July 6, 2025 • 29 mins
God's purpose cannot be thwarted even by our deliberate disobedience, as we see in Jonah's desperate attempt to escape his divine calling to Nineveh.
• The word of God exists to "comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable"
• Jonah's story shows a consistent downward trajectory when running from God
• God uses a storm as a wake-up call to Jonah's disobedience and complacency
• The irony of pagan sailors praying while the prophet sleeps
• Momentary disobedience doesn't have to undo future usefulness for God
• The contrast between Peter and Judas - two betrayals with different responses
• God receives glory even when His people are disobedient
• Like Joseph, what others mean for evil, God can use for good
• Following God's will is always more fulfilling than running from it
"God, if you called me, I will go. Wherever you lead, I'll go. Wherever you take me. God, I am your servant. God, your will be done and it will be done. Lord, can I join you in this mission? Can I not find myself running away to Tarshish, but can I find myself in the will of God?"
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Amen.
This morning we're going tocontinue as we walk through a
series in the book of Jonah.
We're going to continue withJonah, chapter 1.
We left last week realizingthat we had a prophet on the run
.
We had a prophet doing exactlywhat prophets were not supposed
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to be doing.
We had a prophet running awayfrom the will of God.
It's been said that the word ofGod exists to comfort the
afflicted and to afflict thecomforting or the comforted,
excuse me, the comfortable.
To comfort the afflicted and toafflict the comfortable.
(00:47):
Did you catch that?
That to those of us that cometo the word of God battered and
bruised and broken and we need aword of encouragement and hope
and we know our only hope is inhim.
That word of God will sustainus.
But there are those times inlife where we come and we're
just comfortable.
And I'm not saying there'sanything wrong with comfort.
(01:08):
What I mean by that is we'recomplacent, we're just going
through the motions, we'resaying all is well in our world,
that at the end of the day,surely we have control over our
lives and surely we can be the,the master, and we can, we can
be the Lord of our lives.
And we've got this thingfigured out and in those moments
the word of God comes to us andit really kind of disrupts our
(01:31):
comfort, disrupts ourcomplacency.
The book of Jonah, I believe,is a wake-up call to complacency
.
It's a wake-up call when wefind ourselves just saying that
we are really in control andsaying God, it's okay, I can
take it from here.
It's a wake-up call to that andwe're going to see very clearly
(01:53):
today the wake-up call thatJonah gets and I want us to see
this really one point throughoutthe day that the disobedience
of man cannot undo the will ofGod, that the disobedience of
man cannot undo the will of Godand church family.
That's good news.
(02:14):
We'll pick up in verse 3, reallywhere we ended last week, but I
want to read it again God'sword, his command, came to Jonah
, called Jonah to rise and go toNineveh.
Verse 3, we saw Jonah did arise, but where does he go?
I don't think our author isaccidentally putting that word
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down there.
He says it twice in that oneverse.
We see Jonah was at home.
He gets the call from the Lordand he goes down to Joppa.
And then, once he's at Joppa,the author says he goes down
into the ship we're even goingto see in a moment in verse 5,
he doesn't just go down into theship, but he goes down into the
(03:09):
very bottom of the ship to takea nap.
And that word down comes again.
I believe what the author wantsus to see, what we're supposed
to see from Jonah here, is thatthe direction of disobedience.
It's always a downwarddirection, that when we're
running from the will of God inour lives, when we're running
(03:30):
from the presence of the Lord,we may think for a little while
that maybe we're going up, wemay think that this will all
work out in the end.
But at the end of the day, whenwe're running from the Lord, we
look up and realize this wholetime we've been in the downward
spiral that we ourselves havecreated.
And so Jonah is heading in thisdownward direction.
(03:50):
This is a prophet of Godbelieving that he can escape
from the presence of the Lord.
And then verse four but theLord hurled a great wind upon
the sea and there was a mightytempest on the sea so that the
ship threatened to break up.
Number one I love how versefour ends that the ship
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threatened to break upThroughout Jonah.
We see it later on with a plantgrowing out of the ground, we
see that Jonah will kind ofpersonify objects.
And right here we've got thepersonification happening of
this ship, where it's written asif this ship itself is actually
being moved around in the waterand the ship itself is looking
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up at the sailors and at Jonahand saying, guys, I'm about to
tap out here, I'm about donewith this, I'm done trying to
battle these waves, and so theship itself is threatening to
break up.
But what's interesting aboutverse 4, at the very beginning,
is this but the Lord hurled agreat wind.
(04:56):
That's interesting to me thatin this moment, when Jonah is
fleeing from the presence of theLord, it is the Lord that
brings the wind to serve as thewake-up call to Jonah.
Jonah is very much unsuccessfulin his ability to get away from
(05:17):
the presence of the Lord.
The Lord hurls the wind towardsJonah.
Now what am I saying First?
What am I not saying?
That any difficult moment andwhat we might call the storms of
life, that any of those stormsof life are caused by the Lord.
That this afternoon, when I'mwalking out of my child's room
and I stub my toe, that the Lordwas looking down from heaven
(05:39):
saying Taylor, it's time for astubbed toe.
That's not what I'm saying.
What I am saying is that thereare times in our lives, in our
disobedience, in our complacency, in our rebellion, that the
Lord will send us a wake-up call.
And maybe you've been in thosemoments where you've been in
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seasons of rebellion and you canthink back to some of the
wake-up calls that God sent toyou.
You can think back to theconviction of the Holy Spirit
when he stopped you in yourtracks and you realize I am not
going the direction God hascalled me to go.
And you think about how God hasto get a hold of us.
