The Sovereign God of Mercy

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Preacher: Greg Magazu Scripture: Jonah 1:1-16

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All right, technology is working. I wanna start with a disclaimer.
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The sermon you are about to hear was preached to Christ Baptist Church back on April 13th. We first learned about the
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Gardner building on April 18th. So this sermon is not being preached to in any way try to convince anyone about Gardner.
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That being said, it is a bit providential that the Lord would have us spend this week and next week in the
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Book of Jonah. I'm just saying. Take that for what it is. The reason
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I chose Jonah was I wanted to try my hand at preaching through a book. But since I don't preach often,
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I wanted it to be something small so it wouldn't take me years to get through it. The more time I spent meditating on the
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Book of Jonah, the more the Lord has used it in my heart and the more I stood in awe of who he is.
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Melanie actually gave me the idea for Jonah as she had been meditating on it recently. And as we had been talking about it,
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I thought it would work well to turn it into four sermons. When you think of the Book of Jonah, everyone always thinks of him being swallowed by the fish.
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But if you really focus in on God's reasoning for recording this in scripture, you will see the book is much bigger than the story we like to tell our kids.
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Let's start with an overall timeline of Jonah in case you haven't read the book recently. God commands
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Jonah to go to Nineveh and prophesy against it. Jonah instead flees in the opposite direction to Joppa and boards a ship to Tarshish.
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God sends a great storm on the sea to bring Jonah back. Jonah is thrown into the sea and is swallowed by a fish.
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After three days in which he cries out to God, he is vomited back on land and again told to go to Nineveh.
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Jonah obeys and goes to Nineveh and prophesies against it. The Ninevites hear his preaching and repent in dust and ashes.
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God relents of the disaster he was going to bring. Jonah in response is angry and wishes for death.
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And God seeks to teach Jonah a lesson with a plant and a worm. The book of Jonah is an interesting one in the minor prophets of the
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Old Testament. It is a short four chapters that you can read in six or seven minutes. It fits on two pages in my
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Bible. This book however is packed with several large themes, several incredible miracles and is referenced by Jesus multiple times in his ministry as a sign to the
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Jews. It shows God as sovereign over the sea, animal life, plant life, over things as small as the casting of a lot or the life and sanctification of one man as well as over the mightiest and most ancient of civilizations and peoples.
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It also shows that God is merciful and his mercy knows no bounds. He is merciful to his people and the sheep of his pasture but he is also merciful to all peoples, languages, nations and societies on the earth.
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Let's start with God's sovereignty overall. Jeremiah 32, 17 says, ah
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Lord God behold, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and outstretched arm. There is nothing too hard for you.
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He is the creator and he's sovereign over it. Ephesians 1, 4 says just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without blame before him in love.
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He is sovereign over salvation. Matthew 19, 26 says but Jesus looked at them and said to them with men this is impossible but with God all things are possible.
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He can do all his holy will. And then in Daniel we read of Nebuchadnezzar's confession and at the end of the time
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I Nebuchadnezzar lifted my eyes to heaven and my understanding returned to me and I blessed the most high and praised and honored him who lives forever.
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For his dominion is an everlasting dominion and his kingdom is from generation to generation. All the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing.
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He does according to his will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth no one can restrain his hand or say to him what have you done?
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Nobody can withstand him. And then the other theme is
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God's mercy. What is truly on display in the book of Jonah is God's mercy. He shows mercy to Jonah in sending him.
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He shows mercy to the sailors as we will see today. He shows mercy to Jonah in the fish.
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He shows mercy to the Ninevites by sending Jonah. He shows mercy in sparing the
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Ninevites. He shows mercy to the animals of the Ninevites. He shows mercy to Jonah in the lessons he puts before him.
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He shows mercy to Israel by the lessons he puts before them in the recording of his book. He shows mercy to us, his people, by recording these things for our benefits, 1
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Corinthians 10. And he shows mercy through Jesus in highlighting these lessons in the
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New Testament. So let's go to our text.
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My title for today is The Sovereign God of Mercy. Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah, the son of Amittai, saying, arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it, for their wickedness has come up before me.
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But Jonah arose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish.
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So he paid the fare and went down into it to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. But the
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Lord sent out a great wind on the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so the ship was about to be broken up.
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Then the mariners were afraid, and every man cried out to his God and threw the cargo that was in the ship into the sea to lighten the load.
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But Jonah had gone down to the lowest parts of the ship, had laid down, and was fast asleep.
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So the captain came to him and said, what do you mean, sleeper? Arise, call on your God. Perhaps your
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God will consider us so that we may not perish. And they said to one another, come, let us cast lots that we may know for whose cause this trouble has come upon us.
