Running from God

We will be reading Jonah chapter 1, verse 1 to 16.

Jonah 1:1–16

And if you're following along in the Church Bible, you will find this on page 726.

Jonah chapter 1, verses 1 to 16.

Jonah 1:1–16

Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah, the son of Amittai, saying,

Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it,

for their evil has come up before me.

But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.

He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish.

So he paid the fare and went down into it to go with them to Tarshish,

away from the presence of the Lord.

But the Lord hurled a great wind upon the sea,

and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship threatened to break up.

Then the mariners were afraid, and each cried out to his God.

And they hurled the cargo that was in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them.

But Jonah had gone down into the inner part of the ship,

and had lain down.

Perhaps the God will give a thought to us that we may not perish.

And they said to one another,

Come, let us cast lots, that we may know on whose account this evil has come upon us.

So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah.

Then they said to him,

Tell us on whose account this evil has come upon us.

What is your occupation, and where do you come from?

What is your country, and of what people are you?

And he said to them,

I am a Hebrew, and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven,

who made the sea and the dry land.

Then the men were exceedingly afraid, and said to him,

What is this that you have done?

For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the Lord,

because he had told them.

Then they said to him,

What shall we do to you that the sea may quiet down for us?

For the sea grew more and more tempestuous.

He said to them,

Pick me up and hurl me into the sea.

Then the sea will quiet down for you.

For I know it is because of me that this great tempest has come upon you.

Nevertheless, the men rode hard to get back to dry land,

but they could not,

for the sea grew more and more tempestuous against them.

Therefore they called out to the Lord,

O Lord, let us not perish for this man's life,

and lay not on us innocent blood.

For you, O Lord, have done as it pleased you.

So they picked up Jonah and hurled him into the sea,

and the sea ceased from its raging.

Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly,

and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows.

This is the word of God.

Great. Thanks, Zoe, for reading.

Well, once again, welcome.

If you are new, my name is Kevin,

and great to have you with us this morning.

If you are visiting and I haven't met you,

come and say hi to me afterwards.

I'd love to meet you and get to know you a little bit,

but great to have you with us this morning.

Now, as you heard, we are spending the next few weeks

looking at the book of the Bible, Jonah,

this very well-known story.

And, of course, many of us would have heard

the story of Jonah and the big fish.

And yet, in some ways, that's the challenge

because we've probably, many of us have heard of it,

and we're so familiar with it

that we can miss its message.

I find the story of Jonah actually one of the most challenging

and provocative books in the Old Testament,

books of the Bible.

I find it deeply, deeply challenging.

And so I'm looking forward to us diving into this together.

We often reduce the story of Jonah

just to a grumpy old man and a big fish,

kind of like a kid's story tale.

But actually, its message is very deep and profound.

And if you know the story of Jonah,

right at the end, the way the book ends

is the last verse is God asks Jonah a question,

and then that's the end of the book.

And we don't know how Jonah answers.

No answer is given.

And the book ends on a cliffhanger,

and the reason for that is because

throughout the book of Jonah,

Jonah's life is going to be asking us questions,

asking lots of questions of us,

and it's challenging us the whole way through.

But we're going to get there in the coming weeks.

Now, the big idea for today,

some ways are simple,

is don't run from God.

Rather, trust Him.

Fear Him.

Even when His ways don't make sense to us.

Because He's infinitely wiser,

greater, and more gracious than you can imagine.

Don't run from God.

Trust Him.

Fear Him.

Even when His ways don't make sense to us.

Because He's infinitely wiser,

greater,

and more gracious than we can imagine.

So, let's dive in and look at it.

We've got a couple of things

we're going to see in this passage.

So, firstly,

let's look at Jonah's foolish run from the Lord.

Jonah's foolish run.

Now, the story begins with,

very famously,

with Jonah running from God.

Right?

Verse 1,

the word of the Lord came to Jonah.

Verse 3,

But Jonah ran from the presence of the Lord.

And this is well known to us,

but it's shocking to anybody that reads the Bible for the first time.