And God has to show us andsometimes in a very real way,
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show us that we are notultimately in control, that we
don't hold the universe in ourhands, that we are not God upon
the throne In fact we don't evenget to sit on the throne of our
own lives but that God is incontrol and sometimes he has to
send us a wake-up call.
And so the Lord hurled a greatwind upon the sea, the great
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tempest on the sea.
The ship threatened to break,and then verse five then the
mariners, the sailors wereafraid and each cried out to his
God.
You'll notice that lowercase gGod.
So all of these sailors areunbelieving sailors.
Or I should say this they arebelieving sailors.
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They are just believing in allkinds of gods that are not
uppercase G, yahweh, god.
So these unbelieving sailorsare just trying anything they
can.
They look around each other.
Hey, you've heard of this God,you've tried that God, all these
gods, if you can reach out tosee if they can do anything.
And they even hurled the cargothat was in the ship into the
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sea to lighten it for them.
But look at this.
But Jonah had gone down there'sthat word again into the inner
part of the ship and had laindown and was fast asleep.
Think about the irony of this.
There is a man of God on thisboat, there is a prophet of God
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on this ship today, and thenthere's a lot of sailors who
know nothing of God, nothing ofYahweh, and yet all these
sailors are up just crying outto any God they might can find
and the one individual, theprophet of God, who actually
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serves the true God, that canactually do something about this
situation.
Where's he at?
The prophet of God is down atthe bottom of the boat and he's
quite literally taking a nap.
We see later in the gospelsthat there's a moment when
there's storms on the water andJesus is at the bottom of the
boat taking a nap.
But why is he doing that?
Because number one, he's Jesusand number two, the second, his
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disciples wake him up.
He can come up to the top ofthe boat.
He can snap his fingers in thewaters, or still.
Jonah can't do that, but he cancall up to the top of the boat.
He can snap his fingers in thewaters, or still.
Jonah can't do that, but he cancall out to Yahweh, and yet in
this moment he's sleeping.
The irony the man of God is theonly one who's not up on top
helping Verse six.
So the captain came and said tohim what do you mean?
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You sleeper, arise, call out toyour, your God.
Maybe you've got a Godlowercase g God that we haven't
tried yet.
We've tried all the others.
Perhaps the God will give athought to us that we may not
perish.
In verse 7.
And they said to one anothercome, let us cast lots that we
may know on whose account thisevil has come upon us.
(09:22):
So they cast lots and the lotfell on Jonah Casting lots you
can think of, maybe rolling diceor picking straws, this kind of
thing to figure out who causedthis, who's the reason, who's
the guy that has brought thisupon us and what do you know?
It all lands on Jonah.
(09:42):
Then they said to him verse 8,tell us on whose account this
evil has come.
What is your occupation, wheredo you come from, what is your
country and of what people areyou?
Verse 9, and he said to them Iam a Hebrew and I fear the Lord.
That's Yahweh, the God ofheaven, heaven who made the sea
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and the dry land.
Now here's what's interesting.
These are honestly beautifulwords on Jonah's part.
I mean, he speaks rightly, he'sa Hebrew, he fears the Lord,
the God of heaven.
But what is so interesting isclearly, at the end of this
verse, jonah knows the ability,the jurisdiction, the territory
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of God, that this is the God whomade the sea and the dry land.
And you talk about a prophetthat has just completely lost
sight of his calling.
That the prophet, who knowsgood and well that Yahweh, the
God of the universe, made thesea and dry land, thought that
if he got far enough away on thesea, he could get away from the
(10:51):
presence of God, and yet Godfound him.
God never lost sight of wherehe was Verse 10,.
The men were exceedingly afraidand said to him what is this
that you've done?
For the men knew that he wasfleeing from the presence of the
Lord because he had told them Imean, the men probably made the
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point I just made hey, buddy,you knew God was able to find
you on the sea.
You knew God made the very seathat you're trying to get away
from, and now you've brought usinto this mess that you're in.
Verse 11, they said to him whatshall we do to you that the sea
may quiet down for us?
For the sea grew more and moretempestuous.
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And look at what's next.
He said to them pick me up andhurl me into the sea, then the
sea will quiet down for you, forI know it is because of me that
this tempest has come upon you.
What does Jonah say in thismoment?
How can this crisis be averted?
How can we get out of this mess?
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As Jonah says this pick me upand throw me into the sea.
Now, that's an interestingresponse, because Jonah knows
what that means.
Jonah knows that that means I'mnot going for a swim.
Jonah knows that means that youwill throw me over and that
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will be the end of my story.
Jonah in one sense we couldargue is saying this it is
better for my story to end thanfor me to have to go to Nineveh
and preach to those people.
If I can't get to Tarshish,I'll just let my road end right
here so that I don't have to goto those evil people in Nineveh.
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But also we could look at itlike this Sinclair Ferguson in
his commentary just a wisepastor and teacher says that in
this moment Jonah despaired ofany future usefulness.
That surely in his mind, jonahthought to himself that here I
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am in the ocean, I've run fromGod, I've brought this storm
upon all of us.
My story's probably going toend right here and even if it
didn't, god couldn't use me overthere anyway, god couldn't use
me down the road.
We're tempted to believe thatour momentary disobedience can
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undo our future usefulness.
We're tempted to believe that,maybe because I was disobedient
in this moment, maybe because Irebelled here, surely there's no
way God could use me here.
We're tempted to believe thatbecause we have a past and part
of that past there is sometempted to believe that because
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we have a past and part of thatpast, there is some disobedience
involved, that maybe I don'thave a future with the Lord,
that any ministry, any movementof God that could happen in and
through me, surely God wouldn'tuse someone like me.
The good news this morning isthis we're going to see it in
the life of Jonah.
You've probably seen it in yourlife.
