THE CHASE IS ON!
Intro:
1. Ann and I like to watch shows that challenge the mind, like Cash Cab and The Chase. The Chase is a quiz show hosted by Brooke Burns, and features Mark Labbett (nicknamed "The Beast") as the "chaser". He chases people in order to crush their hopes of going home with some money.
At 6 ft. 6 in. 380 lbs. and with a nasty disposition, the Beast is intimidating.
2. What a contrast with God, when we rebel against Him, He also says, “The Chase is on!” But not to blast us but to bless us. The good news is that God pursues Jonah. He does not let him go and start looking for another prophet who will obey Him, or God could have let the rebellious prophet drown, but instead He goes after Jonah, in order to rescue him, and give him another chance. God never gave up on Jonah, and He will never give up on us (Heb. 13:5-6).
One of my favorite books in the Old Testament is the book of Hosea. God told Hosea to marry a prostitute. He did, loved her and cared for her, but then, one day she just left him. God told him to go get her, bring her back and he found her on the slave block. He had to buy her, taker her back and love her as if she had never deserted him. God says that is the kind of love God has for His people.
I told my wife, if she ever leaves me, I am going with her! I learned that from my heavenly Father.
Trans: We have seen Jonah’s Chance, his wrong Choice, and now the Chase. Jonah 1:4. God’s Word is clear, His love is unconditional, eternal, and the basis of our confidence. Jonah fled but Jehovah followed! He always does!
See Isa. 49:15-16/Jer. 31:3/John 13:1/Rom. 8:39/Eph. 3:17-18/1 Jn. 4:18.
C. The Chase is on. 1:4-16
1. The Lord’s Storm. 4
a. God’s Sovereignty.
4 The LORD hurled – this is a strong word, in the modern Hebrew the word is used for a missile!
The root twl (“ hurl, send, throw”) is first used in this verse and three additional times in chapter 1, increasing the sense of power and danger in the situation: 1: 4: Yahweh sent a great wind on the sea. 1: 5: [The sailors] threw the cargo into the sea. 1: 12: “Throw me into the sea,” he replied. 1: 15: [The sailors] threw him overboard.
Colin Smith notes, “Literally, Jonah tells us, God ‘hurled’ this wind, as if He had thrown it out from heaven with His own hand. You could hardly have a clearer or more dramatic picture of God’s direct intervention. Storms don’t happen by chance. God sustains all things by His powerful word (Heb. 1: 3). The wind and the waves obey Him (Mark 4: 41). That means that storms, floods, landslides, volcanoes and earthquakes happen by God’s decree.
God’s sovereignty is seen in nature.
• God controls the Weather.
See, Job 37: 3, 6, 10-13/ Psalm 147: 8,16-18; 148:8/ Jeremiah 10: 13/ Amos 4: 7/Mt. 8:27.
I was reminded of something I read, a dense fog halted all flights from the big airport. The lobby soon filled with passengers eager to be on their way. Most of them philosophically accepted the airlines’ obvious explanation about the fog. However, one extremely wealthy woman, used to getting her own way refused to be satisfied. Taking a position directly in front of the counter, she rejected all efforts of a young assistant manager to explain the delay. Finally she said, “Young man, I don’t believe you know what you are talking about. I insist on speaking to the person responsible for delaying my flight.” In a voice loud enough for everyone to hear, the young man said into his telephone, “Hello, operator, would you connect this party with Extension One in Heaven?”
• God controls the Disaster.
See Isa. 45:7/Job 2:10/Eccles. 7:14/Amos 3:6.
Notice Jonah 3:10, which again attributes calamity to God!
Sadly, we have many Christians, even preachers, who refuse to see God’s sovereign hand in disasters because they lack God’s wisdom to see how it will fit into God’s eternal plan.
On March 1, 1997, a series of tornadoes swept through Arkansas, killing twenty-six people and resulting in hundreds of millions of dollars in damage. To protect disaster victims, the Arkansas legislature passed a bill that would bar insurance companies from canceling the coverage of storm victims, and sent the bill to Governor Mike Huckabee for his signature. To the surprise of the legislators, however, the governor refused to sign it, objecting to one phrase in the bill. The New York Times reported:
"Mr. Huckabee said that signing the legislation 'would be violating my own conscience' inasmuch as it described a destructive and deadly force as being 'an act of God.'...He suggested that the phrase 'acts of God' be changed to 'natural disasters.'"
In a letter to the legislators who drafted the bill, Governor Huckabee, a former Baptist minister, explained, "I feel that I have indeed witnessed many 'acts of God,' but I see His actions in the miraculous sparing of life, the sacrifice and selfless spirit in which so many responded to the pain of others."
I am glad the Bible teaches that a personal, wise God, not some blind, impersonal, natural disaster is controlling what happens on this planet.
It’s strange even the Insurance companies referred to natural disaster as an act of God.
The key is to cooperate with the Master of the wind! I was born and raised in Grand Rapids, Michigan and it can be very windy due to the size of Lake Michigan. That wind can either help or hinder. If you are walking with it, it can be very helpful but if you are walking against it – you will soon be worn out!
Trans: One of the greatest truths we will ever embrace is the sovereignty of God. Even when we go astray He is working to bring us back to the place where He wants us. Jonah doesn’t know it, but he is really not on his way to Tarshish but Nineveh!
In 1876, a small Methodist church near the ocean in Swan Quarter, North Carolina was struck by a hurricane and damaged. It was restored, but another hurricane came and damaged it, and the town, again. The parishioners restored their place of worship once more, but enough was enough, so they searched for a safer location. They found some land, and offered the owner of the property a generous amount of money for it, but he refused.
Then came another hurricane, and again there was massive flooding, so massive that it lifted the church from its moorings, and sent it meandering downstream. The residents of the town tied ropes to it, hoping to keep it from floating away forever, but the current was too strong.
When the water receded, the building came to rest on that exact piece of ground which the parishioners had previously tried to buy. So they went to the owner and once again made an offer. He refused their money again. He said, "But I'll give it to you, the Lord definitely wants this church on this lot."
The sign in front of the church, from that day forward, said, "The House God Moved."
We may not realize it, but we are moving toward God’s will. When Jonah was in that fish, it was dark, but all the while, that fish was moving him toward Joppa!
The children of Israel because of their rebellion were wandering in the wilderness for some 40 years, but God said, “I led you through the wilderness.” And God is leading us regardless of what seems to be. See Prov. 3:5-6
b. God’s Severity.
a great wind on the sea and there was a great storm on the sea so that the ship was about to break up. - We can either blame things on some foolish nonsense of man-made climate change or see everything as a blessing from God’s sovereign hand (Eph. 1:11/Rom. 8:28-29).
(1) Storms are designed to get our Attention.
See, Psa. 66:10-12; 107:25-28.
Courson notes, “Sometimes God sends storms of severity in order to bring His children into port safely. Such was Jonah’s case. This storm was not God’s punishment of Jonah, but showed His patience with Jonah. You see, had Jonah listened, through the howling wind of the storm, he could have heard God’s voice saying, “I’m not going to let you go, Jonah. I love you too much. So blow, wind, blow.”
