Jonah: We Can Resist Our Gracious God But We Can't Outrun Him (1:1-16)

Hello, I'm Pastor Creighton, and thank you for tuning in to New Sun Churches Podcast.

We're a gospel centered church in Port Perry, Ontario, proclaiming the true and life-giving word of Jesus as we love and serve our neighbors.

May God bless you today through his life-giving word.

Our first reading is from the book of Jonah, chapter 1, verses 1 through 16.

Jonah 1:1–16

Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah, the son of Amitai, 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 Joffa 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 and was fast asleep.

So the captain came and said to him, What do you mean, you sleeper?

Arise, call out to your God.

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 the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

O God, you have made of one blood all the peoples of the earth, and sent your blessed Son to preach peace to those who are far off and to those who are near.

Grant that people everywhere may seek after you and find you.

Bring the nations into your fold, pour out your spirit upon all flesh, and hasten the coming of your kingdom through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

Please be seated.

Well, for those of you tracking our church calendar here, we find ourselves in the season of Epiphany.

Epiphany means something like revelation.

It's like a light bulb going off.

We see something that we would have otherwise missed.

And the epiphany we're talking about in particular is the revelation of who Jesus Christ is: fully God, fully human, reconciling us sinful, wayward human beings with our holy and loving God.

This is who Jesus is, and it's who he is for us.

Jesus came for us and for our salvation.

The incarnation of Jesus is not just some random event in the life of God.

It's the culmination of God's heart.

It's the culmination of God's mission.

And that's why Epiphany, the season of Epiphany, has so much to do with the mission of the church.

Did you catch that in the collect that we prayed earlier today?

So much of our prayers and so much of our liturgy in Epiphany is wrapped up in what the church is meant to be all about, which is mission.

If we're not careful, we can pick up the Bible and assume that mission is just one thing among many that the Bible talks about.

But Bible scholars like Christopher Wright remind us that it's not so much that we lift data about mission out of the Bible, it's that the Bible itself, the very life of the church that comes out of the Bible, is founded upon the mission of God.

This is how Christopher Wright puts it in his large book, The Mission of God.

The writings that now comprise our Bible are themselves the product of and witness to the ultimate mission of God.

The Bible renders to us the story of God's mission through God's people in their engagement with God's world for the sake of the whole of God's creation, with its center, focus, climax, and completion in Jesus Christ.

Mission is not just one of those things that the Bible happens to talk about.

Mission is, in that much abused phrase, what it's all about.

Mission is what it is all about.

And the season epiphany reminds us of this if we let it.

Nevertheless, mission can be an intimidating thing, can't it?

To think that mission is not just one thing among others that the church is about, but the church itself is the expression of God's mission in the life of the world can be an intimidating thing.

We can have a reluctance towards mission.

We can have a resistance to the idea of mission, perhaps for fear.

What would it be like if my friends or colleagues or neighbors knew that I was a Christian and followed Jesus and wanted them to come to know the Lord Jesus for themselves?

There's a fear of rejection, perhaps a fear of hostility.

Perhaps even for some of us, there's a sense of justice that can inform us, a sense of reluctance.

There's a sense of, well, I'm trying to do all the right things that God commands me to do, and they are not.

How do they deserve the grace of God in a way that I'm working hard for it?

See, reluctance can be generated by this idea of mission, can't it?

And if we if we hold both of those two things in either hands, this imperative to be about God's mission, God's grace, God's kindness, God's announcement of salvation in Christ to the world, and yet at the same time feel a reluctance, whether that's fear or a misplaced sense of justice, whatever that might be, if we hold those two things in tension, then we're very much at home in the book of Jonah.

Jonah is a book full of tension.

Now, when we think of the book of Jonah, what do we think about?

We think about a whale, don't we?

We think about a giant fish.

Because if, like me and you've visited other churches, and maybe these churches have a you know a mural on their kind of children's ministry area, there's probably a high likelihood that it's either Noah's Ark being depicted or it's Jonah and the whale.

And usually a very happy Jonah next to a very happy whale, which is an interesting interpretation.

Yes, the whale or or what's called a giant fish plays an important role in Jonah, but if we make it the total thing, we will miss, I think, the heart of what God wants to communicate to us through this very important, albeit short book of the Bible.

See, Jonah, we need to understand, is not the hero.

Can I repeat that?

Jonah is not the hero of this book.

Jonah, in fact, is a complete blockhead.

From the beginning, well, maybe not from the beginning to the end, but at the beginning and at the end, I think you'll see what I mean.