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So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah. Then they said to him, please tell us, for whose cause is this trouble upon us?
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What is your occupation, and where do you come from? What is your country, and what are your people? So he said to them,
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I am a Hebrew, and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.
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Then the men were exceedingly afraid and said to him, why have you done this?
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For the men knew that he fled 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 be calm for us?
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The sea was growing more tempestuous. And he said to them, pick me up and throw me into the sea.
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Then the sea will become calm for you, for I know that this great tempest is because of me. Nevertheless, men rode hard to return to land, but they could not, for the sea continued to grow more tempestuous against them.
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Therefore, they cried out to the Lord and said, we pray, O Lord, please do not let us perish for this man's life, and do not charge us with innocent blood, for you,
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O Lord, have done as it pleased you. So they picked up Jonah and threw him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging.
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Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly and offered a sacrifice to the Lord and took vows. Next week, we'll consider verse 17 along with chapter two.
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So by way of background, we know that the time period of the Book of Jonah is likely during the reign of Jeroboam, the son of Joash, which was approximately 782 to 753
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BC. In 2 Kings 14 .25, we read, he restored the territory of Israel from the entrance of Hamath to the
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Sea of the Arabah, according to the word of the Lord of Israel, which he had spoken through his servant
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Jonah, the son of Amittiah, the prophet who was from Gathhefer. The exact date of the writing of the
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Book of Jonah is not known. As scholars debate whether Jonah wrote the book or it was written by another. Although I lean towards thinking he is the author.
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There is much debate around which Assyrian king was ruling at the time Jonah declared God's judgment to them.
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But that is also not completely clear. During this time period, Israel and Judah were enjoying a time of peace and prosperity.
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It began with Assyria beginning to fight with the Arminian Empire, who had been oppressing Israel. This occupied both empires and allowed the kings of Israel to reclaim territory with Jeroboam II extending the northern border back to the place it was under David and Solomon.
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Jonah was a prophet who had success. He was used by God to speak to the kings of Israel and tell them what
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God would have them do. He likely loved his nation and was truly bought into the idea that Israel is
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God's people due to their lineage with Abraham. With this time of peace, prosperity and territorial expansion, it was easy to believe that Israel truly was blessed of God.
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This was on the surface, however. We know that in 722 BC, just 30 years after Jeroboam II, the
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Assyrians would destroy the northern kingdom of Israel and take them into captivity. In fact, this had been prophesied by the contemporary prophets to Jonah, Hosea and Amos.
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Some commentators even remarked on the fact that Jonah likely knew that repentance on the part of the
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Assyrians could well set the stage for them later destroying Israel. Now, who is
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Jonah? As I read earlier, we know from 2 Kings he's from Gath -Hefer, which is located in Galilee, just north of Nazareth.
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Say that three times fast. He got to preach victory to Israel during the days of Jeroboam II and saw
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Israel expand and experience peace and prosperity. It also becomes clear as we move through the book of Jonah that he is very patriotic and he loves his nation.
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So let's dive into the text and examine God's charge to Jonah in verses one through three. Now, the word of the
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Lord came to Jonah, the son of Amittai, saying arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it, for their wickedness has come up before me.
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But Jonah arose 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 from the presence of the
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Lord. Now, the word of the Lord, this is how the Lord communicates. These words appear 262 times in scripture.
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Here is a sampling. Then the Lord appeared again in Shiloh, for the Lord revealed himself to Samuel in Shiloh by the word of the
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Lord. Now, in the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the
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Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyprus, king of Persia. Therefore, hear the word of the
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Lord, you scornful men, who rule this people who are in Jerusalem, says Isaiah chapter 28.
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And now it came to pass at the end of seven days that the word of the Lord came to me saying, son of man,
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I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel. Therefore, hear a word from my mouth and give them warning from me, was what
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God said to Ezekiel. God uses his word to communicate to us and to make his will known.
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We don't have prophets today because we have the complete word of God in our Bibles. His word communicates his judgments and most often is given to his people to correct and warn them.
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This is the first surprising thing about the book of Jonah. We know who Jonah is, he's a prophet. I would imagine he was thinking, ah, a word from the
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Lord. Yes, Lord, what would you have me say to your people Israel? Arise, go to Nineveh.
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Ha, I'm sorry, Lord, I must have misheard you. It sounded like you said Nineveh. You meant Nazareth, right?
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I live right near there. What would you like me to say to them? No, Jonah, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it, for their wickedness has come up before me.
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Now, why would this bother Jonah? Well, who are these Ninevites? Nineveh is the capital city of the
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Assyrian Empire, one of the most ancient races of men. Nineveh was founded by Nimrod.
