Father in heaven, we are so thankful for all that you've
given us this day, for the reminders that we profess with
our mouths, words we hear in song and prayer, the liturgy
that you've given us to remind us of who you are and who we are
in Christ. Father, as we open Your holy
word, as we read this account of Jonah on the boat with the
Mariners, we pray that You would cause our eyes to see correctly
in our ears to hear rightly. We pray that our hearts would be
with affection for You and our minds would think rightly about
the truth that You've given us this day.
We ask this in the powerful name of Jesus, praying for the
illumination of the Holy Spirit, all for Your glory and our good,
and the name of Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen. This morning I'm going to read
from Jonah chapter 1, verses 6 through 16.
As I read this, I want to remind you that we as a church, if
you're visiting with us today, this is important for you to
know right from the beginning. We believe what Second Timothy
says about God's word, that all Scripture is God breathed and is
useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training and
righteousness. We believe that the story you're
about to hear actually happened. And we believe that the story is
not just a fable. It's not just something for
children. And already that might make you
go, wow, people really believe that we do.
And maybe you want to ask why it's a question that you need to
pursue, but we believe it's true.
But let me say this, we don't always live like it's true.
We don't always walk into the sanctuary expecting to be
trained, expecting to be rebuked, expecting to be taught,
expecting to be equipped in righteousness.
But that's what happens when the Spirit of God does the work that
only he can do. And I need it, and you need it.
This happened, what you're about to hear on a boat with a man
named Jonah who was a prophet of God, who was rebelling against
God's word, and a group of Mariners who he was sailing
with. I'll begin again at chapter 1,
verse six. So the captain came and said to
him, that's Jonah. What do you mean?
You sleeper, arise, call out to your God.
Perhaps your 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've 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.
Do not forget that phrase. You, O Lord, have done as it
pleased you. So they picked up Jonah and
hurled him into the sea. And the sea seized from its
raging. And 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. Please be seated.
In a few hours, it's estimated that 100,000 people will fill
State Farm Stadium in Glendale, AZ for the memorial service
Celebration of Life of Charlie Kirk outside I Estate.
Millions will watch or hear something of that service.
We know there are going to be people protesting violently.
Perhaps even we've seen it already.
There's confusion, there's anger, there's anxiety.
Who was he? What mattered most to him?
Just before he was horrifically murdered, he was in an
interview. When asked what mattered most to
him, this is his last recorded interview, he said God, wife,
kids, network, meaning mobilizing people.
He was a figure that some of you had never even heard of till he
was shot. Others of you followed him
passionately, appreciating the bold way he would stand.
Others were a little reluctant because of his style.
Perhaps that's not what I'm here to talk about today.
What I want to preach today is that a man stood up for what he
believed courageously, an evil that has been in the world since
the fall. The deep, deep darkness of evil
was met. Hate filled another man who in a
moment believed that this was the right thing for him to do
and he took Charlie Kirk's life away.
Since that time, horrific things have been said and will be said.
So how do we respond? What is our response?
And this is so, so, so important for us to constantly ask the
question of ourselves. Who am I really listening to?
As Christians, we don't just have a worldview, we have a
living word. We don't just have sound bites
that we throw at things. We have a living word, the
living Word. Scripture teaches us with great
clarity what we are to believe about the world we live in, what
we are to believe about sin and evil and darkness.
The Word of God also teaches us how we are to live and behave in
a world that is so full of evil and darkness.
And above all of that, what the Word of God teaches us is about
who God is, the sovereign Lord. And what I'm about to preach,
you're not going to hear on Fox News nor on CNN.
You're not going to hear it in a lot of places.
You might go look for information.
But what I'm about to share with you is what Christians always
have believed about who God is. You see, God is not scrambling
to figure out what to do, what you can be sure of at any moment
in history. And when I see any moment, I
mean any breath in history that you take is that God on his
throne and fully present in the world is accomplishing the
purpose of His will at any moment, the one that's now, the
one that's now, the one that's next, God is moving to
accomplish purpose of his will. God's ways are not always our
ways are often not our ways. Listen as I read from Isaiah 55
verse 8, God's Word. For my thoughts are not your
thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord that
didn't matter to Jonah. For as the heavens are higher
than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my
thoughts than your thoughts. Listen to this.