Truth is God does not punish His children, punishment means to get even. However, He does bring about judgment, not to hurt us but help us along the way.
Some years ago I held a revival in North Carolina, on the flight out there I gave little thought to who the pilot was, then we hit a strong wind and the plane bounced. All of a sudden, I became interested in who the pilot might be!
(2) Storms are sent to give us an Attitude adjustment.
We need to realize that no Condemnation does not mean no Chastisement!
Not long ago I had to buy a new outside door for our house. Gary came over and put it in for me. We encountered various difficulties, we had to hammer, pull, and get a little rough with it before it would fit right. Storms are like that, they have a way of getting our attitude right.
Psa. 119:67, 71/Heb. 12:6-8
As one rightly points out:
As believers, if we think we are safe from God’s judgment because of the grace that is ours in Christ, remember that the Lord disciplines His own… In the church at Corinth the Lord put His children on sickbeds and deathbeds for profaning the Lord’s Supper— people who had the same grace in Christ that all believers do (1 Cor 11: 30). God can send a storm on one’s income; He can hurl a wind on one’s health; He can crush one’s grades, scholarships, and dreams in school. When we rebel, He can do whatever it takes to get us to return to Him or to take us out of this present life in our disobedience.
Butler notes:
Jonah made the great blunder of trying to get into a “butting” contest with God. No man ever wins such a contest! After the “but from Jonah, there came such a furious “but” from God that it knocked Jonah all the way to the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea! Locking horns with God is a good way to get dehorned…In writing about the Battle of Waterloo, Victor Hugo said it was impossible for Napoleon to win at Waterloo. He said the reason Napoleon could not win was not because of Wellington (the great British general) or Blucher (the great Prussian general) or the rainy weather, but because of God.”
When I was a kid we used to play “King of the Hill”, being a small skinny kid I was always de-hilled! But no matter what our size and strength, all will find out sooner or later that God alone is King of the Hill.
You cannot get over the Lord Jesus! He will not let you. Jonah thought he was done with God and his plan for His life, but the problem was that God was not done with Jonah!
The truth is, if you can be completely done with Jesus you never were saved to begin with (Phil. 1:6).
John Jeremiah Sullivan, an award-winning writer had what he called an adolescent "bout with evangelicalism." Sullivan has tried to walked away from the church and a biblical faith, but he can't fully reject the person of Jesus Christ. He writes:
At least once a year since college, I'll be getting to know someone, and it comes out that we have in common a high school "Jesus phase." That always gives us an excellent laugh. Except a phase is supposed to end—or at least give way to other phases—not simply expand into a long preoccupation …. My problem isn't that I dream I'm in hell …. It isn't that I feel psychologically harmed. It isn't that I feel a sucker for having bought it all. It's that I love Jesus Christ …. Why should He vex me? Why is His ghost not friendlier? Why can't I just be a good Enlightenment child and see in His life a sustaining example of what we can be, as a species?
Sullivan said that "once you've known [Jesus] as God, it's hard to find comfort in Jesus as just another man.”
And even after years of trying to live in unbelief, Sullivan admits "one has doubts about one's doubts."
When some were turning their back on the Lord, He turned to the disciples, and then asked, “Will you leave me also.” Peter spoke up and said, “Where shall we go, only you have the words of eternal life!” Every true believer is always hemmed into the Lord Jesus.
Why? Because we have a new nature that always wants to follow God; we have the Holy Spirit within, who if we grieve, He will grieve us; there is the Father’s woodshed; and the fact that the Lord Jesus is always praying for us.
(3) Storms actually can cause us to Attain to a new level of strength and maturity.
Joseph faced one storm after another but it was actually used to strengthen his faith (Gen. 50:20).
A good example of this is certain trees, I read that the more the wind blows on them, the stronger they become, it makes their roots go deeper. The wind makes them more sturdy than ever.
Con:
1. Chase is on!
2. God has a love for us that will not let us go.
3. At age 20, George Matheson (1842-1906) was engaged to be married but began going blind. When he broke the news to his fiancee, she decided she could not go through life with a blind husband. She left him. Before losing his sight he had written two books of theology and some feel that if he had retained his sight he could have been the greatest leader of the church of Scotland in his day.
A special providence was that George’s sister offered to care for him. With her help, George left the world of academia for pastoral ministry and wound up preaching to 1500 each week–blind.
The day came, however, in 1882, when his sister fell in love and prepared for marriage herself. The evening before the wedding, George’s whole family had left to get ready for the next day’s celebration. He was alone and facing the prospect of living the rest of his life without the one person who had come through for him. On top of this, he was doubtless reflecting on his own aborted wedding day twenty years earlier. It is not hard to imagine the fresh waves of grief washing over him that night.
In the darkness of that moment George Matheson wrote this hymn. He remarked afterward that it took him five minutes and that it was the only hymn he ever wrote that required no editing.
O Love that will not let me go
I rest my weary soul in thee
I give thee back the life I owe
That in thine ocean depths its flow
May richer, fuller be
O Light that foll’west all my way
I yield my flick’ring torch to thee
My heart restores its borrowed ray
That in thy sunshine’s blaze its day
May brighter, fairer be
O Cross that liftest up my head
I dare not ask to fly from thee
I lay in dust life’s glory dead
And from the ground there blossoms red
Life that shall endless be
During a Senate Budget Committee nomination hearing, Sen. Sanders critically questioned Russell Vought, Trump's nominee for deputy director of the White House Office of Management and Budget. At issue was a blog post that Vought wrote in defense of his alma mater, Wheaton College, in which he said that:
“Muslims stand condemned for not believing in Jesus Christ.”
Bernie Sanders asked Russell:
"In the piece that I referred to that you wrote for the publication called Resurgent. You wrote, 'Muslims do not simply have a deficient theology. They do not know God because they have rejected Jesus Christ, His Son, and they stand condemned.'
Do you believe that that statement is Islamophobic?"
Vought responded that he did not consider the statement bigoted in nature, noting that he is a Christian and was stating his belief in "the centrality of Jesus Christ for SALVATION. As a Christian, I believe that all individuals are made in the image of God and are worthy of dignity and respect regardless of their religious beliefs," replied Vought.
Sanders replied stating that the blog post was "indefensible, it is hateful and Islamophobic, and an insult to over a billion Muslims throughout the world."
Sanders maintained that he was going to vote against the nominee.
They can call us Islamophobic, hateful, vote against us, and get angry, but the truth stands, and will, throughout time and eternity. There is salvation only through the substitutionary death of the Lord Jesus Christ Jn. 14:6/Ac. 4:12).
Salvation through a Sacrifice.
Trans: Last time we saw the Lord’s Storm and now we see the Sailors Stress and Salvation. Jon. 1:5a, 9-10, 15-16
PS: I am going to take things a little out of order, but I will hit every verse before we are done with Jonah.
2. The Sailors Stress. 1:5
a. They Panicked.
