We're going to read the Bible now.
If you can open up your Bible to Jonah 1, verses 1 to 16.
!
He said,
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.
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 rode 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.
Okay, well, thanks everyone.
I'm really excited to be preaching today.
It's been about two years since I preached here,
which, I know, thank you Sarah Morris,
that's the reaction that I had.
Sarah was like,
two years, it's been quite a while,
so I'm really stoked to be here today.
And we're starting a series on the book of Jonah today.
So Jonah chapter one.
Jonah is my favorite ending to a book in the Bible ever.
All so much cattle?
That's the end of the book of Jonah.
I don't know if you've got that far through the book.
They're the last three words.
Random.
I, for about 10 years, have had,
this is a bit of a confession to start,
have had quite a weird, complex, morbid fascination with tornadoes.
I don't know if anyone else here has gone down YouTube tornado rabbit holes.
Yes, I can see one.
It's a bit of an odd thing.
It's actually a bucket list of mine
that I want to see a tornado before I die.
Okay.
I can't tell if that's a me too or if that's a you're crazy.
I think it's probably a bit of a mix.
But in Australia, we don't actually have many tornadoes.
There's been a few.
In fact, this is a fun fact for you.
The strongest tornado ever in Australia was in Bula Dila.
Who knew it could be that close?
But we don't get many.
We get a few.
The best one probably filmed in Australia,
and I'm hoping this is going to click through.
This is probably the most impressive looking one it was in.
Just between Bathurst and Lithgow, if you know where that is.
Decent.
Like that tornado.
Pretty good.
You know, it's a decent size,
but it's not particularly impressive, let's just say.
Now, if you want a proper tornado,
we're talking the big boys here,
there's really only one country that you can go to.
Oh, Australian tornadoes part one
if you want to go down the rabbit hole,
which suggests there's a part two as well,
so you can do that in your own time.
But the big ones are found in the US.
Now, this is an example of another one
that was filmed in America.
Now we're talking.
Look at this.
Isn't that massive?
That's the type of tornado I want to see before I die.
I want to go into...
Katie and Kevin are like,
no, you don't want to see that before you die.
Have you guys ever seen one in America?
No.
Yeah, but I'm sure the damage in it makes the news.
See, I'm a bit removed from it.
I recognise that.
But that's impressive.
That's something that I think is super exciting.
Now, again, I don't know if you know much about tornadoes,
but that is not even the start of how big a tornado can get.
This is one that was in South Dakota.
In case it's not immediately obvious,
that whole thing is a tornado.
It's called a wedge tornado,
and it is terrifying.
Like, no-one wants to be in front of that thing.
And I think I'm very happy to see the big majestic one.
You can kind of see it in the middle of the day.
I'm very happy if I don't see one of these in my lifetime.
That is just terrifying.
Now, people have all different types of reactions to tornadoes.
Some are fascinated.
Some are horrified.
This is a reaction.
This is a very famous...
You didn't think you were going to be coming here to church today
for a tornado rundown, but here it is.
This is a very famous video of a guy who was in his house
when a tornado was coming in his house.
Now, this is the start of the video.
You can kind of see it there in the background.
We're now going to skip,
because this obviously goes for quite a while.
We're going to skip about a minute and a half in.
Now, this is real.
This is pre-AI days.
The guy is still filming.
He's still filming.
Anyway, this video, it actually continues for like another 30 seconds,
and it's basically this chunked-out noise over a black background.
But I think the reason I'm fascinated by tornadoes
is because of the raw power.
Like, there's something just intensely amazing
about seeing this type of thing coming towards you.
And there's nothing that you can do about it.
If you are in front of this thing here, like the guy in the camera,
you can't tell that thing to change course.
It's going where it wants to go.
You cannot tell it that it should maybe quieten down
or, I don't know, dissipate before it gets to you.
So that thing will do whatever it wants to do.
And in this part of the Bible that we're reading today,
Jonah chapter 1,
we're going to see a completely unstoppable God.
We are going to see a completely unstoppable God
intent on delivering His mercy to His enemies.
And the question as we go through, Jonah,
as we kind of go through the passage today
that you should be asking yourself,
is how will you respond?
When you're faced with this incredible force,
unstoppable force that is our God,
how do you respond?