Praise God, I've seen it alongthe way in my life that
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momentary disobedience does nothave to undo future usefulness.
That the weight of our pastdoes not have to determine how
God might be able to use us inthe future.
That we serve a God.
Think about something now thatif God could only use those
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individuals who don't have apast, how many people would he
have to work with?
I think of two responses todisobedience that we see in the
gospel.
I think of a man named Peterand a man named Judas.
On the same night they commit asimilar act of disobedience.
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On the night of Jesus' arrest,judas goes and for just a few
coins.
Goes and turns Jesus over,tells the troops where to find
him in the Garden of Gethsemane.
Goes and turns Jesus over,tells the troops where to find
him in the Garden of GethsemaneLater that night.
Peter is asked three times ifhe knows Jesus is he a follower
of Jesus?
And three times Peter says Idon't know the guy.
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On the very same night, judasand Peter, both in one sense
they betray Jesus Christ.
And yet on the backside of theresurrection there's two
responses.
Peter comes back to Jesus, theyhave a conversation and in this
beautiful moment in John,chapter 20, jesus restores Peter
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.
Not only does he restore him,but we see throughout the end of
that gospel and even into thebook of Acts, that Peter is a
leader within the life of theearly church.
Not only that, he's writtenbooks in this thing, peter's
written books.
This is a leader in the life ofthe church who once disobeyed
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in such a massive way, yet foundrestoration.
And yet Judas went the otherdirection way, yet found
restoration.
And yet Judas went the otherdirection, likely despairing the
fact that there could be norestoration.
And I just wonder I just wonderit's speculation if Judas had
come before Jesus and soughtthat same restoration if it had
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been there.
And I just have read enough ofthe Gospels and I feel like I
know a little bit about thecharacter of Jesus to know it
would have been, and yet hechose not to Different responses
to the same kind ofdisobedience.
There is always restoration forthose who seek it in Christ
Jesus.
That the disobedience of yourpast does not have to determine
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the way God might use you in thefuture.
That God desires and delightsto use every one of you, and
that God has a purpose I thinkof Ephesians 2.10, good works
that he has prepared beforehandfor each one of you.
So the good news is ourmomentary disobedience does not
have to undo future usefulness,yet in this moment.
Good news is our momentarydisobedience does not have to
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undo future usefulness.
Yet in this moment.
Jonah figured that must be thecase.
He had no idea that God'ssalvation was waiting for him
right below the boat in themanner of a very large fish.
He had no idea that the book ofJonah doesn't end at the end of
chapter 1.
He's got three chapters to go,but still they're going to throw
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him overboard.
But look at verse 13 first.
Nevertheless, the men rode hardto get back to dry land, but
they could not, for the sea grewmore and more tempestuous
against them.
It's interesting, isn't it?
I feel like the most nobleindividuals in this whole story
so far are these sailors who, 10minutes ago, were calling out
to every God they could think of.
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And then you've got the prophetof God that you know has
nothing to do with God, up tothis point.
And yet these sailors are notgoing to throw him in yet until
they've tried everything theycan.
But then, verse 14, therefore,they called out to the Lord.
The sailors say this oh Lord,in your Bible that word Lord is
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probably in all caps.
That means that is the wordYahweh, that is the God, the
true God, that is Yahweh himself.
So look at this now.
These unbelieving sailors whowere calling out to every God
are now calling out to Yahweh inthis moment.
Think about this the firstindividuals to pray to Yahweh
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throughout this whole story.
It's not the prophet of God,it's these unbelieving sailors.
They say, oh Lord, let us notperish for this man's life.
Lay not on us.
Innocent blood for you, oh Lord, have told us to do it.
This is his idea, lord, don'thold us guilty for this.
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And so they picked up Jonah,verse 15.
They hurled him into the sea,and the sea ceased from its
raging.
And look at this verse 16.
Then the men feared the Lordexceedingly and they offered a
sacrifice to the Lord and theymade vows.
Where does chapter one end?
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I know in your text you seethere is a verse 17 in the
English text, in Hebrew thatbegins verse one of chapter two,
but looking at 16, saying thisaccount, this part of the story
ends right there.
Where does it end?
It ends with the prophet of Godin the ocean and the
unbelieving sailors nowworshiping Yahweh.
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Let me say that again theprophet of God who was supposed
to be on his way to Nineveh butwas disobedient.
He is now in the ocean.
The unbelieving sailors are nowoffering sacrifices and
worshiping Yahweh.
The tables have turned in thismoment and I just want to make
this point that God can work inspite of our disobedience, that
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God's will goes forward, even inspite of our disobedience, that
Jonah was not supposed to be onthis boat.
Jonah was supposed to beheading 500 miles towards
Nineveh.
Jonah wasn't supposed to behere and yet, even in Jonah's
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disobedience, god, in hissovereignty and in his goodwill
and pleasure, received gloryfrom even where Jonah was to
where these men and I can't sayfor a fact that it's a
full-scale conversion.
I hope that it is that thesemen followed Yahweh for the rest
of their lives.
That's my hope and prayer.
I hope to see him in heaven oneday, but I do know this in this
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moment they're lifting upworship to Yahweh that God gets
glory even as Jonah isdisobedient.
Now, what does that mean?
As we've looked at Romans overthe last few weeks, you remember
Romans 6, shall we continue insin?
That grace may abound?
I could say this.
Well, should I be disobedient,since God can get glory out of
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my disobedience?
You know the answer to that.
It's no.
God didn't need Jonah to bedisobedient to save these men
and see these men worship Yahweh.
Do you know?
There's a moment in Numberswhere God's word is proclaimed
through a donkey.
I didn't make that up, that's atrue story.
You can look it up.
