I invite you to please turn tonight in your Bibles to the book of Jonah in the Old Testament. I won't test you to find out if you know exactly where it is, so I'll give you the page number. That's page 982. 982. This is a great little book, as I prayed, in the Old Testament that gives us such perspective. Similar to Naaman, when we considered last time of how the Lord opened up a door there to the Syrian army, the commander Naaman, through Elisha's ministry, we have something similar here happening through Jonah's ministry and has an important message for us. So we are going to consider tonight the first chapter of Jonah, Jonah chapter 1, page 982. This is the word of the Lord. Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah, the son of Amittai, saying, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me. But Jonah arose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Yopah 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 of them 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 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'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 that it is because of me that this great tempest has come upon you. Nevertheless, the men rode hard to try 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. 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. And there is the reading of God's Word. Well, this evening we're considering one of the most well-known stories, probably at least looking at it from the Old Testament, stories that we've heard maybe in our younger years through Sunday school. Who hasn't heard of the big fish that swallowed up Jonah and then spit him out? The children love a story like this. It's an important story and there's lots to say about it. I suppose it goes without saying that when a story is this familiar and we think we understand it, we think we get it, it really is easy to miss the big meaning and the big message that's being given to us. You can get tied up in a lot of neat aspects of the story and miss exactly what the Holy Spirit is saying to us in this particular passage and book of the Bible. What is the purpose of God telling us this great story of Jonah? If we don't get there, the story sort of remains of no real significance. It just remains a nice Sunday school story. Well, it's not an easy question at first to answer. You would think this would be easy, but there are so many themes in this particular book that converge. So many things that we could study. We could study the providence of God. We could study God's care, His sovereignty. We could make it a book about missions, couldn't we? That's been done a lot. We could make it a book about personal obedience to God. There's a lot to glean from this book, and all those themes are certainly here. But I want to know the central thing God is telling us in this story. I want to know the central thing that God is after for us in this story. And I believe that will help us as His church very much today as we consider what Jonah is telling us. Hopefully by the end of our first sermon here we'll be well on the way and it will have more meaning for you as we look at the character of God and how we should be as His people. The story begins, I'd like to just jump into it. The story begins with one of the most shocking introductions in all of the Bible. You'll notice here, the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai saying, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city and call out against it for their evil has come up before me. Nineveh, founded by Ashur in Genesis 10, Nineveh was an extraordinary city. It was a powerful city, one of the largest cities of the time. It had a population of over a million people. It was, of course, most importantly for what we're studying, the capital of the great Assyrian empire, the enemies of Israel. We read Jonah receives this great call from the Lord to go there, and it just comes, it appears to be out of the blue, to go there and to preach against Nineveh for its wickedness. I can't even imagine such a call. Walk down into the middle of the street of Nineveh and begin to proclaim, thus says the Lord, you will fall unless you repent. Who wants to do that? Who wants to do that? And the text begins to now describe this perilous descent of Jonah. Jonah hears this great call and he arises in verse 3 and he flees to what is called Tarshish. He wanted nothing to do with this. We read that he goes down to Jopah and finds a ship and he gives the fare to go to Tarshish, went down in with them to Tarshish from before the Lord. Nineveh was east. Jonah bolted as far west as possible to get as far away from this calling out of Israel, away from what God had told him to do as far as he possibly could. And notice it here in verse 2. The call for Jonah is go. It actually, the word is come. It means arise, get up, stand up, go to Nineveh. But notice what the text emphasizes. He starts in the counsel of God as his prophet. In his will, in verse 3, he begins a downward spiral. The Hebrew emphasizes this four times that Jonah went down. He, verse 3, went down to Zoppa finding the ship. Verse 5, while the mariners are struggling with the storm, Jonah went down into the lowest parts of the ship. And finally, he went down to the bottom of the mountains where he was by chapter 2, verse 6, in the sea, which he calls hell. The book is full of ironies, of course. He's called to go to Nineveh outside of Israel so to get away from the calling of the Lord, he flees outside of israel the opposite way as far as he can go it's really um a tragic moment right out of the gates that you have a pastor directly disobeying god's call i don't know maybe we've heard the story so much that we don't think about these things but think about this you have a pastor directly disobeying god's call calvin applied it fascinatingly when he said all flee away from the presence of the lord who do not willingly obey god's commandments i thought that was a helpful observation that to think about where we end up when we decide to deliberately