Do you run?
Do you pretend like it's not there, that it's not coming?
Or do you recognise the reality of what's before you?
So let's pray and we can get into it.
Dear God, thank you that we can be here today
talking about Jonah chapter 1.
Such an incredible part of your words to us.
I pray that you'd help us to hear.
I pray that you'd help me to speak clearly
and cover over any of my failings if needed.
Amen.
Okay, we're going to open up Jonah chapter 1.
So we'll read from Jonah chapter 1, verse 1.
If you've got your Bible there,
then it's somewhere in the middle-ish.
That is so unhelpful.
Look at your contents if you're not sure where it is.
But the first thing,
and actually while you're doing that,
I'm going to swap stands
because I already tell this is just going to
slowly sink down as I'm going.
So I'm going to quickly swap stands while you find it.
Okay, Jonah chapter 1.
Now, first thing that we're going to see
as we read through this
is that Jonah shows us
that rebellion is pointless
in front of an unstoppable God.
Rebellion is pointless against an unstoppable God.
So verse 1.
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.
But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish
from the presence of the Lord.
He went down to Joppa
and found a ship going...
They should have called it Tarshish.
That would make way more sense.
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 Jonah chapter 1,
we're introduced to this man
called Jonah, the son of Amittai.
We don't know much about Amittai,
apart from the fact that he's his dad, I guess.
But we do know that he's a prophet of God.
So we're told that Jonah is a prophet.
He was around during the reign
of a king called Jeroboam II.
So if you don't know much
about the history of Israel,
basically Israel is in two parts.
There's a northern kingdom
and a southern kingdom.
Jonah's in the northern kingdom,
and this king, Jeroboam II,
is king over the northern kingdom.
And up until this point,
every king has been evil.
There's one that's a little bit mixed in there,
but basically all the kings of Israel
have been evil to this point.
And Jeroboam II is no exception.
He is right on the same path
as his fathers and grandfather.
And when we look at Jonah,
we actually know a bit about Jonah
because he's mentioned in two kings.
So he's not just mentioned in the book of Jonah.
We see in 2 Kings 14.
And basically what it says in there
is that Jonah was a prophet of God
during Jeroboam II.
And he told this king
that he would be the one
to expand the borders of Israel.
So again, kind of it had shrunk
a little bit over time.
Jonah is telling this evil king
that actually he will expand
the borders of the kingdom.
Now Jeroboam II reigned
somewhere between,
look, we're talking ancient history, right?
So there's a bit of an up and down
as to what the range
of when he might have reigned would be.
But it's around 793 to 746 BC
for argument's sake
and so I don't have to keep giving a range.
Let's just say 770 BC.
And so Jonah is the prophet during this time.
But you get the very, very strong impression
Jonah would be happy
to have any other job.
He does not want to be a prophet.
He would love to just be like a bricklayer
or a carpenter or something like that.
He does not want to be the prophet of God.
And in verse 1 and 2,
God says to Jonah,
I have a message for you
that I want you to go and give
to the people of Nineveh.
I want you to tell them
that their evil has come up before me.
Now what does Jonah do?
Yes, Lord.
Thank you for this amazing message.
Consider it done.
Don't stress God.
I am on top of this.
Of course not.
We know that he does the opposite
and he runs away.
Now, usually when we read Jonah,
if you're like me,
you probably get to this point
and you're like,
fool, what a fool.
Jonah, silly man.
And he is.
But you know what?
It's actually a little bit understandable.
So if you don't know anything
about the Ninevites,
they're really a main city
of one of Israel's biggest enemies,
the Assyrians.
And during this time,
Assyria is probably
the most powerful nation on earth.
And so it's no small feat
that Jonah would go to an enemy city
and preach to them God's message.
Jonah would love for these people
to just be wiped off the face of the planet.
And we find out later in Jonah
that he suspects that God will be merciful
to them if he goes.
So he hates them.
And in fact,
in about 50 years on from Jonah,
the Assyrians end up conquering
the northern kingdom of Israel.
So the kingdom that Jonah is in,
the Assyrians end up conquering.
That is the people that God is telling him to go to.
So you can kind of understand that.
But even just from a selfish perspective,
he's asking him to go to an enemy
and tell them that they're complete rebels
and they're evil.
