Into The Storm

Introduction

Our new series for the next 4 weeks will be the book of Jonah.

I find that this book is rich in some deep biblical truths.

It is going to read like a story but what is being told has happened historically.

It is not a wise tail.

It is in fact truth.

The author who wrote the book did write it in an extremely beautiful and genius way.

Let’s dive in.

Slide Main Text

Jonah 1:1–16 ESV

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.” 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.” 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.

Slide Why Jonah

Why Jonah

Here are a couple of reasons as to why I decided to take us through the book of Jonah.

Slide Sin & Grace

First, Sin and Grace

I find that this book really paint’s a beautiful picture of sin and grace. We will see the sin being committed.

Jonah, a prophet, actively fleeing from the presence of God.

This is sinful.

But as we move through the story today, we will see the grace and mercy of God as He pursues Jonah even in the midst of Jonah trying to flee.

We also will come to understand how Nineveh is a sinful city.

But yet again, in turn we will witness the grace and mercy of God as He extends that grace and mercy to a pagan nation or city.

Through this, we will also be able to see Jesus and his sacrifice on the cross not only play a part in our lives today, but see how that payment he made extended to Jonah’s time as well.

In fact, how Jesus’ payment extended to all past events aside form those in Jonah.

Slide Relate to Jonah

Second, We relate to Jonah

All of us have had a time in our life where we felt like our way was better than God’s way.

If you have not, you honestly will sometime in your life.

I can say this with confidence because we are human.

Our nature is to do what we please. What we want.

It is only by the study of the bible, praying, and renewing of our heart and mind that make it possible for us to live a life worthy and in line with Christ.

Slide God’s Love for City

Lastly, God’s love for a city

God’s grace and mercy is astounding.

So many get hung up on the “evil” things that God does.

Example, when God judges a person, people, or nation and rains down His wrath upon them, everyone always says that God is a mean and evil God.

Like He is just a kid with a magnify glass pointed at an ant hill.

In reality, he is a just judge.

In being a just judge, He offers up grace and mercy to those that would repent.

Spoiler alert, we will see this for a pagan, evil, wicked city.

So with all that said, let’s dive into our text today starting in Jonah 1:1.

Slide Scripture

Jonah 1:1–2 ESV

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.”

Jonah’s Background

Who he is

Let’s talk Jonah real quick.

Jonah is a person who is a prophet for God. He literally talks with God and God talks to him.

Legend of Jonah

Jonah comes into the timeline right on the coat tails of Elijah and Elisha.

Legend has it that he was the son of the woman of Zarephath.

What happened was she was widowed and her child died.

That little child was restored to life by Elijah and given the name Jonah.

Because of this, Jonah was sent off to Prophet school where he learned the ways of being a prohet and then was commissied into becoming a prophet by God through the other prophets.

Now the Bible says nothing of this though. It is a legend.

Jonah is mentioned only one other time in the bible in 2 Kings 14:25.

So we do not know a lot about him but we do know that he was a prophet that was used by God often.

Nineveh

God calls Jonah to go to Nineveh.

At this time in history, 725 B.C. to be exact, Nineveh was a great city.

It was the capital of Assyria which was the most dominate and wicked nation at the time.

They had a way of killing people where they would barrie them alive in the sand and leave just their head above ground.

The heat of the day would cause them to go mad and they would die a very slow death.

God instructs Jonah to go out and call them out on how wicked and evil they are.

Not only that but also deliver the message that God is going to destroy the city.

Knocking on Hitler’s Door

This would be like marching into downtown Berlin during WWII and knocking on Hitler’s door only to say that God is going to destroy your nation or city rather, unless you repent of your sins.

I would hate that task.

So lets keep reading and see what Jonah’s response is.

Slide Scripture

Jonah 1:3 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.

Where is his heart?

Well we see Jonah’s answer.

I wish that we could say he did not go because he was afraid.

Unfortunately later on in Chapter 4 we see Jonah confess why he did not go to Nineveh.

Jonah is a very religious man.

That is the problem.

He is a man who is used by God in great and mighty ways but his heart has not been transformed by the gospel.

What I mean by that is Jonah’s heart is not fully committed to the Lord.

Where is his identity?

