. That's the beauty of the new covenant, a savior, a new covenant head, not like Adam, so that all of those who are in Christ are now represented by Christ before the Father. It's a beautiful thing. But with our sin nature, all of us fallen. All of us are fallen. Our bodies, we get sick, we die eventually. Our mental faculties, as you get older, your brain starts to deteriorate. Our mental faculties, and yes, spiritually as well, the Bible makes clear, we are dead. We are completely fallen. There's not one part of us that is not. And so in that fallenness, we rebel. And the thing about sin, when you look at it in the scriptures, is what is apparent, is that it deceives us. It tricks us. Just as Satan is called the father of lies, so sin would have us believe that what God decides, or what God says, or what God commands, is ultimately not good. And so in our flesh, we naturally go against him. And you see, it's really easy to look at Jonah and think, how could he, without looking at ourselves and realizing that we do the exact same thing. We do it as God's word comes to us all the time. I've said this before, but we all have different things in the scripture, that naturally in our flesh, we don't like. Naturally in our flesh, it goes against us. And so as you read through the scriptures, let me just tell you, there will be parts of the Bible that you don't like, naturally. And so of course, we pray as Christians, God help me to submit to your word. God as I'm wrestling through this scripture, help me to see that this is a good thing, actually, because you have said it. Of course we do that. But what is that part for you? Maybe it's the imprecatory Psalms that I preached on a few weeks ago. Maybe it's the section that we hit on with loving your enemies. Maybe it's being sacrificial and not loving money in your possessions. Maybe it's what God says about sexual relationships and their boundaries to a covenant marriage. Maybe it's even on how God says that we should extend forgiveness in an almost limitless way. Where's that friction for you with God's word when it comes to you? Being sinners, this side of eternity means that we are being sanctified and growing into the image of Christ, those who are in Christ, yesterday men, but we still struggle with sins and there will be parts of God's word that cause friction. And this happened for Jonah. His difficulty with God's command was ultimately a moral one. His will and God's will are on a collision course. And Jonah thinks that he can win. It has been well said before that our problem in obeying God is not that we do not understand what he is saying, but that we do and we don't like it. And so where is that for you? Has God's word or God's conviction through his spirit come and you have figuratively run from it? You're just gonna Jonah that part of your life. Have you turned away? You have ignored it and hoped it just goes away. My prayer for us Christ community is that we would be a church that holds one another accountable when it comes to submitting to all of God's word, not just the parts we like, admonishing, exhorting, encouraging one another is in part what it means to be a part of a healthy church. Notice once more that last line from verse three, he's making it clear that Jonah has disobeyed, he's went to Tarshish and he says this so that he could flee from the presence of the Lord. Jonah intellectually knows that this is impossible. He knows Psalm 139, "Where can I go to escape your spirit? "Where can I flee from your presence? "If I go up to heaven, you are there. "If I make my bed and shield, you are there. "If I fly on the wings of the dawn "and settle down on the western horizon, "even there your hand will lead me, "your right hand will hold on to me." He knows this truth theoretically, but like all of us in our sin, in our soul, he's going to attempt to run from it. He's going to disobey, he's going to rebel. Like his first father, Adam in the garden, when God comes looking for him and he thinks that he can hide, so Jonah thinks that he can flee from God as well. And the irony is apparent, isn't it? The irony is apparent, where can he go? Ultimately, nowhere. Know what Jonah wants in this attempt to flee is to get away from God's felt presence, to get away from the duty to perform the command, to flee from that which he ought to do. He was fleeing from his duty to go and preach. Why? Because he knows the character of God. He knows that he serves a gracious God who just might forgive these people if they repent, and he doesn't want it. He's a rebel prophet who doesn't like the message that God wants him to speak. And he thinks he's fleeing from God, but little does he know that God will come for him. And if you think about it, Jonah, in many ways, is like the older brother of the prodigal son. He doesn't like who the grace of God extends to. God, can't you see how I and we and your people have been faithful, not these Assyrians, not these other ones? And so yet God must come to him in his rebellion and he's gonna teach him a lesson. What we see next is that disobedience to God will lead to the discipline of God. Or as Johnny Cashwood's saying, "You can run on for a long time, "but sooner or later God will cut you down." Point number three, the discipline of the Lord. Allow me to read the rest of chapter one, starting in verse four. But the Lord threw a great wind onto the sea and such a great storm arose on the sea that the ship threatened to break apart. The sailors were afraid and each cried out to his God. They threw the ship's cargo into the sea to lighten the load. Meanwhile, Jonah had gone down to the lowest part of the vessel and had stretched out and fallen into a deep sleep. The captain came to him and said, "What are you doing sound asleep? "Get up, call to your God. "Maybe this