God can proclaim his wordhowever he wanted.
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If Jonah had been on his way toNineveh, god could have taken
the very fish that would sooncome into our story, plop them
up on the boat and that fishstart preaching the gospel to
these men, because God can dowhat he wants, how he wants,
when he wants.
But in this moment, god gotglory, even through Jonah's
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disobedience.
It's good news that God canwork in spite of our
disobedience.
And really it says that thedisobedience of man cannot undo
the will of God.
The disobedience of man cannotundo the will of God.
I think in Numbers, chapter 20,the people of God are in the
wilderness.
They're mad at God once againbecause they had water to drink
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back in Egypt and now they're alittle thirsty and they're
grumbling and they're upsetabout it.
They're complaining to Mosesand God tells Moses go, speak to
the rock, and when you speak tothe rock, water's going to flow
out of the rock for the people.
But Moses is getting a littleaggravated because the people
are grumbling and in hisfrustration he takes his staff
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and two times he hits the rock.
He was told to speak to therock.
Moses hits the rock and Iwonder what happens next?
Surely nothing's going tohappen next because God's
prophet, god's man, wasdisobedient.
But Moses hits the rock twiceand what happens?
Water flows out of the rock,because the disobedience of man
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cannot undo the will of God andif God wills it, god can make it
happen.
I think of Genesis 50, verse 20.
All through this time Josephhas gotten the short end of the
stick.
Brothers tossed him in the pitsold him into slavery.
A false charge from Potiphar'swife.
He's in prison.
His cellmate was supposed totell Pharaoh all about him but
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forgot for two years, and sohe's in there an extra two years
.
Finally he is brought out andhe's second in command in Egypt.
And all of this evil hadhappened.
And yet at the end of his storyhe says this what man meant for
evil, god meant for good.
That the disobedience of mancannot undo the will of God,
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that God's will and God'ssovereignty marches on.
Even when men are faithless,god remains faithful.
If you want the ultimatepicture of this, you've got to
look no further than the Gospelsas you think about the
disobedience of man, and by thatthroughout this.
You've got to look no furtherthan the Gospels as you think
about the disobedience of man,and by that throughout this I'm
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meaning mankind, men, women, allof us.
That the disobedience of man,our own sin, that put the Savior
on the cross.
I think of the disobedience ofthose who quite literally,
nailed his hands and feet to thecross at the moment when evil
had thought it was had won.
What man meant for evil onFriday afternoon.
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When they put Jesus in a graveon Sunday morning God meant for
good, as Jesus rose from thegrave, that God can take
situations, even when man isdisobedient, and bring good out
of them.
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Think about your own life.
Maybe you've seen moments ofyour own rebellion and
disobedience.
That even in the midst of yourrunning from God, god was not
finished with you, that you wereon that boat on the way to the
Tarshish of your own life.
You were on your own ocean,living in your own disobedience,
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and yet God's will was marchingforward and even when you were
faithless, god remained faithful.
Even when you were running, godfound you, because the
disobedience of man cannot undothe will of God.
That's good news, and I'd alsosay this this morning.
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I pray it's not the case, butif it is, that any of that gives
any kind of license towardsdisobedience.
Let me tell you this good news.
The news is this I've lived onboth sides of the equation.
I've seen God work in spite ofme and I've seen moments where,
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by His Spirit alone, he workedin and through me, and I'm going
to tell you life is a lot moreenjoyable when he he worked in
and through me, and I'm gonnatell you life is a lot more
enjoyable when he's working inand through you.
It's fun being on mission forGod, when you're seeking after
him and, in obedience, goingwhere he goes and getting on
mission with him and being apart of his will and his plan
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and his operation.
If we want to sit on thesidelines, if we want to live in
disobedience, god's will willgo forward.
But my hope for each one of you,my hope for this church, my
hope for every one of us in thisroom and outside of this room
is this that, as God's willmarches on that, we would be
obedient individuals that seekto follow after him, live into
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that will and partner with himin this ministry to take the
gospel forward, because thereare people in El Dorado, there
are people in this state, thereare people around the world that
need the good news of Jesus,and our job as believers, as God
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has called us to go, is toshare that good news.
That they need Is to go afterthe will of God, even in those
moments where it calls us toNineveh, even those moments
where it is uncomfortable, evenin those moments where God I
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don't know how you're gonna comethrough in this moment but even
in those times to say God, ifyou called me, I will go.
Wherever you lead, I'll goWherever you take.
Say God, if you called me, Iwill go Wherever you lead, I'll
go Wherever you take me.
God, I am your servant.
God, your will be done and itwill be done.
But, lord, can I join you inthis mission?
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Can I not find myself runningaway to Tarshish, but can I find
myself in the will of God?
Lord Jesus, obedient to you,let's pray together and as I end
this prayer, we'll worshipagain and maybe there's a
decision you'd like to make.
Maybe you want to come chat.
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I can pray over you.
Maybe you want to join thischurch or you want to know more
about Jesus Christ and how tofind life in him.
I'd love to introduce you.
However you want to respond,I'll be down front.
Let's pray together.
Lord Jesus, I thank you for thegospel.
Thank you that when each one ofus were running away in our
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disobedience, god, you found us.
You found us where we were.
You brought us to where youwere.
Lord, you are good and you arefaithful.
Lord, let us seek your willcontinually and, lord, let us be
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individuals that, in ourobedience, we would follow after
you.
Follow after your will, be onboard your mission quick to obey
where you call us, where yousend us, and Lord, if there's
one, if there's more in thisroom this morning where you send
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us, and Lord, if there's one,if there's more in this room
this morning that want to makeany decision, would that happen
now?
I pray that in Christ's name,amen.
