And we're going to be thinking about Jonah's prayer and Jonah's situation in a few minutes.
And in Matthew chapter 12, we find Jesus referring to the sign of Jonah.
But before we get to that section, we're going to begin reading at verse 22.
So Matthew 12, reading at verse 22.
This is God's word.
Then they brought Jesus, a demon-possessed man who was blind and mute.
And Jesus healed him so that he could both talk and see.
All the people were astonished and said, could this be the son of David?
The Savior, the Messiah.
But when the Pharisees heard this, they said, it's only by Beelzebub, the prince of demons, that this fellow drives out demons.
Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them, every kingdom divided against itself.
Will be ruined.
And every city or household divided against itself will not stand.
If Satan drives out Satan, he's divided against himself.
How then can his kingdom stand?
And if I drive out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your people drive them out?
So then, they will be your judges.
But if I drive out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.
Or again, how can anyone enter a strong man's house and carry off his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man?
Then he can rob his house.
He who is not with me is against me.
And he who does not gather with me scatters.
And so I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven.
Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven.
But anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven.
Either in this age or in the age to come.
Make a tree good, and its fruit will be good.
Or make a tree bad, and its fruit will be bad.
For a tree is recognized by its fruit.
You brood of vipers!
How can you who are evil say anything good?
For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks.
The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him.
And the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him.
But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken.
For by your words you will be acquitted.
By your words you will be condemned.
Then some of the Pharisees and teachers of the law said to him,
Teacher, we want to see a miraculous sign from you.
He answered,
A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a miraculous sign.
But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.
For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish,
so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it.
For they repented at the preaching of Jonah,
and now one greater than Jonah is here.
The Queen of the South will rise at the judgment with this generation and condemn it.
For she came from the ends of the earth to listen to Solomon's wisdom,
and now one greater than Solomon is here.
Now, can you turn with me in your Bibles to the book of Jonah,
which you'll find on page 927, if you're using the church Bible.
Last week we saw Jonah running from the call of God to go and preach.
Jonah's in Nineveh didn't want his enemies to have any chance of God's mercy,
so he runs in the opposite direction.
God sent a storm.
Jonah recognizes it's from God.
And he tells the sailors,
Well, the only way you're going to be saved is if you throw me overboard,
which they do.
And we'll pick up our reading, Jonah chapter 1 at verse 17.
But the Lord provided a great fish to swallow Jonah,
and Jonah was inside the fish three days and three nights.
From inside the fish, Jonah prayed to the Lord his God.
He said,
In my distress, I called to the Lord, and he answered me.
From the depths of the grave, I called for help,
and you listened to my cry.
You hurled me into the deep,
into the very heart of the seas,
and the currents swirled about me.
All your waves and breakers swept over me.
I said,
I've been banished from your sight,
yet I will look again towards your holy temple.
The engulfing waters threatened me.
The deep surrounded me.
Seaweed was wrapped around my head.
To the roots of the mountains I sank down.
The earth beneath barred me in forever.
But you brought my life up from the pit,
O Lord my God.
When my life was ebbing away,
I remembered you, Lord,
and my prayer rose to you,
to your holy temple.
Those who cling to worthless idols
forfeit the grace that could be theirs.
But I, with a song of thanksgiving,
will sacrifice to you.
What I have vowed,
I will make good.
Salvation comes from the Lord.
And the Lord commanded the fish,
and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.
Now we'll leave our reading there.
Now some of you will have noticed
that our MPs this week
have been discussing fake news.
Describing fake news as a threat
to our democracy.
That there is so much disinformation,
it's hard to know what's true.
Now, when we come to the Bible,
when we come to stories like Jonah,
how do we handle those stories?
Fact or fiction?
How we read and receive any information
is always going to be influenced
by our view of the world.
And that's certainly true
when we think about the Bible
and when we think in particular
about this story of Jonah.
So you read some books
and the commentators will say,
this is history.
And you read other books
and say, well, this is a kind of myth.
Or it's like the parables
that Jesus told.
A nice story teaching us a point.
Which is it?
And I guess our worldview
in large part will influence
how we think about it.
Do we believe, for example,
in a God who creates
and controls everything?
Is that God able to intervene
in miraculous ways?
Now, that won't just influence
how we think about Jonah.
That will influence
how we think about Jesus
and the life of Jesus
because he worked so many miracles.
Is the word of God reliable
when it teaches history?
