We will be reading Jonah chapter 1, verse 1 to 16.
And if you're following along in the Church Bible, you will find this on page 726.
Jonah chapter 1, verses 1 to 16.
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 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.
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.
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.
This is the word of God.
Great. Thanks, Zoe, for reading.
Well, once again, welcome.
If you are new, my name is Kevin,
and great to have you with us this morning.
If you are visiting and I haven't met you,
come and say hi to me afterwards.
I'd love to meet you and get to know you a little bit,
but great to have you with us this morning.
Now, as you heard, we are spending the next few weeks
looking at the book of the Bible, Jonah,
this very well-known story.
And, of course, many of us would have heard
the story of Jonah and the big fish.
And yet, in some ways, that's the challenge
because we've probably, many of us have heard of it,
and we're so familiar with it
that we can miss its message.
I find the story of Jonah actually one of the most challenging
and provocative books in the Old Testament,
books of the Bible.
I find it deeply, deeply challenging.
And so I'm looking forward to us diving into this together.
We often reduce the story of Jonah
just to a grumpy old man and a big fish,
kind of like a kid's story tale.
But actually, its message is very deep and profound.
And if you know the story of Jonah,
right at the end, the way the book ends
is the last verse is God asks Jonah a question,
and then that's the end of the book.
And we don't know how Jonah answers.
No answer is given.
And the book ends on a cliffhanger,
and the reason for that is because
throughout the book of Jonah,
Jonah's life is going to be asking us questions,
asking lots of questions of us,
and it's challenging us the whole way through.
But we're going to get there in the coming weeks.
Now, the big idea for today,
some ways are simple,
is don't run from God.
Rather, trust Him.
Fear Him.
Even when His ways don't make sense to us.
Because He's infinitely wiser,
greater, and more gracious than you can imagine.
Don't run from God.
Trust Him.
Fear Him.
Even when His ways don't make sense to us.
Because He's infinitely wiser,
greater,
and more gracious than we can imagine.
So, let's dive in and look at it.
We've got a couple of things
we're going to see in this passage.
So, firstly,
let's look at Jonah's foolish run from the Lord.
Jonah's foolish run.
Now, the story begins with,
very famously,
with Jonah running from God.
Right?
Verse 1,
the word of the Lord came to Jonah.
Verse 3,
But Jonah ran from the presence of the Lord.
And this is well known to us,
but it's shocking to anybody that reads the Bible for the first time.
Why?
Because a prophet is somebody who's meant to stand before God,
stand in God's presence,
represent God,
speak for God,
on behalf of God.
But Jonah,
rather than standing before God,
is running from Him.
Verse 3 tells us,
twice,
Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish
from the presence of the Lord.
Again,
he paid the fare
and went to Tarshish
away from the presence of the Lord.
Now,
why would Jonah do this?
This sounds like a very foolish thing to do.
But actually,
we should have a little bit of sympathy for Jonah.
Maybe he shouldn't be so high and mighty.
Because,
what is the task
that Jonah's being asked to do?
Well,
verse 2 tells us,
look at what it says,
Arise,
go to Nineveh,
that great city,
call out against it,
for their evil
has come up before me.
Now,
in order to understand this,
we should understand a little bit about Nineveh.
Who were the Ninevites?
Nineveh was the capital city of Assyria.
Assyria was the world's superpower of the day.
At the time,
they kind of controlled the whole of the
kind of known Middle Eastern world
of that day and age.
But the Assyrians were known
as probably the most vicious,
violent,
and sadistic empire of the ancient world.
They were extremely,
extremely violent.
Historians have described them
as one of the most gory
and blood-curling histories
that we know of.
One of the emperors,
a guy called Shalmanessi III,
he used to commission for artworks
to be made throughout his palace
and his empire.
Stone reliefs would be carved
and artworks made
depicting people being tortured,
decapitated,
or dismembered.
This is the artwork around his palace
that he decorated his palace with
and his empire.
Assyrian soldiers would sometimes,
in battle,
they wouldn't kill their enemies,
but they'd cut off their legs,
cut off one of their arms,
and leave one arm still in place
so that they could shake the hand
of their victims
as they left them to bleed to death.
Other accounts tell us of sometimes,
one author describes the way that
the Assyrians would force family members
to march through the streets of the city
with poles,
with the decapitated heads
of their loved ones,
through the streets,
parading their defeat.
