"Humble Yourself" Sermon: Jonah 2:1-10

“Humble Yourself”

[Jonah 2:1-10]

June 15, 2014 Second Reformed Church

            Jonah was a prophet around 750 B.C. in Israel.  Israel was at peace, but they were worshipping idols, and God sent Jonah and other prophets to warn them that if they did not turn away and repent of their sin, God was going to discipline them.  Then, God told Jonah to go to the hated Assyrians – to Nineveh – to preach the Gospel to them – to call them to repentance and faith in the God of Israel – but Jonah was having none of it.

            Jonah ran away – thinking that he could escape God by going to Spain – thinking he would give God time to reconsider what He had commanded Jonah to do.  So Jonah hopped on a ship bound for Spain, but God hurled a hurricane at them, and Jonah finally admitted that he was the cause of the disaster, and Jonah recognized his sin and – to save the crew of the ship – told them to hurl him into the sea.  When they did, the sea was at once calm.

            And Jonah was swallowed by a great fish that God sent to him.

            This morning’s text – chapter two of the book of Jonah – is the record of what happened during Jonah’s three day and three night stay in the belly of the great fish.

            Last week, we said that Jonah’s being thrown into the sea to save the sailors was symbolic of the Atonement – of Jesus taking on the sins of all those who would believe in Him savinlgy – as well as the Wrath of God for those sins.

            We also noted that God sometimes uses extreme measures to get us to awaken us to our sin.  The first of these, we saw, was God hurling the storm at the ship and Jonah being hurled overboard into the raging sea.

            In this morning’s text, we see:

            Frist, when God disciplines us, the goal is that we will humble ourselves and return to Him.

            Second, God is Sovereign and forgives the repentant.

            Third, God raises believers from the dead.

            Fourth, if we return to the Lord, He will save us.

            “And Jonah was in the belly of the fish for three days and three nights” (Jonah 1:17b, ESV).

            It is unlikely that anyone here has been swallowed by a great fish, but, perhaps, some of us have entered into sin and found ourselves in a deep and dark place and not known how we could arise out of it.

            The Psalmist experienced this, certainly, as he recorded his distress:  “Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD!  O Lord, hear my voice!  Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my pleas for mercy!” (Psalm 130:1-2, ESV).

            Surely, Jonah’s first thought in being swallowed by the great fish was that he was going to be eaten – this was his end – his punishment for his arrogant sin – in turning away from proclaiming the Gospel to the people that God command him to go to.  But, on the third day, Jonah truly repented and humbled himself and called out to God in prayer:

            “Then Jonah prayed to the LORD his God from the belly of the fish, saying, ‘I called out to the LORD, out of my distress, and he answered me; out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and you heard my voice.”

            First, when God disciplines us, the goal is that we will humble ourselves and repent.

            God told Jonah to go preach the Gospel to the hated Assyrians in Nineveh, and Jonah sinned in arrogance, thinking that Israel was worthy of the Gospel message, but not the Ninevites.  He forgot the promise that God made to Abraham that all the nations of the world would be blessed through God’s working with Israel.  As Jesus reminded His disciples:  “And he said to them, ‘Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation’” (Mark 16:15, ESV).

            Yes, as Paul reminds us, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek” (Romans 1:16, ESV).  The Gospel is first to the Jews – they received the prophets and the Law and the birth of the Incarnate God, the Savior.  But then, the Gospel must go out from there to the whole Creation – to every man and woman of every tribe and country and nation – even to the people we don’t like.  Even to the people we don’t think deserve it.  Because, the fact of the matter is that none of us deserve salvation, but God is merciful to whom He shows mercy.  Our call – Jonah’s call – is to proclaim salvation through Jesus Christ Alone to everyone, and God will save as He wills.

            Are you willing to obey and proclaim the Gospel to everyone?  Can you think of anyone you can’t stand to be around who needs to hear the Gospel?  Can you think of any nation or people that you don’t think deserve to be forgiven by God?  Are you willing to humble yourself and obey the call to tell everyone the Gospel of Jesus Christ?  Who are you going to speak to today?  Who ought you to speak to this week?