So there are times
when the Bible is written
in a poetic style
and Jesus does tell parables,
but here is a story
presented as history.
So what do we do with it?
It forces us to think,
do I trust God
and do I trust God's word?
Significant when we read
in Matthew 12
to think about how Jesus
thought and understood
the Jonah story.
So when people came to him
asking for a miraculous sign,
he said,
I won't give you a sign
other than the sign of Jonah.
And what he meant by that
was that his life,
particularly his dying
and rising,
was a parallel
to what happened earlier
in the story of Jonah.
That just as Jonah
went into the belly of the fish
for three days and three nights
as if dead and then came out again
as if he'd come back to life,
Jesus said,
I'm going to fulfill
what was pointed forward to
in the history of Jonah.
So Jesus certainly read it
as history that taught
and really taught about
the mercy and the grace of God.
So that's how we're going
to think about it this morning.
We're going to think about it
as an event that Jonah experienced
that helps us to understand
more of the mercy
of our God.
Specifically here,
thinking about how God's mercy
comes to the prophet Jonah.
So remember,
Jonah was at best
a reluctant prophet
and at worst he was disobedient,
running from God.
But here he finds himself
being saved by God.
So we're going to think
about Jonah's situation
and Jonah's prayer
in order to discover
some truths about God's mercy
and about ourselves
as those who need to know
this God of mercy.
So the first thing
I want us to notice
both in the events
and in Jonah's prayer
is the providence of God.
It really stands out
the extent to which God
is in control in this story.
So the last time
in chapter one,
we see God sending a storm
as a sign of judgment
against Jonah's disobedience.
We see further evidence
of his control
in verse 17 of chapter one.
It's the Lord
who provides the fish
to swallow Jonah,
to save him,
to rescue him from drowning.
And then in chapter two
in verse 10,
God again commands the fish,
this time to deposit Jonah
on dry land.
And then we find
in Jonah's prayer
that he too sees
that God has been at work.
I find the words
of verse three
particularly interesting.
Look at verse three with me.
It says,
you hurled me into the deep,
into the very heart
of the seas.
Now, if you were to look back
at Jonah chapter one again,
you would discover
it was the sailors
that threw Jonah overboard.
But Jonah can see
beyond the sailors
and he can see
God's bigger plan.
He can see God's hand
behind everything.
And then in verse nine,
as he concludes his prayer,
says,
I with a song of thanksgiving
will sacrifice to you
what I have vowed
I will make good.
Salvation comes from the Lord.
He is in the belly of a fish
able to say salvation
comes from the Lord.
He knows the sailors.
He knows the storm.
He knows the fish.
All of these things
are organized by God
in order for Jonah
to be saved,
in order that he would know
and appreciate
the mercy of God
in his life.
The presentation
that we have
in the book of Jonah
that Jonah writes himself
delivers to us
is that Jonah
has been unfaithful.
But by contrast,
his God,
the personal promise-making God,
has been utterly faithful
at every point.
So God is in control.
His providence
is working all things out.
And what they're showing us
in the life of Jonah
is both God's justice
and God's mercy.
Jonah knew this.
He knew this in the storm.
He knew the storm
was a sign of God's judgment.
And he knew that he,
the only way the storm
was going to stop
is if he was thrown
into the storm.
And he understands
that his near death
by drowning,
that's God's judgment
on his sin.
But he also knows
the mercy of God.
He knows that God
has responded
in kindness and compassion
by rescuing him.
Not because Jonah
has deserved it.
It's clearly undeserved kindness
from a loving God.
And so the events
of Jonah's life
show us the justice
and the mercy of God
and the interplay
between them.
Now there are lessons for us
in Jonah's story
and in Jonah's prayer.
First of all,
there's an encouragement
to us to remember
that whatever
our circumstances
and we understand
with Jonah
that they are planned
by God.
And so they become
for us a chance
to pray to him,
to cry out to him,
to invite him
into that situation
that he's already
aware of,
confident that he knows
us and that he cares
about us.
That was hugely
hopeful for Jonah
and it can be hopeful
for us.
To learn from Jonah
in moments of crisis.
Sometimes when we know
we've done the wrong thing
we can just turn inward
and we can just feel
bad about ourselves
and we never go to God.
Or we can turn our back
on God thinking,
well this has turned out
really badly
so I want nothing
to do with God.