Jonah’s identity is in that of religious things.

Slide Question

This is where I stop and ask you, where is your identity today?

Is it in false idols, is it in religious activities, is it in things of this world or, or, is it in God.

See, if Jonah’s identity had been in God, he would have gone to Nineveh.

Jonah is a very prideful man.

One could almost say he is a racist.

Let me explain, Jonah loves his people.

He loves his nation.

Because of this, he understood that by going to Nineveh and proclaiming to them what the Lord had given him to say, they would in turn repent.

Spoiler alert.

Because they would repent, God is going to show grace and mercy to the pagan city of Nineveh.

Why he flees

This is why Jonah flees.

He does not wish to see the grace and mercy be extended by God to the great city of Nineveh.

Slide Map

By the way, Nineveh is 500miles east of where Jonah is.

The dude flees to Tarshish which is practically Spain today.

So he flees from Israel and goes to Spain, or Tarshish.

Thats 2,000 miles in the opposite direction.

Anyways, lets keep reading and see how God decides to deal with this.

Slide Scripture

Jonah 1:4–6 ESV

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.”

Lord Pursues Jonah

God’s grace and mercy cause him to chase after Jonah

Instantly it is easy to see that God is angry. He is furious.

One would assume that this is God raining down his wrath upon Jonah.

Almost like Jonah just yelled out, “Smite me oh mighty smiter!”

In turn, God says, “You got it. Bam! Storm. Hurricane Irene coming your way!”

But to be honest, this is not what happens.

It is actually by the grace and mercy of God that He chases after Jonah.

By the grace and mercy of God, He throws a storm Jonah’s way in order to stop him from fleeing.

See, it would be wrathful if God had just let Jonah go free and done nothing about it.

Parents

Sometimes, and I am sure you all can agree about this, we want to do things our own way but our parents step in and realize that whatever we are about to do will cause us harm down the road.

So what do your parent’s do?

They give you boundaries.

They stop you from going down the wrong road.

Wether it be maybe not trying in school anymore.

Maybe pursuing after a girl or boy that is leading you away from the Lord.

Whatever the cause, your parents have an instinct to step in and help guide you back to the right path with whatever means necessary.

Now, would it be loving of your parents to just let you go and do as you please?

No, that would show that they do not love you and do not care about your well being.

This is God. In His grace and mercy, He steps in and pursues after Jonah.

Yes he uses a storm but this storm is being used for something bigger than just stopping Jonah.

Captain being used by God

This is how we know that God is pursuing Jonah.

The captian finds Jonah and says, “What do you mean you are sleeping?

Arise!

Call out to your god!”

The captain is giving the very same commands that God gave Jonah in verse one.

The captain is calling Jonah to “Arise”.

He then says, “Call out to your god!”

Translation, “Go and speak with your god!”

You would think Jonah would find this a bit ironic.

Let’s keep reading and see what happens next.

Slide Scripture

Jonah 1:7–10 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.

God uses the Wind, Sea, and Pagans

Lots cast

So the sailors have done everything that they could possibly have done at this point.

They have all called out to their god’s.

No replies. Seems like no one is home for these sailors.

They then take things a step further and throw over all of their cargo to lighten the ship so it won’t sink.

The situation is so bad that they were willing to toss over all of their future income in order to live.

The last resort is to cast lots.

This was something that was used often.

They would take two stones or pebbles, one side being black, the other side being white.

This represented the light and darkness.

If they tossed them, or casted them, they got an answer to their question.

If it comes up one white, one black, that meant to throw them again.

If they came up both dark, that was no.

If they both came up white, that was yes.

So all of the sailors casted lots one by one to see who was responsible for this.

One by one each sailor threw a pair of black sided stones.

Then comes Jonah’s turn.

He is the only one, the ONLY one that throws two white stones.

Well, I guess his gig is up.

BB Gun & Tractor

When I was growing up, there was a time when my grandpa used to let me take his BB gun out and shoot things like birds, cans, whatever I could find, I would shoot it.

One day I decided to shoot his tractor window.

Instantly the entire window cracks. Like a billion cracks everywhere.

What did I do, I marched back to the house, put the gun away and asked to go home.

It wasn’t until 3 weeks later that my grandpa found out or rather discovered his tractor window.