Why?

Because a prophet is somebody who's meant to stand before God,

stand in God's presence,

represent God,

speak for God,

on behalf of God.

But Jonah,

rather than standing before God,

is running from Him.

Verse 3 tells us,

twice,

Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish

from the presence of the Lord.

Again,

he paid the fare

and went to Tarshish

away from the presence of the Lord.

Now,

why would Jonah do this?

This sounds like a very foolish thing to do.

But actually,

we should have a little bit of sympathy for Jonah.

Maybe he shouldn't be so high and mighty.

Because,

what is the task

that Jonah's being asked to do?

Well,

verse 2 tells us,

look at what it says,

Arise,

go to Nineveh,

that great city,

call out against it,

for their evil

has come up before me.

Now,

in order to understand this,

we should understand a little bit about Nineveh.

Who were the Ninevites?

Nineveh was the capital city of Assyria.

Assyria was the world's superpower of the day.

At the time,

they kind of controlled the whole of the

kind of known Middle Eastern world

of that day and age.

But the Assyrians were known

as probably the most vicious,

violent,

and sadistic empire of the ancient world.

They were extremely,

extremely violent.

Historians have described them

as one of the most gory

and blood-curling histories

that we know of.

One of the emperors,

a guy called Shalmanessi III,

he used to commission for artworks

to be made throughout his palace

and his empire.

Stone reliefs would be carved

and artworks made

depicting people being tortured,

decapitated,

or dismembered.

This is the artwork around his palace

that he decorated his palace with

and his empire.

Assyrian soldiers would sometimes,

in battle,

they wouldn't kill their enemies,

but they'd cut off their legs,

cut off one of their arms,

and leave one arm still in place

so that they could shake the hand

of their victims

as they left them to bleed to death.

Other accounts tell us of sometimes,

one author describes the way that

the Assyrians would force family members

to march through the streets of the city

with poles,

with the decapitated heads

of their loved ones,

through the streets,

parading their defeat.

Other records have spoken about them

skinning their enemies alive,

throwing salt on the wounds,

and then leaving them to dry

and die in the sun.

This is one of the cruelest,

most violent empires

of the ancient world,

and what is Jonah being asked to do?

Go to their streets

and tell them that they are bad people

and that they should stop their ways.

One commentator said,

this is like a rabbi

standing in the streets of Berlin,

Germany,

in the 1940s,

crying out against the Nazi empire.

How long do you think

he's going to last?

And yet this is what God

is asking Jonah to do.

And so Jonah's response

is to run.

And so instead of going east

to Nineveh,

he gets on a ship

to go west of the land,

of the seas,

to Tarshish,

as far away as he can

from Nineveh.

But as the author wants us to see,

Jonah is not just running

away from Nineveh,

he's running away from God.

Twice the verse tells us,

verse 3,

Jonah rose to flee

to Tarshish

from the presence of the Lord.

But of course,

running doesn't solve

Jonah's problems,

does it?

No more than running

solves our problems.

Jeremiah the prophet

said this,

Can a man hide himself

in secret places

that I cannot see him?

Do I not fill

heaven and earth,

declares the Lord?

Or think of the famous

Psalm 139

that Jonah probably

would have known about.

Psalm 139,

David writes,

O Lord,

you have searched me

and you know me.

You know when I sit down

and when I rise up.

You search out my path

and my lying down.

You are acquainted

with all of my ways.

Where shall I go

from your spirit?

Where shall I flee

from your presence?

And yet despite all this,

Jonah tries to run

from the God

that he claims

to believe in.

Now,

before we move on

to the story,

three very brief implications,

a quick implications

for us is this.

Firstly,

if you are a follower

of Jesus

or if you're considering

becoming a follower

of Jesus,

when God calls us,

He calls us

to difficult things.

God often calls us

to difficult things.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

said this,

when God calls a man

or woman to Himself,

He bids Him

to come and die,

to lay down our lives,

to pick up our cross

and to follow Him,

to die to our selfish dreams,

to die to the idea

of being our own Lord

and King and Master,

to die to the life

of comfort

and convenience

and ease.

