The Raising Of Jonah

Well, I invite you tonight to turn to the book of Jonah. We started this little book last time. And tonight we come to Jonah chapter 2. And if you're looking for that, that's found on page 983 in your Pew Bible. 983. This is Jonah's prayer. I'll back up to 1, verse 17, and then we'll read through chapter 2, the 10 verses there. This is the word of the Lord. And the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish, saying, I called out to the Lord out of my distress, and he answered me. Out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and you heard my voice. For you cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the floods surrounded me. All your waves and your billows passed over me. Then I said, I am driven away from your sight, yet I shall again look upon your holy temple. The waters closed in over me to take my life. The deep surrounded me, weeds were wrapped about my head at the roots of the mountains. I went down to the land whose bars closed upon me forever. Yet you brought up my life from the pit, O Lord my God. When my life was fainting away, I remembered the Lord, and my prayer came to you into your holy temple. Those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love. But I, with the voice of thanksgiving, will sacrifice to you. what i have vowed i will pay salvation belongs to the lord and the lord spoke to the fish and it vomited jonah out upon the dry land may the lord bless tonight the hearing of his word well if we keep tonight the main purpose of this book of jonah it's going to help us if we keep that before us it's going to help us with what is here happening and the prayer that is given in chapter 2 if you remember last time jonah was called by god a really shocking introduction to this book to go to nineveh and to preach and call them to repentance go and preach against them jonah walk into that city of nineveh the great capital of the assyrian empire and preach against them and tell them a million strong to turn to the lord jonah wanted nothing to do with it of course and you'll remember that when he heard that call he bolted the other way as far as he possibly could in the opposite direction to get away from the lord and from that particular calling he wanted nothing to do with it and we explored a little bit the reason for that which helps us tonight why did jonah want nothing to do with it well jonah had a very unique ministry to the nation of israel to a very wicked king jeroboam the second and to a people who were given over to idolatry and the lord was being very merciful to israel at that time jonah had a gospel ministry to them but and he had uh the lord through jonah's ministry had restored the borders of israel it was a wonderful demonstration of the lord's mercy to them but there was no response there was no response israel just kept going back to their idols israel kept bowing down to all the idols of the land and it's in this context that this shocking call came right at the beginning of jonah chapter one arise jonah and go to nineveh go to nineveh and cry out against them and jonah said, no way. I want nothing to do with that. He went as far as he could. Why? Well, chapter four told us already, and I wanted you to see the reasoning and what was going on in this frustrated prophet. Jonah knew, and from Deuteronomy 32, that at some point, if Israel kept hardening their hearts and stiffening their necks to all these calls to turn from their idols and believe in the lord that what would happen was the lord would take it to another people there's always a point all these calls keep coming and they keep coming and they keep coming and and people get very comfortable with that and there's a point at which when they don't come the lord says i'm taking my work elsewhere when there's no response he moves on that's history look at the state of europe today doesn't mean there aren't pockets where um where the lord continues the work but look at it sweeps through look at the burnt over districts in so many places it's sad well now the lord was taking the work to nineveh and jonah wanted nothing to do with this you're going to take it And Jonah knew what the Lord was going to do. He says it in chapter 4. This is what I said when I was in my country, Lord. This is why I fled to Tarshish. I wanted nothing to do with this. Why? I know that you're a gracious God. I know that you're merciful. I know that you're slow to anger. I know that you're abounding in steadfast love. I know that you're relenting from disaster. I know that's what you love to do. and i don't want to see it go to them not the our enemies i know that's what you're going to do you're not calling me to go there to judge them you're calling me to go there to show grace to them ultimately i know what you're going to do and that was the struggle the marvel of all this is jonah himself became a little mini representation of israel and rebellion to god god had always said that it would be through the nation of Israel that he would bless all the nations in the earth. Salvation had to come through Israel. The seed was promised through Abraham through the nation of Israel. But the immense problem now before us was that Jonah had run. As he ran, he found himself descending further and further and further down four times down down down he went and by the end of this it had led to the lord coming in full pursuit after jonah chapter one uh the sailors have hurled their stuff into the sea that didn't work the only answer was that jonah was then hurled into the sea jonah knowing that this would be a propitiation if you will a satisfaction if you will it would satisfy and pacify the wrath of god that had raised this storm well this is where we are tonight and this becomes immensely important because what we have now displayed in the life of jonah is in the prophet himself a development and a coming to knowledge and understanding of His own salvation. We have the Lord dealing with Him. And it's such an important point tonight because we'll never, ever, ever be effective in our callings until we have first known this salvation. We have to know deliverance to be witnesses, as we