5 Then the sailors became afraid – The word for “sailor” here comes from the root meaning “to salt.” Flanigan notes:
The word translated “mariners” [sailors] is a derivation of and cognate with MALACH and MELACH meaning “salt”, as in Leviticus 2:13 and twenty-six times more in the Old Testament. Mariners were malachim, quite literally, “salt-men”, explaining why, in many parts of the world, veteran sailors are known as “old salts”).
Fear is used by God to get peoples’ attention. At first they fear the storm, the creation gone wild, if you will, but then it is assumed that one of the gods is angry, and finally it will turn into fearing the LORD, the Creator which is a good thing.
See, Prov. 1:7/Ac. 16:29/Jude 23.
I had a friend named Earl Berkofe who was raised a Catholic. He said they had a loud clock in their house when he was growing up. It terrified him! It reminded him that time was running out, and he knew one day it would tick for the last time and he would end up in hell. God used that to prepare him for the gospel.
The problem today is we have the wrong kind of fear; people are accused of homophobia all the time, I think we ought to talk about normalphobia, the fear of what is normal and right! Sadly we have very little theophobia, the fear of God!
Note: Only God’s Spirit can produce a holy fear! The storm was produced by God, not Jonah, not circumstances, but God. Had there been no storm there would have been no godly fear! God’s Spirit is like the wind, He moves according to His good pleasure! He alone decides to send godly conviction and Revival, all we can do is set our sails.
I read that a preacher, R. T. Kendall, once took Jonathan Edwards’s sermon, “Sinners in the hands of an angry God” and read it from the pulpit. The result was some yawned, others politely listened, one man fell asleep. But what is most interesting is that Edwards himself once preached that sermon with no effect at all! You see it takes God’s power, and that power is not something we control and manipulate. Two grave mistakes we make is to beat ourselves up over the fact that we cannot make things happen and two, when things do happen to foolishly think we are the source of it!
PS: These sailors had experienced many storms, but none like this one, because this one was specifically from God for a specific purpose.
b. They Prayed.
and every man cried to his god, - these are Phoenician sailors who worshipped many gods and therefore no god at all! “Each man to his own god.” This phrasing, in the singular, shows that the sailors did not share a common god, but that each sailor had a different god.
I remember when I was a kid I used to shoot birds with my BB gun. We were not raised in a Christian home. We never went to church, and I do not remember ever seeing a Bible. But one day when we were in school a tornado passed over the school. We were all herded into the hall. I was terrified! I remember praying, “Lord, if you just spare my life, I promise I will never shoot another bird.” He did and the next week I was out sending sparrows to their resting place!
Notice none of these gods could help! Elijah on Mt Carmel (1 Ki. 18:27-29).
Pastor/author J.R. Vassar writes about ministering in Myanmar (Burma) and coming upon a broken Buddha:
One day we were prayer walking through a large Buddhist temple, when I witnessed something heartbreaking. A large number of people, very poor and desperate, were bowing down to a large golden Buddha. They were stuffing what seemed to be the last of their money into the treasury box and kneeling in prayer, hoping to secure a blessing from the Buddha. On the other side of the large golden idol, scaffolding had been built. The Buddha had begun to deteriorate, and a group of workers was diligently repairing the broken Buddha. I took in the scene. Broken people were bowing down to a broken Buddha asking the broken Buddha to fix their broken lives while someone else fixed the broken Buddha.
The insanity and despair of it all hit me. We are no different from them. We are broken people looking to other broken people to fix our broken lives. We are glory-deficient people looking to other glory-deficient people to supply us with glory. Looking to other people to provide for us what they lack themselves is a fool's errand. It is futile to look to other glory-hungry people to fully satisfy our glory hunger, and doing so leaves our souls empty.
c. They Performed.
(1) Get rid of stuff.
and they threw the cargo which was in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them. – many people have the idea that if they could just get rid of certain habits it would save them. Stop using profanity, get rid of those bottles of alcohol, and live as moral as possible.
Reformation is not the same as Regeneration.
Richard L. Dunigan shared this:
At their school carnival, our kids won four free goldfish (lucky us!), so out I went Saturday morning to find an aquarium. The first few I priced ranged from $40 to $70. Then I spotted it--right in the aisle: a discarded 10-gallon display tank, complete with gravel and filter--for a MERE five bucks. Sold! Of course, it was nasty dirty, but the savings made the two hours of clean-up a breeze.
Those four new fish looked great in their new home, at least for the first day. But by Sunday one had died. Too bad, but three remained. Monday morning revealed a second casualty, and by Monday night a third goldfish had gone belly up. We called in an expert, a member of our church who has a 30-gallon tank. It didn't take him long to discover the problem: I had washed the tank with soap, an absolute no-no. [http://www.fridaystudy.org/html/ephesians/ephesians4_1_2.htm]
We cannot get rid of the dirt! We are soiled with sin and getting rid of things just feeds our self-righteousness.
(2) Give it all you got.
13 However, the men rowed desperately to return to land but they could not, for the sea was becoming even stormier against them. – all their efforts could not stop this storm. They thought they could save themselves by something they could do. Man is always trying to do something to save himself (Jn. 6:28-29/Rom. 10:1-8).
Last Sunday morning everything was covered with a sheet of ice, it was 20 degrees and so I attempted to scrape the windows on my truck. I scrapped and scrapped with little progress.
Come Monday morning it was still 20 degrees and the ice was still on my truck – then effortlessly and amazingly all of that ice was gone from my truck window! What was the difference? Sunday there was no sun but Monday morning the sun was shining bright!
The difference between saved and lost is the Son! You can work your head off to trying and remove sin from your life, but it is there to stay. Yet, when the Son of God shines upon our hearts through His death, burial, and resurrection the sin is gone – effortlessly on our part and amazingly based on His shed blood.
Russ Reaves notes:
Religious activity is all well and good, unless one thinks that by attending church enough times, saying enough prayers, and doing enough good deeds one has bribed God into overlooking one’s sins. Many have tried. Many bad people have tried their hand at being “good enough.” But the storm is not stilled. The sea rages on and continues to threaten them with eternal destruction. Try as they may to work hard to earn God’s favor, the words of this text become a haunting epitaph for them: they could not.
They are becoming more and more aware that they cannot save themselves. Colin Smith notes:
God has spoken through the prophet, promising deliverance from the storm of judgment to the entire crew through the sacrifice of one man who is willing to lay down his life. But these men think that they can save themselves by their own effort. They believe that they can survive the storm without the sacrifice. The strength of this impulse to refuse the sacrifice is significant. There is a deep-seated pride in the human heart that says, “we can make it through the judgment of God.”
This is a poem by William Ernest Henley called Invictus:
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be For my unconquerable soul…
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
Years ago, a leading manufacturing company developed a new cake mix that required only water. All tests showed it produced a superior cake that tasted fantastic. But it was not selling. Research showed it was too simple to be believable. Therefore, they added an egg and it began to sell immediately.