Would you stand?
We'll worship together and I'llbe down front.
Amen.
This morning we're going tocontinue as we walk through a
series in the book of Jonah.
We're going to continue withJonah, chapter 1.
We left last week realizingthat we had a prophet on the run
.
We had a prophet doing exactlywhat prophets were not supposed
(00:24):
to be doing.
We had a prophet running awayfrom the will of God.
It's been said that the word ofGod exists to comfort the
afflicted and to afflict thecomforting or the comforted,
excuse me, the comfortable.
To comfort the afflicted and toafflict the comfortable.
(00:47):
Did you catch that?
That to those of us that cometo the word of God battered and
bruised and broken and we need aword of encouragement and hope
and we know our only hope is inhim.
That word of God will sustainus.
But there are those times inlife where we come and we're
just comfortable.
And I'm not saying there'sanything wrong with comfort.
(01:08):
What I mean by that is we'recomplacent, we're just going
through the motions, we'resaying all is well in our world,
that at the end of the day,surely we have control over our
lives and surely we can be the,the master, and we can, we can
be the Lord of our lives.
And we've got this thingfigured out and in those moments
the word of God comes to us andit really kind of disrupts our
(01:31):
comfort, disrupts ourcomplacency.
The book of Jonah, I believe,is a wake-up call to complacency
.
It's a wake-up call when wefind ourselves just saying that
we are really in control andsaying God, it's okay, I can
take it from here.
It's a wake-up call to that andwe're going to see very clearly
(01:53):
today the wake-up call thatJonah gets and I want us to see
this really one point throughoutthe day that the disobedience
of man cannot undo the will ofGod, that the disobedience of
man cannot undo the will of Godand church family.
That's good news.
(02:14):
We'll pick up in verse 3, reallywhere we ended last week, but I
want to read it again God'sword, his command, came to Jonah
, called Jonah to rise and go toNineveh.
Verse 3, we saw Jonah did arise, but where does he go?
I don't think our author isaccidentally putting that word
(02:48):
down there.
He says it twice in that oneverse.
We see Jonah was at home.
He gets the call from the Lordand he goes down to Joppa.
And then, once he's at Joppa,the author says he goes down
into the ship we're even goingto see in a moment in verse 5,
he doesn't just go down into theship, but he goes down into the
(03:09):
very bottom of the ship to takea nap.
And that word down comes again.
I believe what the author wantsus to see, what we're supposed
to see from Jonah here, is thatthe direction of disobedience.
It's always a downwarddirection, that when we're
running from the will of God inour lives, when we're running
(03:30):
from the presence of the Lord,we may think for a little while
that maybe we're going up, wemay think that this will all
work out in the end.
But at the end of the day, whenwe're running from the Lord, we
look up and realize this wholetime we've been in the downward
spiral that we ourselves havecreated.
And so Jonah is heading in thisdownward direction.
(03:50):
This is a prophet of Godbelieving that he can escape
from the presence of the Lord.
And then verse four but theLord hurled a great wind upon
the sea and there was a mightytempest on the sea so that the
ship threatened to break up.
Number one I love how versefour ends that the ship
(04:11):
threatened to break upThroughout Jonah.
We see it later on with a plantgrowing out of the ground, we
see that Jonah will kind ofpersonify objects.
And right here we've got thepersonification happening of
this ship, where it's written asif this ship itself is actually
being moved around in the waterand the ship itself is looking
(04:35):
up at the sailors and at Jonahand saying, guys, I'm about to
tap out here, I'm about donewith this, I'm done trying to
battle these waves, and so theship itself is threatening to
break up.
But what's interesting aboutverse 4, at the very beginning,
is this but the Lord hurled agreat wind.
(04:56):
That's interesting to me thatin this moment, when Jonah is
fleeing from the presence of theLord, it is the Lord that
brings the wind to serve as thewake-up call to Jonah.
Jonah is very much unsuccessfulin his ability to get away from
(05:17):
the presence of the Lord.
The Lord hurls the wind towardsJonah.
Now what am I saying First?
What am I not saying?
That any difficult moment andwhat we might call the storms of
life, that any of those stormsof life are caused by the Lord.
That this afternoon, when I'mwalking out of my child's room
and I stub my toe, that the Lordwas looking down from heaven
(05:39):
saying Taylor, it's time for astubbed toe.
That's not what I'm saying.
What I am saying is that thereare times in our lives, in our
disobedience, in our complacency, in our rebellion, that the
Lord will send us a wake-up call.
And maybe you've been in thosemoments where you've been in
(06:03):
seasons of rebellion and you canthink back to some of the
wake-up calls that God sent toyou.
You can think back to theconviction of the Holy Spirit
when he stopped you in yourtracks and you realize I am not
going the direction God hascalled me to go.
And you think about how God hasto get a hold of us.
And God has to show us andsometimes in a very real way,
(06:25):
show us that we are notultimately in control, that we
don't hold the universe in ourhands, that we are not God upon
the throne In fact we don't evenget to sit on the throne of our
own lives but that God is incontrol and sometimes he has to
send us a wake-up call.
And so the Lord hurled a greatwind upon the sea, the great
(06:48):
tempest on the sea.
The ship threatened to break,and then verse five then the
mariners, the sailors wereafraid and each cried out to his
God.
You'll notice that lowercase gGod.
So all of these sailors areunbelieving sailors.
Or I should say this they arebelieving sailors.
(07:08):
They are just believing in allkinds of gods that are not
uppercase G, yahweh, god.
So these unbelieving sailorsare just trying anything they
can.
They look around each other.
Hey, you've heard of this God,you've tried that God, all these
gods, if you can reach out tosee if they can do anything.