Now to try and maybe make a bit of a poor illustration,
imagine you were Ukrainian
and God came and said,
I want you to go to Moscow
and I want you to tell them that they're evil
and that the God of the whole universe
is unhappy with them.
Best case jail, probably.
Worst case torture and death.
That is what God is asking Jonah to do.
And I can kind of understand his hesitance
when he does that.
So Jonah actually doesn't want to do this.
Now he's concerned for his own safety.
We can get the slide happening.
Oh, this is a slide I forgot to say.
I'm going to actually...
Okay, this is a slide
that I should have said right at the start.
So I'm going to do this quickly.
It was talking about the scale of tornadoes.
So...
You can tell I've got a weird...
I've just completely thrown the whole flow of my talk,
but I think this is important.
This is a map of Newcastle.
There was a giant tornado in America, again, of course,
called the El Reno tornado.
It happened in 2013.
I'm not sure if anyone's heard of this tornado.
Yes, yes.
4.2 kilometres wide.
Which is ridiculous.
500 kilometre per hour winds,
which is also ridiculous.
This is...
If church was the centre point of that tornado,
that's how far it would stretch.
So we're talking, what, Lake Macquarie in the south,
all the way up to nearly Woolworths at Edgeworth,
if you know where that is.
If you know where I live,
this would knock out my house as well.
It's about a 10-minute drive to my house.
So we're talking about a massive, massive tornado.
Great, that's important for later
and totally not helpful in the context
of what I was talking about.
But Jonah is running from God.
He's rebelling against God.
And God is unstoppable.
His plans never fail.
And Jonah is rebelling against this unstoppable God.
This is the slide that we're meant to be up to.
This is where Jonah is running.
So he goes to Joppa.
This is in Miles, which is very unhelpful.
It's one of the terrible inventions of the British.
2,500 kilometres is where he's going to Tarshish.
It's basically the end of the world for someone like Jonah.
God is calling him to go the other direction.
He's calling him to go to Nineveh.
And it's about as far as you can possibly get
from where God is calling him to go, Tarshish,
other direction.
And he's running away.
Now, Jonah is rebelling against an unstoppable God.
His plans never fail.
And Jonah's rebellion against this unstoppable God
is pointless.
There is no point in his rebelling.
So we're going to read from verse 4.
You've got Bible again, verse 4.
But the Lord hurled a great wind upon the sea,
and there was a mighty tempest on the sea,
so 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.
Then verse 7.
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's your occupation and where do you come from?
What's 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 verse 12.
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 rode hard to get back to dry land,
but they could not.
For the sea grew more and more tempestuous against them.
Then in verse 15.
So they picked up Jonah and hurled him into the sea,
and the sea ceased from its raging.
See, Jonah's rebellion against God is pointless.
He's running away.
He's trying to hope that maybe God won't see him,
but God sends a massive wind to come and push him back.
And they kind of try everything that they can.
Jonah has kind of told him he's running from our God.
But God makes it clear to everyone
that Jonah is the reason that they are in this mess.
They're the reason that they're in this horrific storm.
And the sailors, to their credit, actually,
very nobly, try and resist this storm.
They throw stuff into the sea.
They kind of, Jonah says, throw me out.
And they're like, oh, don't worry.
We'll try and row anyway.
But they find that it is pointless.
And eventually they throw Jonah into the sea,
and he's swallowed up by the great fish.
And of course, that's what Jonah is most famous for,
is being swallowed by a fish.
But for all his efforts,
Jonah finds out that rebellion against God is pointless.
Now, this is why I kept persisting with my out-of-place slides,
because I want you to imagine that this El Reno tornado,
four kilometres wide, 500 kilometre per hour winds,
they reckon, over 500 kilometre per hour winds,
is coming towards us.
It's coming out of the south.
It's hit Lake Macquarie Maccas.
There's some good things come out of this tornado.
It's Bunnings.
It's Costco.
It kind of just evaporates into the sky.
It gets to KFC Glendale.
And it is coming.
There is nothing you can do.
It will hit this building.
Now, imagine if at that point you went,
you know what?
I'm not moving.
I have been here since 8 o'clock this morning.
I had to get my kids ready.
My son spilt water on my preaching notes.