God will consider us and we won't perish." Come on, the sailor said to each other, "Let's cast lots. "Then we'll know who is to blame for this trouble we're in." So they cast lots and a lot singled out Jonah. Then they said to him, "Tell us who is to blame "for this trouble we're in. "Where is your business? "And where are you from? "What is your country and what people are you from?" He answered them, "I'm a Hebrew. "I worship the Lord, the God of the heavens, "who made the sea in the dry land. "Then the men were seized by a great fear and said to him, "What have you done?" The men knew he was fleeing from the Lord's presence because he had told them. So they said to him, "What should we do to you "so that the sea will calm down for us? "For the sea was getting worse and worse." He answered them, "Pick me up and throw me into the sea "so it will calm down for you. "For I know that I'm to blame for this great storm "that is against you." Nevertheless, the men rode hard to get back to dry land but they couldn't because the sea was raging against them more and more. So they called out to the Lord, "Please, Lord, "don't let us perish because of this man's life "and don't charge us with innocent blood. "For you, Yahweh, have done just as you please." Then they picked up Jonah and threw him into the sea and the sea stopped its raging. The men were seized by great fear of the Lord and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows. The Lord appointed a great fish to swallow Jonah and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. The Lord's discipline is going to come to Jonah in an unexpected way. Stowed away on a ship bound for Tarshish far from Nineveh, he thinks that he's safe until the God of all creation causes a storm to come. And he knows when that captain wakes him up, he knows in his heart of hearts that it's for him, that it's because of his sin. And isn't that how the conviction of God gets us? We think that with that sin that we have committed that it's just between us and God and others won't find out or even possibly God won't find out, and then the hound of heaven pursues us. Thank God, thank God for the conviction that the Holy Spirit brings into our lives. A few things just to note here, in verse six, we have someone who is supposed to be speaking for God sleeping during a storm. Sound familiar? And while Jonah in and of himself can do nothing about the storm, it reminds us of our Lord asleep on the boat who wakes up and commands the storms to cease. And so the captain comes and tells him wake up. And the captain's words to Jonah are actually the exact same words that God gave to Jonah in verse one. Arise, go, call out. The captain says the exact same form of the words to him. Arise, pray to your God, call out. As one writer says, God sent his prophet to point the pagans towards himself. Yet now it is the pagans pointing the prophet towards God. Then the sailors in their distress, they cast laws. And this was just a normal way in the ancient Near East of seeking to figure out who was at fault. And the lot falls on Jonah. And he has bombarded with some questions. What's your business or occupation? Where are you from? What is your country? What people are you from? And how does Jonah answer? I'm a Hebrew. I worship the Lord, the God of the heavens who made the sea and the dry land. He even tells him, the narrator says that he's running from the presence of God. But what did he not include? His occupation. He didn't include his business. He was no longer able to say I'm a prophet from the Lord, as his witness had been silenced. What God created him to do, he no longer wanted a part of. And so Jonah tells the men to throw him over. And the men try to resist doing so but the storms getting more severe such that they were lended. In the midst of the waves coming over the railing and fearing for their lives, they throw Jonah into the storm of the sea. And guess what? It stops. And so we have to notice the irony here. God is so, so wise. And I encourage you my friends as you can read the scriptures more and more because they are beautiful. What's Jonah running from? His job. He's running from his occupation. And he's running from his job to preach to the Gentiles. And who finds him on their ship? The Gentiles. And what does he say to them? "I serve the God of heaven and earth and I'm running from him." And what happens to these Gentiles? Verse 16, the men were seized by a great fear from Yahweh and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and they made vows and they end up praising God. How amazing is that? You won't go and proclaim to them Jonah. Then I'll still save Gentiles despite your disobedience. That's the God that we serve. And there are times in our lives, friends, that God will still use us despite our disobedience. Why is that? To show the glory and the honor and the grace all belongs to him and not to us. He is the God who saves. He is sovereign over salvation. It is his prerogative alone, who and who he will not save, not ours. So Jonah says, throw me into the sea. Now here's the question that everybody wrestles with. Is he submitting to God when he says that or is he still rebelling and would rather just die than go to Nineveh? Probably somewhere in the middle. But I think Jonah comes to a conclusion. The Lord is disciplining me but it's affecting these sailors and these men are gonna lose their lives if I don't do something about it. There needs to be a substitute. Jonah says, throw me in. Throw me into the wrath of the sea. I'll be that substitute so that the wrath stops. In Matthew 12, we have this interaction with Jesus and the Pharisees. Sorry in verse 38. Then some of the scribes and Pharisees said to him, "Teacher, we want to see a sign from you." He answered them in evil and adulterous