Jesus' call

to follow Him

is not a call

to comfort

and convenience.

It's a call

to follow Him.

And as we heard last week,

where did Jesus go?

He went to the cross.

Jesus,

when speaking to His disciples,

He reveals Himself

as the Messiah King

and then His very next line is,

If anyone would come after Me,

let him deny himself,

pick up His cross

and follow Me.

And friends,

because we live

in a therapeutic age,

what that means is

we tend to think

that what feels good

must be good

or what feels right

must be right

and what feels uncomfortable

or difficult

or hard

must be wrong

and certainly not God's will.

But Jonah reminds us,

as does the whole of Scripture,

that when God calls us,

He calls us to difficult things.

He calls us to live by faith,

to trust Him,

despite the difficulty

to which He calls us.

And that leads

to the second implication,

which is that God's call

is not just that God

wants to work through us,

but God wants to work in us.

When God calls us,

He wants to change us.

The story of Jonah,

as we're going to see

over the next couple of weeks,

is God is going to change Jonah

in the process.

Jonah needs to hear

the message of God's

transforming and redeeming grace

just as much

as the Ninevites do himself.

To Jonah's great surprise,

God will work through him,

but what the book of Jonah

wants to show us

is how much Jonah himself

needs to change.

When God calls us,

He's also to call

to transformation.

Friends, isn't that true

of all of us?

When God calls you

to serve or lead,

we're not just called

to carry His message,

but to be changed

by it ourselves.

And then here's

the third brief implication.

In running from God's word,

Jonah is running

from God Himself.

You notice verse 1 says,

the word of the Lord

came to Jonah.

Jonah doesn't like the word,

so he runs away.

But what does verse 3 say?

Jonah is running

from God's presence.

Throughout the Bible,

we see these

interconnected things.

You can't reject God's word

without rejecting God Himself.

You cannot run away

from God's command

without also running away

from relationship with Him.

Jonah runs from God's word,

and he ends up running away

from the presence of the Lord.

And so,

Jonah's not convinced,

and so he runs from God,

which is a very foolish

thing to do,

because in running from God,

Jonah runs into a storm.

Look at verse 4 with me.

It says,

the Lord hurled

a great wind upon the sea,

and there was a mighty tempest

on the sea,

so that the ship

threatened to break up.

The mariners were afraid,

and each cried out

to his God.

They hurled the cargo

that was on the ship

into the sea

to lighten it.

But Jonah had gone down

into the inner parts

of the ship,

and laid down

and was fast asleep.

Friends,

here we see,

in a very vivid way,

the foolishness of sin.

And one of the lessons

we want to see here

is what Tim Keller says,

that all sin

has a storm

attached to it.

All sin

has a storm

attached to it.

And the reason for this

is actually

quite intuitive.

If you think about it,

in any area of life,

when we go against

something's purpose

or its design,

that thing strikes

back at you,

right?

If you are indifferent

about your health,

your health is going

to strike back at you,

right?

You can't be indifferent

about your health

and your physical well-being

and still live

a healthy life

and expect to be

well and healthy.

Friends,

we can't be indifferent

towards our financial lives

and expect to be

financially healthy.

Friends,

you can't take

a relationship

with your spouse

for granted

and expect a happy

and healthy marriage.

In the same ways,

we can't take

a relationship

with the sovereign God

for granted,

be indifferent

towards Him

and expect to still

flourish in the world

that He's made

and He's created.

And so the God

of all creation says,

if you're indifferent

and reject me,

it does bite back.

There's a storm

attached to every sin.

One of the literary features

in the book of Jonah,

Jonah is a literary

masterpiece.

It's unbelievable

and I hope you get to

enjoy it as you read it.

But one of the literary

features here

that commentators

often point out

is that in this chapter

it begins off

with God saying,

arise,

go to Nineveh.

Nineveh is in the north

east of Jerusalem.

Arise,

go to Nineveh.