My wife still has two songs to go.
We're not leaving.
I'm staying here.
And in fact, you can move.
You can go around me.
That's fine.
You know, if you want to quieten down before you get here,
that's an option as well.
But I'm not moving.
Now, imagine if that was your response
to the tornado coming down on you.
Well, I would find out pretty quickly
that no amount of rebellious attitude from me
will make any difference to what that tornado does.
It's coming for me.
It'll throw me hundreds of metres into the air.
It'll obliterate this building.
And it does not matter whether I tell it to do something or not
because it is unstoppable.
And that's what we're seeing here in Jonah.
We're seeing Jonah up against an unstoppable, unresistible God.
The God of the universe who will deliver his plan
and nothing that Jonah says or does will stop it.
I wonder how well acquainted you are with God's plans.
Maybe you're not really been to church much before.
Maybe you're someone who kind of has been in and out of church.
But I wonder how much you actually know about God's plans.
Because if a great God of the universe is tracking towards you,
wouldn't you want to know what that plan is?
If that plan will be delivered
and you cannot change it,
he will deliver it,
then I would put it to you
that you probably want to know what that plan is.
You know, I think most people in Newcastle
actually don't want to know the plans of God.
I think Jonah is probably not the best example
for what someone is like in Newcastle.
I think very few people in Newcastle that aren't Christian
will rebel against it.
They'll know God's plan.
They'll know Jesus' death and resurrection.
And they'll decide,
no, I'm doing something anyway.
I think actually most people
are very happy being willfully ignorant of God's plan.
Because if I know God's plan,
then I probably have to change something
about what I'm doing.
I think that's why a lot of people
don't want to hear about God's plan.
And I've been trying to think about why I find,
I don't know if you're at church camp,
if you're at church camp,
or if you weren't at church camp,
there was a really strong,
I guess, question put to us about evangelism.
Are we telling people the gospel?
And I've been trying to think about
what is it that I find so hard
about telling someone about Jesus?
Because I actually do talk about Jesus a lot.
I talk about him,
like all my colleagues know I'm Christian.
I talked about the fact I went to church camp,
for example.
My colleagues know that I go to this church,
so they would know where to find me
on a Sunday morning if they wanted to come and visit.
I actually don't have a problem
with telling them I'm a Christian.
But where it gets hard
is when I have to say,
actually, God's plan applies to you as well.
I think most people are happy for me to be a Christian.
As long as it's for you.
I don't want to know about it.
Like, that's fine, you do what you want to do,
but I'm not someone who wants to know
about the plans of God.
They don't want to know that they're in rebellion
to an unstoppable God.
See, to properly tell others
means that at some point,
you're going to have to say something offensive
and that they don't want to hear.
And that is that they are at conflict
with the plans of an unstoppable God.
And in Australia,
there is almost nothing more offensive
than to tell someone
that they're living life the wrong way.
I don't know if you've done it before,
but it's kind of the unwritten rule in Australia
that you don't talk about my life,
you don't dwell too hard on my life
and I won't do that to you.
But it doesn't change the reality.
Whether that person, that friend, that colleague,
whoever it might be, family member,
whether they know the plans of God,
whether they believe the plans of God,
makes no difference to the reality.
There is an unstoppable God headed their way.
And I think in Australia,
most of our job is convincing people
that they actually are in rebellion
to this unstoppable God.
And we should be trying to help other people see,
I think, the reality of this giant tornado
bearing down on them.
So if rebellion is pointless
against an unstoppable God,
faith is accepting the reality
of an unstoppable God.
Now there's a really strong contrast in Jonah.
If you see Jonah,
he's kind of the guy who's running away,
he's scared,
he knows what God's plan is,
and he's like,
I want no piece of that.
There is a contrasting reaction in Jonah.
I don't know if you picked it up
as we read through,
but the sailors actually have the reaction
that Jonah probably should have had
and the fear towards God
that Jonah should have had.
So we're going to read some of that again,
but they put him to shame.
So we're going to start at verse four.
We're going to cover some of the bits
that we already have talked about,
but try and look at the reaction
of the sailors in response to God.
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 them,
what do you mean, you sleeper?
Arise, call out to your God.
Perhaps the God will give a thought to us
that we might 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's your occupation?
