In the Boat with Jesus (Jonah 1)

WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.240 --> 00:00:04.440 If you're able to remain standing, please do. If not, feel free 2 00:00:04.480 --> 00:00:09.349 to have a seat and let's turn our attention to the book of Jonah Chapter 3 00:00:09.470 --> 00:00:15.029 One. JOANAH'S A tiny book. It's easy to miss if you're using the 4 00:00:15.070 --> 00:00:20.070 black bibles from the cart. It's on page seven hundred and seventy four Jonah 5 00:00:20.109 --> 00:00:24.859 chapter one. This is God's true word. Let's give our attention to it 6 00:00:26.780 --> 00:00:29.100 now. The word of the Lord came to Jonah, the son of Amy 7 00:00:29.140 --> 00:00:33.140 Tai, saying arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call 8 00:00:33.259 --> 00:00:37.450 out against it, for their evil has come up before me. But Jonah 9 00:00:37.490 --> 00:00:41.570 rose to flee to tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down 10 00:00:41.609 --> 00:00:45.490 to JOPPA and found a ship going to tarshish, so he paid the fare 11 00:00:45.850 --> 00:00:51.240 and went on board to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence 12 00:00:51.280 --> 00:00:57.520 of the Lord. But the Lord hurled a great wind upon the sea and 13 00:00:57.640 --> 00:01:00.119 there was a mighty tempest upon the sea, so that the ship threatened to 14 00:01:00.200 --> 00:01:06.230 break up. Then the mariners were afraid and each cried out to his God 15 00:01:06.790 --> 00:01:10.189 and they hurled the cargo that was in the ship into the sea to lighten 16 00:01:10.269 --> 00:01:14.069 it for them. But Jonah had gone down into the inner part of the 17 00:01:14.189 --> 00:01:19.459 ship and had laid down and was fast asleep. So the captain came and 18 00:01:19.579 --> 00:01:23.340 said to him, what do you mean, you're sleeper? Arise, call 19 00:01:23.420 --> 00:01:26.819 out to your God. Perhaps the God odd will give us a thought, 20 00:01:27.180 --> 00:01:30.980 give a thought to us, that we may not perish. And they said 21 00:01:32.019 --> 00:01:34.370 to one another, come, let us cast lots that we may know on 22 00:01:34.409 --> 00:01:40.329 whose account this evil has come upon us. So they cast lots and the 23 00:01:40.450 --> 00:01:44.730 lot fell on Jonah, and they said to him, tell us on whose 24 00:01:44.810 --> 00:01:48.760 account this evil has come upon us. What is your occupation and where do 25 00:01:48.799 --> 00:01:51.359 you come from? What is your country and of what people are you? 26 00:01:52.959 --> 00:01:57.640 And he said to them, I am a Hebrew and I fear Yah Way, 27 00:01:59.480 --> 00:02:02.790 the Lord, the God of Heaven, who made the sea in the 28 00:02:02.829 --> 00:02:13.469 dry land. Then the men were exceedingly afraid and said to him, what 29 00:02:13.949 --> 00:02:17.139 is this that you have done, for the men knew that he was fleeing 30 00:02:17.219 --> 00:02:22.460 from the presence of the Lord, because he had told them. Then they 31 00:02:22.539 --> 00:02:25.699 said to him, what shall we do to you that the sea may quiet 32 00:02:25.780 --> 00:02:31.930 down for us? For the sea grew more and more tepestious. He said 33 00:02:31.969 --> 00:02:37.650 to them, pick me up hurl me into the sea, then the sea 34 00:02:37.689 --> 00:02:40.250 will quiet down for you, for I know it is because of me that 35 00:02:40.370 --> 00:02:46.319 this great tempest has come upon you. Nevertheless, the men rode hard to 36 00:02:46.439 --> 00:02:51.520 get back to dry land, but they could not, for the sea grew 37 00:02:51.639 --> 00:02:57.319 more and more to pestio US against them. Therefore, they called out to 38 00:02:57.439 --> 00:03:00.750 Yah way, to the Lord. Oh Lord, let us not perish for 39 00:03:00.830 --> 00:03:06.430 this man's life and lay not on US innocent blood. For you, oh 40 00:03:06.550 --> 00:03:12.550 Lord, have done as it pleased you. So they picked up Jonah and 41 00:03:12.710 --> 00:03:19.460 hurled him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging. Then 42 00:03:19.460 --> 00:03:24.740 the men feared the Lord exceedingly and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and 43 00:03:24.900 --> 00:03:30.009 made vows. The Lord a point to the great fish to swallow up Jonah, 44 00:03:30.810 --> 