disobey here's one of the themes you could run with i'm not going to run with it very far but i think it's it's helpful tonight especially for the children the young people and for all of us isn't it rebellion against this the clear commandment of the lord that comes to us in the scripture Something that we have decided in life to directly go against His will and to say, I will not do that. We don't think about the thing that begins to happen. That there is a process of a hardening of the heart where one begins to drift further and further and further and further away from the Lord. You don't want to start on the path. The farther you go, the farther you get, the farther down you go. Did you notice that? Down, down, down, down, ultimately to hell. It's all right here. If you want to study it and see it, about the path of sin, the path of disobedience, as Calvin said, to the Lord's will and His command. By the end of this, the guy is at the bottom of the ocean, as far down as you can be on earth, humanly speaking, which he will say is like the bars of hell around me. That's what he describes. I think we should listen to that, don't you? I think we should listen to that. I think we should listen to the reality that sin takes one step further when you take it. One step, it's going to go further. One step, it's going to go until the hardening of the heart takes you far away ultimately from this place right here. Worship will be the last thing people want to be in when they're drifting and running from the Lord. That's a clear theme we could run with. Jonah ended up as far away from God as possible living on the earth. But I'm still wanting to get to tonight the main reason here. I really want to get to why Jonah's doing this. What's in his head? He's a prophet. Why is Jonah running? why is he fleeing we know little of the prophet jonah all we know is that he was the son of amittai it says here and that he was a prophet under the ministries of elisha and elijah and elisha which gives us something he was probably a student under elisha because elisha had set up a sort of seminary for young prophets and those wanting to study the Word of God. This is Jonah coming out of all of this. But here's where knowing a little bit helps us from what Kings tells us about Jonah in 2 Kings chapter 14, where we read that he was a prophet of the Lord during the reign of Jeroboam II. During his reign, we read in 2 Kings 14, that he had secured the borders god had witnessed israel's oppression and through jonah through the prophet jonah the lord was ministering grace to a very wicked king in israel jeroboam the second i want you to listen to the language from second kings 14 it's really going to help you understand chapter one jeroboam the son of joash king of israel began to reign in samaria and he reigned 41 years and he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. He did not depart from all the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, which he made Israel to sin. He restored the border of Israel from Lebo Hamath as far as the sea of Arabah, according to the word of the Lord, the God of Israel, which he spoke by his servant Jonah, the son of Amittai, the prophet who was from gath heifer now listen to this for the lord saw that the affliction of israel was very bitter for there was none left bond or free and there was none to help israel but the lord had not said that he would blot out the name of israel from under heaven so he saved them by the hand of jeroboam the son of joash what what a moment in israel's history we read the old testament and we think it was all about judgment judgment judgment judgment judgment don't you well it's important to say the lord had a desire of mercy kept saying it i desire mercy and not sacrifice in this case in this particular moment in history through this prophet jonah he was helping a discouraged israel he was helping an israel that was hard he was helping an israel that was constantly turning its back to the lord he was helping a people through a very bitter hardship the lord was through jonah and the purpose of course was to encourage israel to repentance here's the thing jonah was used to see a gospel ministry unfold to a rebellious people mercy god wanted to show to israel this was jonah's ministry a gospel ministry to Israel. You'll notice there, it said, the Lord, there was nobody to help, but the Lord said He would not blot them out, so He saved them. It was through Jonah's ministry. But you know what Israel did? They kept on rejecting the Lord. Calls to worship would happen. Place would be empty. Kept worshiping false idols. nobody took it seriously israel kept rejecting rejecting rejecting jonah kept preaching grace jonah kept preaching it jonah kept preaching preaching gospel gospel calling people back they wouldn't hear it even though god had restored the borders they wouldn't hear it even though god had returned them they wouldn't hear it just an outward attachment to the whole thing nothing real well jonah saw that gracious deliverance unmerited unfold anticipating something to a rebellious israel this is what makes Jonah unique. His ministry was unique. It's a very powerful ministry. I made the distinction last time between the ministries of Elijah and Elisha. They were not the same kinds of ministries. They had totally different kinds of feels to them. Elijah brought back the law to Israel. Elijah. Elisha, you see the whole anticipation of New Testament gospel ministry. You just see it in Elisha. Jonah's like that. It's frustrating to keep preaching grace when you see no response. You know? It's frustrating to keep preaching these things because you want to thunder down, don't you? To get people cleaned up. To get people to take it seriously. And the law does that. That's the purpose. That's important. But Sometimes you begin to wonder when you have a gracious ministry that you're constantly unfolding to a people, you wonder, does it work? Begin to struggle with that a little bit. Are these people listening to it? What does the worship show? Is