And yet the story

tells us that Jonah

goes down,

down,

down,

down to Joppa,

down to a ship,

down into the ship,

down into the hell

and ultimately

down into the sea.

And it's almost like

the author is wanting

us to see

that Jonah's life

is spiraling downhill

as he runs away

from God.

Because this is how

life in God's

creation work.

All sin has a storm

attached to it.

Now of course

we need to be careful

here because this

doesn't mean that

every time we are

in a storm

it's necessarily

because of a sin.

Life is sometimes

hard.

We are born

into a difficult

world.

Life will,

storms will come

our way.

We have to live

by faith

in the midst

of hardship.

Sometimes God

calls us to

difficult and

challenging things

and we feel

like we've walked

into a storm.

And yet,

that doesn't negate

what the Bible

clearly says,

that while not

all difficulties

are a result

of sin,

all sin will

bring us

into immense

difficulty.

That running

from God

means running

into a storm

of our own

making.

And in Jonah's

account here,

the storm is

dramatic and

it's immediate.

It's almost

within a couple

of hours the

storm comes up.

In our lives,

often the storm

is slow

and we don't

realize it.

And Jonah here,

it seems like he

goes into the

boat and goes

to sleep.

And while he's

asleep,

he's oblivious

to the fact that

a storm is

brewing.

It comes

upon him.

Isn't that so

often like our

lives?

We run

from God

and before we

realize it,

we wake up

and a storm

is upon us.

A storm

of our own

making.

Jonah's foolish

run from God.

But also we see

in this passage,

Jonah's empty

declaration,

his hollow

declaration.

Now,

we've seen Jonah's

been running

from God

and a storm

has come

upon him.

But why

is that?

We still haven't

got to why.

Now,

as I said

earlier,

Jonah is a

literary masterpiece.

It's beautifully

constructed.

And I want you

to look at

the slide,

the structure

of Jonah

Jonah 1 · chapter mention

chapter 1.

This is called

a chiasm

where the first

sentence and the

last sentence

mirror each

other and the

second part and

the second last

part mirror each

other.

And it mirrors

in a kind of

arrow-shaped

direction.

And then the

central part of

the chapter is

what the author

wants us to take

note of.

This is a

literary device

that writers in

the ancient world

used.

And here,

there's the

beautiful chiasm

in Jonah chapter 1.

Jonah 1 · chapter mention

So look at

verse 4,

the Lord hurls a

storm in the sea.

Verse 15,

the sailors hurl

Jonah into the

sea.

In verse 5,

the sailors pray

and act.

In verse 13 and

14,

the sailors act

and pray.

In verse 6,

the sailors

question Jonah.

In verse 10,

the sailors

question Jonah again.

So there's this

mirroring that

happens.

And right in the

center,

in verse 9,

is Jonah's words.

And the author

has structured it

like this because

the author wants

us to take note

of Jonah's words.

What he says here.

The sailors,

look at verse 9,

the sailors try to

save themselves,

they can't,

they draw lots and

they find out Jonah's

the one at fault.

And so they ask him

what he's done.

They say,

tell us on whose

account has this

evil come?

What is your

occupation?

Where do you

come from?

What is your

country?

What people are

you?

And verse 9 is

the key.

Jonah says,

I am a Hebrew.

I fear the Lord,

the God of heaven,

who made the sea

and the dry land.

Now,

as we're going to

see in coming

weeks,

the book of Jonah

is full of irony.

Almost every

chapter,

there are these

amazing ironies.

God calls Jonah

to rise,

and he goes down,

down,

down.

God tells Jonah

to go east,

and he goes west.

God tells Jonah

to tell the

Ninevites to repent,

they do,

and then he's

bit and angry

that they listen

to him.

There are all

these ironies,

right?

But here in

verse 9,

is a dramatic

irony once

again.

Jonah gives

this remarkable

declaration of

his faith,

and yet it's

deeply ironic,

and for two

reasons.

Look at this.

Firstly,

he says,

I'm a follower

of the Lord,

Yahweh,

the God of

heaven,

the maker of

the sea and

the dry land.