            Jonah was right to be concerned – and even angry – with Israel for their idolatry, but he had not understood God – he had embraced bad theology – and he thought Israel better than the Ninevites – more worthy to receive the Gospel than the Ninevites.  But, now, confronted by God, having spent three days in the belly of the great fish, under God’s sovereign and loving discipline, Jonah repented and in humility, cried out to the Lord from the belly of the great fish.

            We are right to be angry with the sins of our nation – with the sins of our neighbors – with the sins of we who claim to be followers of Jesus Christ.  Are you ready to cry out to the Lord and return to Him in humble obedience?  Or do you need more time in the belly of the great fish?

            Jonah cried out to God – as though in the grave – in Sheol – he cried out from the depths – from a place he could not return from on his own accord.  He cried out that God would hear him in his repentance and in his humility before the Lord, in the darkness – floating in the fluids in the belly of the great fish.

            “For you cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the flood surrounded me; all your waves and your billows passed over me.  Then I said, ‘I am driven away from your sight; yet I shall again look upon your holy temple.’” 

            Second, God is Sovereign and forgives the repentant.

            And as Jonah cried out, he confessed to God that he understood that he had sinned – in not preaching the Gospel to the Ninevites – in trying to run away from God – in putting the sailors’ lives at risk.  And he confessed that he understood that he was now under the Divine and Sovereign Discipline of God.

            Jonah confessed that God cast him into the deep.  God cast him into the heart of the sea.  God flooded over him with the waters of the sea.  God set the waves roaring above him.  God set the billows to pass over him.

            Jonah confessed his understanding that all he was going through was by the Sovereign Hand of God as discipline for his sin.  And he prayed that God would hear him and deliver him – that his discipline would not merely end in his humility and returning to God in repentance but that God would save him from the belly of the great fish, in the depths of the sea, under the waves and the billows of the sea.

            Jonah’s entombment in the belly of the great fish for three days and three nights was the second extreme measure that God used to awaken him to his sin – and Jonah did awaken and repent and humbly call on God in repentance and prayer.

            The Psalmist also cried out in prayer:  “If you, O LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?  But with you there is forgiveness, that you may be feared” (Psalm 130:3-4, ESV).

            When God disciplines us for our sin, how do we react?  When we know we have sinned and we suffer the consequences of it, what is our response?  Is it to stand by stoically as we receive what is due us?  Do we say our punishment is unfair?  Do we say that God is unfair?  Do we try to make deals with God?  Or do we repent of our sin and humbly call on God in prayer for His Mercy and forgiveness?

            Hear this encounter with Jesus:  “There were some present at that very time who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And he answered them, ‘Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish’” (Luke 13:1-5, ESV).

            Peter preached, “Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago” (Acts 3:19-21, ESV).

            And Jesus said to the Church, “Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent” (Revelation 2:5, ESV).

            Even if we are in the belly of the great fish, if we humbly repent of our sin, God will hear us, and God will restore us to a right place with Him, so we can come before Him in His temple and worship Him – just as Jonah did and looked forward to, even as he was still in the belly of the great fish.

“The waters closed in over me to take my life; the deep surrounded me; weeds were wrapped about my head at the roots of the mountains.  I went down to the land whose bars closed upon me forever; yet you brought up my life from the pit, O LORD my God.”

Third, God raises believers from the dead.

Jonah’s discipline for his sin sent him down, deep into the sea.  It was as if he was wrapped in seaweed – tied to the bottom of the sea – as if he was closed up in Davy Jones’ locker.  He was effectively dead.  Without God’s intervention, he was dead.

But, as he confessed, God brought his life up from the pit.  God received his humble repentance, forgave him, and raised him from the dead.

Jonah’s being in the belly of the great fish for three days and three nights is symbolic of the time that Jesus would spend in the grave between the crucifixion and the Resurrection.  During that time, Jesus was really, truly dead, and there was nothing that He or anyone could do to bring His body back to life, unless God chose to bring Him back to life.

Jesus prophesied that this would be the case – as we remember from last week:   “Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered him, saying, ‘Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.’ But he answered them, ‘An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. 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 12:38-40, ESV).

We, like Christ, will be raised in our physical bodies, as Paul tells us:  “For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his” (Romans 6:5, ESV).