talked about in thankfulness in the Heidelberg. We have to know salvation. We have to die to ourselves. We have to rise brand new before we ever lose ourselves in something greater than us. And that's the story tonight then as it turns. And we see this on two levels. We see it as representing Israel, but we also see it on a very personal level in the deliverance of Jonah himself. We don't want to lose both aspects to this. So that's what I want to pick up with tonight. I can't imagine the scenario. He knows this fury of a storm that has come, has come upon him. The sailors are utterly panicked. They have tried everything to appease their gods by sacrificing to them their belongings. It has not worked. After intense interrogation, Jonah proposes throwing himself over into the sea and he is hurled over. I don't doubt that there is anything more terrifying than the thought. I mean, think with me just here for a minute of this thing that has happened to Jonah. Is there a worse thought than of being lost in the middle of the sea, in the middle of the night, and drowning all alone? I don't know. I'm thinking of some of the worst ways to die. This has got to be up there, right? Remember watching the deadliest catch, I mean, I'm sure some of you have watched it. I love that show. And I remember watching The Deadliest Catch and one of the men on the ship out there in Alaska in the middle of the night in a big storm, something hits him. He's knocked into the sea. And I remember this is right on the show. And the captain says, he's gone and there's nothing we can do about this. The guy was gone. Can you imagine? you imagine the darkness. Imagine the sense of isolation. Now, if you're in that cold, it's not going to last very long. But Jonah's situation is a little different. Imagine being in the middle of a storm. You're thrown off the boat. Nothing but in the middle of the sea, in the middle of the night, giant waves crashing and nothing but dread and fear as you bob and sit there. I think that's one of the worst scenarios to end life. That's one of the scariest ways to die. Well, that's essentially what you have Jonah describe now in this prayer. We read that God prepares this giant fish. I don't know what it was, and I know there's been a lot of people who tried to attack the historicity of Jonah because of it, but I can assure you, and we believe in God's Word, we believe this was real, we believe this really happened, I can assure you this much. This was a horrifying moment. In the middle of the sea, in the night, in the crashing waves, a sea monster comes up and gulps him. From the depths of the storm, this thing comes out of the middle of the ocean and swallows him. And he then descends in this creature to the very bottom of the depths of the ocean. And that's where you get a prayer. that's where we are the first thing jonah begins to describe is how awful this descent is it's a descent notice we're still going down he went down he went down to jopa he went down into the boat now he's still going down to the bottoms of the sea then jonah prayed to the lord his god from the belly of the fish saying i called out to the lord out of my distress and he answered me out of the belly of sheol i cried and you heard my voice for you cast me into the deep into the heart of the seas and the flood surrounded me all your waves and your billows passed over me what is being described here in the beginning part of this prayer is a water ordeal with a dreadful feeling that he's drowning he's drowning i think it's it's important to note here that what we have is a description of the end part in life of where his departure from God has led him and brought him. You remember when he was called to go to Nineveh and he fled, he went the other way. Remember, down, down, down, down. And you'll notice the language that he uses in this particular prayer, this psalm, when he says, I went so far down, the bars closed upon me forever. this is the end result of his path of fleeing the lord here this is really i think a such a crucial point tonight this is the end result to his decision to run this is where he ended up sound familiar sounds like the prodigal son doesn't it i want dad's goods i don't care about dad don't care about the house don't care about the lord i want the goods as soon as i can get them i'm gone that's the prodigal son this is a similar kind of situation he's describing the of running from the father and where this has taken him is there anything scarier than to be in a giant storm fallen off a ship it goes away you're alone swallowed up by a sea monster and now you're in bars at the bottom of the ocean that's absolute distress this prayer now the bible uh constantly uses drowning to describe the worst distress of life you'll find this uh in something like psalm 69 save me oh god for the waters have come up to my neck i sink in deep mire where there is no foothold i have come into the deep waters and the floods sweep over me i am weary with crying out out of the depths oh lord i cry to you hear my cry this is a description of someone who's brought to the brink of death such a catastrophe has come upon him that he's crying out for help in the last moment of life in the last breath he can take this is the last minute this is the end of the road what kind of scenario is this in life how do you what kind of scenarios do we get to this point you could think about that sebastian younger's uh the perfect storm is a true story of men against the sea canada counts of of men at sea and there was a description in there of drowning that i think is helpful the instinct not to breathe underwater is so strong that it overcomes the agony of running out of air no matter how desperate the drowning person is he doesn't inhale until he's on the verge of losing consciousness when the first involuntary breath occurs most people are still conscious which is unfortunate because the only thing more unpleasant than running out of air is breathing in water at this point the person goes from voluntary to involuntary apnea and the drowning begins in the earnest after after flooding the lungs and ends any waning transfer of oxygen to