Where do you come from?
What's your country,
and 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 you have done?
For the men knew that he was fleeing
from the presence of the Lord,
because he had told them.
Then he said to them,
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 quieten down for you,
for I know it is because of me
that this great tempest has come upon you.
Nevertheless,
the men rode 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.
See, the sailors,
they actually initially don't know
what they're dealing with.
They can see that something's going on.
They know that this giant storm
is happening,
and these guys are very experienced.
I don't know if you've ever experienced
turbulence on a plane.
You kind of don't freak out.
It happens all the time.
You're not supposed to worry.
If the crew starts freaking out,
then you start freaking out
if you're on a plane.
That's when you know you're in big trouble.
And in this part of the Bible,
in Jonah chapter 1,
the crew are freaking out.
They're throwing stuff overboard.
They're praying to their gods.
I don't know how you kind of do that
on a ship that's like rocking all around,
but they're doing that.
They're really freaking out,
and they start calling out to their gods,
and they eventually go,
this must be because of some reason.
This is not a normal storm.
We've been in storms before.
And so they cast lots.
It's like throwing the dice,
and it says that Jonah
is the one who's put them in this situation.
It's Jonah's fault.
And Jonah tells them
that it's because he's rebelling against God.
And they respond how Jonah should have responded.
Sorry, say that again.
What are you talking about?
Why?
You're running from God,
and you're putting us in danger.
You're on the same boat as us.
You stupid person.
Listen.
That is how they respond.
See, they recognize
that they're up against an unstoppable God.
There's nothing that they can do.
They recognize the reality
that they are up against something
that is unstoppable.
And so eventually,
they throw Jonah into the sea,
and the storm stops.
And what do they say?
It says that then,
they feared the Lord exceedingly,
and they offered a sacrifice
to the Lord and made vows.
Now,
when later in the week
you go down the tornado rabbit hole,
you'll notice
that often what the storm chasers do,
because this is a whole thing,
is that people kind of
try and predict
where these tornadoes will be,
and they'll find them
and try and follow them,
is that they try
and not get in the way,
because they recognize
that if they put themselves
in harm's way,
there's nothing they can do.
They have no power.
This thing will just
throw them into the air.
They realize
that the tornado
is unstoppable.
Well, the sailors here
recognize
that they're up against
an unstoppable tornado.
They can't row against God.
They can't fight against Him.
They can simply accept
the reality.
They can accept
that the God of the heaven,
who created the sea and the land,
will deliver His plans.
See, in Jonah,
God is to be feared.
The men recognize
that they have been fighting
against this God.
They have on board
a man who is running
from God.
And Jonah,
I actually probably
didn't do it justice
when I read it out before,
but when he's talking
about who God is,
and they're kind of
grilling Him,
and they're like,
who are you?
Where are you from?
And he's like,
I'm a Hebrew.
And they're like,
okay, well, what God?
He made the heavens,
I guess.
And the dry land,
and I guess the sea.
Like, it's a ridiculous response
from Jonah.
He knows who God is.
The sailors,
they just recognize
that they are up against
an unstoppable God.
They fear Him,
even though they don't know
His full plans.
Jonah knows His plans,
and He runs.
But for us,
we know God's plan
for the world.
If you're a Christian
here today,
and you've been
coming along to church
for any length of time,
you know God's plan
for this world.
We have faith
in an unstoppable God.
We accept the reality
that God will deliver
His plan for this world,
and there is nothing
that can stop it.
And unlike
the unstoppable tornado,
whether you believe
in God or not,
you have to accept
God's plan
for this world.
Whether or not
you have faith in God,
it actually makes
no difference
to the reality.
The tornado is hitting.
God is unstoppable.
The tornado is unstoppable.
To resist is like
standing in front
of that giant tornado
coming towards you
in stubborn rebellion
about the reality
that's coming.
You know,
my Christian faith,
no matter how it's going,
sometimes it might be
doing well.
How much does that
progress the plans of God
if my faith is going well?
If I'm having a tough time
and I'm kind of not
reading my Bible very often
and I kind of feel
distant from God,
how much does that
stop the plans of God?
When we see things
in this world
that seem like
a departure from
a Christian worldview,
when we see people
departing from God's
way of living,
should we pray
as if God
may not know
that that's happening?