there a heart to be there? Or is it empty formality? Is it just attachment? For other reasons, what is it? This is Jonah. but Jonah knew something else. Here's what Jonah knew. Even as an old covenant prophet, he still is an old covenant prophet, there is a time when God would do something. In other words, when there was no response, after a long period of his exercising of mercy, Jonah knew the consequences. What were the consequences? Deuteronomy 32. Listen to what the Lord says. Israel has made me jealous. Listen to this. They have made me jealous with what is not a God. They've provoked me to anger with their idols. So, I will make them jealous with those who are no people. I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation. Now, did you hear that? After a long period of God extending His hand all day long, all day long I stretched out my hand to a disobedient people to Israel. You hear what God said? There's a point at which what I'm going to do if they don't respond to all these advances, I will go to another people he would take his work of making a people out of no people to be his people now this gets to the heart of the book tonight doesn't it this gets to the heart of the book israel was not responding that's the long history of israel this is romans 9 through 11. Jonah was studied. Jonah knew the old covenant. Jonah knew what the message was. He knew the consequences. And now you understand verse 1. Get up. Go to the capital empire of your enemies and preach. No way. I'm not going there. There's no way I'm going there. Why aren't you going well god said i want you to go and preach judgment against them you'd think he'd want that well listen to chapter four when the lord and jonah finally have a good conversation about this and he prayed to the lord and said oh lord is this not what i said when i was yet in my country that is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish. For I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and relenting from disaster. Where is he talking about? Nineveh. I knew what you were going to do. You're going to send me there and you weren't going to exercise judgment. You and your sovereignty were going to turn their hearts to you. I wanted nothing to do with that. This is a remarkable moment in the Old Testament, isn't it? I know what you're going to do. I know what you're like. You're merciful. You're gracious. You turn hearts. You're going to deal with and turn that nation to you and provoke all of us to anger. I know the old covenant. It's a great story because now what happens is is the irony of the whole text which there are so many here jonah becomes a mini picture of israel himself he begins to represent israel's own defiance and here's where the story comes together tonight for what is about to happen now on a mini level is god recreates in the life of jonah for us to study a miniature version of the story of how god is going to bless the nations through israel this is the whole story what we have is god pursuing israel now god's pursuing israel now with the intent that israel will fulfill her purpose and being as was promised to Abraham a blessing to all the nations. So that's how the Lord works here. That's what happens now. In verse 4, we read that the Lord, as Jonah is heading down and he's in the ship and he's sleeping, hurls. He hurls a giant storm so that the ship itself is sort of personified here and realizes it's breaking up. The mariners are in the boat, directly affected by this action of jonah we read that they're afraid in verse five and every man cried out to his god and the picture here is they began to pick up their cargo in the boat and they begin to hurl it god hurled the storm they hurl their cargo back at god to try to appease him it's it's it's remarkable isn't it the mariners understand somebody's angry the mariners understand in their belief that the see God yaw them is furious and we've got to appease them they're crying out to their gods deliver us save us here's Jonah in the lowest part of the boat asleep he's asleep running from the true God of heaven and earth who's blessed him in so many ways asleep here are these pagans crying out in prayer. Jonah's asleep. It's a big moment, isn't it? What was the prophet supposed to do? Well, think of what the captain does at this point. The captain comes running to Jonah. What are you doing, sleeper? Arise. Call on your God. Perhaps your God will consider us so that we won't die. Now, if you're paying attention, that's a repeat of the very call God gave them. Through the sailor now, through the captain, the same call is given. Get up! Stand up! That's what God said at the beginning. A pagan's crying out now. God's speaking to the pagan. Nineveh, see the irony? Nineveh's crying out. Jonah wanted nothing to do with it. The sailors are crying out, giving the original call, crying for what God sent him to do in the first place. Jonah, save us! Hear it? Save us, Jonah! You hear that voice all around you? Utter desperation these people are in. All their gods were mere vanities, useless and unprofitable. They're in desperate need of salvation from the true God of Israel, the only God of heaven and earth who created the seas and all that is in them. And this very original call that God had given Jonah to begin with, arise, get up, the very words of life, He cared not for any of these people that were perishing. You know, people today spend all kinds of time in devotion to things, don't they? Muslims spend hours on the ground like this in prayer to a false god. People devote their entire lives to fighting for the environment, to saving the earth, serving the creation rather than the Creator who is forever blessed. That's Romans 1. How much do we sleep? Not praying, not trusting as we ought, Carelessly coming before Him in worship. Hard to get God's people even to come back Sunday nights at times for worship. For some reason, this is just like pulling teeth for many people. How many cross your path every day who are crying out for salvation? And you have it. Wandering