the blood the clock is running down now half conscious and enfeebled by oxygen depletion the person is in no position to fight his way up back to the surface the very process of drowning makes it harder and harder not to drown an exponential disaster curve similar to that of a sinking boat you just drop now this is jonah this is what he's describing the weight of this then to say there's a much bigger story to this isn't there do you see where departure from god takes us last time i i quoted calvin who said any willful departure from god's law is running when we run you go down that's where you're headed it's a downward spiral it's captured all over the bible that each person is tempted when he's lured and enticed by his own desire that desire when it's conceived gives birth to sin and sin when it's fully grown brings forth death you run to the storm that's that's the path isn't it i remember this morning in revelation that after all of these things that happen in the earth so many don't turn and repent i often think what what does it take how far down does somebody have to go where is rock bottom where's rock bottom do we have to hit it to repent it's all fair question and yet revelation said even when people hit rock bottom many people won't they can wreck their life they can wreck their marriage they can wreck their health they can finally distress everything in life even to the point of death and then they still don't call out why why why do why do we want to run this Why do people want to run this? Why do we have to get that far to finally hear, arise, sleeper, get up. You're wasting your life. I think the effect of this is from Jonah to say, you don't want to be here. I was there. This descent, it's awful. It ends in complete darkness. That's what you're choosing. But what I love is seeing implicitly what Jonah is confessing here. The sailors had tried to hurl their belongings over to please God. Jonah told them to hurl him. But here he says, for the first time, you hurled me. See it? You did it. The man in the last moment of his life, awake still, drowning spiritually, seeing the distress, says, you cast me here. every um reader of jonah was to understand the horror of it for jonah now tells us that what he experienced in this distress and he's describing the experience of it was the sense of what separation from god would be like forever look at verse five the waters closed in over me to take my life the deep surrounded me weeds were wrapped about my head at the roots of the mountains i went down to the land whose bars closed upon me forever you know what he calls it shale the fact is to say this is the worst place ever to be i can't even dream of a worse place and you stop and you say what he's describing is separation from god separation from god is the greatest tragedy and there's one verse that is so powerful in the midst of this that it should have the effect of melting the heart did you notice what he said in verse 8 think of israel think of him those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love they're running from love they're running from love they're running from the place of peace they're running from the place of shelter they're running into the perfect storm when they could enjoy love think of the prodigal he left this is sheol says jonah sheol in the bible is the place of divine punishment separate separated from god it's a hell for jonah it's used metaphorically he's not there yet but he's saying no one this is what it's like no one wants to end up here it's like being barred off forever forever on the bottom of the ocean can you imagine that's what hell's like being barred off forever alone in the dark ocean forever forever it's being bound in the deep abyss forever the hell of it is that the lord's not there it's a horror it's separation i never realized it i never took it seriously he's saying i chose to go as far from the lord as i could in life and and this is where i ended up and this is why we want people to take seriously the call to believe in christ and to hear what he's saying to you i'm offering you salvation remember what the rich man who died and went to hell and lazarus was at the gate and he went down and said to abraham let me go back and tell my family you don't want to come here remember what Abraham said they have the prophets they got Jonah Jonah told everyone what it was like at the brink of death and the greatest distress of life this is where he is and then it all changes all of a sudden you'll notice here that he says I began to think about what the temple what happened in the temple well uh why was the temple built the tabernacle in the temple that's where the lord descended to be with his people i started thinking about all those times i used to go up to the house of the lord this is psalm 42 i started thinking about his presence i started thinking about what i enjoyed and took for granted things i remember as i pour out my soul. How could I go, that I could go with the throng and lead them in possession to the house of the Lord with shouts and songs of praise, a multitude keeping a festival. That's a thinking of Psalm 42. What am I doing here? What am I doing here? And this is now somebody's scene. He had to die, and he had to be raised up new, didn't he? Now he's saying, finally, I want to be with the Lord. I'm longing for Him. I'm remembering Him. I want Him back. I want Him back. Throwing it all away. This is why the Bible is saying that today is the day. Think how special that is. Today's the day of salvation. Jonah's in the brink of hell. Jonah's describing the horror of separation. When my life was fainting away, he says, I remembered the Lord and my prayer came up into your holy temple. Even then he could pray, and guess what? God heard. Just revelation that came up into the holy temple. And then all of a sudden, something so beautiful happens as he cried out to the Lord. Something so sharp and powerful is said that he heard from his temple. It says in verse 6, that I went down to the land whose bars closed upon me forever. Yet, here it is, you brought up my life from the pit. Oh Lord, my God. You brought up my life. The