Rather like Jonah,
we've got this invitation
to turn upwards
upwards to God
to seek him,
to turn from our sin
and to turn to him
for mercy.
Now just as Jesus
would have us understand
in Matthew 12,
Jonah's story
helps us to reflect
on the story
of Jesus.
And we need to understand
that our hope
of being heard
in a crisis,
our hope
for receiving mercy
rests entirely
on the providence
of God
in sending Jesus.
In planning
from all eternity
to send Jesus
to be our Savior.
And in the story
of Jesus
we see both
the justice
and the mercy
of God
being worked out
on the cross.
In the providence,
in the plan of God,
Jesus went to the cross
in order to satisfy
God's justice
against sin.
Not the sin of Jesus,
but our sin.
And Jesus didn't just
face a near-death experience,
he actually died.
The wages of sin
the Bible says
is death.
The cross reminds us
of the judgment of God
and the seriousness
of sin.
But the cross of Jesus
also reminds us
of the mercy of God
because Jesus dies there
to secure
our hope of forgiveness
and mercy
if we put our trust in him.
that we look to the cross
and we see
there is Jesus
paying the debt,
cancelling the debt
for my sin.
That he faces death
in order to gift us
new life
as an act
of great grace.
So we see in the story
of Jonah,
the God who is
in total control,
the God who
can use the events
of our lives
in a sense
to wake us up
to our needs,
our need to find
mercy
from
the Lord Jesus.
And there's an invitation
for us to pray
like Jonah did.
So that's the providence
of God that we see
in this chapter.
We also
are reminded
of the presence
of God.
Read with me again
from verse 2
as Jonah's prayer begins.
He said,
In my distress,
I called to the Lord
and he answered me
from the depths
of the grave.
I called
for help
and you listened
to my cry.
You hurled me
into the deep,
into the very heart
of the seas
and the current
swirled about me.
And then in verse 4,
I said,
I've been banished
from your sight,
yet I'll look again
towards your holy temple.
Now,
I'm going to guess
many of us,
basically,
we're British,
we've been through
school,
secondary school,
we'll have studied
at some point
Shakespeare's Romeo
and Juliet.
Or at least
you'll maybe
remember it
from the movies
or maybe you've
seen it in the theater.
Well,
the part
that I want us
to think about
is the part
where Romeo
kills Tybalt
accidentally.
You know the story
about rival families.
And the sentence
that is delivered
on Romeo
because of that
is that he is
banished
from Verona,
the place
where he lives.
And as Friar Lawrence
delivers that message
to Romeo,
he gets all poetic
and all angsty
and he talks about it
as a fate worse
than death
because
he's banished
from the presence
of his Juliet.
To be far
from the one
that he loves
is a sorrow
worse than death.
The presence
of God
is something
precious
to his people
to know
that we are
close to God.
And that's
crucial actually
to understanding
the whole storyline
of the Bible.
I'm going to look
at it very shortly.
The grand story
of the Bible
is about God
acting
so that his people
might be with him
forever
to enjoy
his presence.
But as we think
about Jonah's
experience here
in the storm,
we get a feeling
that he's feeling
the absence.
So in verse 2
he talks about
distress,
he talks about
in the depths
of the grave,
the loss of God's
presence is like
a death.
In verse 3
there's the idea
of darkness.
In verse 4
this idea
of banishment.
There's despair
at the sense
that he can't feel
that God is present
with him because
of his disobedience.
But then he cries
out to God
and he knows
God is with him.
This has happened
because Jonah
has run from God.
He doesn't want
to obey God
and so he decides
to go running
and he's found
that life
has turned out
badly
as he's trying
to move away
from the presence
of God.
So as I was saying
this is a really
important theme
in the Bible.
So just to give us
a quick sketch
of that,
in the book
of Genesis
when Adam
and Eve
are created
we see that
they're very much
created in order
to enjoy life
with God
in the garden
of God.
Made for the
presence of God
to enjoy
knowing God.
Sin
turning their
back on God
means they are
banished from the
garden,
they're banished
from God's
place.
It's like a death
has occurred
but they're
banished with
the promise
of restoration.
A saviour will
come who will
fix this mess,
who will restore
relationship.
Then you get
to the book
of Exodus
and you find
God's chosen
people and
they're slaves
in Egypt
and God
sends Moses
and he comes
and he's present
and he acts
in miraculous ways
in order to
rescue them
not just as an
end in itself
but so that they
might become
the people of God.