Other records have spoken about them
skinning their enemies alive,
throwing salt on the wounds,
and then leaving them to dry
and die in the sun.
This is one of the cruelest,
most violent empires
of the ancient world,
and what is Jonah being asked to do?
Go to their streets
and tell them that they are bad people
and that they should stop their ways.
One commentator said,
this is like a rabbi
standing in the streets of Berlin,
Germany,
in the 1940s,
crying out against the Nazi empire.
How long do you think
he's going to last?
And yet this is what God
is asking Jonah to do.
And so Jonah's response
is to run.
And so instead of going east
to Nineveh,
he gets on a ship
to go west of the land,
of the seas,
to Tarshish,
as far away as he can
from Nineveh.
But as the author wants us to see,
Jonah is not just running
away from Nineveh,
he's running away from God.
Twice the verse tells us,
verse 3,
Jonah rose to flee
to Tarshish
from the presence of the Lord.
But of course,
running doesn't solve
Jonah's problems,
does it?
No more than running
solves our problems.
Jeremiah the prophet
said this,
Can a man hide himself
in secret places
that I cannot see him?
Do I not fill
heaven and earth,
declares the Lord?
Or think of the famous
Psalm 139
that Jonah probably
would have known about.
Psalm 139,
David writes,
O Lord,
you have searched me
and you know me.
You know when I sit down
and when I rise up.
You search out my path
and my lying down.
You are acquainted
with all of my ways.
Where shall I go
from your spirit?
Where shall I flee
from your presence?
And yet despite all this,
Jonah tries to run
from the God
that he claims
to believe in.
Now,
before we move on
to the story,
three very brief implications,
a quick implications
for us is this.
Firstly,
if you are a follower
of Jesus
or if you're considering
becoming a follower
of Jesus,
when God calls us,
He calls us
to difficult things.
God often calls us
to difficult things.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
said this,
when God calls a man
or woman to Himself,
He bids Him
to come and die,
to lay down our lives,
to pick up our cross
and to follow Him,
to die to our selfish dreams,
to die to the idea
of being our own Lord
and King and Master,
to die to the life
of comfort
and convenience
and ease.
Jesus' call
to follow Him
is not a call
to comfort
and convenience.
It's a call
to follow Him.
And as we heard last week,
where did Jesus go?
He went to the cross.
Jesus,
when speaking to His disciples,
He reveals Himself
as the Messiah King
and then His very next line is,
If anyone would come after Me,
let him deny himself,
pick up His cross
and follow Me.
And friends,
because we live
in a therapeutic age,
what that means is
we tend to think
that what feels good
must be good
or what feels right
must be right
and what feels uncomfortable
or difficult
or hard
must be wrong
and certainly not God's will.
But Jonah reminds us,
as does the whole of Scripture,
that when God calls us,
He calls us to difficult things.
He calls us to live by faith,
to trust Him,
despite the difficulty
to which He calls us.
And that leads
to the second implication,
which is that God's call
is not just that God
wants to work through us,
but God wants to work in us.
When God calls us,
He wants to change us.
The story of Jonah,
as we're going to see
over the next couple of weeks,
is God is going to change Jonah
in the process.
Jonah needs to hear
the message of God's
transforming and redeeming grace
just as much
as the Ninevites do himself.
To Jonah's great surprise,
God will work through him,
but what the book of Jonah
wants to show us
is how much Jonah himself
needs to change.
When God calls us,
He's also to call
to transformation.
Friends, isn't that true
of all of us?
When God calls you
to serve or lead,
we're not just called
to carry His message,
but to be changed
by it ourselves.
And then here's
the third brief implication.
In running from God's word,
Jonah is running
from God Himself.
You notice verse 1 says,
the word of the Lord
came to Jonah.
Jonah doesn't like the word,
so he runs away.
But what does verse 3 say?
Jonah is running
from God's presence.
Throughout the Bible,
we see these
interconnected things.
You can't reject God's word
without rejecting God Himself.
You cannot run away
from God's command
without also running away
from relationship with Him.
Jonah runs from God's word,
and he ends up running away
from the presence of the Lord.
And so,
Jonah's not convinced,
and so he runs from God,
which is a very foolish
thing to do,
because in running from God,
Jonah runs into a storm.
Look at verse 4 with me.
It says,
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.
The mariners were afraid,
and each cried out
to his God.