word means to go up. The text has been building to this. Jonah was raised. And all of a sudden in the next verse, what do you have? As soon as this prayer is ended, the Lord speaks to the fish and there he is vomited out on dry land about ready to go to Nineveh. You'll notice the change here. Speaking of what we considered from the Heidelberg, those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love. But I, with the voice of what? Thanksgiving. Will sacrifice to you. I'm going to worship you. What I vowed I will pay. Salvation belongs to the Lord. That's the heart of this book. Right there. Salvation is His to give. Salvation is His. It's His work. It's His accomplishment. There's no profit in idols. There's no deliverance anywhere else. Salvation comes from Him. That's it. He saved me, and I'll be thankful. From the bottom of the pit, a perilous descent into one of the darkest, despairing moments of life, feeling the horror of separation in the next breath after crying out to the Lord, raised to a brand new life. Now do you see how important this all is tonight for the context of the book? israel god's people were given to idolatry they weren't taking seriously his call to believe they weren't taking seriously his mercy his salvation they weren't fulfilling their purpose the temple was meant to be a blessing to who all the nations did they not think that they were on the path did they not think romans 1 applied to them and god was turning to the gentiles but yet through jonah a great mercy was being shown again to israel a blessing was coming through them it was being announced here how so god always said salvation would come from israel god always said deliverance would come from israel and jonah now has received it jonah's been delivered himself but something more just happened didn't it His life just told a great story. Jonah's life became a testimony of the very deliverance he was about to send to the nations. How long was Jonah in the fish? Three days and three nights. Listen, it's no mistake that when Jesus was being tested by the scribes and the Pharisees, they said, show us a sign. Remember what he said? he answered and said to them, an evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so the son of man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. What did God do? God sent you a greater than Jonah. And what did he do? He faced all this. He descended into the lower parts of the earth, down, down, down, down. He experienced true and real separation. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And after the three days and three nights he was raised, God hurled him into darkness and hell for you. And he actually experienced it in those hours on the cross that you would never have to go there. That you would never have to drown eternally. That you'd never have to suffer that way. That you might then, because of his life, die with him, be buried with him, and raised brand new with him. And as Jonah was raised and then went out with a call to the nations to believe in Jesus, This is exactly what Jesus has done. He was raised and published a great commission to all of us. Our Lord has brought it. He brought salvation, life, resurrection, and now He's delivered us, hasn't He? Remember what Jesus said to Israel. The men of Nineveh will rise up in judgment with this generation and condemn it because they repented at the preaching of Jonah and indeed are greater than Jonah is here. That's what he's after, isn't he? That's what he's after. There's neither Jew nor Greek. There's neither slave nor free. All are under sin. All alike need a Savior. And God sent him. And Jonah tonight was a prophet in Israel who needed to be born again himself. But before we'll care about any of this, we have to die. We have to be raised. Then we're going to desire his temple, you see. then we're going to desire His salvation. Then we're going to remember the Lord. My question is, do we always have to hit rock bottom for that to happen? That's playing very dangerously with life, isn't it? Why do people have to hit rock bottom to get there? Many still won't hear. And the Bible says, today, if you'll hear my voice. Well, I know many of you, and I know this church has a people full who've heard that voice. Praise Him for His salvation to you. Can't you say with Jonah tonight, salvation is of the Lord? Look what He's done for you. Hasn't He pulled you out of darkness and given you light? Hasn't He cleared it away? Hasn't He encouraged you that you'll never have to know eternal separation from God? Doesn't that just thrill your heart? Praise God that Jesus was raised from the dead. Praise Him that through His resurrection He's given you a new light. Praise Him that now He's given us, commissioned His church and given you as individuals to be witnesses to this truth. Praise Him that you share in that body. Praise Him that you are a part of the project of Him taking the gospel to the ends of the earth. We're going to now see how this story goes with Jonah now heading to Nineveh. But I hope that encourages you that you see still again, as we always do from all the Bible, the single great story of salvation right here. Praise God tonight that salvation belongs to the Lord. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for your word to us tonight. And thank you for deliverance. Thank you for a people here who love your word, who believe your word. And if there be any who have yet to turn to the Lord and believe your promises and trust your gospel of salvation in Christ, work in their hearts to turn this day but thank you for remembering us a people who were not a people who have been made a people and since we've enjoyed so great a salvation may we be those who respond like Jonah who say when our life was fainting away we remembered the Lord and our prayer came to you and your holy temple those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love may we remember that with you there is love what a place to be in your house but I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you what I have vowed I will pay salvation belongs to the Lord and all of God's people said together tonight Amen