Jonah says

that he follows

the God who is

sovereign over

everything.

There is no

part of creation

over which God

is not sovereign

and in charge,

and yet where is

Jonah running

away?

Out of the

land into the

sea,

right?

In the ancient

world,

all nations

believed in a

buffet of

gods.

So there's

the God of

the sea,

the God of

the land,

the God of

the crops,

the God of

the stars,

the God of

the weather,

and you would

worship the

different gods.

And Jonah

says,

that's not my

God.

The God I

believe in is

the Lord of

everything,

the maker of

heaven and

earth,

the land and

the sea,

everything in it.

Jonah says,

my God is the

creator and

sustainer of

everyone and

everything.

He is eternal,

infinite,

and unchangeable,

and his power and

perfection,

his goodness and

grace,

his justice,

mercy,

and truth.

Does that sound

familiar?

That's the

catechism we

said earlier.

Okay?

So Jonah's

confessing,

my God is

Lord of

everything,

and yet when

God says,

go here,

he says,

I think I'm

going to run

away by the

sea and God

won't find

me.

Jonah makes

a declaration of

his faith,

but he doesn't

really believe it,

does it?

His declaration

is actually

empty.

It's hollow.

In his heart

of hearts,

he doesn't

believe what

he professes

with his

mouth.

Jonah says

he believes

in the

sovereign God,

but he's

running away

from him.

But here's

the second

irony.

In many

ways,

this is the

heart of

chapter one,

that while

Jonah confesses

to fearing

God,

it's actually

the unbelieving

sailors who

truly fear God

and fear him

more than

Jonah.

Jonah says

in verse

nine,

I am a

Hebrew.

I fear

the God

of all

creation.

But look

at verse

14 with

me.

Jonah tells

him that

the storm

is because

of him.

The only

way to

calm the

storm is

to hurl

them in

the sea.

Verse

14,

then they

called out

to the

Lord and

they said,

O Lord,

do not let

us perish

for this

man's

life.

Lay not

on us

innocent

blood,

for you,

O Lord,

have done

as you

pleased.

Verse

16,

they throw

him into

the sea.

Then the

men feared

the Lord

exceedingly.

Literally,

it says,

they feared

with great

fear.

And they

offered

sacrifices to

the Lord

and they

made vows.

Friends,

here we get to

the heart of

Jonah's

problem,

but also the

heart of

our problem.

It's the

same reason

why we run

from the

Lord.

Jonah does

not fear the

Lord anything

like what he

claims to.

He does not

believe that the

sovereign God is

actually sovereign

at all.

Friends,

if you're a

Christian this

morning,

would you say

that you fear

God?

What might that

look like in

your life?

What does it

mean to fear

God?

One of the

best descriptions

is a quote

by the name of

a guy by the

name of Martin

Buber.

Listen to what he

says here.

Martin Buber was

an Austrian

philosopher.

He says this,

to fear God

does not mean to

be afraid of

God,

but that

trembling,

one is aware

of his

incomprehensibility.

It is the

dark gate

through which

one must

pass if he

is to enter

into the

love of

God.

He who

wishes to

avoid passing

through this

gate,

who begins to

provide or

create for

himself a

safe and

comprehensible

God,

constructed like

this and not

otherwise,

runs the risk

of having to

despair of

God in view

of the realities

of life or

falling into

inner falsehood.

Only through

the fear of

God does one

enter so deep

into the love

of God that

he cannot

again be

cast out

of it.

That's pretty

wordy,

but you see

what Martin

Buber is

saying?

He's saying

to fear

God is not

just a

creed or

a confession,

it's to

come face

to face

with the

incomprehensibility,

the mystery

of the God

that cannot

be managed,

manipulated,

contained,

or controlled.

And having

come face

to face

to him,

accepting

him on

his terms,

we find

that we

enter into

his love.

It's the

only way to

truly know

him.

It's the

only way to

truly experience

him,

to encounter

him,

to willingly

come to

the scary

yet liberating

realization

that he is

God and

we are not.