He call’s my mom.

She goes, your grandpa wants to speak with you.

First off, my grandpa never called me, or at least not often so I knew what as about to happen.

Sure enough, the first question out of his mouth was, “Did you shoot my tractor window?”

Boom busted.

Jonah questioned

This is what Jonah experienced in that moment the two stones showed up white.

Immediately the sailors start questioning Jonah.

Like an interrogation.

It’s funny how they ask for his occupation but he does not say that he is a prophet.

In fact he just skips that question.

Yahweh being known

Jonah does answer two of their questions.

First he says, “I am a Hebrew.”

The sailors would be familiar with the hebrews as that is the region where Joppa is.

The second question Jonah answers with, “I fear the Lord, the God who created the sea and the dry land.”

Jonah not only says what god he worships but he takes it a step further and says he worships the god who created both the sea and dry land.

Another words, the god that Jonah worships is Yahweh, the creator of the heavens and the earth.

This completely freaks out the sailors when they discover their is a god that controls everything.

They then say to Jonah, “What have you done!”

Like, bro, are you serious, you have offended that god!

Pick up in verse Jonah 1:11.

Slide Scripture

Jonah 1:11–16 ESV

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.

Jonah gets his way

Jonah asks to be thrown into the sea

The sailors, completely realizing the situation and the fear for their lives, they plead with Jonah to tell them what to do.

Surely Jonah should know what has caused this horrific storm hurricane thing.

Jonah, being a man of great wisdom answers with, “Just throw me overboard and everything will go back to normal.”

Man Jonah is a stubborn and prideful man. So prideful and stubborn that he would rather die than reconcile things with God.

Sailors try to save Jonah and themselves

You would think that the sailors would be like, “Done, let’s kill this man.

Toss him over.”

But they do not.

They actually try to row back to land in hopes to drop Jonah off and then continue on with their way.

Sailors realize Yahweh wants Jonah thrown overboard

As they try to head for land, the sea gets worse.

The wind starts ripping a hundred times harder.

The waves start to get even bigger and unruly.

At this point the sailors realize that they legit have to toss Jonah overboard.

Since they realize how powerful Yahweh is, they call out for grace and mercy because to kill a man, you would get punished from a god.

But to kill a man that was following Yahweh, who knows what could possibly happened to you.

So they plead for grace and mercy in sparing their lives once they toss Jonah overboard.

So they throw Jonah over, the wind stops raging, the sea stops being unruly, everything calms and goes back to normal.

This stirs up a type of fear for Yahweh in these men. A fear translated into the word worship.

Now we do not know if these pagan men stopped worshiping their other gods and only followed Yahweh.

What we do know is that they did start worshiping Yahweh however after encountering His sheer power.

Not only His power but also His grace and mercy.

Application

Jesus extends grace and mercy

The beautiful thing about God is that His grace and mercy is free for anyone to obtain and experience.

These sailors, who obviously did not believe in Yahweh, they were offered the same chance to experience grace and mercy as we are.

It is all because of the cross of Jesus Christ.

Our identity must be in Christ

Now learning all of this is great, but applying it to your life is crucial.

Slide Question

Remember, I asked early on, What is your identity in?

If it is not in Christ, you are always going to be trying to flee from Him as Jonah did.

Even after all of God’s viscous pursuit toward Jonah, Jonah was still placing his identity in himself.

He was so stubborn to accept the grace and mercy of God that he rather be thrown overboard.

So reflect on that, where is your identity placed?

The Lord constantly extends grace and mercy to the undeserving, are we?

If you see that your identity is in Christ, you are probably extremely grateful for the grace and mercy of Jesus.

Slide Question

So my next question is this, Are you extending grace and mercy to those around you?

We all have someone who gets on our nerves, who annoys us.

Are you showing Christ through your actions to them.

Or are you harsh with them?

Always saying hurtful things?

You have the ability to change lives just by sharing the gospel.

By sharing and extending the very same grace and mercy to others.

Believe it or not, it is part of the great commission.

Slide Scripture

Matthew 28:19–20 ESV

19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Teaching them that there is love, grace, and mercy available for all.

You just have to die to yourself and put your identity in Christ.

Let’s pray.