The Devil’s recipe for salvation always adds an egg! But you cannot be saved by doing – you have to believe it is done by the work of Christ alone (Eph. 2:8-9). Jn. 1:13
3. The Sailors Salvation. 9-10, 14-16
a. The Proclamation by Jonah. 9-10
(1) His Communication of the Savior?
• Who he is - He said to them, "I am a Hebrew…” Albert Barnes gives needed background information:
This was the name by which Israel was known to foreigners. It is used in the Old Testament, only when they are spoken of by foreigners, or speak of themselves to foreigners, or when the sacred writers mention them in contrast with foreigners. So Joseph spoke of his land Genesis 40: 15, and the Hebrew midwives Exodus 1: 19, and Moses‘ sister Exodus 2: 7, and God in His commission to Moses Exodus 3: 18; Exodus 7: 16; Exodus 9: 1 as to Pharaoh, and Moses in fulfilling it Exodus 5: 3. They had the name, as having passed the River Euphrates, “emigrants.” The title might serve to remind themselves, that they were “strangers” and “pilgrims,” Hebrews 11: 13. whose fathers had left their home at God‘s command and for God, “passers by, through this world to death, and through death to immortality.”
What he claimed - and I fear the LORD God – this seems a little hypocritical. How do you fear a God whom you are in rebellion against? The truth is we all do it! He is not asking them to fear him but God! We think if we fear God then we cannot sin, but in reality it is when we sin we need to fear (reverently trust) God the most!
It is hard to put the words saint and sinner in the same context, but the truth is every believer is both. I don’t know if Nelson Mandela was a believer in Christ or not. But I read an interesting article the other day that all honest believers in Jesus Christ can identify with:
"One of the greatest mysteries in life, is the moral complexity that is often found in the hearts of great men and women who live truly great lives. No doubt, Nelson Mandela was a great man, but many of the Mandela pieces have turned him into a secular, political saint. But Mandela stated:
”I never was a saint, even on the basis of an earthly definition of a saint as a sinner who keeps trying."
An article in the Los Angeles Times began with the following questions:
"An irritable man who got cross when he couldn't have his favorite brand of mineral water? A fusser who obsessively folded his daily newspapers just so, who got annoyed if things weren't lined up in their precise order? An aloof man who nonetheless flirted with any pretty young woman he met? Could these accounts really tally with one of the world's most beloved men, Nelson Mandela?"
Verne Harris, project leader at the Nelson Mandela Center of Memory, said:
"In the process [of turning him into a secular saint], all the complexities of this human being, all the flaws and elements of his characters and his life which don't fit just get left out."
The article concludes, "This sinner seemed to know he needed forgiveness. He proved it by pushing others to forgive."
Jonah is clearly a saint who not only begins this book as a proven sinner but lapses back into sin at the end of this book:
1 Jonah was furious. He lost his temper. 2 He yelled at GOD, "GOD! I knew it—when I was back home, I knew this was going to happen! That's why I ran off to Tarshish! I knew you were sheer grace and mercy, not easily angered, rich in love, and ready at the drop of a hat to turn your plans of punishment into a program of forgiveness! 3 "So, GOD, if you won't kill them, kill me! I'm better off dead!" Jonah 4:1-3 (MSG)
Paul was a saint who feared God yet had to give this testimony toward the end of his life:
15 It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all. 1 Timothy 1:15
I like to think that I fear God, and I do trust and worship Him, but I also know my behavior is often just like Jonah’s.
• Who God is – the LORD God of heaven who made the sea and the dry land."
? He is Perpetual - Tony Evans writes:
This is the name we transliterate as Yahweh, the self-existing God. This name describes God’s personal self-sufficient and eternal nature. The eternal God has no past, so He cannot say "I was." He has no future, so cannot say "I will be." God exists in an eternal now. Time is only meaningful to us because we are not independently self-sufficient and eternal.
? He is Personal – the LORD, Yahweh was a personal God who had revealed Himself to Moses at the burning bush. In the GW Names of God Bible it notes:
I Am Who I Am,” may convey the sense not only that God is self-existent but that he is always present with his people. Yahweh is not a God who is remote or aloof but One who is always near and who at times intervenes in history on behalf of his people.
? He has no Parallel - God of heaven, this phrase is used 20 times in the Old Testament, 17 of them in Daniel, Ezra, and Nehemiah. This is not a God limited to Israel but One who was the God of heaven and everything under it. Moody Bible Commentary notes:
They desired to know his personal information to learn more about his God. Jonah provided the answers… the God of Israel as no mere local deity but the LORD God of heaven who is the Creator and Lord of all creation (v. 9).”
Complete Biblical Library, “The God of heaven, a term appropriate to the henotheistic crew, which no doubt indicated the chief god of the audience’s various pantheons.”
? He is Powerful – indicated by His Name God or Elohim; and His Work, Creator who made the sea and dry land.
Elohim is related to God’s power, as Elmer Towns observes:
Elohim focuses on several aspects of power, strength or creativity. The Hebrew word Elohim is from El, the strong One, or the Creator, or alah, to swear or to bind oneself with an oath (implying faithfulness)… He is all-powerful, more powerful than any person in the universe. Nothing is equal to Him in power.
Creator, as one Study Bible puts it, “Jonah described God as Creator and Lord, placing Him above the pagan gods that the sailors worshiped. Paul used a similar approach to introduce God to pagans in Athens (Ac 17: 24).”
Who could be more powerful than the One who created everything out of nothing!
Trans: This is what the lost need to know – they need to know God, who is Perpetual in His existence, can be known on a Personal level, has no Parallel, and is Powerful. This is not only what lost people need to hear but believers as well!
When the Bible scholar N.T. (Tom) Wright was asked what he would tell his children on his deathbed he said, "Look at Jesus." Tom Wright explained why:
The [Person] who walks out of [the pages of the Gospels] to meet us is just central and irreplaceable. He is always a surprise. We never have Jesus in our pockets. He is always coming at us from different angles … If you want to know who God is, look at Jesus. If you want to know what it means to be human, look at Jesus. If you want to know what love is, look at Jesus. And go on looking until you're not just a spectator, but part of the drama that has him as the central character.
(2) His Confession of Sin.
10 Then the men became extremely frightened and they said to him, "How could you do this?" For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the LORD, because he had told them. – He had told them that he was responsible for this storm (v. 12).
He had told them he was in rebellion against God. Honesty is the place to begin! Sooner or later we all discover that the basic problem is in our mirror!
In the movie Phenomenon, John Travolta plays an ordinary man (George Malley) who is reborn on his 37th birthday when he begins to suffer from the effects of a rare brain tumor, which actually increases his brain activity. As his capacity to understand things that were once beyond his grasp grows, he sets out to tackle an old PROBLEM: stopping the critter that’s been eating the vegetables in his garden. His previous attempts -- building a taller fence, burying the fence deeper into the ground -- both failed.
But as George Malley ponders the situation with an expanded genius, he decides to take a radically different approach to the PROBLEM. Instead of making the fence more difficult to breach, he leaves the gate wide open. Sure enough, a rabbit creeps out of the open gate and then hops away. While he had been trying to keep the rabbit out, the troublesome critter had been hiding in the garden the entire time!