For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not
return there, but what are the earth making it bring forth and
sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall
my word be that goes out from my mouth.
It shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that
which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I
sent it. And this is what that means,
that no matter what we see, no matter how evil rises up, we
have faith in the living God who ordains all sorts of things that
we don't always understand in order to accomplish the purpose
of His will. Friends, there is no greater
comfort than knowing that God is sovereign.
I want you to see how specific His sovereignty is on this boat.
100,000 people inside the stadium, thousands of people who
will be outside, millions watching it.
This is true. We, the human race, are all in
the same boat. We live in a world that when
Adam and Eve fell and sent Andrew dead.
Darkness, violence, evil thoughts met by evil deeds have
consumed our world continually, and it's going to until the day
Christ returns. So where do we find our hope in
His Word? The first two children born,
Cain and Abel 1 murders the other, and time goes on.
God's Word from Genesis to Revelation is His sovereign plan
to save His people. And God will use evil kings and
godly kings. God will use people who will do
incredible good and unthinkable harm.
And God is always our sovereign Lord.
And friends, that's what we need most of these moments, to anchor
us so that we live the way God's Word has called us to live,
courageously, boldly, with love and truth, always side by side.
So let's go to the boat. Jonah, Juan.
For those that weren't here last week or are unfamiliar with the
story or two weeks ago when Paul kicked the series off, Jonah is
a prophet of God and he has received clear instructions from
the Lord to go to a very wicked people to tell them who the Lord
is and that the Lord is unhappy with their ways.
Jonah is a prophet of God. That means he knows the word and
he knows the one who gives the word.
But because he despises the evil people in Nineveh, he can't in
his mind imagine that God would show mercy to them.
He can't imagine it. And what he can't imagine in the
flesh. And his own mind begins to
inform the way he's going to think about being obedient to
the Lord. And so he's not going to be
obedient. And so begins this dark descent
in Jonah's life, spiraling into the depths of sin.
And it gets lower and lower and lower, but it's going to be
matched by a greater and deeper love that is going to chase him
down. And that's where we are today.
Jonah is asleep, sleeping what Hugh Martin called the sleep of
sorrow. The despair, his anger, his
frustration, his sadness, all sorts of things going on in his
heart and mind put him in this condition where he is exhausted
and he goes to sleep. In the midst of this great
storm, the captain moves towards Jonah.
He uses the same word that God used to call Jonah to go to
Nineveh. Arise.
Captain is now using that same word, not knowing Jonah had
heard that from God. Arise and he says, call out to
your God. Perhaps the God will give a
thought to us that we may not perish.
They're perishing. Now.
I think this is really important.
It's easy to think that this, this story is a boat that's in a
storm. But somehow we tend to think
things are kind of calm. They're not calm.
These men, Mariners, professional sailors, have their
livelihood on the boat with them, are doing everything they
can in their strength to save themselves and one another.
They're experiencing common grace in a way.
They care for each other, but not Jonah.
Jonah's asleep. The skipper calls him awake.
They cast lots ancient ways. This is one of the ways in which
they made decisions. Here again you just see the
sovereignty of God all over this passage.
The lot falls on Jonah. Thus begins a conversation, and
this is the first time we hear Jonah speak to the sailors.
Verse 8. They said to Jonah, tell us on
whose account this evil has come upon us?
What is your occupation? Where do you come from?
What is your country, and of what people are you?
Now they want to know, what have you done?
What God have you offended? The reason they want to know is
because these experienced sailors were not prepared for a
storm. They didn't see a storm suddenly
coming on the horizon, but God, the sovereign Lord of the storm
was bringing it. God as soon as Jonah moved away
from him in his mind knew that this storm I'm going to set as a
specific strike against this boat.
Why? Because I'm going to accomplish
the purpose of my will and saving my people.
And so Jonah, here's their questions.
Their questions are questions of identity.
What is your occupation? Where do you come from?
What is your country and are what people of you?
Now remember this. This is not a moment when
they're suddenly standing in a circle, sitting down.
Everything's calm. These men are soaking wet by
rain and sweat. The storm is swelling around
them. The boat, we're told, is
breaking apart. These are intense, direct
questions. The moment matters.
Now. You've been sleeping.
That's incomprehensible. Who are you?
And then listen to what Jonah says, verse 9.