Jesus’ Resurrection was a physical – bodily resurrection – which we know because He could be touched and eat.  So, we, after we have died – if the Lord tarries – will be raised in our physical bodies, perfected and glorified as Jesus’ body is.

For now, we have the glorious gift of the resurrection of our spiritual bodies – all we who believe in Jesus the Savior.  As Paul explains, “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. 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 Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:1-7, ESV).

            This is what Jesus meant as He talked with Martha about the death of her brother, Lazarus:  “Jesus said to her, ‘Your brother will rise again.’ Martha said to him, ‘I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.’ Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?’ She said to him, ‘Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world’” (John 11:23-27, ESV).

            Yes, there will be a future resurrection of our bodies, but now, there is a spiritual resurrection of all those who believe in Jesus – and if you are in the depths due to your sin, God is able to raise you from that death, if you humbly repent and believe and call out to Him in prayer.

            Do you believe?  Do you repent of your sin and promise to strive towards living in all holiness?  Are you willing to lay yourself aside and cry out to our God – the only life-giver – and pray that you would be restored from the depths to which you have gone?  God will hear the cry of the believer.

            That is not to say that everything will be all peaches and cream the moment you cry out to God.  Jonah had to spend three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish.  Even for the Sake of Christ – and not our sin – Jesus tells us that we may have to spend a (relatively) short time in duress – and we may have to physically die to become completely free:  “Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and for ten days you will have tribulation. Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life” (Revelation 2:10, ESV).

            Whatever the case may be – but especially if we, like Jonah, find ourselves in the deep – in the belly of the great fish – God will raise us from the dead – but it may not be according to our timetable.  As we wait on the Lord for His time to be right, let us cry out with the Psalmist – and have hope: “I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in his word I hope; my soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning, more than watchmen for the morning” (Psalm 130:5-6, ESV).

            

             Fourth, if we return to the Lord, He will save us.

“When my life was fainting away, I remembered the LORD, and my prayer came to you, into your holy temple.  Those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love.  But I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you; what I have vowed I will pay.  Salvation belongs to the LORD!”

What joy is it – when darkness is all around us and all hope seems to be lost – to cast our eyes upon the Lord and pray to Him in His Holy Temple!  Wherever you are, you are in the presence of the Almighty God Who – in love – sent His Son to save all those who would believe.  You are in the Temple of the Lord, and whether God’s good plan is life or death for us – He is there – our hope and our future.

When it looked like God was going to allow Jonah to die in the great fish for his sin, he looked to the Lord – he saw the Glory of the Lord in the plans that the Lord had made and in the discipline that he had received.  Whether he lived or died in the great fish, he was reconciled to God, and he joined with God in communion – praying to God, lifting up his praise and prayer to God his Savior.

Jonah confessed that he had received the steadfast love of God in all of God’s dealing with him – something those who continue in their idol worship will never have.  The only hope of every man, woman, and child is to repent and believe in Jesus – the worship and belief in anything or anyone else will only end in the opposite of steadfast love – in the Wrath of God for sin.

The hope of every believer – every Christian believer – is that God loves us with a steadfast love – a love that continues eternally, because we are those whom Jesus came to save.  John makes it clear:  “           We love [God] because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19, ESV).

And Jesus promised, “I will never leave you nor forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5, ESV).

Does that make you well up with thanksgiving?  That God loves us with an everlasting love and will save us now spiritually and in the future – whether in life or in death – He will raise us physically so we will be like our God and Savior, Jesus Christ?  Are you holding back saying, “Thank you, Jesus”?  Or are you saying it to yourself?  We ought to be thankful for this promise – for this love.

Jonah was thankful and responded as we ought to – with the sacrifice of praise, with the promise to be obedient to God’s call on his life – confessing that “salvation is of the Lord!”

The Psalmist wrote, “O Israel, hope in the LORD!  For with the LORD there is steadfast love, and with him is plentiful redemption.  And he will redeem Israel from all his iniquities” (Psalm 130:7-8, ESV).

 Salvation is all of God, as God has mercy.

Our text ends with the historic event of God’s response to Jonah’s prayer:              “And the LORD spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah out upon the dry land.”