And you get
these wonderful
pictures,
you get them
following God,
the pillar of
cloud by day,
the pillar of
fire by night.
They've got the
ark of God,
God's throne
with them.
They have the
tabernacle,
God's address
on the earth
in the middle
of their community.
God has saved
them to be
present with them
to bring them
joy,
to bring them
ultimately to
the promised
land where
God promised
once again
to live
with his
people.
And if they
would be
obedient to
God,
they would
know blessing
but they're
disobedient
and that
leads so
often to
exile
and to
absence.
And so
there's this
longing in
the Old
Testament for
God and his
people to be
together and
then there's
the promise
of Jesus
coming.
Jesus who's
announced as
Emmanuel,
the God
who is
with us.
And here we
see the
grace of
God as
God comes
down to
dwell,
to live
among his
people.
And salvation
is a restoring
of that
relationship,
bringing us
back into
the presence
of God.
We see that
really clearly
when Jesus
is on the
cross and
there's a
thief beside
him,
saying to
Lord when
you remember
me when you
come into
your kingdom.
And Jesus
turns to him
and says
today you
will be
with me
in paradise.
With
Jesus is
what makes
paradise,
paradise.
And that's
the picture
as we get
to the end
of the Bible.
Revelation
21, you
get this
new creation
picture and
God dwelling
with his
people forever
is the end
of the story.
That's the
great hope
of the Bible.
God's great
gift is
himself.
And so
Jonah's
hope for
mercy rests
in God
being present
with him
and for him.
So we see
the language
in verse 4
said despite
being banished
yet I look
again towards
your holy
temple.
Verse 7
When my life
was ebbing
away I
remembered you
Lord and my
prayer rose to
you to your
holy temple.
Why the
temple?
Because that's
where God
is.
That's where
God is present,
where God
accepts sacrifices,
where God
hears prayer.
And so the
mercy of God
in Jonah's
life is that
God comes to
be present
to save
him.
And what we
discover as we
look at the
Bible is it's
God being
present.
That's how we
are saved.
God coming
down to us
is how we
are saved.
And that's
also why we
are saved.
The goal of
our salvation
is that we
would be
present with
God.
The goal of
Christianity
isn't simply
that our lives
would change
and get a
little bit
better.
Though they
will, it's
not simply
moral improvement,
though as the
spirit comes to
reside in us,
change will
come.
The goal of
Christianity is
that we would
know and enjoy
God forever
with him.
Nothing less.
That's what we're
being offered.
And the story of
Jesus reminds us
of that.
Jesus, who
eternally enjoyed
fellowship with
his father,
experiences that
sense of
absence on
the cross.
My God, my
God, why have
you forsaken
me?
So that we
might never
have that
experience.
So we might
know and
enjoy God's
presence forever.
God is the
gospel.
He's our
great hope.
And we're
reminded of
that in the
story of
Jonah.
Further,
Jonah reminds
us in his
prayer of
the grace
of God.
Verse 8,
those who
cling to
worthless idols
forfeit the
grace that
could be
theirs.
Now, we're
in the middle
of the sea
here as
Jonah prays.
So picture
a ship
battered by
a storm that
begins to
break up,
begins to
sink.
Crew,
sailors begin
to go
overboard.
What's their
hope of
salvation?
Where does
that salvation
rest?
Primarily on
clinging initially
to something
that's going to
keep them
afloat.
And here is
Jonah in
his prayer
reflecting on
the importance
of choosing
the right God
to cling
on to
for salvation,
for hell.
And this is
something that
runs a kind
of counter to
our culture
because we
are taught,
the messages
that we hear
so often are
taught to be
self-sufficient,
to be all
that we can
be, to rely
on our own
natural resources.
And so that
can often be
our tendency.
I'll place my
hope in my
own gifts and
abilities, my
financial reserves,
even the family
or the friends
that God has
put around me.
And we need
to recognize
that those are
all a gift
from God and
absolutely can
give us strength
and help when
we face a crisis.
But ultimately,
as Jonah
presents us
here, God
himself is
the only one
to cling to
who can give
us help both
in life and
in death
and beyond
death.
Jonah says
to cling to
an idol
is to
miss
grace.
If we make
something or
someone else
rather than
the true God,
the center of
our life,
the thing that
we place our
hopes and
dreams on,
we'll miss
the salvation
of God.