Jonah is a reluctant prophet who resists and resents God.

Here's how the church reformer Martin Luther puts it.

He says, Jonah is an odd saint who is angry because of God's mercy for sinners, begrudging them all the benefits and wishing them all evil.

He goes on to say, and yet he is God's dear child.

He chats so unhimitedly with God as though he were not in the least afraid of him, as indeed he is not.

He confides in him as a father.

Jonah is a book of tensions, isn't it?

Jonah despises those that God loves, and yet Jonah knows God's mercy for himself.

Jonah is not the hero, but he does point us to the one who is.

And that's the God who is on mission.

God who is on mission to communicate his grace to a world that so desperately needs it.

And because God's grace is for those who don't deserve it, the book of Jonah can expand our vision of what God's grace is all about.

Not just to those of us who think we deserve it, but to those of us who know that we don't.

That's what God's grace is all about.

Here's what we can see right at the beginning of this book as we open it up together.

We can try to resist our gracious God, like Jonah, but we can't outrun him.

We can try to resist our gracious God, but we cannot outrun him.

And friends, I hope we come to see that that's good news.

It's good news because it can undomesticate our understanding of grace and because it can help to clarify and empower our mission as a church.

So let's open up the book of Jonah together.

If you're using the uh Pew Bibles here, that's page 726.

Or you can open up your order of service to Jonah chapter 1 here.

Jonah 1 · chapter mention

I want us to take this big idea.

We can try to resist our gracious God, but we can't outrun him.

And I want us to ask three questions in response to that.

Question number one: how do we try to resist God?

How do we try to resist God?

Let's try and understand that from Jonah chapter one here.

Let's look at the first three verses.

Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah, the son of Amitai, saying, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me.

Okay, let me pause there just for a moment.

Jonah is who the Lord's addressing here.

Jonah is an 8th century BC prophet, so 750, 800 years or so before Christ.

His name means dove, which is kind of an interesting symbol of peace for God's people, but doves are also kind of silly and flitting kind of creatures.

And he's the son of Amitai, which is to say he's the son of righteousness or faithfulness.

That's what Amitai means.

So that's very interesting.

But names can be a little deceiving, or at least there's a tension in Jonah's own character that we're gonna, you know, suss out a little bit here.

For those who are very detailed in their Sunday school readings, let's say, you might know that we've encountered Jonah in the story of the Bible already.

In 2 Kings chapter 14, Jonah pops up as a prophet advising King Jeroboam II about a military campaign.

2 Kings 14 · chapter mention

And in the middle of this military expansion, Jonah says, go for it.

You know, and that's about as much as we see from Jonah in 2 Kings chapter 14.

2 Kings 14 · chapter mention

But what's very interesting is if we go to the book of Amos, chapter 6, we see Amos prophesying to that same King Jeroboam II and saying, Don't do it.

Amos 6 · chapter mention

Don't go, don't do that military campaign, it will be disastrous.

In fact, there's disastrous results.

So if we're a careful student of Scripture, we're already a little suspicious about this Jonah guy.

You know, he's certainly very proud to be, you know, an Israelite, but his motives are a little bit suspect.

And his prophecies aren't necessarily, how do I want to put this?

We need to be careful.

We're a little suspicious.

Let's put it that way.

Okay.

Jonah is told to go to Nineveh.

And Nineveh, by the way, is what's on the cover of your bulletins.

Pauline was asking if it's Middle Earth.

It's in fact Nineveh.

If it looks like Middle Earth, maybe it's because Tolkien had some inspiration.

But anyway, I do promise it's Nineveh, not Middle Earth.

If you know me at 50-50, Middle Earth's going to be on the bulletin cover at some point.

Okay, never mind.

We're going to Nineveh.

That's where Jonah's told to go.

We need to understand Nineveh is um Nineveh is a capital city of what is perhaps the most cruel and evil empire on the planet at that time.

There are stories told about the Assyrians, the for whom Nineveh is their capital city.

When Assyrians conquer a people, they're known to uh put the heads of those that they've conquered on pikes and make family members march those heads around the city as a demonstration of their power.

They're known when when they slay a particular city or village, they cut off the legs and one arm, leaving one arm attached so that they can shake the hands of the victors as they walk by just to humiliate the people that they've conquered.

We are talking about an evil empire here.

An empire obsessed with expansion and conquering and power.

So we need to appreciate this call for what it is.

One commentator named Rosemary Nixon puts it this way: the Assyrians were the Nazi stormtroopers of the ancient world.

They were the pitiless, power-crazed foe.