We have mistakenly thought that the problem was out there, but in reality, it can be found within our own hearts!
b. The Perplexity. 10
10 Then the men became extremely frightened – as we have noted this is a good fear.
As one noted:
They knew that what they had feared was the doing of His Almightiness. They felt how awesome a thing it was to be in His Hands. Such fear is the beginning of conversion, when people turn from dwelling on the distresses which surround them, to God who sent them.
People today do not know what to fear, they fear terrorists, the stock market going south, losing their health but fail to see the source behind it all – God Himself! Therefore, there is no fear of God (Jer. 2:19/Rom. 3:18).
See, Josh. 4:23-24/Isa. 8:13/Jer. 32:39-40/etc.
c. The Prayer. 14
14 Then they called on the LORD and said, "We earnestly pray, O LORD, do not let us perish on account of this man's life and do not put innocent blood on us; for You, O LORD, have done as You have pleased." - Jonah was innocent in that he had done them no wrong and they had no reason for taking his life. And yet, this rebellious prophet was hardly innocent! That was the difference between Jonah and Jesus – Jonah was tossed into the sea because of his own sin, while the Lord Jesus was nailed to the cross on account of our sins.
Prayer is a good thing! When the lost come under conviction, they begin to get interested in seeking God.
God uses storms to awake people to the need for Him, it was that way right after Sept 11. David Gill, a New York Paramedic shares what it was like just after the September 11th terrorist attack:
There's a tremendous opportunity to witness. People are crying for the gospel—this is a great opportunity for people to go out and share their faith. People want to know, "Where is God in midst of all this evil?" and I have the opportunity to talk about the fact that God is a good God, and that amidst all of this evil, there is evidence that God exists. A lot of people are very fearful. The City of New York is primed right now for the gospel—our politicians are telling people the way to handle it is to pray and go to church, and our chaplains have free access to go around and minister to people who are working here [at Ground Zero] and outside of here. I had an opportunity to pray with all my coworkers on my shift. I told everyone that if they didn't want to pray, they didn't have to—not one person said "no."
But Sept 11 has come and gone, and it looks like ISIS is on the run, so people are not as interested in seeking God as they once were.
d. The Propitiation. 15a, 16
(1) The need Explained. 12
12 He said to them, "Pick me up and throw me into the sea. Then the sea will become calm for you, for I know that on account of me this great storm has come upon you." - How did Jonah know this? It seems obvious that the Lord had told Jonah, remember he is a prophet, and they were given direct revelation from God. He is telling them how to be saved.
(2) They Enacted God’s Word. 15
15 So they picked up Jonah, threw him into the sea, - this was according to the Word of the Lord spoken through His prophet.
Spurgeon notes, “Our Savior selected Jonah as one of His peculiar types… Jesus said on at least two separate occasions to those who sought signs from Him, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign; and a sign will not be given it, except the sign of Jonah. We believe, therefore, that we are not erring if we translate the details of the history of Jonah into spiritual illustrations of man’s experience and action with regard to Christ and His Gospel.”
One observes:
They hear that they need a substitute to die— in their case, Jonah— so that they don’t have to die for their idolatry of self-effort. They trust the word of the prophet and cry out to the Lord for mercy on their guilt for killing the prophet. They place their faith in the death of the prophet to stop God’s wrath, and their faith produces corresponding actions of fear. This is real conversion… Real conversion means that when someone hears that a substitute is needed, he or she cries out to the Lord for salvation by means of God’s substitute.”
Of course Jonah could not save them, but neither could all those animal sacrifices (Read the book of Hebrews). But like the animal sacrifices, God could use Jonah as a type to point to the fulfillment of those things – the Lord Jesus Christ (Jn. 1:29).
Colin Smith noted:
Do you see how beautifully this points to Jesus Christ? The storm of God’s judgment is stronger than you are. You do not have the ability to survive this storm by your own effort, no matter how hard you try. The storm of God’s judgment will wreck you, unless you are saved by the sacrifice of Someone else… At its heart, the gospel is about God’s storm and His sacrifice. Christ was thrown into the storm of God’s judgment so that, through His sacrifice, you would be saved.
Russ Reaves writes:
Jonah says in verse 12, “Pick me up and throw me into the sea. Then the sea will become calm for you, for I know that on account of me this great storm has come upon you.” Jonah is getting what he deserves for his sin. But Jesus is the One who is greater than Jonah. The message of Jesus for the world is, “I have been picked up and thrown beneath the flood of My Father’s wrath so that this sea of judgment may become calm for you. It is on account of you that this great storm has come upon Me.” The wages of sin is death. But Jesus had no sin of His own to warrant a death such as He died. Rather, He died the death He died as a substitute, a sacrifice offered in our place, bearing not His own sins, but my sins and yours, so that we may be saved.
Kendall notes, “The mariners saw the need of atonement – outside themselves. We are told that the men feared the Lord exceedingly and offered a sacrifice unto Yahweh…And so it is, you will never be saved until you see the need for atonement and that it must come outside yourself. You need a substitute: One who did what you cannot. And this is what Jesus Christ did on the cross. He did what you cannot do: He atoned for sin.”
This is ALWAYS the need, the substitionary death of the Lord Jesus Christ. Without His sacrifice there is no salvation!
Why do people reject the need for His substituionary death? They do not really believe that they are sinners!
In his book Being the Body, Charles Colson writes about meeting a businessman whom he calls Mr. Abercrombie. He had invited Colson to speak at a Bible study he hosted. Nineteen other movers and shakers of the business world were in attendance. Colson writes about what transpired:
Mr. Abercrombie had asked me to speak at the luncheon and then allow time for questions. Somewhere in my talk I referred to our sinful nature. Actually, "total depravity" was the phrase I used. I noticed at the time that a few individuals shifted uncomfortably in their leather chairs, and, sure enough, it must have hit the mark. Because after I finished, the first question was on sin.
An older gentle man said, "You don't really believe we are sinners, do you? I mean, you're too sophisticated to be one of those hellfire-and-brimstone fellows, intelligent people don't go for that back-country preacher stuff.”
Colson replied, "Yes, sir, I believe we are desperately sinful. What's inside of each of us is really pretty ugly. In fact we deserve hell and would get it, but for the sacrifice of Christ for our sins."
Mr. Abercrombie himself looked distressed by now. And added:
"Well, I don't know about that, I'm a good person and have been all my life. I go to church, and I get exhausted spending all my time doing good works."
The room seemed particularly quiet, and twenty pairs of eyes were trained on me. Colson continued:
"If you believe that, Mr. Abercrombie—and I hate to say this, for you certainly won't invite me back—you are, for all of your good works, further away from the kingdom than the people I work with in prison who are aware of their own sins. In fact, gentlemen, if you think about it, we are all really more like Adolf Hitler than like Jesus Christ."
We are sinners and without placing our faith in the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ we will end up in the same hell as Hitler did – and for the same reason, unbelief!