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Genesis 10 says, the sons of Ham were Cush, Mizraim, Put, and Canaan. The sons of Cush were
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Seba, Havilah, Sabta, Ramah, and Sabteca. And the sons of Ramah were
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Sheba and Dedan. Cush begot Nimrod. He began to be a mighty one on the earth.
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He was a mighty hunter before the Lord. Therefore, it is said, like Nimrod, the mighty hunter before the
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Lord. And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, Erech, Arad, and Calna, in the land of Shinar.
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From that land, he went to Assyria, and built Nineveh, Rehoboth, Ur, and Calah.
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Nimrod was the great -grandson of Noah. He founded Babel, and then after the Lord confused the languages, he went to Assyria, and built
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Nineveh. Nineveh and the Assyrians are one of the first of the major civilizations after the flood.
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They also cause a lot of problems for Israel, and as I mentioned earlier, are the prophesied destroyers of the northern kingdom of Israel.
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They do not fear the God of heaven, but are idol worshipers, and are some of the worst sort of people you can imagine.
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One commentator said, Assyria was one of the cruelest and most violent empires of ancient times.
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Assyrian kings often recorded the results of their military victories, gloating of whole plains littered with corpses, and of cities burned completely to the ground.
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The emperor Shalmaneser III is well known for depicting torture, dismembering, and decapitation of enemies in grisly detail on large stone relief panels.
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Assyrians' history is as gory and blood -curdling a history as we know. After capturing enemies, the
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Assyrians would typically cut off their legs and one arm, leaving the other arm and hand, so they could shake the victim's hand in mockery as he was dying.
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They forced friends and family members to parade with the decapitated heads of their loved ones elevated on poles.
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Those who survived the destruction of their cities were fated to endure cruel and violent forms of slavery.
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The Assyrians have been called a terrorist state. This is who
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God is telling Jonah to go prophesy to. Now, what is God meaning behind this? He's planning to destroy them, right?
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He says, cry out against it, for their wickedness has come up before me, so he must plan on wiping them off the map.
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Not exactly. If God were planning to wipe them off the map, he wouldn't send a prophet.
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He's sending a warning, which means he's giving them a chance. Look at Sodom and Gomorrah, and the
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Lord said, speaking to Abraham, because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grave,
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I will go down now and see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry against it that has come to me, and if not,
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I will know. Now, Abraham knew what this meant. God is going to destroy these cities.
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That is why he seeks to make intercession for them, because he knows his nephew lives there. Notice in that whole account,
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God does not send a prophet beforehand. When the angels get there, they don't walk through the streets and declare God's judgment.
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Why? Because God has no intention of showing mercy. So Jonah knows what this means.
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If God is sending him to Nineveh with a message of judgment, it is because he's giving them a chance to repent and turn from their wickedness.
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Now, some argue that Jonah is fearing for his life. After all, the Ninevites are a cruel people, and maybe they kill a prophet sent to declare judgment.
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At this point in the story, we could believe that, but as the rest of the book reveals, that is not why
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Jonah runs from God. But Jonah arose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish.
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So he paid the fare and went down into it to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. So Jonah runs in the opposite direction from God.
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God tells him to go to Nineveh, which is northeast, and he goes straight west. Joppa is a major seaport on the coast of the
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Mediterranean Sea. In modern times, the city of Tel Aviv surrounds it. Tarshish is believed to be either a location in North Africa or in Spain, which is on the far side of the
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Mediterranean Sea. Basically, Jonah could not have disobeyed God more by doing what he did. And the question can be asked, why does
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Jonah flee? Where can he go from the presence of the Lord? Look at Psalm 139, where can
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I go from your spirit? Or where can I flee from your presence? If I ascend into heaven, you are there.
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If I make my bed in hell, behold, you are there. If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me and your right hand shall hold me.
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It could be that Jonah hoped that by fleeing Israel, he was fleeing the prophetic presence of the Lord. Have you ever done this?
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Been angry with God and just stopped praying for a season? Trying to escape into worldly pursuits, hoping he might leave you alone for a while?
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This is the only instance in the scriptures of a prophet flat out refusing the call of God. Ultimately, we don't know his motives until we get to chapter four, and Jonah reveals it.
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He knew God would be merciful, and he was trying to prevent Nineveh being shown mercy. It is in these actions that we begin to see the primary message of the book shining through.
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God's mercy is beyond human understanding. I mean, do we understand
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God's mercy? When God declares his name to Moses, he says, and the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, the
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Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long -suffering and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and by no means clearing the guilty.
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God shows mercy in healing a sick person, and even to Paul, for indeed he was sick almost unto death, but God had mercy on him, and not only on him, but on me also, lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow.
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When it comes to salvation, it is all of mercy. Who once were not a people, but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy, said
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Peter. Jesus commands us, therefore, be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.