And they even hurled the cargothat was in the ship into the
(07:32):
sea to lighten it for them.
But look at this.
But Jonah had gone down there'sthat word again into the inner
part of the ship and had laindown and was fast asleep.
Think about the irony of this.
There is a man of God on thisboat, there is a prophet of God
(07:54):
on this ship today, and thenthere's a lot of sailors who
know nothing of God, nothing ofYahweh, and yet all these
sailors are up just crying outto any God they might can find
and the one individual, theprophet of God, who actually
(08:16):
serves the true God, that canactually do something about this
situation.
Where's he at?
The prophet of God is down atthe bottom of the boat and he's
quite literally taking a nap.
We see later in the gospelsthat there's a moment when
there's storms on the water andJesus is at the bottom of the
boat taking a nap.
But why is he doing that?
Because number one, he's Jesusand number two, the second, his
(08:39):
disciples wake him up.
He can come up to the top ofthe boat.
He can snap his fingers in thewaters, or still.
Jonah can't do that, but he cancall up to the top of the boat.
He can snap his fingers in thewaters, or still.
Jonah can't do that, but he cancall out to Yahweh, and yet in
this moment he's sleeping.
The irony the man of God is theonly one who's not up on top
helping Verse six.
So the captain came and said tohim what do you mean?
(09:01):
You sleeper, arise, call out toyour, your God.
Maybe you've got a Godlowercase g God that we haven't
tried yet.
We've tried all the others.
Perhaps the God will give athought to us that we may not
perish.
In verse 7.
And they said to one anothercome, let us cast lots that we
may know on whose account thisevil has come upon us.
(09:22):
So they cast lots and the lotfell on Jonah Casting lots you
can think of, maybe rolling diceor picking straws, this kind of
thing to figure out who causedthis, who's the reason, who's
the guy that has brought thisupon us and what do you know?
It all lands on Jonah.
(09:42):
Then they said to him verse 8,tell us on whose account this
evil has come.
What is your occupation, wheredo you come from, what is your
country and of what people areyou?
Verse 9, and he said to them Iam a Hebrew and I fear the Lord.
That's Yahweh, the God ofheaven, heaven who made the sea
(10:06):
and the dry land.
Now here's what's interesting.
These are honestly beautifulwords on Jonah's part.
I mean, he speaks rightly, he'sa Hebrew, he fears the Lord,
the God of heaven.
But what is so interesting isclearly, at the end of this
verse, jonah knows the ability,the jurisdiction, the territory
(10:29):
of God, that this is the God whomade the sea and the dry land.
And you talk about a prophetthat has just completely lost
sight of his calling.
That the prophet, who knowsgood and well that Yahweh, the
God of the universe, made thesea and dry land, thought that
if he got far enough away on thesea, he could get away from the
(10:51):
presence of God, and yet Godfound him.
God never lost sight of wherehe was Verse 10,.
The men were exceedingly afraidand said to him what is this
that you've done?
For the men knew that he wasfleeing from the presence of the
Lord because he had told them Imean, the men probably made the
(11:15):
point I just made hey, buddy,you knew God was able to find
you on the sea.
You knew God made the very seathat you're trying to get away
from, and now you've brought usinto this mess that you're in.
Verse 11, they said to him whatshall we do to you that the sea
may quiet down for us?
For the sea grew more and moretempestuous.
(11:37):
And look at what's next.
He said to them pick me up andhurl me into the sea, then the
sea will quiet down for you, forI know it is because of me that
this tempest has come upon you.
What does Jonah say in thismoment?
How can this crisis be averted?
How can we get out of this mess?
(11:58):
As Jonah says this pick me upand throw me into the sea.
Now, that's an interestingresponse, because Jonah knows
what that means.
Jonah knows that that means I'mnot going for a swim.
Jonah knows that means that youwill throw me over and that
(12:18):
will be the end of my story.
Jonah in one sense we couldargue is saying this it is
better for my story to end thanfor me to have to go to Nineveh
and preach to those people.
If I can't get to Tarshish,I'll just let my road end right
here so that I don't have to goto those evil people in Nineveh.
(12:39):
But also we could look at itlike this Sinclair Ferguson in
his commentary just a wisepastor and teacher says that in
this moment Jonah despaired ofany future usefulness.
That surely in his mind, jonahthought to himself that here I
(13:01):
am in the ocean, I've run fromGod, I've brought this storm
upon all of us.
My story's probably going toend right here and even if it
didn't, god couldn't use me overthere anyway, god couldn't use
me down the road.
We're tempted to believe thatour momentary disobedience can
(13:22):
undo our future usefulness.
We're tempted to believe that,maybe because I was disobedient
in this moment, maybe because Irebelled here, surely there's no
way God could use me here.
We're tempted to believe thatbecause we have a past and part
of that past there is sometempted to believe that because
(13:45):
we have a past and part of thatpast, there is some disobedience
involved, that maybe I don'thave a future with the Lord,
that any ministry, any movementof God that could happen in and
through me, surely God wouldn'tuse someone like me.
The good news this morning isthis we're going to see it in
the life of Jonah.
You've probably seen it in yourlife.
Praise God, I've seen it alongthe way in my life that
(14:06):
momentary disobedience does nothave to undo future usefulness.
That the weight of our pastdoes not have to determine how
God might be able to use us inthe future.
That we serve a God.
Think about something now thatif God could only use those
(14:30):
individuals who don't have apast, how many people would he
have to work with?
I think of two responses todisobedience that we see in the
gospel.
I think of a man named Peterand a man named Judas.
On the same night they commit asimilar act of disobedience.
(14:52):
On the night of Jesus' arrest,judas goes and for just a few
coins.