(3) It worked out as Expected. 15b
and the sea stopped its raging – this found salvation through the sacrifice! This must have confirmed their faith in the reality of the LORD and His power. For the storm to stop immediately as Jonah hit the water must have been an awesome moment.
“The narrator leaves no doubt about who is in control in this story. God commands Jonah, and God controls nature to make sure Jonah does not escape. God’s power is used with a purpose, to force Jonah to do as commanded…God’s mighty works of controlling the storm’s beginning and ending lead to the de facto conversion of the sailors. These sailors exhibit fear of YHWH (Jonah 1:10,16) not because God sends the storm but because God controls nature and because God delivers them. Their fear is grounded in respect, awe, and gratitude.”
Trans: Substitutionary death of Christ works – all their praying, rowing, throwing, and figuring could not stop the storm. Nor could it improve upon God’s simple solution of a substitute.
Zoe Kleinman with the BBC writes:
An "intelligent" toilet that opens when you approach it and self-cleans with every flush is on display at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Despite a $9,800 price tag, more than 40 million earlier versions of the Neorest toilets have been sold. Bathroom firm Toto said the new prototype was still in development. Its self-cleaning process uses a combination of a disinfectant and a glaze - made out of zirconium and titanium dioxide - which coats the bowl. A spokeswoman Lenora Compos explains”
"Once it flushes it sprays the interior of the bowl with electrolysed water, the "proprietary process" essentially turns the water into a weak bleach. This bleaches the interior, killing anything in the bowl, meanwhile an ultraviolet light in the lid charges the surface.
That makes it super-hydrophilic - or water-loving, so nothing can stick to it - and also photocatalytic, enabling oxygen ions to break down bacteria and viruses.” She said, "You don't have to clean the toilet bowl for over a year.”
It is amazing now many new and improved things we read about these days. Even toilets! But there is no such thing as a new and improved sacrifice for sin. There is only one way to stop the just, raging wrath of God – the subsitutionary death of the Lord Jesus.
As one so put it, “Electrolysed water can’t compare to the waters of His baptism. Ultraviolet light can’t match the purifying brilliance of His glory. Oxygen ions and titanium dioxide can’t cleanse us from the contaminates of sin like the blood of Jesus. He is the only Savior who can take our sins away, not once a year, but once and for all time.”
(4) Salvation brings about an Expressed change. 16
• They Feared - Then the men feared the LORD greatly. Notice the progression: They feared (1:5); they feared with a great fear (1:10); and they feared the LORD with a great fear (1:16). What I like about his is that they feared after the storm. I have known many people who promise God the world while the storm is raging but as soon as the danger is over it is back to business as usual! That also had to acknowledge that the Lord “had done as He pleased” (v. 14b). Hawkins observes:
“A lot of us promise God all sorts of things when the storm is raging and then we forget them when the storm passes by. These men made their promises, and thanksgiving after the storm…They were not saved because they offered sacrifices; they offered sacrifices because they were saved. Works are not for salvation. These men offered their sacrifices after the sea had calmed…They surrendered to the sovereignty of the Lord God. God is sovereign, which simply means He does what He pleases (and He is always pleased with what He does). This is one reason folks do not come to Christ…They would rather do as they please than allow God to do as He pleases in their lives…When we see the reason for our storms and react properly to them, we will see similar results. The raging sea will grow calm. We will acknowledge that the Lord can do as He pleases in our lives, and we will make our lives a living sacrifice to His glory.
• They Sacrificed - and they offered a sacrifice to the LORD.
• They Vowed - and made vows. – was this a vow to turn from idols and follow the LORD?
NET note is helpful here:
Heb “they sacrificed sacrifices.” The root ??? (zbkh, “sacrifice”) is repeated in the verb and accusative noun, forming an emphatic effected accusative construction in which the verbal action produces the object (see IBHS 166-67 § 10.2.1f). Their act of sacrificing would produce the sacrifices. It is likely that the two sets of effected accusative constructions here (“ they vowed vows and sacrificed sacrifices”) form a hendiadys; the two phrases connote one idea: “they earnestly vowed to sacrifice lavishly.” It is unlikely that they offered animal sacrifices at this exact moment on the boat – they had already thrown their cargo overboard, presumably leaving no animals to sacrifice. Instead, they probably vowed that they would sacrifice to the LORD when – and if – they reached dry ground.
The point is Salvation transforms us, and we are never the same (1 Jn. 3:9). It gives us a new regenerated heart, which begins within and works its way eventually outward.
Religion doesn’t bring an inner change, but is only a surface work that leaves the inner person untouched and therefore does not work. It reminds me of one of my favorite commercials, by one credit card company, Capital One. A couple is making a purchase in a shopping center. When the clerk tells how much it will cost, the woman says she will pay the bill with her credit card. Suddenly hordes of barbarians begin surging into the store. They run down the store aisles yelling, with weapons drawn, toward the couple making the credit card purchase. The point of the ad is that making yourself liable to the finance charges on credit cards is like bringing on the barbarians.
One quick scene in the ad gives us a picture of religion, as the barbarians charge past one store clerk at the perfume counter, she sprays perfume on them!
Trying to civilize a horde of bloodthirsty barbarians, to get rid of their foul aroma, with a few squirts of perfume, is what religion is, it is merely external, it cannot deal with our barbarian heart.
Con:
1. Salvation is only by way of Sacrifice – by the substitutionary death of the Lord Jesus. And that sacrifice was not easy, we will never be able to fully understand how it felt to die in our place.
2. The words of Psa. 22:1 come to mind:
1 My God, my God, why have You forsaken me? Far from my deliverance are the words of my groaning. 2 O my God, I cry by day, but You do not answer; And by night, but I have no rest. Psalm 22:1-2
3. Theologian James R. Edwards retells the following true story to illustrate our need and Christ's response to our need. In August 1957 four climbers—two Italians and two Germans—were climbing the 6,000 foot near-vertical North Face in the Swiss Alps. The two German climbers disappeared and were never heard from again. The two Italian climbers, exhausted and dying, were stuck on two narrow ledges a thousand feet below the summit. The Swiss Alpine Club forbade rescue attempts in this area (it was just too dangerous), but a small group of Swiss climbers decided to launch a private rescue effort to save the Italians. So they carefully lowered a climber named Alfred Hellepart down the 6,000 foot North Face. They suspended Hellepart on a cable a fraction of an inch thick as they lowered him into the abyss.
Here's how Hellepart described the rescue in his own words:
As I was lowered down the summit … my comrades on top grew further and further distant, until they disappeared from sight. At this moment I felt an indescribable aloneness. Then for the first time I peered down the abyss of the North Face of the Eiger. The terror of the sight robbed me of breath. …The brooding blackness of the Face, falling away in almost endless expanse beneath me, made me look with awful longing to the thin cable disappearing about me in the mist. I was a tiny human being dangling in space between heaven and hell. The sole relief from terror was …my mission to save the climber below.