Jonah had risen from the dead!  He who was dead in the belly of the fish, was alive and walking on the land.  A new man.  A new prophet.  Forgiven by his God.  Restored to his call.

As God says of each of us who believes in His Gospel, “For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found” (Luke 15:24a, ESV).

Let us pray:

Almighty God, our Savior, we thank You for the gift of salvation.  We ask that You would forgive us for our sins in the Name of Jesus Christ.  We ask that when we do sin, we would quickly and humbly come before You in repentance.  Help us to seek You out as our loving Father, even when we sink into the depths of sin in rebellion against You.  Help us receive Your discipline, acknowledging the rightness of it, as the discipline of our loving Father.  Help us to be the men and women You have called us to be.  Cause us to do those good works that you planned for us.  Especially we ask that you would cause us to proclaim the Gospel to the whole Creation.  For it is in Jesus’ Name, we pray.

"Believing God" Study

Jesus told His disciples that He has overcome the world.  But how can that be with all the problems in the world?  It certainly doesn't look like Jesus has overcome the world.  Join us tonight, D.V., at 7 PM to discuss this promise.

Reformed Wisdom

Calvin on Jonah 2:1 --

"This is a change worthy of being noticed: and hence we may learn how much it profits us to be drawn back often as it were by cords, or to be held tied up with fetters because when we are free we go astray here and there beyond all limits."

"You Can't Run" Jonah 1:1-17

“You Can’t Run”

[Jonah 1:1-17]

June 8, 2014 Second Reformed Church

            Jesus said, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments” (John 14:15, ESV).

            Jesus also said, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation” (Mark 16:15, ESV).

            Do we love Jesus?  Do we strive to keep His commandments?  Do we go into all the world and proclaim the Gospel?

            Lord willing, the next four weeks, we will take a very quick look at the book of Jonah and consider obedience to God – especially consider our obedience in evangelism.

            Who was Jonah?  And, yes, Jonah was a real, historical figure.  Jesus makes mention of him in Matthew 12, and if Jesus said that Jonah really lived, we have good reason to believe that Jonah did really live.  As poetic as the book of Jonah is, it is the history of a real person.

            Jonah is also mentioned in the historical book of II Kings.  There we find out that Jonah was a prophet during the reign of King Jeroboam II of Israel.  And we know that Jeroboam reigned from 793 to 753 B. C. – so, Jonah was one of the earliest of the Minor Prophets. (Calling him a “minor prophet” means that his writings were shorter, not less important.)

            Jonah preached during a time after the northern and southern kingdoms had split.  This is past David and Solomon – Israel was divided into Israel and Judah and ruled by different kings.  It was a time of relative peace in Israel, though the prophets had been telling Israel that if they did not repent and turn from their idol worship, God was going to bring judgment upon them.

            Nineveh was the capital of Assyria – in what we now call Iraq.  During the reign of Jeroboam II, the Assyrians were not much of a threat to Israel, because they were going through a severe “economic downturn” – as we call it today.  Still, they were a hated people – ones who had attacked Israel frequently in the past and would, in later years, be used by God to punish Israel.

            As we look at the opening chapter of Jonah, let us note four things:

            First, God commands us to bring the Gospel to people we don’t like.

            Second, we can’t escape God.

            Third, God may use extreme measures to awaken us to our sin.

            And fourth, our only hope for salvation is in God.

            We don’t know much about Jonah as a person, except that he was the son of Amittai.  And we don’t know much about what God had Jonah preach to Israel – we only have the record of one sentence preached, and that was to the Ninevites.

            First, God commands us to bring the Gospel to people we don’t like.

            “Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, ‘Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me.’”

            Now, remember, Jonah is a Jew preaching to Jews in Israel, who have been warned by God to repent of their sin, or God will discipline them for their sin.  The inhabitants of Nineveh were enemies of Israel – and they were Gentiles – of course they were sinning – of course they were worshipping idols – of course they were doing evil – of course God was angry.  But, with the problems of sin and turning away that Israel was going through, why in the world would God send one of His prophets to pagan enemies of Israel?