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The psalmist calls on God's mercy for help from trouble. Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me, for my soul trusts in you, and in the shadow of your wings,
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I will make my refuge until these calamities pass by. We also must remember that God decides who he will show mercy to.
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Therefore, he has mercy on whom he wills, and whom he wills, he hardens, says Romans 9. God recorded this story to show us his mercy, and this will be the major theme of each section of the story.
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In this first section, we see God is sending Jonah to show mercy to Nineveh by giving them a chance to repent.
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He is also showing mercy to Jonah by teaching and sanctifying him. Do we look at our circumstances in life like that?
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To look at even the things that happen that we don't like, as God's seeking to show us mercy, as he teaches us about himself, and displays his glory to us?
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It is always easy to praise and worship God when things go well, but do we do that when things go poorly, and God gives us a chance to trust him, and have mercy that he will provide, have faith that he will provide?
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As you know, I am currently laid off, and having a bit of a struggle finding my next job. Even in the midst of this trial,
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I see his mercy, but I have to look for it, and it's easy to get discontent. Let us continue on.
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The Lord sent out a great wind on the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship was about to be broken up.
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So we see the brash and irrational disobedience of the prophet. I say brash and irrational, because he's disobeying the sovereign, all -powerful
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God. What exactly does he think this is going to gain him? Before we think too harshly of Jonah, however, let's turn the mirror of scripture upon ourselves.
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How often have you and I willfully disobeyed God? Calvin says of this,
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I hence think that Jonah disobeyed the command of God, partly because of the weakness of the flesh, was a hindrance, partly because of the novelty of the message, and partly because he despaired of fruit, or of success to his teaching.
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Isn't that so often true of us? It is our own sinful weakness, fear, or doubt that causes us to question
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God when life gets hard. Or our pride that convinces us that it's okay to disobey in this situation.
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Or perhaps our lack of faith that causes us to say, did God really say? So look at the story of Samuel and Saul.
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Remember when God wanted Saul to go to the Amalekites and destroy them, right? The command through Samuel was, go to war with Amalek and destroy everything living, right?
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Men, women, children, sheep, goats, everything, right? They are to kill everything that belongs to Amalek.
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And Saul goes and they wipe out the Amalekites, except he doesn't obey. He keeps the king alive and the best of the sheep in oxen.
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And so when Samuel comes, he says, look, I have done the will of the Lord. And we know this famous thing,
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Samuel says, what's this bleeding I hear in my ear? And then Saul makes excuses, right?
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Oh, well, we thought that we'd bring back the best of the sheep and oxen, the sacrifice to the Lord your
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God. And then Samuel's famous saying, behold, it's better to obey is better than sacrifice.
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And ultimately Saul admits what he did. He was fearing the people. When we disobey
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God, there's always an excuse. We convince ourselves we are right. We ignore God's ways and word.
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This is probably what Jonah did to convince himself. But we know from the fourth chapter that the real reason was he did know
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God and his mercy. Kylan Deleitch says, the motive for this flight was not fear of the difficulty of carrying out the command of God.
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But as Jonah himself says in chapter four, verse two, anxiety lest the compassion of God spare the sinful city in the event of its repenting.
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When the rubber hits the road in the Christian walk, we can think of 1 ,000 ways to make things gray. But when we know that God's command, when we know what
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God's command is in a particular situation we need to remember the words of our Savior. If you love me, keep my commandments.
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As I said, one of the major themes of the book is God's sovereignty. And so now, so we know that Jonah will not be successful as he seeks to disobey
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God's command. God sends a great wind upon the sea and stirs up the waters and creates a mighty storm that is about to sink the ship
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Jonah is on. As I meditated on this scene, I was in awe of God's sovereign control of the situation.
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He was at the same time able to spin up a storm that showed experienced mariners that they were in serious danger, yet keep them safe as the whole scene with them unfolded and then also keep them from making it to shore as we'll talk about later.
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Have you ever watched your kids play with a toy boat in the tub? They inevitably try and sink it. They splash water, but water's unpredictable.
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It doesn't always do what they want. They try to fill their boat, but instead they capsize it. They're trying to make it go in one direction, but it doesn't cooperate.
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They ultimately just pick it up and they move it where it wants and they want it to go. I would imagine this storm and the waters of the
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Mediterranean Sea were doing exactly what God wanted. Splashing the deck with enough, but not too much water, causing the ship to pitch, but not tip over, settling down at the right time for them to cast lots, but not make them think, oh, maybe the storm is passing.
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Think about the sovereign control of God over every molecule of H2O around this boat and causing them to perfectly do his will, doing exactly what he wanted when he wanted it to create the effect he was looking for.