That is the heart of the Gospel story. We were trapped, but in the person and presence of Jesus, God lowered himself into the abyss of our sin and suffering. In Jesus God became "a tiny human being dangling between heaven and hell." He did it to save the people trapped below—you and me. Thus, the gospel is much more radical than just another religion telling us how to be good in our own power. It tells us the story of God's risky, costly, sacrificial rescue effort on our behalf.
As I am writing this, Fox News is reporting on a school. Seventeen were killed and fourteen were wounded by shooter, Nikolas Cruz. A person who witnessed the incident said a football coach named Aaron Feis shielded students as a gunman opened fire.
The Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School football team’s Twitter account confirmed Aaron Feis’ death early Thursday morning.
“It is with Great sadness that our Football Family has learned about the death of Aaron Feis,” he was our Assistant Football Coach and security guard. He selflessly shielded students from the shooter when he was shot. He died a hero and he will forever be in our hearts and memories”
The Bible teaches us, that we are all as guilty of sin as Nikolas Cruz, and that our beloved Lord Jesus Christ died in our place shielding us from the wrath of God – if we receive Him as our Savior. The tragedy is most will not identify with Jesus Christ as their Savior because they will not identify with Nikolas Cruz as a sinner.
In 1986, five-year-old Saroo Munshi Khan and his 14-year-old brother were searching the streets for spare change in their home city of Berhanpur, India. Saroo's older brother Guddu wandered beyond the station and Saroo fell asleep waiting for his brother's return. A few hours later, Saroo woke up 932 miles away, in Calcutta, eons away from his home and family. He survived on the streets for weeks, was taken into an orphanage, and was adopted by an Australian family and grew up in Hobart, Tasmania.
Falling asleep can be dangerous, Jonah, like Saroo, had fallen asleep, not only physically but spiritually. He was now a long way from where he was supposed to be.
4. The prophet Slept.
Trans: We have looked at Jonah’s Chance, wrong Choice, and now we continue on God’s Chase. We have seen the Lord’s Storm, the Sailors Stress and Salvation, and now, Jonah’s Sleep. Jonah 1:5b-16 [Note some of this we have already seen]
But Jonah had gone below into the hold of the ship, lain down and fallen sound asleep – it is amazing, a violent storm is raging, lives are in danger, and Jonah is sound asleep!
We are warned about being spiritually asleep (Eph. 5:14-18/Rom. 8:13; 13:11-13).
a. When we are spiritually asleep we are Unaware of the Lord.
The Lord sent the storm for Jonah’s benefit! It was to get his attention but he remains asleep.
When we are spiritually asleep, we become insensitive to the Lord’s chastisement. People can go through one storm after another because of sin and never see anything wrong.
I had a member once who smoked one cigarette after another. She was always broke and experienced health problems – yet, she could never connect her sin of harming her body (1 Cor. 6:19-20) with her problems!
We have many Laodicean Christians who cannot see their true condition.
15 'I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot; I wish that you were cold or hot. 16 'So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth. 17 'Because you say, "I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing," and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked, Revelation 3:15-17
C.S. Lewis wrote, The Screwtape Letters. In it the profound Englishman had the devil brief his nephew, Wormwood, on the subtleties and techniques of tempting people. The goal, he counsels, is not wickedness but indifference. Satan cautions his nephew to keep the prospect, the patient, comfortable at all costs. If he should become concerned about anything of importance, encourage him to think about his luncheon plans; not to worry, it could induce indigestion. And then this definitive job description:
"I, the devil, will always see to it that there are bad people. Your job, my dear Wormwood, is to provide me with the people who do not care."
b. When we are spiritually asleep, we are Unconcerned for the Lost.
These sailors were about to perish and Jonah could care less!
Greg Laurie notes:
Jonah, however, tucked away somewhere down below deck, seemed to be peacefully sleeping through the great storm. To me, this is a picture of the church in our world today. The world is afraid, and the church is asleep. The world is asking questions, and the church often doesn’t have answers. People are dying in their sins, and the church is out of the action, unaware, and semicomatose.
Charles Spurgeon observes:
Oh if only the vision of hell were sometimes before our eyes— that some few of the sighs of a damned soul were ringing in our ears!... for then, starting up like men that have long been given to a foolish slumber, we would gird up our loins, and using both our hands, we would seek to pluck men from the burning, and deliver them from going down into the pit of hell. Men are dying! Men are perishing! Hell is filling! Satan is triumphing! Poor souls are howling in their agonies, and you sleep?
We should care about the lost! Eph. 6:19-20/Col. 4:3-4.
We are having a bad flu season in America, I have heard some say it’s serious how many people have died. I read:
As of February 2, infection rates for the 2017-2018 flu season were still rising, higher than those in any year since 2009, when the swine flu was pandemic, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Even more worrying, the hospitalization rate is the highest that the C.D.C. has ever recorded at this point in the season. It has just surpassed that of the lethal 2014-2015 season, during which 710,000 Americans were hospitalized and 56,000 died.
Everybody is talking about it, and yet, something far more serious then the flu is sin! It affects literally everybody! It is so serious it not only brings physical death, but eternal death as well! We alone have the only cure, the gospel of Jesus Christ, and yet, why are we not sharing the gospel? Many of us have talked about this flu going around but have not said one word about the sin problem or the cure. This should not be!
c. When we are spiritually asleep we are Unfazed by our own Lot.
He was in grave danger but did not realize it.
Years ago, one Sunday morning I was in my office getting ready for the worship service. It was about 4 a.m., when I hear a loud crash. I ran outside and saw an old truck, it was turned upside down and a car a few feet away from it. They had had a head-on collision! After calling 911, I went over and by the side of the road there was a lady, she grabbed my hand and keep saying over and over, “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean too, I didn’t mean to fall asleep!”
Like that head-on that woke up that lady, the storm was designed to wake Jonah up! If the ship goes under, he goes under with it!
We might say, “Well if he dies no big deal because, he will go to glory.” Yes, but he will lose God honoring rewards. 2 Jn. 8
One company posted a sign, which read, “It has come to the attention of the management, that workers, dying on the job are failing to fall down. This practice must stop, as it becomes impossible to distinguish between death and the natural movement of the staff. Any employee found dead in the upright position will be dropped from the payroll.”
Living a life spiritually asleep causes us to be dropped from the reward-roll!
d. When we are spiritually asleep we are Unknowing that we are in La La Land.
People who are asleep don’t know it!
Years ago I was minister of Outreach at South Side Baptist church, I remember one big old burly man who would often fall asleep during the Sunday morning service! It sounded like a bear snoring, but he did not know it. Everybody else knew it but not him.
I pray that if we are spiritually asleep, that God will use this sermon to wake us up.
e. When we are spiritually asleep we are Uninvolved in praying for the Lost.
6 So the captain approached him and said, "How is it that you are sleeping? Get up, call on your god. Perhaps your god will be concerned about us so that we will not perish."
Why doesn’t the church really pray these days? I think if we are honest most of us do not really think it will make a difference. There is an old story, I do not know if it is true or not, but it does illustrate the point.