            We see two things here:  There is a warning to Israel, that if God takes notice and punishes the pagan nations for their sin, how much more will God discipline His chosen people when they sin against Him?  God was using the example of Jonah going to Nineveh to tell them to repent and follow the One True God as a rebuke of Israel – telling them that they should know better – they should not have to be told and prodded and threatened by God, because they had the Law of God before them and they knew what God commanded of them.  It was God’s way of telling Israel to wake up to their sin and to come back to God humbly and repentantly.

            Also, it was a reminder that God promised Abraham, “I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and will give to your offspring all these lands. And in your offspring all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws” (Genesis 26:4-5, ESV).

            The message of Gospel salvation was to the Jews first, but God promised that through the Jews, every nation of the world – all the Gentiles – would also hear the Gospel and be called to repentance and belief.

            We will see in the fourth chapter that Jonah understood this very well, but, Jonah did not think God was giving enough attention to Israel and Jonah did not want the pagan enemies of Israel to have the message of salvation.  They were enemies!  And they were Gentiles – non-Jews!  Why in the world would Jonah go to them – didn’t he have enough trouble to deal with in Israel?

            Who are you unwilling to tell that there is salvation through faith alone in the life, death, and physical resurrection of Jesus?  Who is it that you would never talk to for any reason?  Who has God told you to speak to, but you have refused?

            Jesus commanded all of His followers to tell everyone the Gospel – even those creepy people you don’t want to deal with, even those people who are so rude and nasty, and even those people who you would be glad never to see again.   And remember, we are not commanded to convert anyone – that’s God’s job.  We are to tell people the Gospel or at least bring them to where they can hear it or give them something to read or listen to that has the Gospel explained in it.

            Who are you running from?  Who are you avoiding?

            And more generally, what has God commanded that you are not willing to obey?  What do you read in the Scripture and say, “it can’t mean that,” or “I’m not going to follow that,” or “if I hold the page of the Bible at just the right angle, and move it to the side, why, it doesn’t really say that at all”?

            If we love Jesus, we will obey Him.  If you sin – and we all do – maybe even just a minute ago as you said to yourself, “I don’t have to do what you’re saying” – repent, turn around, ask forgiveness, pledge not to sin again, and go forward, forgiven of your sins in Jesus Christ.

            And tell everyone the Gospel.  If you care that there are people going to Hell, you will tell everyone the Gospel.  Not everyone is an evangelist.  Not everyone has the gift of talking and presenting information.  But we can all say, “Would you come to church with me?”  And be ready to have people say, “no” – or even something colorful.  But care, be obedient, put people in the way of the Gospel.  (D. V., we will talk more about how we do that as we go along.)

Second, we can’t escape God.

“But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD. 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 them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the LORD.”

So, here we have Jonah, a prophet of the Lord God Almighty.  God commands him to go to Nineveh and preach the Gospel to them – to call them to repentance and belief – and Jonah says to himself, “Is God kidding?  I’m preaching the Gospel and calling the people of Israel to repentance and belief; God has threaten Israel – the people He chose to be His nation – and God wants me to go to Nineveh – to our enemies – to Gentiles – to call them to repentance and belief?  I’m not going to do it.  What was God thinking?  We’ll I’m going to hop a ship for Spain – I’m going to get out of God’s line of sight and give Him time to think this over.  Maybe He will just forget about it and let me get back to the proper work of a prophet of Israel.  Nineveh – crazy.”

And that’s exactly what we do every time we sin, isn’t it?  We hear the clear command of God and tell ourselves that God got it wrong – that God doesn’t understand – that God would say something different if we had modern additions to the Bible.

Be holy as I am holy.  “Oh, God, You’re so silly.  You know we can’t be holy in this life.  And our sin is forgiven in Jesus.  So, it’s ok if we sin.”

            Sexual relations are to only to be between one man and his wife – not anyone else, real, manufactured, or imagined.  “Oh, God, You’re so silly.  Back in the olden days when people didn’t have a sex drive, that made sense, but we can’t control our urges in the twenty-first century.”

            Enjoy alcohol, but don’t get drunk.  “Oh, God, You’re so silly.  Back in the olden days, they didn’t have much alcohol and it was more like grape juice, but today we have real alcohol, and we need to get drunk to enjoy ourselves.”