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Our God is an awesome God, amen? And I'll zoom in on this ship being pitched and tossed by this great tempest that the
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Lord has created. Verse five says, then the mariners were afraid and every man cried out to his
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God and threw the cargo that was in the ship into the sea to lighten the load. But Jonah had gone down to the lowest parts of the ship, had laid down and was fast asleep.
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Jonah has boarded the ship filled with pagan mariners and so when a storm came upon them, they could tell from their experience at sea that this was a serious problem.
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It says they were afraid and mariners tend to be a hardy bunch. And I would imagine that's even more true before the days of weather reports, radar and other modern technologies that have made sea travel relatively safe.
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In ancient times, the sea was known as something that cannot be controlled and as much good fortune as skill is the only thing that is going to bring you home safely.
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The mariners did two things in response to the storm. They cried out to their gods and they threw the cargo overboard to lighten the ship.
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These mariners were not atheists, they believed in gods. They knew that there is something behind everything that happens to us.
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The problem was they didn't know the God who truly is behind everything that happens but they're going to meet him today.
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The text says they cried out to their gods. This was not a quiet prayer on the deck as the storm clouds gathered, this was a cry, this was save us.
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It was then followed by all of the mariners running around and throwing everything they could find into the sea to lighten the ship and maybe prevent their demise.
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This is what we do when the storms come and we don't know our creator. We lean on whatever religion we have for a moment and when that fails us as it inevitably will, we move on to trying to save ourselves.
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We all have a natural fear of death. There's only a couple of exceptions to this, right? There's some people they say have a death wish but they don't really have a death wish, they just think they're invincible.
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Some people are suicidal, right, and that's tragic but they don't want to die, they want the pain to stop.
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Most fear death and are not looking forward to it. There is a reason why the greatest gift God can give us is eternal life in Christ Jesus.
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Now we must look at the contrast in this verse that just punches us in the face. But Jonah had gone down into the lowest parts of the ship, had laid down and was fast asleep.
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How can this be? This is a major tempest. This isn't some gentle rocking.
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This has veteran sailors fearing for their lives and crying. Matthew Henry says, sin is of a stupefying nature and we are concerned to take heed lest at any time our hearts be hardened by the deceitfulness of it.
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It is the policy of Satan when by his temptations he has drawn men from God and their duty to rock them asleep in carnal security that they may not be sensible of their misery and danger.
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It concerns us all to watch therefore. We are meant to see this. How can he be asleep?
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How often when we are carrying the guilt of disobeying God do we fall into depression? Do we try and hide in sleep so we don't have to face our
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God? We are meant to take a lesson from this. The other thing that is very clear from this is it's meant to remind us of our
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Savior. There was a time when he was on a ship and a great storm came up and he fell asleep. But this is very different where our
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Savior was asleep because he perfectly trusted his God. And he knew,
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I don't care what tempest is outside, I have nothing to worry about because I am in my Father's hands, right?
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This was not Jonah, however. Jonah was in sin and he was trying to escape from God.
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So be like Jesus. Anyway. The mariners seeing that nothing is working and their situation continues to worsen, they search for the cause.
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First we read, so the captain came to him and said to him, what do you mean, sleeper? Arise, call on your
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God. Perhaps your God will consider us so that we may not perish. You can see the thinking.
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Wait, what happened to our passenger? Let's go check on him. Our gods have not done anything, maybe his will. He finds him sleeping and rebukes him.
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What do you mean, sleeper? We see this contrast between these pagan mariners and this prophet of the
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Lord. They care about their lives. He appears not to. They are trying to do something and he is taking rest.
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They are concerned for him and he's not at all concerned for them. Matthew Henry again says, we pity
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Jonah who needed this reproof. As a prophet of the Lord, if he had been in his place, he might have been reproving the king of Nineveh.
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But being out of the way of his duty, he does himself lie open to the reproofs of a sorry ship master.
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See how men by their sin and folly diminish themselves and make themselves mean. Yet we must admire
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God's goodness in sending him this seasonable reproof for it was a first step towards his recovery as the crowing of the cock was to Peter.
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So the mariners continue to seek the cause of this disaster and they said to one another, come, let us cast lots that we may know for whose cause this trouble has come upon us.
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So they cast lots and the lots fall on Jonah. Daniel Timmer says, their decision to cast lots reveals furthermore that they now suspect that the storm has been sent as a punishment for the sin of one among them.
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Even though these sailors do not yet know of Yahweh's existence, he uses this means of determining guilt to draw attention to Jonah.
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These non -believers seem to intuitively know that this storm is not random or by chance. As Christians, we know that nothing is random or by chance.
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Every single thing that happens to us, good or bad, comes from the good hand of our God to accomplish his purposes.
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We also see another example of God's sovereignty. He's sovereign over the sea and the storm.
