The Call and The Run

Are any of you familiar with Louis Zamparini?

Louis Zamparini was an Olympic distance runner who shortly after going to the Olympics served in World War 2.

While he was serving his plane was shot down and crashed in the ocean; he spent 47 days drifting on a raft until he was found by a Japanese boat and ended up in a Japanese prison camp for 2 or 3 years.

and while he was there they asked him if he would be a part of war propaganda, but when he refused he he was treated awful and was often tortured more then others because of him refusing to participate in the propaganda

But when the US won the war he was released but had server post traumatic stress disorder because of all he had been threw

He would often catch himself drinking too much to take away the pain,.

Some nights he would actually wake up from his sleep and he would be choking his wife.

And at this point he was not a Christian but one night at a Billy Grahm revival He accepted Christ into His life.

And when He did this his life completely changed and by the grace of God he stopped drinking and the PTSD he experienced was gone.

and I know that is not always the case but for Louis it was.

but something crazy was that shortly after. Louis Zamparini accepted Christ he began to feel like God was calling Him to go back to Japan where he was imprisoned and tortured to forgive and minister to the people who tortured him.

I mean these were people that ruined years of his life, caused unimaginable pain and not just that but they caused pain years down the because of his server PTSD.

and you can imagine the difficulty of going to these people and saying I forgive you and not just that but there is a God that loves you.

And really today we are looking at a passage in the Bible that is very simalar to this story, but we see instead of the person responding how Louis did, he actually runs.

And so we are going to be starting our new sermon series called Jonah where we will be looking at the story of Jonah in the Bible. And we will be in Jonah 1:1-16 today.

And just to give some context to this story, Jonah was a prophet at this time,

and sometimes we think of prophets as these people that tell the future, but really in the Bible it was just people that spoke the truth of God.

and Jonah would have been well respected at this time, and was considered a man of God

But one day God came to Jonah and called him to do something that made him really uncomfortable.

Look at the first 2 verses of this passage because it says this in Jonah 1:1-2:

Jonah 1:1–2 (ESV)

Jonah Flees the Presence of the Lord

1 Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, 2 “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me.”

So the word of the Lord comes to Jonah and says to cry out against the city of Nineveh.

And this was a big deal, because the city of Nineveh was considered extreamly evil, in fact some would say it was so easy that people would even use it symbolically to show that area is evil.

Its almost like if I said your hands are as cold as ice.

Someone might say they are as evil as Nineveh

And not just that but they they were considered the enemy of the Jewish people.

And so this would have been a really difficult call.

And look how Jonah responds and what happens because it says this in verses 3-6

Jonah 1:3–6 (ESV)

3 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.

4 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. 5 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. 6 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 so Jonah decides to to run instead of listen and there are really two reasons he runs.

First off is people to not like to be told they are in the wrong do they?

I mean if you are driving and someone cuts you off and you follow them home to tell them that was wrong. Thats how fights break out right?

And Jonah is thinking I am going to call them out and they are going to kill me

But secondly, at the end of this story (past where we will be today) Jonah tells God that he runs because he knows that God is a graceful God and if he cries out against them and they turn to God, God will forgive them.

And so Jonah runs because his view is these people are so evil that they will either kill me or turn to God and I don’t want them to turn to God because I want them to be killed.

Can I just pause here and say this is probably the most difficult call God can give us, is to love or forgive the people that have hurt us or the people that we just view as evil.

Because its easy to view a person or group as Nineveh, I mean this person hurt me

These people are just evil and are the reason for so much of the wrong in this world.

I mean can you think of the Nineveh in your life?

Because its easy to say wow, I am glad I am not like Jonah because he ran from God

But heres the thing when our view of our Nineveh is the same as Jonahs, and we run away from the Ninevehs in our lives rather then running to them with the Grace of God, we are doing exactly what Jonah is doing.

And I will prefrence that there are specific situations, where God can help you forgive, but maybe is not calling you to go to them because theres abuse or something else going on

But we need to understand that God’s grace is for every person regardless of how big of a Nineveh they are.

And so we see Jonah running and I want you to catch the language thats used here, because it says he flees from the presence of the lord and goes down to Joppa and then got of the ship and went down into it. to sail to Tarsus away from the presence of the Lord.

The language here is really important, because in thee Bible’s original langauge, every movement is showing Jonah trying to move further away from God.

And Tarsus where he was sailing was the oppisite direction of Nineveh

But something happens doesn’t it, because they set sail and what happens? A storm right?

and not just any storm, but a huge storm.

And Idon’t know if you have ever been on a cruise ship during a storm, but it gets a little scary, then add a ship from Biblical times that is way smaller and things are terrrifying.

in fact we are told the ship is getting ready to be ripped apart

And so all the sailers are scared to death. and they are running around crying out to their false gods they are throwing cargo off the ship to make the ship lighter.

And its really interesting because meanwhile Jonah is in the bottom of the ship fast asleep, like nothing is happening.

And it shows that he is almost numb to God at this point.

And I really believe its easy to find ourselves here,

I mean have you ever had a light come on in your car, or a your car starts making a sound because at first its really annoying and concerning

But after awhile it gets easy to ignore and we kind of just stop seeing or hearing it right?

But so often there is a lot of damage happening.

And Its easy to do this with the things in our lives, because God is saying no this is wrong, our consiunce is saying this is wrong, we can feel it physically in our Body that this is wrong,

But the more we ignore the signal, the more the signal becomes harder to hear.

Its easy to get to a place of saying no so often that we become numb to the presnce of God.

And look at the second half of this passage

Jonah 1:7–16 ESV

7 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. 8 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?” 9 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.” 10 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. 11 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. 12 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.” 13 Nevertheless, the men rowed hard to get back to dry land, but they could not, for the sea grew more and more tempestuous against them. 14 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.” 15 So they picked up Jonah and hurled him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging. 16 Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows.

So they cast lots to decide who was the reason for this storm (which was a common practice in Biblical days)

And they decide Jonah is the reason for this stom and they begin to question Him.

And I love what Jonah tells them because he says I am running from the God who made the sea and dryland.

And you can picture it starting to register in his head

That I am running from God, who created everything, I don’t know if this was a good plan…

and eventually what happens is they end up throwing Jonah overboard and we see the storm stop.

And what I dont want you to walk away with today is wow I better be obedient to God or I will get thrown into the sea.

Thats not the main point, but what I want you to understand is that we serve a God that is so passionate about you that he will pursue you even when you run in the opposite direction.

You might be running from a call God has given you

You might even be numb at this point because you have ran so long.

You might view yourself as Jonah, you might view yourself as Nineveh, but the beautiful part of this story is God is pursuing them both.

This morning the God of the universe loves you so much that he is pursuing you.

You might feel like a lost cause, but God sees a person worth fighting for.

And whats even more beautiful is what God does hundereds of years after this story

Because God comes down

and not just that but he tell of his love for us

But the people reject Him

So much that they torture and kill Him in the most painful way.

And even his disciples abandon Him

And I love one of the last moments that Jesus spends with his dicsiples because they are having a meal we call the last supper and Jesus had bread and wine

And the elements represent how he would die, but also why he would die.

And he gave the bread and drink to each person around the table

And he said this is my body, this is my blood shed for you on the cross.

and really whats He is saying is I am dying for you.

These were people that would abandon him on the cross, and Jesus is saying but I am dying for you.

And whats even more amazing is he extends this to us, because while communion is a symbol, its an outward sign of what God is doing.

And what He is doing is pursuing you.

And so as wee close maybe this morning our response is accepting this undeserved grace that God has given it and recieving communion as a reminder of a God that is wrecklessly puruing you.

Will you pray with me?