            Give ten percent of your gross income to the church and then give generously on top of that.  “Oh, God, You’re so silly.  Back in the olden days, everyone ate from the land and had houses made of wood, and they didn’t have expenses like we do.  Back then, you gave everyone enough to give generously, but You didn’t consider how expensive it would be to live today.”

            Don’t worry, but trust the Lord.  “Oh, God, You’re so silly.  The world is much more complicated than it was in the olden days.  Then you just grew your crops and traded in the market place; it was a simple easy life, they didn’t have anything to worry about.  Today, it’s a dog-eat-dog world.”

            What are you giving God time to reconsider?  What sin are you trying to convince God is not a sin?

            The Ninevites had a slight excuse for not being obedient to God since they were pagan Gentiles, but Jonah was a prophet called by the One God to speak to the people on His behalf.  And you, if you have been saved through Jesus Christ alone – you – and I – are sons and daughters of God, brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ.  What is our excuse?

            Jonah thought he could get away from God by hiding in Spain.

            David wrote, “Where shall I go from your Spirit?  Or where shall I flee from your presence?  If I ascend to heaven, you are there!  If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!  If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me.  If I say, ‘Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night,’ even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you” (Psalm 139:7-12, ESV).

            Where can you hide from God?  What does David tells us?  If he went to heaven – as far north as he can go – God is there.  If he went to the place of the dead – the grave – as far south as he can go – God is there.  If he went to the wings of the dawn – as far east as he can go – God is there.  If he went to the uttermost end of the (Mediterranean) Sea – as far west as he can go – God is there.  If he tries to hide in the dark – God is there – and God sees all, because God is Light, and there is no darkness with Him.  In other words, God is Omnipresent.  God is everywhere at the same time.  There is nowhere we can run from God; you can’t run from God, because God is there.

            Third, God may use extreme measures to awaken us to our sin.

            “But the LORD hurled a great wind upon the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship threatened to break up. Then the mariners were afraid, and each cried out to his god. And they hurled the cargo that was in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them. But Jonah had gone down into the inner part of the ship and had lain down and was fast asleep. So the captain came and said to him, ‘What do you mean, you sleeper? Arise, call out to your god! Perhaps the god will give a thought to us, that we may not perish.’

            “And they said to one another, ‘Come, let us cast lots, that we may know on whose account this evil has come upon us.’ So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah. Then they said to him, ‘Tell us on whose account this evil has come upon us. What is your occupation? And where do you come from? What is your country? And of what people are you?’ And he said to them, ‘I am a Hebrew, and I fear the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.’ Then the men were exceedingly afraid and said to him, ‘What is this that you have done!’ For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the LORD, because he had told them.”

            God commanded Jonah to preach the Gospel to the Ninevites.  He sinned and ran from God, but God is everywhere, so running to Spain was no help.  And God used some extreme measures to awaken Jonah to his sin – we see the first one in this text:  God hurled a massive storm at the ship.

            One point of background – there really wasn’t any such thing as a cruise ship in those days.  There were ships for fishing, ships for hauling cargo from one place to another to sell, and ships for war – and people would pay to ride along with the first two of these, but they were not what we think of as passenger ships or cruise ships.

            Jonah got on one of these headed for Spain.  Jonah went down in the hull of the ship and fell asleep.  Jonah was dead to the world and didn’t want anyone to bother him – and he certainly wasn’t listening to God until God wised up.  It was as if Jonah had closed his eyes, stuck his fingers in his ears, and was saying, “la, la, la, la, I can’t hear you.”  (Those of us of a certain age may remember the T. V. show, “Hogan’s Heroes,” and Sargent Schultz who was perennially saying, “I know nothing!”)

            Meanwhile, above deck, God did not cause a storm to brew, but God hurled a massive storm at them – one greater than normally seen – as we can tell by the panic of the crew.  The ship began to come apart and sink, so the crew each started praying to their own god in the hopes that one of the gods would help them.  Then they started to throw the cargo overboard – losing all the money they would have earned from selling it – in the hopes of lightening the ship so it would stay afloat.  Then the realized that Jonah was still asleep in the hull of the ship, snoring, as deaf to the mighty storm, the cries of the sailors, and the cargo being thrown overboard as he was  to the command of God.  And they told Jonah to get up and pray to his God – to see if his God might be the One to save them.  And Jonah did …nothing.