A bar was under construction in a town in Texas. A local church started a campaign— with petitions and prayer meetings— to try and stop the bar from being built. Work, however, progressed on the building. With the grand opening just one week away, the bar was hit by lighting and burned to the ground. Incensed by this turn of events, the tavern owner sued the church, claiming that they were responsible for the destruction because of their prayers. The church, however, denied any responsibility and any connection between their prayers and the subsequent fire. When the case went to court, the judge read both the plaintiff’s complaint and the defendant’s reply. After a few moment’s consideration, here is what the judge actually said: “I don’t know how I will decide this, but it appears from the paperwork that we have a bar owner who believes in the power of prayer and an entire church congregation that now does not!”
The reality is the only one whose prayers could make an impact on that ship was Jonah’s! The lost cannot pray for themselves, unless it is the initial sinners prayer to receive the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior.
In 1980, Bailey Smith, president of the Southern Baptist Convention, upset people by declaring, “God Almighty does not hear the prayer of a Jew.”
Many Baptist objected, Pastor Michael Smith of First Baptist Church of Murfreesboro, Tennessee, said:
“His comment amazed and saddened me…He seemed not to realize that Jesus was a first-century Jew, as were all of his earliest followers. Certainly, God heard their prayers. In my opinion, he also misunderstood the relationship between God and all humanity. Whatever else might be said, the Bible teaches that we are made in the image of God. Jesus compared God to a loving parent, who stands ever ready to listen to his children. Such a God hears the prayers of anyone.”
But Bailey Smith was right, the only way God can honor anyone’s prayers is if they come through Jesus Christ, and since the Jews have rejected Jesus Christ as their Messiah, God cannot honor their prayers! Jn. 14:6 stands regardless of how politically incorrect it is!
Again, if we do not pray for the lost who will? Who can!
f. When we are spiritually asleep the Lord will Uncover our carnal Lives.
(1) Jonah is Revealed as the problem.
7 Each man said to his mate, "Come, let us cast lots so we may learn on whose account this calamity has struck us." So they cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah.
For the casting of lots, see Jos 7:14-18; 18:10; 1 Sam 10:20-21; Pr 16:33; Ac 1:24-26.). God, who controlled the storm, also controlled the outcome of casting lots.
When we confess our sin, the Lord covers it, but when we seek to cover our sin, He will uncover it!
This reminds me of Crew members of an English ship sailing around Cape Horn in the 1870’s. They mutinied against their captain and shot him in the head before throwing him overboard, where his body landed on an ice shelf. Forty years later, off the coast of central Chile, an iceberg was spotted. To keep it from impeding the passage of sailing vessels in the area, a couple of men sailed out to blow it up, only to discover the frozen body of a man encased within. After chipping away the top layer of ice, the body was identified as that of Frank Shaw, a sea captain who had disappeared. Thus, the mutineers, who, for forty years thought they had gotten away with their crime, were hung on the gallows in London. Be sure your sin will find you out (Numbers 32:23).
(2) Jonah is Required to give an account. 8-12
(1) Who are you?
8 Then they said to him, "Tell us, now! On whose account has this calamity struck us? What is your occupation? And where do you come from? What is your country? From what people are you?" 9 He said to them, "I am a Hebrew, and I fear the LORD God of heaven who made the sea and the dry land."
(2) Why have you done this? 10
10 Then the men became extremely frightened and they said to him, "How could you do this?" For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the LORD, because he had told them.
What we do affects others!
• Abraham's sin in Egypt almost cost him his wife. (Genesis 12)
• David's disobedience in the unauthorized census lead to the death of 70,000 people. (2 Samuel 24)
• Achan’s sin caused the entire nation to experience defeat (Josh. 7:11)
• And Jonah’s sin is the cause of this storm.
We have on the wall over there a thermostat, if I go over and turn it up too high, we are all going to start sweating. If I turn it way down, we are all going to freeze! Our sin is like that, what we do has an impact on us all!
(3) What should we do? 11-12
11 So they said to him, "What should we do to you that the sea may become calm for us?"—for the sea was becoming increasingly stormy. 12 He said to them, "Pick me up and throw me into the sea. Then the sea will become calm for you, for I know that on account of me this great storm has come upon you." – we looked at this previously. We should tell people the only way to be saved is by the substitutionary death of Jesus Christ, which Jonah’s sacrifice is depicting.
Bill O’Reilly’s Legends and Lies is most interesting reading, jumping around a bit here is what he writes about Billy the Kid:
No one disagrees that Billy the Kid was one of the most ruthless outlaws to roam the Old West… Pat Garrett became famous for supposedly killing Billy the Kid. But his account has long been disputed. Inconsistencies in his story led to him becoming a controversial figure… There is no argument, though, that Pat Garrett shot and killed a man at Pete Maxwell’s ranch on the night of July 14. The man believed to be Billy the Kid was buried by his Mexican friends on the Maxwell Ranch… Almost immediately, souvenir hunters started pulling at the grave site, so within days, his body was moved to the nearby Fort Sumner military cemetery. There are many stories that indicate that Billy the Kid was not killed but survived. O’Reilly relates one of those stories:
Is it possible that Billy the Kid actually survived that night? According to one version, he was badly wounded, but the Mexican women of the hacienda saved his life, then substituted the body of a man who had died naturally that night; Bonney then lived the rest of his life peacefully under the name John Miller.
That is likely fiction, but it does illustrate an actual fact about those of us who have trusted Christ as Savior. We, like Billy the Kid, are born sinners and have grievously sinner all of our lives. But then the Lord Jesus died in our place, as our substitute and rose from the grave and now we have peace with God under the name of “in Christ!”
Con:
1. Jonah was not only physically asleep but spiritually asleep, and thus, a long way from where he was supposed to be, but God is in the process of bringing him back.
2. Remember we started out with Saroo? Well as Paul Harvey would say, here is the rest of the story.
3. Twenty-six years later, he found his way back to his hometown with the help of Google Earth. An article explained Saroo's journey back home:
In 2011, using vague memories and Google Earth imagery, Saroo identified his home town. Using the ruler feature in Google Earth, he mapped out a search radius by making an educated guess about how far he traveled by train. After countless hours of scouring this area of Google Earth imagery, he came upon a proverbial needle in a haystack. Saroo spotted one vague landmark that led him to the next, helping him unlock a five-year-old child's memories. He eventually spotted a neighborhood, street, and tin roof that looked familiar.
In Saroo's words, "It was just like being Superman. You are able to go over and take a photo mentally and ask, 'Does this match?' And when you say, 'No,' you keep on going and going and going."
In 2012, Saroo embarked on a trip from Australia back to India. Once he arrived, he shared his story with locals, who helped him find his way back home to his mother and surviving brother and sister. Twenty-six years after accidentally leaving home, he finally found his way back.
Jonah leaving the place where God wanted him was not by accident but pure rebellion, and yet, God is going to bring the prophet back to where he belongs – and our Lord is doing the same for us, destination New Jerusalem!
Johnny A Palmer Jr.