They hurled the cargo
that was on the ship
into the sea
to lighten it.
But Jonah had gone down
into the inner parts
of the ship,
and laid down
and was fast asleep.
Friends,
here we see,
in a very vivid way,
the foolishness of sin.
And one of the lessons
we want to see here
is what Tim Keller says,
that all sin
has a storm
attached to it.
All sin
has a storm
attached to it.
And the reason for this
is actually
quite intuitive.
If you think about it,
in any area of life,
when we go against
something's purpose
or its design,
that thing strikes
back at you,
right?
If you are indifferent
about your health,
your health is going
to strike back at you,
right?
You can't be indifferent
about your health
and your physical well-being
and still live
a healthy life
and expect to be
well and healthy.
Friends,
we can't be indifferent
towards our financial lives
and expect to be
financially healthy.
Friends,
you can't take
a relationship
with your spouse
for granted
and expect a happy
and healthy marriage.
In the same ways,
we can't take
a relationship
with the sovereign God
for granted,
be indifferent
towards Him
and expect to still
flourish in the world
that He's made
and He's created.
And so the God
of all creation says,
if you're indifferent
and reject me,
it does bite back.
There's a storm
attached to every sin.
One of the literary features
in the book of Jonah,
Jonah is a literary
masterpiece.
It's unbelievable
and I hope you get to
enjoy it as you read it.
But one of the literary
features here
that commentators
often point out
is that in this chapter
it begins off
with God saying,
arise,
go to Nineveh.
Nineveh is in the north
east of Jerusalem.
Arise,
go to Nineveh.
And yet the story
tells us that Jonah
goes down,
down,
down to Joppa,
down to a ship,
down into the ship,
down into the hell
and ultimately
down into the sea.
And it's almost like
the author is wanting
us to see
that Jonah's life
is spiraling downhill
as he runs away
from God.
Because this is how
life in God's
creation work.
All sin has a storm
attached to it.
Now of course
we need to be careful
here because this
doesn't mean that
every time we are
in a storm
it's necessarily
because of a sin.
Life is sometimes
hard.
We are born
into a difficult
world.
Life will,
storms will come
our way.
We have to live
by faith
in the midst
of hardship.
Sometimes God
calls us to
difficult and
challenging things
and we feel
like we've walked
into a storm.
And yet,
that doesn't negate
what the Bible
clearly says,
that while not
all difficulties
are a result
of sin,
all sin will
bring us
into immense
difficulty.
That running
from God
means running
into a storm
of our own
making.
And in Jonah's
account here,
the storm is
dramatic and
it's immediate.
It's almost
within a couple
of hours the
storm comes up.
In our lives,
often the storm
is slow
and we don't
realize it.
And Jonah here,
it seems like he
goes into the
boat and goes
to sleep.
And while he's
asleep,
he's oblivious
to the fact that
a storm is
brewing.
It comes
upon him.
Isn't that so
often like our
lives?
We run
from God
and before we
realize it,
we wake up
and a storm
is upon us.
A storm
of our own
making.
Jonah's foolish
run from God.
But also we see
in this passage,
Jonah's empty
declaration,
his hollow
declaration.
Now,
we've seen Jonah's
been running
from God
and a storm
has come
upon him.
But why
is that?
We still haven't
got to why.
Now,
as I said
earlier,
Jonah is a
literary masterpiece.
It's beautifully
constructed.
And I want you
to look at
the slide,
the structure
of Jonah
chapter 1.
This is called
a chiasm
where the first
sentence and the
last sentence
mirror each
other and the
second part and
the second last
part mirror each
other.
And it mirrors
in a kind of
arrow-shaped
direction.
And then the
central part of
the chapter is
what the author
wants us to take
note of.
This is a
literary device
that writers in
the ancient world
used.
And here,
there's the
beautiful chiasm
in Jonah chapter 1.
So look at
verse 4,
the Lord hurls a
storm in the sea.
Verse 15,
the sailors hurl
Jonah into the
sea.
In verse 5,
the sailors pray
and act.
In verse 13 and
14,
the sailors act
and pray.
In verse 6,
the sailors
question Jonah.
In verse 10,
the sailors
question Jonah again.
So there's this
mirroring that
happens.
And right in the
center,
in verse 9,
is Jonah's words.
And the author
has structured it
like this because
the author wants
us to take note
of Jonah's words.
What he says here.