Goes and turns Jesus over,tells the troops where to find
him in the Garden of Gethsemane.
Goes and turns Jesus over,tells the troops where to find
him in the Garden of GethsemaneLater that night.
Peter is asked three times ifhe knows Jesus is he a follower
of Jesus?
And three times Peter says Idon't know the guy.
(15:13):
On the very same night, judasand Peter, both in one sense
they betray Jesus Christ.
And yet on the backside of theresurrection there's two
responses.
Peter comes back to Jesus, theyhave a conversation and in this
beautiful moment in John,chapter 20, jesus restores Peter
(15:36):
.
Not only does he restore him,but we see throughout the end of
that gospel and even into thebook of Acts, that Peter is a
leader within the life of theearly church.
Not only that, he's writtenbooks in this thing, peter's
written books.
This is a leader in the life ofthe church who once disobeyed
(15:57):
in such a massive way, yet foundrestoration.
And yet Judas went the otherdirection way, yet found
restoration.
And yet Judas went the otherdirection, likely despairing the
fact that there could be norestoration.
And I just wonder I just wonderit's speculation if Judas had
come before Jesus and soughtthat same restoration if it had
(16:19):
been there.
And I just have read enough ofthe Gospels and I feel like I
know a little bit about thecharacter of Jesus to know it
would have been, and yet hechose not to Different responses
to the same kind ofdisobedience.
There is always restoration forthose who seek it in Christ
Jesus.
That the disobedience of yourpast does not have to determine
(16:43):
the way God might use you in thefuture.
That God desires and delightsto use every one of you, and
that God has a purpose I thinkof Ephesians 2.10, good works
that he has prepared beforehandfor each one of you.
So the good news is ourmomentary disobedience does not
have to undo future usefulness,yet in this moment.
Good news is our momentarydisobedience does not have to
(17:04):
undo future usefulness.
Yet in this moment.
Jonah figured that must be thecase.
He had no idea that God'ssalvation was waiting for him
right below the boat in themanner of a very large fish.
He had no idea that the book ofJonah doesn't end at the end of
chapter 1.
He's got three chapters to go,but still they're going to throw
(17:24):
him overboard.
But look at verse 13 first.
Nevertheless, the men rode hardto get back to dry land, but
they could not, for the sea grewmore and more tempestuous
against them.
It's interesting, isn't it?
I feel like the most nobleindividuals in this whole story
so far are these sailors who, 10minutes ago, were calling out
to every God they could think of.
(17:45):
And then you've got the prophetof God that you know has
nothing to do with God, up tothis point.
And yet these sailors are notgoing to throw him in yet until
they've tried everything theycan.
But then, verse 14, therefore,they called out to the Lord.
The sailors say this oh Lord,in your Bible that word Lord is
(18:05):
probably in all caps.
That means that is the wordYahweh, that is the God, the
true God, that is Yahweh himself.
So look at this now.
These unbelieving sailors whowere calling out to every God
are now calling out to Yahweh inthis moment.
Think about this the firstindividuals to pray to Yahweh
(18:28):
throughout this whole story.
It's not the prophet of God,it's these unbelieving sailors.
They say, oh Lord, let us notperish for this man's life.
Lay not on us.
Innocent blood for you, oh Lord, have told us to do it.
This is his idea, lord, don'thold us guilty for this.
(18:50):
And so they picked up Jonah,verse 15.
They hurled him into the sea,and the sea ceased from its
raging.
And look at this verse 16.
Then the men feared the Lordexceedingly and they offered a
sacrifice to the Lord and theymade vows.
Where does chapter one end?
(19:12):
I know in your text you seethere is a verse 17 in the
English text, in Hebrew thatbegins verse one of chapter two,
but looking at 16, saying thisaccount, this part of the story
ends right there.
Where does it end?
It ends with the prophet of Godin the ocean and the
unbelieving sailors nowworshiping Yahweh.
(19:35):
Let me say that again theprophet of God who was supposed
to be on his way to Nineveh butwas disobedient.
He is now in the ocean.
The unbelieving sailors are nowoffering sacrifices and
worshiping Yahweh.
The tables have turned in thismoment and I just want to make
this point that God can work inspite of our disobedience, that
(20:03):
God's will goes forward, even inspite of our disobedience, that
Jonah was not supposed to be onthis boat.
Jonah was supposed to beheading 500 miles towards
Nineveh.
Jonah wasn't supposed to behere and yet, even in Jonah's
(20:26):
disobedience, god, in hissovereignty and in his goodwill
and pleasure, received gloryfrom even where Jonah was to
where these men and I can't sayfor a fact that it's a
full-scale conversion.
I hope that it is that thesemen followed Yahweh for the rest
of their lives.
That's my hope and prayer.
I hope to see him in heaven oneday, but I do know this in this
(20:49):
moment they're lifting upworship to Yahweh that God gets
glory even as Jonah isdisobedient.
Now, what does that mean?
As we've looked at Romans overthe last few weeks, you remember
Romans 6, shall we continue insin?
That grace may abound?
I could say this.
Well, should I be disobedient,since God can get glory out of
(21:11):
my disobedience?
You know the answer to that.
It's no.
God didn't need Jonah to bedisobedient to save these men
and see these men worship Yahweh.
Do you know?
There's a moment in Numberswhere God's word is proclaimed
through a donkey.
I didn't make that up, that's atrue story.
You can look it up.
God can proclaim his wordhowever he wanted.
(21:35):
If Jonah had been on his way toNineveh, god could have taken
the very fish that would sooncome into our story, plop them
up on the boat and that fishstart preaching the gospel to
these men, because God can dowhat he wants, how he wants,
when he wants.
But in this moment, god gotglory, even through Jonah's
(21:55):
disobedience.