And entering

into that

counterintuitively

is the way

of entering

into his

love,

the way of

entering into

relationship,

the way of

entering into

friendship.

One of my

favorite verses

in the Bible,

Psalm 25,

says this,

the friendship

of the

Lord is

for those

who fear

him.

The

friendship

of the

Lord is

for those

who fear

him.

Friends,

those who

come to

him and

say,

you are

God and

I am

not,

are drawn

through this

dark gate

into the

incomprehensibility

of God and

discover on the

other side,

there is a

God who

loves us

and who

wants to

know us

and extend

the friendship

of the

Lord for

him.

And here,

friends,

is the

difficult but

wonderful

teaching of

the fear

of God,

that the

God that

we've come

to sing

and worship

and pray

to and

listen to

this morning

is not

containable.

He is not

managed.

He is not

controlled.

He is not

manipulated.

He is awesome

and awful

and terrifying

and dangerous

and unsafe

and yet

glorious and

he makes

himself known

and he draws

us into

his love.

Friends,

is there

any part of

your life

you've been

running away

from this

God?

Can you

see how

foolish that

is?

Not only

for Jonah,

but for all

of us who

like Jonah,

think that

we can

control God

and run

away from

him.

And friends,

there are

many ways

to run

away from

God.

One is

obviously

rebellious,

to run

as far

away as

you can

and live

contrary

to him.

But another

way to run

away from

God is to

try and be

good and

control him

and manipulate

him through

our good

deeds and

our devotion.

Another

way to run

away from

God is to

externally look

like we've

got it all

together,

but to keep

a secret part

of our life

hidden that

we keep to

ourselves,

an area that

we don't want

God to touch.

Just this week,

I heard the news

of a very famous,

very well-respected

Christian leader

who just this week

admitted to an

eight-year affair

with another married

woman,

all while writing

Christian books,

speaking at

Christian churches,

speaking at

Christian conferences,

going about his

Christian life,

and yet there

was a secret

part of his

life that was

running away

from God that

he would not

let God touch.

And friends,

as the news

broke this week,

the storm that

has erupted in

his life,

in his family,

in his marriage,

is unfathomable.

For eight years,

no one knew a

thing.

For eight years,

going to church,

speaking at

churches,

writing books,

and having an

empty profession

declaration of faith,

all while running

from God in one

of the most

important areas

of his life.

Friends,

are there any

areas of our

life where we

are running

from God?

This is the

question I've

been asking

myself this

week.

God,

are there any

areas of my

life that I'm

keeping off

from you?

God,

come in your

incomprehensible,

unsafe,

awesome area.

Come and have

your way.

As we come to

a close,

we see here

not only Jonah's

foolish run,

Jonah's empty

declaration,

but also Jonah's

only hope.

The message

of this

chapter is

don't run

from God,

fear him,

trust him,

even when you

can't understand

his ways and

his declarations

don't make sense

to you.

Trust him.

But the reality

is that there's

probably a fair

bit of Jonah

inside of all

of us,

probably more

than we like

to admit,

more than we

like to realize.

And so friends,

where does Jonah

find hope?

Where do I

find hope?

Where do we

find hope?

Ironically,

it's in the

message that Jonah

was running

away from.

Because look

at verse 2

with me.

If you've got

your Bible,

what does

verse 2

say?

God says to

Jonah,

arise,

go to Nineveh,

that great city,

and call out

against it,

for their evil

has come up

before me.

Why would God

send Jonah

to Nineveh

to tell them

about their evil?

If God just

wants to smite

them,

why doesn't he

just smite

them?

Why doesn't he

just destroy

them?

Why would God

send a prophet

to tell

them that

the Lord

has seen

their evil?

Friends,

the only reason

why God

would do

this is if

there is a

chance,

a possibility,

that they

can turn

from their

ways and

find healing

and find

redemption.

Only if

there's a

chance of

forgiveness.

Friends,

why would God

send a prophet

to Assyria,

whose wicked

and godless

people don't

fear God

at all?