generation demands a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was in the belly of the huge fish three days and three nights. So the son of man will be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights. The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it because they repented at Jonah's preaching and look something greater than Jonah is here. The queen of the south will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon and look something someone greater than Solomon is right before you. Jesus in this scathing rebuke is picking up the substitutionary sacrifice of Jonah and that he would be swallowed up by the fish for three days and three nights and he compares that to his own coming sacrifice on the cross. That's the sign of Jonah. That death will seem to have the last word and yet the grace and the mercy and the power of God is sufficient to overcome it. Jonah in his disobedience and subsequent punishment serves as a type that points to Christ. He points past himself. He points to Christ who took the punishment despite him only obeying. He points to Christ who voluntarily stepped in to save Jew and Gentile alike. He points to Christ who suffered the wrath of God despite being sinless. And just as Jonah finds salvation, Christ does the same for his people. There's a beautiful foreshadowing here as Jonah points past himself to Jesus. From an on Christian friend here this morning, you might be thinking of all the Sundays I could have come and you're preaching about this fanciful tale of Jonah and the whale. I've heard of it like that could ever happen. Well, stories of people surviving inside a whale aside because there are some, let me just say this. We also believe that there's a God who is sovereign over heaven and earth and he made all things including you. And he is sovereign over your life as well. And even further about this God, we believe that he became man. That God the son became flesh, that he was born of a virgin, that he lived a life of perfection, because despite being surrounded by sin, he himself knew no sin, committed no sin. In fact, he was a friend of sinners and he dined with the rich and the poor alike. He was no respecter of persons based on money. And then we killed him. We killed him. And the crazy thing about Christianity is that he was killed Isaiah 53 because it was a part of God's sovereign plan. He was killed so that we could be forgiven. He was the substitute that we had to have. He was killed because like the sailors on the boat and like you and I, we had to have a substitute, had to have someone stand in our place to provide the perfect life and the sacrifice that we needed and praise God that Christ did that perfectly. And so there's good news that is held out to you today, my friend, is that Jesus who is perfect and sinless and truly God himself invites you to follow him. Don't listen to the culture about what it means to be a Christian. Hear it from somebody who's preaching to you about it right now. What separates us, those who follow Christ is simply this. We recognize that we are sinners and that we need a savior and we've looked to Christ to do that saving work. We've looked to him to do that which we cannot do for ourselves. And we believe, we believe that he's enough and it changes our lives completely and we follow him. That's what it means to be a Christian. So I challenge you my friend. Maybe you're here with a friend or a family member and you don't know the Lord. Think on this question, what or who is my substitute? You see what I mean by that is that we were created to be worshipful people. And when you look at the world at large, everybody is trying to put something into their heart. Everybody is trying to put something that will bring them satisfaction. They are looking for a God-shaped whole. They're looking to fill that God-shaped whole. And so what Christians believe is that only God can fill that. Because what the world looks for, what maybe even you're looking for and what you've been looking for is status or recognition at work. You're chasing the almighty dollar. Politics, sex, this relationship will make me happy. They truly love me now. Possessions, happiness, finally got the car, the truck that I just had to have. They put their hope in these things and they simply hope, pun intended, that it'll be enough. And then you just be on to the next thing. They won't satisfy you. It's always something. I invite you to consider Jesus this morning. He alone can satisfy. Jonah is someone who wanted God to not save. Jonah is someone who wanted God to not do what he's in the business of doing, but the hope held out to you this morning, the hope held out to you this morning is that all those who come to Christ, all those who come to God through Christ will be saved. Look to him. In the midst of experiencing the rightful discipline for his disobedience, Jonah will now come to see the mercy of God in a new light. Point number four briefly, the mercy of a second chance. Let me provide two simply put definitions that will help us this morning. The mercy of God is withholding of that which we deserve, namely wrath. That is God's mercy. The grace of God is lavishing upon us that which we do not deserve, namely righteousness. And these two themes, mercy and grace, run throughout the scriptures and are foundational to Christianity. With that said, let me read chapter two. Jonah prayed to the Lord, his God, from the belly of the fish. I called to the Lord in my distress and he answered me. I cried out to help from deep inside shield. You heard my voice. You threw me into the depths, into the heart of the sea and the current overcame me. All your breakers and your billows swept over me, but I said I have been banished from your sight. Yet I will look once more toward your holy temple. The