They showed no quarter in battle, uprooting entire peoples in their fury for conquest.

They extinguished the northern kingdom of Israel in the centuries that would follow.

For Jonah, then, we need to understand, this was no ordinary city.

It carried doom-laden tragic memories.

It stood as a symbol of evil incarnate.

So maybe we can appreciate the magnitude of this call on Jonah's life.

Jonah is being called to go and to publish God's warning in the midst of their fiercest enemies.

So what happens next?

Here's Jonah's decision.

Jonah rose and flee, pardon me, Jonah, then verse 3.

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

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

He paid the fare, went down into it to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the Lord.

Did you notice that repeated phrase, away from the presence of the Lord?

Why would God issue a warning to Nineveh at all?

If they are such fierce enemies, couldn't God just quash it altogether?

I suspect Jonah knows what is a common theme throughout the biblical prophets, that when God makes his word known, he calls us to repentance.

God's warning is like the warning of a loving parent, right?

If you are a parent, or perhaps you've been a child at one point and you've received a warning, you know that loving parents don't just issue warnings arbitrarily.

They want you to stop a harmful behavior so that you can get on with doing what's best, what's right for you, what's good for you.

Jonah knows that God is sending him to Nineveh with a warning, and perhaps, just maybe, this warning might be responded to.

And why does Jonah flee to Tarshish?

We're a little unclear at his motives right now.

They're going to become clear by the time we get to chapter four, but perhaps we can appreciate some of the fear that going to Nineveh would evoke, right?

We can appreciate that he is going to proclaim God's warning to his fiercest enemies, and he wants to go the opposite direction, which is exactly what Tarshish is.

It's like me saying, I've got work for you to do in New York, and you go, that's great, and then you go off to like Whitehorse or something.

It's like, I'm gonna go as far as I can from the context I'm being called to go to.

He's going away from the presence of the Lord, which is not to say that God's presence is localized.

This is a relational term, isn't it?

This is like Adam and Eve fleeing from the presence of the Lord after they've, you know, um disobeyed the Lord's command and eaten of the fruit he told them not to.

This is a relational term.

Jonah, this is not Jonah's will for himself, is the bottom line.

This is not how Jonah envisioned his life going.

Jonah would prefer his own agenda, his own design, his own outcome to whatever it is that the Lord has in mind for Nineveh.

So here's the lesson I think that we're learning.

When we, pardon me, we try to resist God when we reject his will for us and substitute our own.

Now, this all sounds very hypothetical because I know we've never done anything like that in our lives, have we?

Maybe we can sympathize with Jonah here, right?

Maybe we can sympathize with the magnitude of this call.

Maybe we can even sympathize as these images of the cruelty that the Assyrians are capable of.

We can sympathize with the idea that God, you would really call me to go and issue a gracious warning to those people?

Aren't those people beyond the realm of grace?

Surely, if anyone is, it's them.

We try to resist God when we reject his will for us, and we assume that we know what's best.

And what results is disaster.

So let's look at verses four to ten.

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 laid down and was fast asleep.

That's nice.

So the captain came and said to him, What do you mean, you sleeper?

Arise, call out to your God.

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

Jonah's trying to outrun God, and he's finding that he can't.

So why can't we outrun God?

That's the second question.

Why can't we outrun God?

Answer number one, I think the book of Jonah is telling us, is because God is sovereign.

Because there is no realm or area of creation in which God does not claim ownership, over which God is not at work, even the sea, which was representative of a sort of primordial chaos, and Tarshish is as far away from God as Jonah can imagine.

Even here, God can find Jonah.

Even here, God can work by his severe mercy a storm that will interrupt him in his sailing, in his path.

God is sovereign, so he can't be outrun.

But we should also notice this.

We should notice that sin has a consequence.

Jonah has chosen to substitute his will for God.

And if there's any definition of sin, perhaps it's that.

Sin is preferring my own design, my own agenda, my own outcome to the good will that God has for me.

And what results when I sin is disaster.

Now we need to be careful here and not assume that every disaster we face in life, every storm we face in life is the result of a particular sin.

Pastor and Bible scholar Tim Keller helps us to understand it this way.

He says, the dismaying news is that every act of disobedience to God has a storm attached to it.

But he says we must be careful here.

The Bible does not say that every difficulty that comes into our lives is the result of a particular sin, but it does teach that every sin will bring you into difficulty.

So maybe a way of putting it is this if you're facing a storm in life right now, it's not necessarily that this storm is a result of a Particular sin sometime earlier in your history, but for us to choose to sin rather than do God's good will for us and for others, it will result in deterioration and devastation and disaster for us.