            You see, the more we sin – the more we disobey God’s clear commands – the easier it becomes to continue to ignore them, to ignore more of them, to ignore them more often, to think our sin is not so bad – until the Word of God becomes like white noise to us and we harden our hearts.  Just as we can sin as Christians, it is possible – for a time – for us to go very far and deep into sin – as Jonah did – and when we do that, it may well take God doing something extreme to shake us out of our complacency, such that we repent and follow Him whole-heartedly.

            Since the sailors didn’t get an answers from their gods, they cast lots – they threw dice – to divine whose fault the storm was – and God guided the dice so they pointed to Jonah – because God is Sovereign over all things:  “The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the LORD” (Proverbs 16:33, ESV).

            So they asked Jonah where he came from, who he was, and what he did.  Hear against his answer:  “And he said to them, ‘I am a Hebrew, and I fear the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land’” (Jonah 1:9, ESV).  And the sailors were terrified!  Why?

            Jonah had just confessed to them that the Almighty God, the Creator and Sustainer of everything that is, hurled a mighty storm at them – which might kill all of them – because Jonah refused to obey his God and was still refusing to obey his God!

            There are people who have said, this storm was God’s punishment for this sin or this tragedy was God’s punishment for that sin, and so forth.  It is rare that we can say that something happened as a result of God’s punishing sin – as we can in the case of Jonah.  But what these people who say things like this are right about is that God is very angry with us for our sin, God is Almighty and Sovereign, and God may show His Anger for sin in causing storms and tragedies to occur.

            Now, do not say, for example, if someone gets cancer, “it’s your punishment for sin.”  We have no way of knowing that.  And God tends to show mercy.  But we ought to be aware that God is right to punish sin, all sin will be punished in the end, and we may suffer in this life for our sin – individually, in groups, as a nation, and so forth.

            And then – seeing the terror in the eyes of the sailors – knowing he could be the cause of their death – Jonah recognized his sin and was ready to receive whatever punishment God saw fit.

            And fourth, our only hope for salvation is in God.

            “Then they said to him, ‘What shall we do to you, that the sea may quiet down for us?’ For the sea grew more and more tempestuous. He said to them, ‘Pick me up and hurl me into the sea; then the sea will quiet down for you, for I know it is because of me that this great tempest has come upon you.’ Nevertheless, the men rowed hard to get back to dry land, but they could not, for the sea grew more and more tempestuous against them. Therefore they called out to the LORD, ‘O LORD, let us not perish for this man's life, and lay not on us innocent blood, for you, O LORD, have done as it pleased you.’ So they picked up Jonah and hurled him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging. Then the men feared the LORD exceedingly, and they offered a sacrifice to the LORD and made vows.

            “And the LORD appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.”

            Jonah recognized his sin and was ready to receive God’s punishment.  Jonah recognized that his only hope – in life and in death – the sailors’ only hope for salvation – and the Ninevites’ only hope for salvation – is God.

            And the sailors asked, “What shall we do, o, prophet of the Almighty God, Creator and Sovereign of all, Who you have sinned against?”

            And Jonah responded, “Hurl me into the sea, and God will take out His Wrath on me for my sin and you will be safe.”

            And we might expect the next thing we read to be, “And they hurled him into the sea,” but it’s not.

            First, the crewed rowed hard against the storm, trying to get back to land, because they didn’t want Jonah’s death on their hands – and they all would have thought – even Jonah – that he would die in the sea – but God caused the storm to grow even wilder.

            So, second, they prayed that God would not hold Jonah’s innocent blood against them.  Why did they say his blood was innocent?  Jonah was a sinner.

            Then, third, they hurled Jonah into the sea – and as soon as he went under – the storm was gone, it was as peaceful as peaceful could be – the water was like glass.

            And, fourth, the crew was in awe of the God of Jonah, and they worshipped Him and offered up sacrifices to Him, and they made vows to Him.

            Did they believe savingly?  The language of the text indicates that they did, but God knows for sure.  The thing to see here is that our obedience and disobedience to the clear commands of God affect the way people view our God and the Gospel we are proclaiming.