It's good news that God canwork in spite of our
disobedience.
And really it says that thedisobedience of man cannot undo
the will of God.
The disobedience of man cannotundo the will of God.
I think in Numbers, chapter 20,the people of God are in the
wilderness.
They're mad at God once againbecause they had water to drink
(22:17):
back in Egypt and now they're alittle thirsty and they're
grumbling and they're upsetabout it.
They're complaining to Mosesand God tells Moses go, speak to
the rock, and when you speak tothe rock, water's going to flow
out of the rock for the people.
But Moses is getting a littleaggravated because the people
are grumbling and in hisfrustration he takes his staff
(22:39):
and two times he hits the rock.
He was told to speak to therock.
Moses hits the rock and Iwonder what happens next?
Surely nothing's going tohappen next because God's
prophet, god's man, wasdisobedient.
But Moses hits the rock twiceand what happens?
Water flows out of the rock,because the disobedience of man
(23:02):
cannot undo the will of God andif God wills it, god can make it
happen.
I think of Genesis 50, verse 20.
All through this time Josephhas gotten the short end of the
stick.
Brothers tossed him in the pitsold him into slavery.
A false charge from Potiphar'swife.
He's in prison.
His cellmate was supposed totell Pharaoh all about him but
(23:26):
forgot for two years, and sohe's in there an extra two years
.
Finally he is brought out andhe's second in command in Egypt.
And all of this evil hadhappened.
And yet at the end of his storyhe says this what man meant for
evil, god meant for good.
That the disobedience of mancannot undo the will of God,
(23:51):
that God's will and God'ssovereignty marches on.
Even when men are faithless,god remains faithful.
If you want the ultimatepicture of this, you've got to
look no further than the Gospelsas you think about the
disobedience of man, and by thatthroughout this.
You've got to look no furtherthan the Gospels as you think
about the disobedience of man,and by that throughout this I'm
(24:12):
meaning mankind, men, women, allof us.
That the disobedience of man,our own sin, that put the Savior
on the cross.
I think of the disobedience ofthose who quite literally,
nailed his hands and feet to thecross at the moment when evil
had thought it was had won.
What man meant for evil onFriday afternoon.
(24:33):
When they put Jesus in a graveon Sunday morning God meant for
good, as Jesus rose from thegrave, that God can take
situations, even when man isdisobedient, and bring good out
of them.
(24:54):
Think about your own life.
Maybe you've seen moments ofyour own rebellion and
disobedience.
That even in the midst of yourrunning from God, god was not
finished with you, that you wereon that boat on the way to the
Tarshish of your own life.
You were on your own ocean,living in your own disobedience,
(25:18):
and yet God's will was marchingforward and even when you were
faithless, god remained faithful.
Even when you were running, godfound you, because the
disobedience of man cannot undothe will of God.
That's good news, and I'd alsosay this this morning.
(25:41):
I pray it's not the case, butif it is, that any of that gives
any kind of license towardsdisobedience.
Let me tell you this good news.
The news is this I've lived onboth sides of the equation.
I've seen God work in spite ofme and I've seen moments where,
(26:04):
by His Spirit alone, he workedin and through me, and I'm going
to tell you life is a lot moreenjoyable when he he worked in
and through me, and I'm gonnatell you life is a lot more
enjoyable when he's working inand through you.
It's fun being on mission forGod, when you're seeking after
him and, in obedience, goingwhere he goes and getting on
mission with him and being apart of his will and his plan
(26:26):
and his operation.
If we want to sit on thesidelines, if we want to live in
disobedience, god's will willgo forward.
But my hope for each one of you,my hope for this church, my
hope for every one of us in thisroom and outside of this room
is this that, as God's willmarches on that, we would be
obedient individuals that seekto follow after him, live into
(26:51):
that will and partner with himin this ministry to take the
gospel forward, because thereare people in El Dorado, there
are people in this state, thereare people around the world that
need the good news of Jesus,and our job as believers, as God
(27:18):
has called us to go, is toshare that good news.
That they need Is to go afterthe will of God, even in those
moments where it calls us toNineveh, even those moments
where it is uncomfortable, evenin those moments where God I
(27:40):
don't know how you're gonna comethrough in this moment but even
in those times to say God, ifyou called me, I will go.
Wherever you lead, I'll goWherever you take.
Say God, if you called me, Iwill go Wherever you lead, I'll
go Wherever you take me.
God, I am your servant.
God, your will be done and itwill be done.
But, lord, can I join you inthis mission?
(28:01):
Can I not find myself runningaway to Tarshish, but can I find
myself in the will of God?
Lord Jesus, obedient to you,let's pray together and as I end
this prayer, we'll worshipagain and maybe there's a
decision you'd like to make.
Maybe you want to come chat.
(28:22):
I can pray over you.
Maybe you want to join thischurch or you want to know more
about Jesus Christ and how tofind life in him.
I'd love to introduce you.
However you want to respond,I'll be down front.
Let's pray together.
Lord Jesus, I thank you for thegospel.
Thank you that when each one ofus were running away in our
(28:45):
disobedience, god, you found us.
You found us where we were.
You brought us to where youwere.
Lord, you are good and you arefaithful.
Lord, let us seek your willcontinually and, lord, let us be
(29:10):
individuals that, in ourobedience, we would follow after
you.
Follow after your will, be onboard your mission quick to obey
where you call us, where yousend us, and Lord, if there's
one, if there's more in thisroom this morning where you send
(29:30):
us, and Lord, if there's one,if there's more in this room
this morning that want to makeany decision, would that happen
now?
I pray that in Christ's name,amen.
Would you stand?
We'll worship together and I'llbe down front.
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