Right?

Devastation isn't necessarily precedes sin, but sin is always followed by deterioration and disaster.

If God's will is good, if God is good and he wills the good, for us to will the opposite of God's will is for us to will some kind of disaster, some kind of difficulty.

And this is what's being pictured here for Jonah.

Jonah has preferred his will to God's, and so this storm has come to interrupt him in his path.

Creation is giving way in Jonah's wake.

God is sovereign, and sin has consequence.

Sin is also exposed here, isn't it?

Verse 7, they say to one another, the sailors, come, let's 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.

Now, casting lots is a common way that God's will or purposes is discerned in the Old Testament, and that's probably a part of a whole other sermon.

But nevertheless, in the way that God has allowed, Jonah's sin has been found out.

And here's what's very interesting.

Jonah responds with a sort of postured false piety.

Did you notice that?

They say to Jonah on account of this casting lots, tell us on whose account this evil has come upon us.

What is your occupation, Jonah?

Where do you come from?

What's your country?

What people are you?

And Jonah says to them, I'm a Hebrew, and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.

That's very interesting.

I don't doubt that he's a Hebrew.

I don't doubt that in Jonah's own way he fears the Lord, but is he acting like it right now?

He knows that the Lord made the sea and the dry land, and yet he thought he could flee from God's presence.

I fear the Lord, I revere the Lord, I worship the Lord.

I'm rightly related to the Lord.

That's something like what Jonah means, but he is not acting like it, is he?

Instead, he lays on this layer of false piety as if that can cover over his sin.

Jonah is running externally from God as he tries to flee from his presence, but he's also running internally from God, isn't he?

Because he's putting on a front.

Because he's rejecting God's grace in his own life.

See, we can't outrun God because he is sovereign.

And because sin can only lead us into greater difficulty, whether that's external from us or internal with us.

We cannot outrun the God of grace.

So what's the alternative?

That's the third question I want us to ask.

What is the alternative?

Let's look at verses 11 to 16.

And let's notice that in all the ways that Jonah is failing as a prophet right now, the sailors seem to get what Jonah misses.

Then the sailors say to him, What shall we do to you that the sea may quiet down for us?

For the sea grew more and more tempestuous.

Jonah 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.

Let me pause there just for a moment.

What is it that the sailors are exhibiting here that Jonah failed to exhibit towards them, or perhaps even towards Ninevites?

It's a care for the other.

Jonah is not their countrymen, and they owe Jonah nothing.

And yet, even having discovered that Jonah is the cause of this devastation and disaster, this storm, they do whatever they can to preserve Jonah's life.

In verse 13, the men rode hard to get back to dry land, but they could not.

When there's no other options available to them, only them, and hesitantly so, do they hurl Jonah overboard.

But they tried to do everything they can for Jonah's well-being.

These sailors care for the other in a way that Jonah failed to care for others.

And even Jonah's volunteering to get picked up and hurled into the sea, that's a little unclear what exactly his motives are.

Maybe reluctantly he has to concede there's no other option here, guys, and it's not fair for us all to go down together, so huck me over.

Or maybe he's thinking this is the best way to ensure that I'm not going to Nineveh, right?

Either way, the sailors' first impulse is to preserve his life and to pursue his good.

That wasn't Jonah's.

They care for the other in a way that Jonah has failed to.

But notice the other thing, too.

The sailors have already asked Jonah, call out to your God, right?

We need as much prayer as we can right now, and they're limited understanding.

We need as much prayer as we can right now.

And that's exactly what Jonah didn't do, right?

Jonah knows that God created the sea and the earth, and yet he still didn't call out.

And yet, what do the sailors do?

Verse 14, therefore the sailors 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 only then did they pick up Jonah and hurled him to the sea, and the sea ceased from raging.

Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord, and made vows.

Jonah fears the Lord, but these men fear the Lord exceedingly.

They call out to God in a way that Jonah hasn't yet.

And what's interesting is they have a pretty spot-on theology, at least at this point.

They understand that the cause of this devastation, this disaster, this the imminent cause of their demise is sin.

And if they are going to survive, if there's going to be salvation, they need to expiate that sin.

They need to get it out of here.

And having expiated that sin, they need not just to remove it, they need God's forgiveness.

And it's exactly those two things that they call out to God for.

This and only this being the case, do they take Jonah overboard, and the sea begins to cease its raging.

God's wrath has been satisfied, and it has subsided.