The sailors,
look at verse 9,
the sailors try to
save themselves,
they can't,
they draw lots and
they find out Jonah's
the one at fault.
And so they ask him
what he's done.
They say,
tell us on whose
account has this
evil come?
What is your
occupation?
Where do you
come from?
What is your
country?
What people are
you?
And verse 9 is
the key.
Jonah says,
I am a Hebrew.
I fear the Lord,
the God of heaven,
who made the sea
and the dry land.
Now,
as we're going to
see in coming
weeks,
the book of Jonah
is full of irony.
Almost every
chapter,
there are these
amazing ironies.
God calls Jonah
to rise,
and he goes down,
down,
down.
God tells Jonah
to go east,
and he goes west.
God tells Jonah
to tell the
Ninevites to repent,
they do,
and then he's
bit and angry
that they listen
to him.
There are all
these ironies,
right?
But here in
verse 9,
is a dramatic
irony once
again.
Jonah gives
this remarkable
declaration of
his faith,
and yet it's
deeply ironic,
and for two
reasons.
Look at this.
Firstly,
he says,
I'm a follower
of the Lord,
Yahweh,
the God of
heaven,
the maker of
the sea and
the dry land.
Jonah says
that he follows
the God who is
sovereign over
everything.
There is no
part of creation
over which God
is not sovereign
and in charge,
and yet where is
Jonah running
away?
Out of the
land into the
sea,
right?
In the ancient
world,
all nations
believed in a
buffet of
gods.
So there's
the God of
the sea,
the God of
the land,
the God of
the crops,
the God of
the stars,
the God of
the weather,
and you would
worship the
different gods.
And Jonah
says,
that's not my
God.
The God I
believe in is
the Lord of
everything,
the maker of
heaven and
earth,
the land and
the sea,
everything in it.
Jonah says,
my God is the
creator and
sustainer of
everyone and
everything.
He is eternal,
infinite,
and unchangeable,
and his power and
perfection,
his goodness and
grace,
his justice,
mercy,
and truth.
Does that sound
familiar?
That's the
catechism we
said earlier.
Okay?
So Jonah's
confessing,
my God is
Lord of
everything,
and yet when
God says,
go here,
he says,
I think I'm
going to run
away by the
sea and God
won't find
me.
Jonah makes
a declaration of
his faith,
but he doesn't
really believe it,
does it?
His declaration
is actually
empty.
It's hollow.
In his heart
of hearts,
he doesn't
believe what
he professes
with his
mouth.
Jonah says
he believes
in the
sovereign God,
but he's
running away
from him.
But here's
the second
irony.
In many
ways,
this is the
heart of
chapter one,
that while
Jonah confesses
to fearing
God,
it's actually
the unbelieving
sailors who
truly fear God
and fear him
more than
Jonah.
Jonah says
in verse
nine,
I am a
Hebrew.
I fear
the God
of all
creation.
But look
at verse
14 with
me.
Jonah tells
him that
the storm
is because
of him.
The only
way to
calm the
storm is
to hurl
them in
the sea.
Verse
14,
then they
called out
to the
Lord and
they said,
O Lord,
do not let
us perish
for this
man's
life.
Lay not
on us
innocent
blood,
for you,
O Lord,
have done
as you
pleased.
Verse
16,
they throw
him into
the sea.
Then the
men feared
the Lord
exceedingly.
Literally,
it says,
they feared
with great
fear.
And they
offered
sacrifices to
the Lord
and they
made vows.
Friends,
here we get to
the heart of
Jonah's
problem,
but also the
heart of
our problem.
It's the
same reason
why we run
from the
Lord.
Jonah does
not fear the
Lord anything
like what he
claims to.
He does not
believe that the
sovereign God is
actually sovereign
at all.
Friends,
if you're a
Christian this
morning,
would you say
that you fear
God?
What might that
look like in
your life?
What does it
mean to fear
God?
One of the
best descriptions
is a quote
by the name of
a guy by the
name of Martin
Buber.
Listen to what he
says here.
Martin Buber was
an Austrian
philosopher.
He says this,
to fear God
does not mean to
be afraid of
God,
but that
trembling,
one is aware
of his
incomprehensibility.
It is the
dark gate
through which
one must
pass if he
is to enter
into the
love of
God.
He who
wishes to
avoid passing
through this
gate,
who begins to
provide or
create for
himself a
safe and
comprehensible
God,
constructed like
this and not
otherwise,
runs the risk
of having to
despair of
God in view
of the realities
of life or
falling into
inner falsehood.