            And God appointed – committed – commanded and sent – a great fish to swallow Jonah.  Jonah understood that the fish was obedient to God’s command – wherever the fish had been – God told it to go swallow Jonah, and it went and swallowed him.  And Jonah was in the belly of the fish for three days and three nights.

            We know how the story ends, but think about Jonah, repenting of his sin, knowing that sin must be punished, being hurled into the sea, expecting to drown, and a fish swallows him.  What was he thinking?  “Is this my punishment:  to be eaten by a fish?”

            Lord willing, we’ll continue to look at what happened next week, but let us consider, as we close – why did God choose this punishment for Jonah?

            We know of at least one reason:  “Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered [Jesus], saying, ‘Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.’ But he answered them, ‘An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. 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 12:38-40, ESV).

            Jonah’s punishment was symbolic of what Jesus did to secure the salvation of all those who would believe – it may be why the sailors called Jonah “innocent,” when he most certainly was not – as part of the symbolism of Jesus, Who most certainly is innocent.

            We see the symbolism of the atoning sacrifice and resurrection in the punishment of Jonah:  for the sake of the crew, Jonah took the punishment for sin that they would be saved.  He was in the fish for three days and three nights, and then, as we will remember, Jonah is released from his watery grave and set on dry land, alive.

            Most perfectly, Jesus, the True and Innocent God-Man, took on the sins of all those who would ever believe, and took upon Himself the Wrath of God due for our sins.  He died in the flesh, and was physically raised on the third day, that all we who believe in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

            Are you running from God?  You can’t – God is everywhere.  And if you are a Christian and you are running from God – all the more – stop – and instead, run into the arms of your loving Father and plead His forgiveness based on the merits of His Son, Jesus.

            And recognize that God may use extreme measures to bring you back to Him if you persist in your sin – and that is really a merciful thing, is it not?  As the Psalmist confessed, “It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn your statutes” (Psalm 119:71, ESV).

            This is no hope for anyone, except God’s Promised Savior.  If you are a Christian, you know that, so stop sinning, stop running away from God, and love Him by being obedient to His Whole Word.  And proclaim this Gospel to the whole Creation.

            Let us pray:

           Almighty God, we thank You for the history of Jonah.  We thank You that You are not far away, but You are here with us even now – and You are with us wherever we may be and whatever we are going through.  Thank You for pursuing us to salvation and for using whatever means You choose to bring us to Yourself and to keeping us returning in repentance for our sin.  Help us to be obedient to You in all that You have commanded --  and especially we ask that we would be empowered by the Spirit to proclaim Your Gospel.  For it is in Jesus’ Name we pray, Amen.

Reformed Wisdom

Calvin's prayer on Jonah 1:11-12 --

Grant, Almighty God that as thou urgest us daily to repentance and each of us is also stung with the consciousness of his own sins, — grant, that we may not grow stupid in our vices, nor deceive ourselves with empty flatteries, but that each of us may, on the contrary carefully examine his own life and then with one mouth and heart confess that we are all guilty not only of light offenses, but of such as deserve eternal death, and that no other relief remains for us but thine infinite mercy and that we may so seek to become partakers of that grace which has been once offered to us by thy Son, and is daily offered to us by his Gospel, that, relying on him as our Mediator, we may not cease to entertain hope even in the midst of thousand deaths, until we be gathered into that blessed life, which has been procured for us by the blood of thy only Son. Amen.

"Believing God" Study

Tonight, D.V., we will look at the well-known promise in Romans 8:28 -- that God will cause all things to work together for the good.  Do we believe that?  Everything?  And is it true for everyone?  Join us at 7 PM.

June Sermons

D.V., I will preach as follows in June:

6/1/14 Ascension Sunday
 Guest preacher:  Tom Henion

6/8/14 Pentecost

 Jonah 1:1-17  “You Can’t Run”

6/15/14 Trinity; Father’s Day

 Jonah 2:1-10  “Humble Yourself”

6/22/14

 Jonah 3:1-10  “Proclaim the Gospel”

6/29/14 98^th anniversary and pot-luck

 Jonah 4:1-11  “Do You Do Well to Be Angry?”

Join us for worship at 10:30 AM.