Should we pray
as if somehow
God's fighting
the forces of evil
and he's slowly
losing the battle?
God is unstoppable.
Nothing can resist him.
I wonder if world events
are keeping you up at night.
I mean,
the obvious one,
what's filled today?
Like $2.40?
Diesel?
Hang on,
it's $2.90 today?
Are you wondering
how you'll get by?
Maybe some of you,
there was a mortgage
rate increase
recently,
kind of freaking out,
going,
I don't know how
we're going to handle
this one.
Are you worried
about the world
getting dragged into war?
I don't know about you,
but sometimes it feels
like we're kind of
just on this really
long downward slide
into a third world war.
Maybe you're worried
about what your kids
are going to inherit.
I worry about that
from time to time.
Grandkids?
What kind of a world
are we bringing
these kids up into?
Maybe you feel like
Australia is the land
of the haves
and the have-nots.
Like you want to buy
a house,
but it just keeps getting
worse and worse
and further and further
out of reach.
It feels like
our society is just
drifting further and
further away from God,
but our God is
unstoppable.
He will deliver
his plans.
You think Donald Trump
can get in the way
of an unstoppable God?
You think Anthony
Albanese
has any effect
on the plans of God?
or Pauline Hanson
or whoever it is
that you're concerned about?
To what effect
does the unbelief
of Australia
have
on the directions
of an unstoppable God?
Nothing.
It is like me
standing in front
of the tornado
shaking my fist.
See, faith is not
about giving
God's plans
a helpful push
in the right direction.
It's accepting
the reality
of an unstoppable
God.
It doesn't mean
we shouldn't care
about this world.
Don't hear me saying that.
I'm not saying
we shouldn't care
about what happens
and that we shouldn't
try and fight
for a society
that gives
honour and respect
to God's words
and purpose.
I'm not saying that.
But we don't need
to worry
when it goes
against what we
think should happen.
A little while ago
I, probably
about five years ago,
went through
an existential dread
about climate change.
Now, I'm not making
a point about climate change.
I don't care
if you think
it's real or not.
But I had this
existential dread
that we were kind
of going down
this path
where my kids
are going to grow up
in a world
where it's a horrendous
place to live.
our God's unstoppable.
Climate change
isn't going to make
a difference
to God's plans.
He knows it.
He sees it.
He will always
deliver his plans.
Our God
is unstoppable
and all we can do
is accept
the reality
of what he will do.
But what is
the plan
of our unstoppable
God?
Because I've kind
of talked a lot
about it
up until this point.
He has a plan.
It's coming.
There's nothing
he can do
to move it.
But what actually
is that plan?
Because Jonah
points us
to something
much bigger
than simply
God's plan
to save
the Ninevites
and we'll kind
of hear more
about that
in future weeks.
Jonah points
us
to Jesus.
The ultimate
plan
of an unstoppable
God.
I'm going to
open up to
Matthew chapter
12.
If you've got
your Bible
open up to
Matthew chapter
12.
I'm going to
start at
verse 38
because Jonah
is actually
mentioned in
the New
Testament as
well.
He's mentioned
a couple
of times but
we're going
to read
Matthew
chapter 12.
In this
section,
basically the
background of
what we're
going to
read is the
Pharisees who
are religious
leaders of
the day.
I actually
was practicing
this yesterday
and had a
slip of the
tongue.
I'm sure
someone has
invented this
word but I
thought it was
fantastic.
Pharisees.
They
basically are
trying to
catch Jesus
out.
They're trying
to trip him
up.
They're trying
to get him
to say
something that
he doesn't
mean.
And this
is what we
come to where
Jesus just
before this has
essentially called
the Pharisees
evil.
That was
unintentional.
The Pharisees
evil.
Verse 38.
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.
But 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.
The men of
Nineveh will
rise up at
the judgment
with this
generation and
condemn it.
For they
repented at
the preaching
of Jonah,
and behold,
something greater
than Jonah is
here.
See, in
Matthew, Jesus
tells us that
Jonah is
actually a
sign.
It's a sign
pointing to
something that
is far greater.
Because just as
Jonah is God's
unstoppable mercy
to the Ninevites,
Jesus is God's
unstoppable mercy
to this world.