Jonah said to them, I am a Hebrew and I fear the Lord the
God of heaven who made the sea and the dry land.
Let me say it again, I am a Hebrew and I fear the Lord, the
God of heaven who made the sea and the dry land.
Except he didn't. He didn't fear the Lord, because
the one who made the sea and the one who made the dry land is
also the one who said to him, Jonah, arise, go to Nineveh,
that great land. And then the fear of the Lord
that Jonah had began to dissipate as he went on this
decline. If a prophet of the word, if a
prophet of God can turn his back against the word of God, so can
we. So do we.
We constantly need the Lord's help to show us.
Where in my life am I not fearing the Lord?
And this fear of the Lord is what the church needs to be
awakened to. We need to wake up.
There are ways in which we have simply fallen asleep and not
taken God at His Word. We either don't believe what He
has said or we don't believe the way He's called us to live.
And friends, this is going to be a challenge between now and when
He calls us home or returns. Ask the Holy Spirit for mercy to
show you. Where in my life am I saying no
to the Word of God? Where in my life do I see a
group of people and say they don't deserve Jesus?
Or where in my life do I see a group of people and say it's
impossible for that person or that group to come to Christ?
I'm sure the early church thought the same about Saul.
Jonah had feared the Lord, he says.
I am a Hebrew and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven who made
the sea in the dry land. It's true that he did, but in
this moment he doesn't. But what happens when he says, I
am a Hebrew? I fear the Lord the God of
heaven, who made the sea in dry land.
It says in verse 10. Then the men were exceedingly
afraid and said to him, what is this you have done?
For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the
Lord, because he had told them, What is this you have done?
They became exceedingly fearful of God.
Now watch this. The man who was a prophet of
God, who should have sustained and continued to have that fear
of God, says that he fears the Lord.
But he doesn't, not in this moment.
He is not yet repentant. And yet the ones who have not
feared the Lord, the pagans who have called out to other gods,
hear that the God of the Hebrews, which they have
obviously heard about over time, is his God, and now they are
exceedingly afraid because of who He is.
How could that happen? Because God knows what he's
doing. He moves in mysterious ways, and
he has taken this prophet of the word of God who says that he
fears them, but he no longer does.
And he has put him, as he seeks to distance himself from a ship,
on a boat with others who are about to come into deep
confrontation with this living God.
I'm a Hebrew. I fear the Lord, the one who
made the sea and the dry land. Then they were exceedingly
afraid. What is this you have done?
This is where I'm going to stop today.
When the Church constantly remembers that we are
worshipping the one true God. Who indeed made the sea that
these sailors are floating on? Who indeed made the dry land
that these sailors desperately want to reach?
When we realize that this God we worship is Lord sovereign over
the storms, in the storms, before the storms, after the
storms, then we have a fear of the Lord that is not based on
this terror of not being able to come to Him, but this reverent
awe and majestic sense of how great He is and He is.
Jonah has chosen to flee from Him, His presence.
The sailors begin to see something.
And don't you see the sovereign hand of God at work on this
boat? So let me in here.
Jonah is about to tell them what to do.
But Jonah doesn't know how the story's going to end.
Neither do the sailors. So the sailors are not going to
listen to Jonah until there's no other way, and then they're
going to hurl him overboard. Jonah's going to be the picture
of a scapegoat, which is fulfilled perfectly and our
Savior Jesus. But here's the difference.
Jonah was thrown overboard because of his sin.
He submerged under the water, not knowing that a fish would
swallow him. Jesus became our scapegoat
because of your set and mine. Another difference.
Jonah didn't die, but Jesus did. There's a comparison between the
two that's remarkable, and we're going to pick up here next week
in the midst of this painful, dark season.
The God who brought the storm to this boat, to that sea is the
same God who is in control of everything that is happening
now. May you take great hope and
courage and him our victor. And may today we make much of
this one true God. May he have mercy to cause us to
rise, to wake up, to boldly go wherever he's called us.
Lord Jesus, thank you for this flock.
The privilege of walking with you with them blesses my life
and the lives of our pastors to no end.
Oh Lord Jesus, we pray today that what we have heard and what
we have said and what we have sung would go deep, deep, deep
into our hearts. That we really would be a people
living in fear of the One who made everything, the Lord of the
storm, the Lord of salvation, the only Lord we pray in his
name. Amen.
Please stand.