water engulfed me up to my neck. The watery depths overcame me. Seaweed was wrapped around my head. I sank to the foundations of the mountains. The earth's gates shut behind me forever. Then you raised my life from the pit, Lord my God. As my life was fading away, I remember the Lord and my prayer came to you to your holy temple. Those who cherish worthless idols abandon their faithful love. But as for me, I will sacrifice to you with a voice of thanksgiving. I will fulfill what I have vowed. Salvation belongs to the Lord. Then the Lord commanded the fish and it vomited Jonah onto dry land. Discipline comes and it is just. And as we read the scriptures, we recognize that sin brings death. This obedience to God or to his word brings judgment, brings death. And at the end of chapter one, Jonah is swallowed up by a fish. And this is the discipline of the Lord. In essence, if you think about it like this, he's in a watery prison. Because the fish in and of itself is a great example of both God's severe wrath, but also his mercy. Why is that? Because it saves his life. He saves his life. He doesn't die. But my friend, spending three days and nights in the fish, he is praying and wrestling with God. If you're like me and you grew up on some veggie tales, it can be really easy to be thinking that Jonah is in this huge cavernous whale, maybe even with a lamp somehow, he's just hanging out and biting his time. But I think that it was far from that. It's probably pitch black. He's confined next to other disgusting stuff. Probably feels digested fish just sliding against him. Probably feels like he's being water boarded at times. It's claustrophobic, it's disgusting. So Jonah's in this watery prison and he's feeling like he's going down to Sheol, which is the Old Testament place of death. And he's wondering if he's going to die. And notice what he says in verse three. You threw me into the depths of the sea, God. It was your breakers, your billows that swept over me. Jonah recognizes that this is God's discipline to him. And at the same time, he's being shown mercy. He knows that he deserves death symbolically in a way he's even experiencing death and yet he can pray. Now scholars differ on if this prayer is to be seen as heartfelt and sincere or if it's more tongue in cheek, if he's still angry at God. Once again, the truth is probably in the middle, but I lean more towards this being a half-hearted repentance in light of what comes in the rest of the book. But this doesn't mean that even in half-hearted repentance that Jonah still can't proclaim truth and be reminded of truth. Briefly in closing, notice some of the language verses four and seven, I will look once more toward your holy temple. Friends, what happened in the temple? It's where the presence of God was. It's where sacrifice and substitution for sin took place. He's looking there, throwing himself upon the mercy of God. Verse six, you raised my life from the pit, Lord. You and you alone can provide deliverance. You and you alone can forgive where I have sin and actually do something about it. Verse nine, salvation belongs to the Lord. Friends, this is the heart cry of the scriptures. Salvation belongs to the Lord. Our God saves, and he saves whom he wills and not always who we think. Jonah is learning that message firsthand that God alone is sovereign over salvation. So he prays in chapter two, because ultimately what is prayer? It's an acknowledgement that in and of ourselves, we can't do it, that we are insufficient, that we need God to act. We need help. And Jonah knows that. In the billowing waves of wrath, he prays and he casts himself upon the merciful God who saves. And so like so much of scripture, as we read Jonah, we're confronted with the reality that we at times are more like him than we not. We rebel. We run from God all the time. Maybe even some of you are doing that now. We run from God. We seek our own way. We too have to be shown mercy. And the mercy of a second chance is often what we need. In God's grace, one of the greatest joys actually of being a pastor here is getting to do membership interviews. Something simple, but I love it. And you get to hear people's testimonies, get to know them further. But many in this church and many in Christianity as a whole would say, it wasn't the first time that they heard the gospel that they were saved. But the repetition of it over the years that God used to bring about repentance and faith in Christ. Friends, the gospel is not something that you believe once and then you're done. It's a day by day looking to Christ, resting in him, believing that what he did for you is enough. Trust in Christ this morning if you haven't. He did it. It is only through Christ that the mercy of God can be found and I pray that you would find it. Let's pray. Father, you are holy and just and good and righteous and merciful and gracious. And as we read this story of Jonah, we are confronted that as much as we want to judge him, we are often more like him than we realize. We run from you in a whole host of ways. God pursue us. God, would you break down the walls that we put up? For those that do not know you, would you cause faith to spring from their hearts? Would you cause their minds to understand and their eyes to see and behold the beauty of Christ? God, would you save them because you are in the business of saving people? But God also help us as those who have rested in Christ, help us to learn from Jonah. God, help us to not grow callous towards those whom you have called us to proclaim your gospel to. God, let us be patient and long-suffering. Let us look to you to learn what it means to be like that. And let us have a heart for the lost. We love you. It's in your sense that we pray. Amen. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music)