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He's also sovereign over the lot cast, as it says in Proverbs. The lot is cast into the lap, but it's every decision is from the
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Lord. And so we read, then they said to him, please tell us for whose cause is this trouble upon us.
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What is your occupation and where do you come from? What is your country and what are your people? The mariners begin to interrogate
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Jonah, but I would have you notice that it's not in a violent way. Despite the fact that he has put their lives in danger, he is the cause of their loss of profit from having to lighten the ship, they still plead with him, please tell us.
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One commentator said, though it was discovered by the lot that he is the person for whose sake they were thus damaged and exposed, yet they did not fly outrageously upon him as one would fear they might have done, but calmly and mildly inquired into his case.
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There is a compassion due to offenders when they are discovered and convicted. They give him no hard words, but tell us, we pray thee, what is the matter?
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And Jonah is not deceptive, nor does he try to exonerate himself. He is beginning to act like the prophet he is.
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He makes a full confession and satisfies the desires of the mariners. So he said to them, I am a Hebrew and I fear the
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Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land. Have you ever had one of those situations where you got exactly what you wanted, but then immediately regretted getting it?
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That's what happened to these mariners. Upon learning that this is in fact because of Jonah and he has angered not just a
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God, lowercase G, but the God, uppercase G, the maker of heaven and earth, the sea and the dry land.
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These men knew about your typical regional gods, the gods of this or that thing, the gods of this or that country or people group.
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Those were the gods they prayed to and then immediately went about lightening the ship because they instinctively knew there's not anything they're gonna do about it.
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Upon learning about the Hebrew God, that was something to fear. It says, then the men were exceedingly afraid and said to him, why have you done this?
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For the men knew that he fled from the presence of the Lord because he had told them. Now you can imagine
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Jonah's description of God. I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and dry land was probably terrifying enough.
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However, these men came from Joppa. This is a city in Israel. They may have well have heard of the mighty
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God that took his people out of Egypt 600 years earlier, who did great wonders against the mighty Egyptian empire.
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So the men at this point are looking for answers and for what to do. They have asked Jonah why he fled from the presence of the
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Lord and then they ask him what to do. Then they said to him, what shall we do to you that the sea may be calm for us for the sea was growing more tempestuous?
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Once again, they ask a question and immediately regret it. The answer is to throw Jonah into the sea.
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And he said to them, pick me up and throw me into the sea that the sea will become calm for you for I know that this great tempest is because of me.
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At last, we see Jonah redeeming himself a little bit. God is accomplishing his purposes for sending the storm.
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Jonah, who has rejected God's call, thoughtlessly put these mariners lives in danger, did not own up to it until the lot cast its light on him.
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He does the right thing and is willing to sacrifice himself to save these men. There's still a question about his motives around all of this, but we won't address that here.
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Again, the mariners are not liking the answers to the questions they're asking. Nevertheless, the men rode hard to return to land, but they could not for the sea continued to grow more tempestuous against them.
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They try a final attempt to save their lives by their own efforts. They know that throwing Jonah into the sea this far from land is a death sentence.
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Even if the sea goes calm, he will not survive. We see these pagan mariners know that to take a man's life is a serious thing and comes with serious consequences.
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They row hard, but God will not allow the boat to get to shore without accomplishing his purposes. Therefore, they cry out to the
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Lord and said, we pray, O Lord, do not let us perish for this man's life and do not charge us with innocent blood for you,
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O Lord, have done as it pleased you. So they prayed and cried out, not to their gods, but to the
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Lord. We see in their prayer that they recognize that he has done this for his good purposes.
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They don't want to harm Jonah, nor do they want to die, and they plead this to God. So they picked up Jonah and threw him into the sea and the sea was calm.
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The sea ceased from its raging. Now, even this scene testifies to God's sovereign control. I would imagine that the sea instantly calmed down, if for no one other reason than as Calvin says, for if the sea had not calmed immediately, but after some interval of time, it might have been ascribed a chance.
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But as the sea instantly rested, it could not otherwise be said that Jonah was condemned by the judgment of God.
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And as we finish with our final verse, then the men feared the Lord exceedingly and offered a sacrifice to the
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Lord and took vows. The word exceedingly here, I believe, is chosen for effect to draw our attention to a change in these mariners.
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In verse 10, the men were exceedingly afraid, but now they feared the Lord exceedingly. There has been a change of fear from a dread to a veneration of the true
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God. They have now witnessed the one who is sovereign over all, who brings justice even upon his people and who spares those who fear him.
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Timmer says these two descriptions of the sailors established beyond doubt their new religious identity as a result of abandoning their gods and entering into an exclusive relationship with Yahweh.