aimlessly through life. No hope. Let a little disaster come. Look at them panic. Arise, sleeper. Arise, sleeper. Jonah's downward spiral had carried his heart so far from God that his hardness of heart blinded him to his entire purpose for even being here. A little slumber, a little sleep. Go to the ant, you sluggard. You're wasting your life. The sailors begin to cast lots to try to figure out this madness and this mess. obviously a fire had come down from heaven to stir up the sea right considering this morning the mariners begin an interrogation of jonah and jonah for the first time begins to confess in verse 9 i'm a hebrew he says as they ask him what is your country where do you come from of what people are you he says i'm a hebrew and i fear the lord the god of heaven who made the sea and the dry land i'm a hebrew do you hear it my god is lord over all he made all this what have you done they knew of the god of israel everyone knew of the god of israel and here's the moment feeling the weight of the burden it's waking when asked by the sailors how to make the sea calm he offers himself he says hurl me over the language here god hurled the storm. The sailors hurled what they had and Jonah says, hurl me. It'll come. Mariners are deathly afraid now. We can't throw this man over. We can't put this man to death. They go to the Lord. Don't charge us with innocent blood. You read in verse 15 that they picked up Jonah and they 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 do you see the story does it come together a little bit yet jonah said i want nothing to do with nineveh because i know that you are the god of heaven and earth i know what you're going to do i know that you're going to turn to the gentiles I know that you're going to bring salvation to the Gentiles. I see how Israel's responding. But this blessing to the nations had to come through Israel. So that by the time the first chapter is done, Jonah has been called to arise hearing the cries of the perishing Gentiles. By the end of the first chapter, he's offered himself. and now hurled into the sea the fish has swallowed him jonah goes into the belly of the fish three days and three nights we know the story is going to rise from the dead and go out and preach the gospel to Nineveh you know this story you know this story this is this one not only when we think about the story that we celebrate what an anti-type the one who in the boat was sleeping gets up and with the word of his mouth can calm the storm right but who willingly offered himself as the once for all sacrifice, the propitiation to satisfy the wrath of God against us. He went there for us with an obedient heart. The only way God's wrath is satisfied. And you see, Jonathan in all of his failure tells us to look for the one who would come as much more or greater than Jonah, but who would bring salvation to the ends of the earth. Israel had to produce a Savior. Israel had to produce a champion. This was always Israel's purpose, Paul said in Romans 9, for from them would come the Messiah. And he did. Isn't it a remarkable moment that even in Jonah's failure, disobedience, and rebellion, Jonah became the means by which the mariners were saved. And the story of Jonah makes us look for a better Savior. You see, you're so used to this story, but imagine seeing this now in fulfillment and thinking about it as an Old Testament story, knowing what you know. Jonah tells us to look for a better Savior who knew the love of god who understood that the lord was gracious and compassionate and had a desire to bless the nations because of his great covenant of grace made to abraham had a desire for a gospel ministry to go to the ends of the earth and knowing this deliver knowing that god so loved the world he gave his son the father did and this only begotten son offered himself he laid down his life so that wrath would be turned away from all who believe here were a group of men outside of israel even when jonah had fled who received the truth of who god is and all of this anticipates what we enjoy tonight that God would open his door to the nations and that today, Paul says in Romans 9, you make Israel jealous when you believe the gospel and respond the way you're supposed to respond. I will provoke them to jealousy with a foolish nation. It's you. With a people that were not a people, that are now my people. That's you. All because of a Savior who loved. I can't help but to think of Paul's doxology in Romans 11. We should sing, but we'll sing it next time. Oh, the depths, both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God. How unsearchable are His ways and His judgments past. Finding out. Be thankful. But I want to say in closing, remember who you are. Arise, sleepers. You have salvation. A lot of people out there this week, I'm sure you could talk to and encourage. A lot of people you could be a blessing to. That's what we should think about. Having so great a salvation given to us in the blood of the Lamb. Let's thank Him tonight in prayer. Heavenly Father, thank You for Your Word to us. And thank You for Your Gospel that's shown all over the pages of Scripture. Thank You for this plan that You've taught. And that this is not plan B, but that it was always Your plan that is here shown to save a people to Yourself from every tribe, tongue, people, and nation. Thank You, Lord, for being merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in loving kindness. Thank You for Your covenant of grace made through Abraham. Thank You for the gospel of salvation in Jesus. May we learn from this as we should to take seriously Your commands to us where we see how far we can run and harden ourselves in sin to take seriously the call to care for others and understand our purpose and to speak the wonderful works of God to people who are lost, to testify that it is the Lord God who made the earth and the sea and all that is in them. And it is Jesus Christ by whom all men can be saved. Thank you for so great a message to us tonight. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.