Because this

God is so

unlike us.

And if there

is any hope

for them,

there is hope

for us.

Friends,

contained within

the message

that Jonah

was meant

to take

the Assyrians

was the

message that

Jonah himself

needed to

hear,

which is that

the sovereign

God,

the Lord of

heaven and

earth,

the land and

seas,

the God who

can turn

godless

women around

and give

them a second

chance.

The Bible

says in

Isaiah 53

that we all

have gone

astray.

We have all

turned and

gone our own

way,

which means,

friends,

that there is

more of Jonah

inside of us

that we realize.

But just

like God

sent a man

with a message

to Nineveh,

so God

sent a man

with a message

to us.

A message

about our

sin,

a message

about evil,

and a message

about a way

to find peace

and redemption.

Friends,

all sin

will be

punished.

All sin

will meet

justice.

It will either

meet justice

on that last

day,

or it will

meet justice

that Jesus

paid on the

cross.

Like Jonah,

Jesus'

calling was

extremely

dangerous,

going to

a dangerous

and wicked

people who

did not

want to

receive his

message.

Jonah probably

thought that

if he went

to Nineveh,

he'd be

arrested,

killed,

and put to

death.

Jesus came

to us knowing

that that

would happen

to him.

Friends,

unlike Jonah,

Jesus didn't

run away.

Jesus didn't

flee.

Jesus came

to us and

he went to

the cross and

he entered

into the storm

of God's wrath

and judgment,

the ultimate

storm,

the storm

that our

sin has

generated,

the storm

of our

evil and

rebellion.

Jesus went

into that

storm so

that you

and I

don't need

to die,

that he

can pull

us out

of the

storm of

our sin

and our

rebellion

and give

us new

life.

Friends,

we're going

to see

God wants

to rescue

pagan Nineveh,

but before

he gets

to do that,

he has

to rescue

his

prodigal

prophet.

Friends,

maybe today

God wants

to rescue

you prodigal

sons and

daughters like

me,

like you.

Friends,

are you running

from God?

Is there any

area of your

life that you've

kept off from

God and you

don't want

God's word

to come

there?

By running

from God's

word,

you're running

from God's

presence.

You're running

from God

himself.

Friends,

this is the

God that you're

running from,

the one who's

perfectly obedient,

perfectly faithful,

perfectly just,

perfect in love,

the God who

came to you

and for you

to rescue

you and save

you.

He,

this gracious

God,

is the one

that we run

from.

Friends,

are there any

areas of our

lives we're

trying to avoid

his sovereign

rule,

shouting out

his voice?

How's that

working for

you?

Don't run

from him.

Don't flee

from him.

Bow down and

fear him.

Trust him and

obey him.

Surrender to

his sovereign

rule,

even when it's

difficult and it

doesn't make

sense.

Bow down before

the one that you

cannot comprehend,

the one you

cannot manage,

the one you

cannot contain,

the one you

cannot control,

the one you

cannot outrun.

Enter trembling

into his

incomprehensibility

and enter into

his love.

The God of all

creation could have

grace and mercy on

the people of

Nineveh, on the

sailors.

This God can have

grace and mercy for

people like you and

me.

Let's come to him

in prayer now.

Lord Jesus,

we are deeply

challenged by the

life of Jonah

Jonah because we

see so much of

Jonah in us.

God have mercy on

us, we pray.

God, many of us in

this room have

discovered your

mercy.

Some of us maybe a

few weeks and

months ago, some of

us many years ago,

some of us, God, are

still on the journey

towards discovering

it.

Lord, I pray for

every single one of

us and I pray, God,

start with me.

Start with me.

God, won't you

break into the

areas of my life

where I don't want

you to be there,

where I want to run

from your voice and

run from your

command.

God, let your

incomprehensible

power but also

love break in and

let me discover your

grace.

Jesus, we need you.

I need you.

This city needs you.

Come and show us

yourself, we pray.

In your great and

wonderful name,

amen.

Amen.