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So God ordains mercy for these mariners. And although they had to go through a terrible ordeal, lose any hope of profit from their journey, they have found the greatest treasure that anyone can find, which is peace with the
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God of heaven. So let's conclude our time with some points of application.
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Obedience to the call of God. We spoke about this earlier, but let's dig in a bit deeper. Hebrews 1, 1 and 2 says,
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God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in times past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by his son, whom he has appointed heir of all things, through whom also he made the worlds.
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We know from John that Jesus is the word of God. And so when we talk about obedience to God's commands, in this day, we are talking about obedience to the word of God.
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A major theme of the book of Jonah is this spotlight on obedience to God. In this first chapter, we see this bold disobedience.
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But then as we continue through the book, we will see that God is getting at deeper roots of disobedience in Jonah. And we will consider this subject again, multiple times.
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Do we meditate on these things in our own lives? Do we ask ourselves, what is my
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Lord calling me to at this time? At times it's big things, at times they are small. But our desire and will should always be to follow our
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Lord where and for what he sends us. Spurgeon speaks of the obedience we must have to our
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Lord when he says, let your obedience in the first place be perfect obedience.
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Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it. It is disobedience and not obedience which prompts us to select from the commands of Christ such as we care to obey.
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If thou sayest, I will do what Christ bids me as far as I choose, thou hast in fact said,
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I will not do what Christ bids me, but I will do what I please to do. That obedience is not true, which is not universal.
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Imagine a soldier in the army who instead of obeying every command of his captain omits this and that and says that he cannot help it or that even means to admit certain things.
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Beloved, take heed of throwing any precept by Lord of thy Lord upon the dunghill. Every word that he has spoken to thee is more precious than a diamond.
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Prize it, store it up, wear it, let it be thy ornament and thy beauty. Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it, whether it relates to the church of God and its ordinances or to your walk out of doors among your fellow men or to your relationship in the family or to your own private service for the
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Lord, whatsoever. See, there are no trimmings here, no cutting off of certain things.
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Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it. Breathe this prayer at the present moment. Lord, help me do whatsoever thou hast said.
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May I have no choice. May I never let my own will come in to interfere. But if thou hast bid me to do anything, enable me to do it, whatever it may be.
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We also see in the book of Jonah a great contempt for those outside of Israel. Jonah personifies this through his resistance to proclaim judgment to the
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Ninevites and for his lack of caring for the pagan mariners. As we have noted today, we see several instances where these unbelievers care more about Jonah and act more honorably towards him than he does towards them.
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Is not the church of God in a sad state when we see these same sorts of problems? We have a special responsibility to the household of God, but let us never forget that God has us here as a witness and a testimony to the world.
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The great commission, after all, is make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the
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Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you. Are we like Jonah, sleeping when we should be praying or witnessing and living holy lives before friends, family, co -workers in the watching world?
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Even if not sleeping, when you're out in public and waiting around, are you on your phone rather than looking for an opportunity? I put that one in there because I'm convicted by that one.
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When the world looks at this church, will they see the love of Christ for sinners or will they see indifference and hypocrisy?
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Again, Spurgeon says, beloved, the thought of souls sinking into everlasting woes stirs me with a desire to arouse you.
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I feel that if my heart be cold, I may share the responsibility of any lack of zeal in you, but if I shall be helped to be earnest,
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I shall hope that the sacred contagion will spread and that all around believers in Christ will be deeply concerned for the souls of others.
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So up till now, this is the sermon that I preached last month. This slide is the only slide that I added, but I can show you that everything else
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I preached was preached before we knew anything about the building in Gardner. There are two things
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I will say, one related to the building and one not. First, as it relates to the building, are we willing to follow
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God's will for this church wherever it leads? Maybe it's not Gardner, but if it is, will you obey his will?
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My prayer for us is that we will be united in following wherever he leads. When God sanctifies us, he often blesses us with our desires when they are in line with his will, but he often asks us to do more that are not part of our wills, but accomplishes his will better than anything we can think of.
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Second, my biggest conviction in all of this is my lack of love for the lost.
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A building is not going to change that, and I pray that regardless of what happens with the Gardner building, we take from this that the
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Lord would have us be more evangelistic as a church, and again, I'm saying this to myself more than anyone else.
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I know what that looks like for us. I don't know what that looks like for us, but I have begun to pray that God will reveal it to me and to us.
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We have always been a church that does not want to be one that is full of programs, and so this is not a charge to our elders, but to each of us.
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Is there one that feels called to restart an abortion ministry? Is there one that is going to stay on top of events that are happening in our town, whether Hubbardston or Berry, and organize an outreach when something comes up?
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Is there one in our church who feels a burden for his neighbor and is willing to reach out to a brother for help ministering to them in some way?