We'll miss
this free
offer of his
love and his
mercy extended
to us in
Jesus.
And Jonah
appreciates that
as he looks
around.
Maybe thinking
about some
people in
Israel who
turned away
from the true
God to
worship idols.
Certainly
thinking about
the pagan
nations all
around Israel
who are
worshiping
idols.
and he
understands
that in
the end
their hope
is futile
because it's
not in
the true
God.
This God
who reveals
his character
to his
people.
For example
in Exodus
34 is a
God who
is compassionate
and gracious,
slow to
anger,
abounding in
love and
faithfulness.
God who
shows his
grace in
sending his
own son
Jesus to
be our
substitute.
He
can be
helpful for
us to
reflect on
the question
that Jonah's
prayer poses
to us.
Who is it
or what is
it that we
cling to
in a storm,
in a crisis
in our lives?
Where do we
automatically go?
Is it the
God of grace
and mercy
or is it
to someone
or something
else?
God?
Now we
saw this
last week
in Jonah's
story.
We see it
again here.
There's a
point of
tension in
his story.
There's a
disconnect
between what
he knows
and how
he lives.
So he
just said
here that
the only
place to
find hope
is in
the God
of the
Bible.
That he
appreciates
grace and
mercy for
himself.
He
recognizes
that that's
life-giving.
But what we
see in his
story is how
slow he
is to
extend that
grace and
mercy to
others,
particularly to
the people
in Nineveh.
Even, and
when we get
there a couple
of weeks,
he delivers
the message,
the people
turn to
God in
repentance,
and their
city is
saved.
Jonah is
miserable
because he
doesn't want
his enemies
to enjoy the
same mercy
and grace
that he
has found.
There's a
gap between
what he
believes and
how he
lives.
I think
that's a
challenge for
us as
Christians.
So something
for us to
think about
as a
church,
are we,
as those
who have
received
grace from
God and
the Lord
Jesus the
Savior,
are we
extending
grace and
forgiveness and
mercy and
kindness to
others?
Do we pray
and speak and
act so that
others might
know that
grace in
Jesus for
themselves?
Would
people come
into our
church gatherings
or where we
meet together
and think,
here are the
people who
are full of
grace and
love?
The last
thing that I
want us to
note is that
in Jonah's
experience having
reflected on the
providence of
God and the
presence of
God in his
life and the
grace of
God, we
see his
thankfulness in
verse 9 to
God.
God, we
have a song of
thanksgiving
will sacrifice
to you.
What I have
vowed I will
make good.
Salvation
comes from
the Lord.
Think of
Jonah's
shoes for a
moment.
You find
yourself, you've
just been thrown
overboard, having
faced a terrible
storm.
You're sinking into
the depths, you've
got seaweed wrapped
around your head,
you're near to
drowning, and then
you get swallowed
by a fish.
And you find
yourself in the
darkness and the
sting for three
days.
How would you be
feeling at that
moment?
It's wonderful to
see that Jonah is
full of
thanksgiving.
He sees in this
experience God's
rescue despite his
own disobedience.
He appreciates that
God has shown
mercy to him while
he was on the run
from God.
And so we've got
this language of
offering sacrifices
and vows.
This is not a
one-time thing.
He's saying to
God, in view of
what you have done
for me, I want my
life to be patterned
on thankfulness.
Because you have
saved me, I want my
life to be full of
thanksgiving.
Because in God's
providence, he'd
receive mercy and
not just judgment.
He has discovered
the presence of God
is this hope and
salvation.
He's received the
grace of God as a
gift he didn't
deserve but
gratefully receives.
The point is this,
God's mercy in
giving us Jesus to
be our Savior should
lead us to live
lives marked by
thankfulness.
As Paul says in
Romans 12, I urge
you in view of
God's mercy to
offer your bodies as
living sacrifices.
Holy and pleasing to
God.
This is your spiritual
act of worship.
As we reflect on what
God has done for us in
Jesus, we recognize he's
done everything to save
us from ourselves and
from our sin and from
eternal judgment that we
deserve.
that he invites us to
come to him to receive
forgiveness and mercy and
love and salvation for
now and forever and
in light of that, in
light of all that Jesus
has done for us.
Let's pray that our lives
will be marked by this
kind of thanksgiving.
That we'd reflect on the
cross and the
resurrection and think how
that should transform our
lives and our attitudes.
That with God's help,
Jonah's response in verse
9 would be ours too.