Now, throughout
the book of
Jonah, I said
that there's
some questions
you should be
asking yourself
and that's about
response.
But there's
other questions
we should be
asking.
Who is going
to be the
perfect prophet
who will
actually be the
one who delivers
God's mercy?
Because Jonah is
useless.
He doesn't want
to be there.
He fights against
him the whole
time.
Even after you
would think being
in the belly of a
fish for three
days, you would
get on board
with God's
plans.
We'll find out
as we go
through the
series.
Even then,
Jonah still is
frustrated and
annoyed at God
and thinks he
should do
something different.
But we're
meant to be
asking, who
is the one
who will
willingly submit
to God's
unstoppable plan?
who is the
perfect one
who delivers
God's mercy?
Because like
the Ninevites
that we see
in verse 1,
God calls us
to realise
that our evil
has come up
before him.
Without his
mercy, we are
standing in the
path of his
wrath at our
rebellion.
It's like a
giant tornado
coming towards
you.
Because humanity
has not
accepted and
not recognised
the reality of
an unstoppable
God.
We have
rebelled against
him.
We have not
given him his
due place as
the ruler of
the world,
the God of
the heavens,
the lands,
the sea.
We have
turned our
back on him
and we've
chosen to
make our
own reality,
thinking that
somehow,
actually, my
plans are
unstoppable.
I'm the
one who
decides what
happens.
People can
move around
me.
My plans
are the
ones that
never fail.
But Jesus
tells us
that Jonah
is a sign
that points
to him.
Jesus is
the answer
to those
questions.
Jesus is
our perfect
prophet.
Jesus is
the one who
willingly
submits
himself to
the unstoppable
plans of
his father.
And just
as Jonah
spent three
days and
nights in
the belly
of a fish,
Jesus spends
three days
and three
nights cast
out from
God's
presence,
dying on
the cross
and taking
the wrath
that we
deserved.
Because just
as Jonah's,
in Jonah,
we see that
God's plan for
the Ninevites
is unstoppable.
Jesus is
God's unstoppable
plan for
saving those
who accept
the reality
of his
plan for
the world.
Now imagine
again that
you've got the
tornado bearing
down your
house.
Imagine you're
in this
situation.
You're seconds
away.
There's nothing
you can do.
You cannot
run.
You cannot
kind of stand
against it.
What should
you do in
this situation?
If you're
in, you've
got the camera
there, what
should you be
doing?
You should
be trying
to seek
shelter.
That's why
this video is
so shocking
because you're
like, it's
so the
opposite thing
to what you
should be
doing in
the situation.
You should
be seeking
a tornado
shelter.
I don't
know if
you've seen
a tornado
shelter before.
They're
basically
these big
capsules.
Imagine a
shipping
container
almost,
probably a
little bit
smaller.
They usually
dig them
into the
ground.
They might
put concrete
around them
or something
to pack it
in.
The idea
is that as
the tornado
goes over
the top,
you're under
there safe,
protected.
That's kind
of the whole
idea of a
tornado shelter.
In fact,
there's another
video, I
chose not to
show it.
I think it's
just, I
recognise
the kids
in the room,
that almost
is identical
to this
video where
a guy's
filming a
tornado coming
towards his
house and
his wife had
told him,
we've got a
tornado shelter,
get into it.
This is the
time that
you do
that.
And the
man,
apparently his
wife said
to him that
he wasn't
scared.
He would
be fine,
he's strong
enough.
She didn't
need to worry
about him.
She went
to the
tornado shelter,
he filmed
the tornado,
she survived
and his body
was found
hundreds of
metres away.
how will
you respond
to the
unstoppable
God?
Because
just like
the
tornado,
God's
judgement
and wrath
is coming
directly for
those who
have rebelled
against him.
It's
unstoppable,
there is
nothing that
we can do
to redirect
the course.
There's
nothing that
we can do
to resist
it.
We
have
committed
evil in
the sights
of God.
We
haven't
recognised
the reality
that he's
unstoppable,
that he
alone is
the ruler
of this
world.
We
don't
recognise
that God
is the
ruler of
our life
and so
fury of
God is
heading our
way and
there's no
escaping it.
Now we
certainly
can't stand
in rebellion
shaking our
fist.