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Is there one that wants to take a couple of hours on a Saturday and walk around the common, or go door to door and share the gospel?
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Could you imagine the impact we could have if we are faithful to, number one, raise our families in the fear and admonition of the
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Lord? We do that pretty good. Two, be diligent to share the gospel whenever there's opportunity in our daily life.
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I think we do that pretty good. But number three, make opportunities when none seem to be available.
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Finally, let us see Jesus and Jonah. For Jesus himself says, indeed a greater than Jonah is here. It can be rightly said that Jonah has acted very selflessly throughout this whole chapter.
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But in the end, he is willing to sacrifice himself for the lives of the mariners. There is still a question of his motive, but we cannot deny the picture this shows us, which stood as a picture of the gospel to those mariners who now see the living
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God. Tim Keller speaks of the highest love being self -sacrificial love. Jonah's pity arouses in him one of the most primordial of human institutions, namely that the truest pattern of love is substitutionary.
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Jonah is saying, I'll fully take the wrath of the waves so you don't have to. True love meets the needs of the loved one no matter the cost of oneself.
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All life -changing love is some type of substitutionary sacrifice. Think about our children, right?
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In order for them to grow up well, we need to make great sacrifices of ourselves. We must read to them all the time, talk to them all the time.
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We must sacrifice ourselves, our resources, our time in order to raise them. And we do this because we love them, right?
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It is a self -sacrificial love. Jacques Allule writes of casting
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Jonah into the sea. At this point, Jonah takes up the role of the scapegoat. The sacrifice he makes saves them.
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The sea calms down. He saves them humanly and materially. Jonah is an example of the
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Christian way. What counts is that this story is in reality the precise intimation of an infinitely vaster story and one which concerns us directly.
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What Jonah could not do but his attitude announced is done by Jesus Christ. He it is who accepts total condemnation.
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Jonah is not Jesus Christ, but he is one of the long line of types of Jesus, each representing an aspect of what the
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Son of God will do in totality. And if it is true that the sacrifice of a man who takes his condemnation can save others around him, then this is far more true when the one sacrificed is the
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Son of God himself. It is solely because of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ that the sacrifice of Jonah avails and saves.
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The picture of Christ's sacrifice is application to the believer and non -believer.
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For the believer, let us remember to always be ready to give an answer for the hope within us. Let us never allow fear, pride, laziness, or anything else to stop us from being a witness to the world around us, in our families, with our friends, and in our communities.
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For the unbeliever, see in these mariners yourself. No matter what you do or who you go to, you will not be able to escape the righteous wrath of God, which is swirling all around you.
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He is all -powerful, sovereign, and inescapable. You stand guilty before him, and there is nothing in yourself you can do to avoid judgment.
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Unbeliever, see in Jonah a picture of the mercy of this God you have offended. He gave his only begotten
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Son for you. He condemned him to the raging storm of God's wrath for your sin, so that you might be saved.
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Consider this today if you hear his voice. For in Hebrews 2, it says, how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the
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Lord, and was confirmed to us by those who heard him? Won't you come to the sovereign
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God of mercy and be saved from the storm? Let's pray. Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you,
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O God, that you are the sovereign God of mercy. Lord, you are sovereign over all.
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You are almighty. There is nothing that you cannot do. Father, you can accomplish all of your holy will, and yet,
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God, that would be a terrifying, terrifying thing if it were not for the fact that you are also a merciful and loving
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God. Lord, we thank you, O God, that you have saved us. We thank you,
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Lord, that you have shown us mercy when we did not deserve it. O Lord, there is nothing in us that we can bring to you, nothing in us that we can pay for the debt that we owe, and yet,
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Lord, you didn't even ask us to. You sent your Son to die for us, to do all that we could not do.
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Father, you sent him to live a perfect life in accordance with your law, and then to go to the cross and take the punishment that we deserve upon himself, that punishment even unto death, and that,
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Lord, you raised him up on the third day to testify that his sacrifice satisfied the righteous wrath of God on account of all those who are yours.
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Father, we pray this morning that you would help us to remember this, that you would help us to see this anew in the story of Jonah.
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Father, that you would help us to live according to this sacrifice. Father, whether it is in our families, whether it is with our friends, our neighbors, our coworkers, in our communities,
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O Lord, I am convicted. I stand with a broken heart before you because I can see how cold
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I can be when it comes to giving an account for the hope that is in me.
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Lord, I pray that you would help us as a church to be a church that glorifies your name and that brings salvation to the lost, knowing that it is not of us, that we need your spirit to move,
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Father, and we pray that it would. We pray that you would send it forth through us and from this church,
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Lord, to save many in our community. We love you, Lord God. We thank you for this time, and we pray all these things in Jesus' name.