Only through
the fear of
God does one
enter so deep
into the love
of God that
he cannot
again be
cast out
of it.
That's pretty
wordy,
but you see
what Martin
Buber is
saying?
He's saying
to fear
God is not
just a
creed or
a confession,
it's to
come face
to face
with the
incomprehensibility,
the mystery
of the God
that cannot
be managed,
manipulated,
contained,
or controlled.
And having
come face
to face
to him,
accepting
him on
his terms,
we find
that we
enter into
his love.
It's the
only way to
truly know
him.
It's the
only way to
truly experience
him,
to encounter
him,
to willingly
come to
the scary
yet liberating
realization
that he is
God and
we are not.
And entering
into that
counterintuitively
is the way
of entering
into his
love,
the way of
entering into
relationship,
the way of
entering into
friendship.
One of my
favorite verses
in the Bible,
Psalm 25,
says this,
the friendship
of the
Lord is
for those
who fear
him.
The
friendship
of the
Lord is
for those
who fear
him.
Friends,
those who
come to
him and
say,
you are
God and
I am
not,
are drawn
through this
dark gate
into the
incomprehensibility
of God and
discover on the
other side,
there is a
God who
loves us
and who
wants to
know us
and extend
the friendship
of the
Lord for
him.
And here,
friends,
is the
difficult but
wonderful
teaching of
the fear
of God,
that the
God that
we've come
to sing
and worship
and pray
to and
listen to
this morning
is not
containable.
He is not
managed.
He is not
controlled.
He is not
manipulated.
He is awesome
and awful
and terrifying
and dangerous
and unsafe
and yet
glorious and
he makes
himself known
and he draws
us into
his love.
Friends,
is there
any part of
your life
you've been
running away
from this
God?
Can you
see how
foolish that
is?
Not only
for Jonah,
but for all
of us who
like Jonah,
think that
we can
control God
and run
away from
him.
And friends,
there are
many ways
to run
away from
God.
One is
obviously
rebellious,
to run
as far
away as
you can
and live
contrary
to him.
But another
way to run
away from
God is to
try and be
good and
control him
and manipulate
him through
our good
deeds and
our devotion.
Another
way to run
away from
God is to
externally look
like we've
got it all
together,
but to keep
a secret part
of our life
hidden that
we keep to
ourselves,
an area that
we don't want
God to touch.
Just this week,
I heard the news
of a very famous,
very well-respected
Christian leader
who just this week
admitted to an
eight-year affair
with another married
woman,
all while writing
Christian books,
speaking at
Christian churches,
speaking at
Christian conferences,
going about his
Christian life,
and yet there
was a secret
part of his
life that was
running away
from God that
he would not
let God touch.
And friends,
as the news
broke this week,
the storm that
has erupted in
his life,
in his family,
in his marriage,
is unfathomable.
For eight years,
no one knew a
thing.
For eight years,
going to church,
speaking at
churches,
writing books,
and having an
empty profession
declaration of faith,
all while running
from God in one
of the most
important areas
of his life.
Friends,
are there any
areas of our
life where we
are running
from God?
This is the
question I've
been asking
myself this
week.
God,
are there any
areas of my
life that I'm
keeping off
from you?
God,
come in your
incomprehensible,
unsafe,
awesome area.
Come and have
your way.
As we come to
a close,
we see here
not only Jonah's
foolish run,
Jonah's empty
declaration,
but also Jonah's
only hope.
The message
of this
chapter is
don't run
from God,
fear him,
trust him,
even when you
can't understand
his ways and
his declarations
don't make sense
to you.
Trust him.
But the reality
is that there's
probably a fair
bit of Jonah
inside of all
of us,
probably more
than we like
to admit,
more than we
like to realize.
And so friends,
where does Jonah
find hope?
Where do I
find hope?
Where do we
find hope?
Ironically,
it's in the
message that Jonah
was running
away from.
Because look
at verse 2
with me.
If you've got
your Bible,
what does
verse 2
say?
God says to
Jonah,
arise,
go to Nineveh,
that great city,
and call out
against it,
for their evil
has come up
before me.
Why would God
send Jonah
to Nineveh
to tell them
about their evil?
If God just
wants to smite
them,
why doesn't he
just smite
them?