You know
how people
often play
the Bon
Jovi
I did
it
my way
song?
You
can't do
that in
the face
of God.
God is
unstoppable.
Only
a tornado
shelter
that can
take the
full fury
of the
wrath
of a
tornado
can help.
See we
need
Jesus.
He is
the
shelter
that we
can stand
behind.
He
shelters
us from
the wrath
and he
takes the
penalty
that we
deserve
by dying
on the
cross.
And he
rises again
to show
that the
penalty
is fully
paid.
See this
is where
the tornado
metaphor
slightly
breaks
down
because
God
is the
one
who
provided
that
shelter.
God
sent
Jesus.
He sent
us as
his mercy
so that
when his
wrath against
the sin
and evil
in the
world
came
he would
see
Jesus
and we
would be
saved.
So how
will you
respond to
an unstoppable
God?
If you
aren't
a Christian
here today
and I'm
not sure
if that's
you or
not
and maybe
you aren't
sure
maybe you've
been kind
of putting
the foot
down into
the tornado
shelter
but then
like oh
maybe it's
fake
maybe the
tornado
sirens
aren't
actually
something
to worry
about
maybe it's
not going
to be
bad
maybe it'll
go around
me
if that's
you
then the
reality is
there is
an unstoppable
God
coming your
way
he will
deliver his
plan for
the world
whether you
recognize it
or not
if you walk
out of this
building
and you say
that guy
talked for
probably far
too long
I learnt
some things
about tornadoes
the rest
was psychopathic
doesn't change
the reality
turn to
God
seek the
tornado
shelter
seek
Jesus
he's the
only one
that can
save you
from the
wrath
of a
righteous
God
because he
will deliver
his plan
and if you
are a
Christian
well where
are you
taking
shelter
you know
the plan
of an
unstoppable
God
this is
not
news
to you
I'm sure
probably
for the
last 10
minutes
something
you've
heard a
thousand
times
before
are you
in the
shelter
or are you
maybe
kind of
half out
of the
shelter
maybe
you're
pretending
like the
tornado
doesn't
exist
you kind
of turn
up on
Sunday
but it's
mainly for
appearances
sake
or maybe
you've built
your own
shelter
maybe it has a
fantastic patio
you'll have a good
view from the
deck
when that
tornado
rips it up
maybe you
think you
can hide
behind your
bank balance
maybe that's
you
maybe you'll
kind of
show your
phone up to
the tornado
as it
approaches
and says
I've got a
million
there's
nothing
you can
do
maybe
you'll be
outside
when the
tornado
comes
yelling
I'm the
CEO of
insert
big company
name
here
what are
you seeking
shelter
in
maybe it's
your looks
maybe you'll
be like
the storm
will just
be like
damn
I'm going
a different
way
maybe you
think your
biceps
you'll be
able to
punch the
tornado
apart
but God's
wrath
against evil
is unstoppable
and there is
nothing that
we can do
except come
to Jesus
and seek
shelter
he is the
only one
that can
save
and I
mean
how
incredible
thankful we
should be
that God
has provided
that way
for us
without it
we are
in the
path
we're the
ones shaking
our fists
in defiance
without God
we're the
ones turning
our backs
and ignoring
him
it's
his mercy
that means
we are
saved
see
Jesus
is God's
unstoppable
plan
so will
you run
will you try
and flee it
like Jonah
did
will you
ignore it
or will you
turn to him
will you take
shelter in the
saving work
of Jesus
death and
resurrection
and I
quickly pray
dear God
thank you
that you
are a
God who
cares about
evil
thank you
that you
don't just
let it
slide
and that
you are
a God
who
recognizes
that our
evil
and the
evil of
the world
is something
that needs
to be
dealt
with
God
you are
an
unstoppable
God
you're
a God
who
we can
take
great
comfort
that he
will
deliver
his
plans
and
nothing
can
change
it
thank you
so much
for Jesus
thank you
that he
is the
shelter
that we
need
thank you
that because
of him
we can
be saved
from your
wrath
we are made
right with
you and
God I
pray
that for
those here
today or
for all of
us here
today that
you help
us to
remember
that that
plan will
be delivered
and there
is nothing
we can
do
about
it
except
come to
you
and
trust
your
son
amen
!