And having seen God's wrath subside, then they fear God, they worship God, they revere God exceedingly, and they offer God sacrifice and praise and thanksgiving, and they make vows, they make commitments to God.

I don't know if this is a full-blown conversion and the way that we consider conversions, but I'm going to be generous and say, boy, they're on the right track.

It seems that they fear God, they revere God in a way that Jonah has yet to show us.

Jonah's made his first convert, and he's tried to do exactly the opposite.

See, the alternative to Jonah's faithless resistance and running is what we see in the sailors here.

It's loving their neighbor and it's trusting in God.

It's exactly those two things that Jonah has been asked to do and going to Nineveh that he has refused to do, and it is exactly those two things that we see the sailors doing for Jonah's sake.

So here's where we leave Jonah, plunged into the tempestuous sea, and waiting to see what God does next.

But I want us to make a few gospel conclusions before we conclude here.

If we notice Jonah on the boat, right, fleeing from God, asleep in the back of the ship, we see that he is subject to the forces of nature and God's wrath.

But perhaps we're reminded of another one, another prophet, a greater prophet, who is asleep in the back of a ship in a tempestuous sea.

But this prophet is not subject to the forces of nature.

He is sovereign over them.

This prophet has only to say, be still, and the sea is still.

And whereas Jonah is the guilty one, and his expiation is the means of salvation, this greater prophet is guiltless, and yet takes the power of sin, the sin of the guilty, on himself, and by the cross he bears it away, and he expiates it.

And he is the means of God's satisfaction and our salvation.

This prophet is Jesus, the greater prophet to whom Jonah can only point in all his floundering and self-interested ways, we see an image of Christ begin to emerge, and we see the means of our salvation.

See, we can try to resist our gracious God like Jonah does, but thanks be to God, we cannot outrun him, because God in Christ will pursue us, and he will be for us the means of our salvation.

And only in Christ can we see God's grace undomesticated.

We see that God loves the world and reconciles the world to himself, even the worst of the worst people, who for Jonah is the Ninevites, surely.

But we have our own version of those people, don't we?

The people we argue with online, the other political party.

You fill in the blank.

We have our those people, and those people deserve exactly what's coming for them.

What Jonah fails to consider is that God's compassion is exactly for those who don't deserve it.

And friends, I'm not saying that the answer is just to be compliant and easygoing about everything that we disagree with, but what if for every time we had a disagreement, for every time our anger or our ire was rose up within us, what if at those times we remind ourselves this person is created in the image of God?

This person is someone whom God loves and calls to himself.

If God can love this person, surely God can love me.

If God can call me an undeserving sinner to himself, surely there is no one whom God will not call to himself and show his endless compassion and his endless love.

Friends, today's the confession of Saint Peter.

We've heard Peter confess Jesus as Christ, the Son of the living God.

It's to Peter that God gives a vision, right?

A vision of a table sheet being unfolded, and all these unclean animals that he's grown up being told, don't eat these, is exactly what God unfolds in front of him in this vision and says, Rise, Peter, kill and eat.

And three times he says, I don't think so.

And three times God says, Don't call what I call clean unclean, or don't call unclean what I call clean, however you want to phrase it.

What's the point?

The point is God's grace is for all.

His grace knows no boundaries, even if ours does.

So, new song, this is our call, isn't it?

To proclaim God's true and life-giving word to all, and especially to those who don't deserve it like us.

Because if we know that God's grace is for the undeserving and we know that that is us, then surely, surely we will take God's grace to all people, even those people, whoever those people are, and invite them to know the love and compassion and grace of God for themselves.

That is Jonah's call.

Church, that is our call too.

And whatever reluctance, whatever resistance we feel to God's mission begins to erode, it begins to give way because God's grace is greater still.

We can try to resist, but thanks be to God, we cannot outrun our gracious God.

Christ is the sure and steady anchor.

When tempest rages on, when temptation claims the battle, and it seems the night is one, deeper still then goes the anchor, though I justly stand accused.

It shall never be removed.

Amen.

We hope that you've been blessed by God's Word today.

If you live in the Port Perry area, we hope that you'll come and worship with us in person on Sunday at 10 a.m.

If you'd like to learn more about Newsong Church, we'd love to connect with you.

Please find our contact information at newsongportperry.ca and reach out to us.

Newsong's ministry is entirely funded by the generous giving of those who worship and journey with us.

If you feel called to support our ministry with a financial gift, please go to newsongportperry.ca slash giving to make your contribution.

Go in peace to love and serve the Lord.