Why doesn't he
just destroy
them?
Why would God
send a prophet
to tell
them that
the Lord
has seen
their evil?
Friends,
the only reason
why God
would do
this is if
there is a
chance,
a possibility,
that they
can turn
from their
ways and
find healing
and find
redemption.
Only if
there's a
chance of
forgiveness.
Friends,
why would God
send a prophet
to Assyria,
whose wicked
and godless
people don't
fear God
at all?
Because this
God is so
unlike us.
And if there
is any hope
for them,
there is hope
for us.
Friends,
contained within
the message
that Jonah
was meant
to take
the Assyrians
was the
message that
Jonah himself
needed to
hear,
which is that
the sovereign
God,
the Lord of
heaven and
earth,
the land and
seas,
the God who
can turn
godless
women around
and give
them a second
chance.
The Bible
says in
Isaiah 53
that we all
have gone
astray.
We have all
turned and
gone our own
way,
which means,
friends,
that there is
more of Jonah
inside of us
that we realize.
But just
like God
sent a man
with a message
to Nineveh,
so God
sent a man
with a message
to us.
A message
about our
sin,
a message
about evil,
and a message
about a way
to find peace
and redemption.
Friends,
all sin
will be
punished.
All sin
will meet
justice.
It will either
meet justice
on that last
day,
or it will
meet justice
that Jesus
paid on the
cross.
Like Jonah,
Jesus'
calling was
extremely
dangerous,
going to
a dangerous
and wicked
people who
did not
want to
receive his
message.
Jonah probably
thought that
if he went
to Nineveh,
he'd be
arrested,
killed,
and put to
death.
Jesus came
to us knowing
that that
would happen
to him.
Friends,
unlike Jonah,
Jesus didn't
run away.
Jesus didn't
flee.
Jesus came
to us and
he went to
the cross and
he entered
into the storm
of God's wrath
and judgment,
the ultimate
storm,
the storm
that our
sin has
generated,
the storm
of our
evil and
rebellion.
Jesus went
into that
storm so
that you
and I
don't need
to die,
that he
can pull
us out
of the
storm of
our sin
and our
rebellion
and give
us new
life.
Friends,
we're going
to see
God wants
to rescue
pagan Nineveh,
but before
he gets
to do that,
he has
to rescue
his
prodigal
prophet.
Friends,
maybe today
God wants
to rescue
you prodigal
sons and
daughters like
me,
like you.
Friends,
are you running
from God?
Is there any
area of your
life that you've
kept off from
God and you
don't want
God's word
to come
there?
By running
from God's
word,
you're running
from God's
presence.
You're running
from God
himself.
Friends,
this is the
God that you're
running from,
the one who's
perfectly obedient,
perfectly faithful,
perfectly just,
perfect in love,
the God who
came to you
and for you
to rescue
you and save
you.
He,
this gracious
God,
is the one
that we run
from.
Friends,
are there any
areas of our
lives we're
trying to avoid
his sovereign
rule,
shouting out
his voice?
How's that
working for
you?
Don't run
from him.
Don't flee
from him.
Bow down and
fear him.
Trust him and
obey him.
Surrender to
his sovereign
rule,
even when it's
difficult and it
doesn't make
sense.
Bow down before
the one that you
cannot comprehend,
the one you
cannot manage,
the one you
cannot contain,
the one you
cannot control,
the one you
cannot outrun.
Enter trembling
into his
incomprehensibility
and enter into
his love.
The God of all
creation could have
grace and mercy on
the people of
Nineveh, on the
sailors.
This God can have
grace and mercy for
people like you and
me.
Let's come to him
in prayer now.
Lord Jesus,
we are deeply
challenged by the
life of Jonah
Jonah because we
see so much of
Jonah in us.
God have mercy on
us, we pray.
God, many of us in
this room have
discovered your
mercy.
Some of us maybe a
few weeks and
months ago, some of
us many years ago,
some of us, God, are
still on the journey
towards discovering
it.
Lord, I pray for
every single one of
us and I pray, God,
start with me.
Start with me.
God, won't you
break into the
areas of my life
where I don't want
you to be there,
where I want to run
from your voice and
run from your
command.
God, let your
incomprehensible
power but also
love break in and
let me discover your
grace.
Jesus, we need you.
I need you.
This city needs you.
Come and show us
yourself, we pray.
In your great and
wonderful name,
amen.
Amen.