00:03:35.250 and Jonah was in the belly of the fish. Three days and three 45 00:03:35.250 --> 00:03:39.050 nights since the reading of God's word, may He bless it to us. 46 00:03:39.370 --> 00:04:13.180 Please be seated when you come across something that rings true to you. When 47 00:04:13.219 --> 00:04:15.579 I fought, when I happens to me, I often find that it's often 48 00:04:15.660 --> 00:04:23.339 multilayered. There's a lot of different way reason which it applies, in which 49 00:04:23.540 --> 00:04:29.930 ways in which it could be understood and useful in our lives. And that's 50 00:04:29.970 --> 00:04:35.769 because the truth is you might imagine a big system. You have these particular 51 00:04:35.850 --> 00:04:40.160 points of truth all over the place, but they all connect to one another, 52 00:04:40.759 --> 00:04:43.319 and so when you find one and one way, you find them all, 53 00:04:43.480 --> 00:04:46.759 because they're all linked in one way or another. So when you come 54 00:04:46.879 --> 00:04:54.310 to a story like Jonah, a true story in which God himself is not 55 00:04:54.470 --> 00:05:00.189 just telling US something from history to entertain us, something he did that's amazing, 56 00:05:00.350 --> 00:05:06.220 but is communicating to us something that is valuable and useful for our lives, 57 00:05:08.620 --> 00:05:13.620 we shouldn't be surprised that it's multilayered, that there's lots and lots of 58 00:05:14.019 --> 00:05:17.980 different lessons that we can draw from this, things that we can know about 59 00:05:17.980 --> 00:05:21.930 God, things that we can know about ourselves and our world that we can 60 00:05:21.930 --> 00:05:26.769 apply to our lives, things that we ought to that ought to change our 61 00:05:26.850 --> 00:05:30.529 thinking, change the way we act, change how we feel about things. 62 00:05:30.569 --> 00:05:33.930 And so when you come to Jonah, Chapter One and ask what this story 63 00:05:34.009 --> 00:05:41.279 is about, you might come to a number of different legitimate conclusions. Is 64 00:05:41.399 --> 00:05:46.560 this story about God's ability, for example, to use chance and luck? 65 00:05:46.879 --> 00:05:54.750 Can Lots to reveal and accomplish his will. Yeah, if you actually go 66 00:05:54.949 --> 00:05:58.629 look at the catechism, one of the things that's forbidden in the third commandment 67 00:05:58.670 --> 00:06:04.459 that we considered earlier was this act of lots. They're trying to use divination 68 00:06:04.500 --> 00:06:10.220 in a way to figure out their problem, something that the Lord forbids. 69 00:06:10.259 --> 00:06:14.860 And yet the Lord is able to use this act of the men to a 70 00:06:14.980 --> 00:06:23.009 drive Jonah forward to honesty. An amazing thing, something worth contemplating. Maybe 71 00:06:23.129 --> 00:06:27.730 this story is about taking responsibility for your actions. Right, Jonah is fleeing 72 00:06:27.769 --> 00:06:30.730 from the presence of the Lord. He decides to go another way. He's 73 00:06:30.810 --> 00:06:35.279 told to go to Nineveh. He goes to tarshish. Maybe the story is 74 00:06:35.279 --> 00:06:43.600 about Jonah finally a looking his sin and saying, all right, it's me, 75 00:06:44.600 --> 00:06:48.870 I'm willing to suffer the consequences. Or maybe this story is about the 76 00:06:48.910 --> 00:06:56.069 value of human life. The way that the sailors are doing everything that they 77 00:06:56.269 --> 00:07:02.939 can to avoid hurling Jonah into the sea, despite his express permission, despite 78 00:07:03.060 --> 00:07:11.100 the reasonableness of it. They strive. It says they were exceedingly afraid of 79 00:07:12.500 --> 00:07:17.129 the sea, but they nevertheless verse thirteen road hard to get back to dry 80 00:07:17.170 --> 00:07:21.689 land. They're pushing there, pushing there pushing. They've already thrown their cargo 81 00:07:21.810 --> 00:07:28.129 overboard, they've already used divination and other things. They've already tried to talk 82 00:07:28.290 --> 00:07:31.519 to Jonah and figure thing out. Their figure things out. This is their 83 00:07:31.560 --> 00:07:36.399 last resort and they can't make it. And even when they throw Jonah into 84 00:07:36.439 --> 00:07:43.000 the sea, they're not happy about this right. They value these, these 85 00:07:43.240 --> 00:07:49.829 unbelieving non Israelite Pagan sailors that are worshiping other gods and all kinds of other 86 00:07:49.910 --> 00:07:56.910 things. They have enough sense of God's law in them, by the very 87 00:07:56.949 --> 00:08:01.420 fact of being made in his image and living in his world, that they 88 00:08:01.579 --> 00:08:07.379 do not want to put Jonah to death and they fear this God of Jonah's 89 00:08:09.139 --> 00:08:13.529 right. They not only try to avoid the situation, before they realize they 90 00:08:13.610 --> 00:08:16.769 can't, but before they hurl them into the sea, in verse fourteen, 91 00:08:16.290 --> 00:08:20.009 they call out to the Lord and they call out to him in the very 92 00:08:20.089 --> 00:08:28.399 name that Jonah uses, Yahway or Jehovah. They're not talking about a god 93 00:08:28.600 --> 00:08:33.960 in general anymore, call out to your God or the Gods, but to 94 00:08:33.240 --> 00:08:37.799 this God, the God of Abraham, by God of Isaac, the God 95 00:08:37.879 --> 00:08:41.190 of Jacob. This is who the sailors are praying to now. Oh Yeah, 96 00:08:41.309 --> 00:08:46.870 way, let us not perish for this man's life. They are begging 97 00:08:46.990 --> 00:08:52.990 on him, begging him lay not on US innocent blood for you, oh 98 00:08:52.029 --> 00:08:58.700 Yah way, have done as it pleased you. They are submitting to his 99 00:09:00.019 --> 00:09:05.179 will. That's how they're perceiving it. They're saying, this tempest has come 100 00:09:05.299 --> 00:09:09.740 upon us, these problems have come upon us because of this man and your 101 00:09:09.820 --> 00:09:13.289 pursuit of him, and we see no other way out of this other than 102 00:09:13.370 --> 00:09:18.850 to throw him overboard. Please, please, don't hold US accountable for this 103 00:09:20.129 --> 00:09:24.360 tough situation. Lots of lessons in that, but one of them is that 104 00:09:24.480 --> 00:09:30.559 they certainly valued this man's life, despite the fact that he was their problem. 105 00:09:31.039 --> 00:09:35.960 So they picked up Jonah and hurled him into the sea and the plan 106 00:09:35.120 --> 00:09:39.309 worked ceased from raging. But they don't sort of wipe their brow and go 107 00:09:39.509 --> 00:09:46.470 on, go off to worshiping other gods. Instead, it says they feared 108 00:09:46.509 --> 00:09:50.190 Yah way exceedingly, that same word that was used, of the sea, 109 00:09:50.710 --> 00:09:56.500 and they offered a sacrifice to him and made vows to him. Presumably, 110 00:09:58.980 --> 00:10:03.460 we will do these things for you because you have done this thing for us. 111 00:10:03.860 --> 00:10:09.570 The amazing thing I think we could go on. What other a lessons 112 00:10:09.610 --> 00:10:13.250 are there here? I think you should go on. You should think about 113 00:10:13.289 --> 00:10:18.250 this story as you go home, as you reflect on it this week, 114 00:10:18.370 --> 00:10:24.120 as you talk about it. What other lessons are there here to teach us? 115 00:10:28.240 --> 00:10:31.840 In addition to the ones I've brought before you this morning, I want 116 00:10:31.879 --> 00:10:41.830 to bring one more. I want you to understand this sense of togetherness in 117 00:10:41.070 --> 00:10:46.509 both the good and the bad. I want to explain what I mean by 118 00:10:46.629 --> 00:10:54.580 that. Jonah and these men on this boat faced a similar fate. They 119 00:10:54.659 --> 00:10:56.820 were in the boat together. You know, this is a idiom that we 120 00:10:56.899 --> 00:11:01.860 use here. It's happening to them literally right there on the same boat. 121 00:11:01.139 --> 00:11:05.970 Means that they all have the same fate, so to speak. If the 122 00:11:05.049 --> 00:11:09.730 boat survives, they all live. If the boat sinks, they all they 123 00:11:09.769 --> 00:11:18.120 all die. Our sins affect one another. Our sins affect one another, 124 00:11:18.159 --> 00:11:26.120 and this is what's happening here with Jonah as he is in the boat now. 125 00:11:26.240 --> 00:11:30.039 You remember that it began as sort of an isolated event, just Jonah 126 00:11:30.080 --> 00:11:35.789 and the Lord, Jonah's refusal to obey this thing, but very quickly he's 127 00:11:35.909 --> 00:11:43.470 bringing other people in along with him. He decides on this plan, he 128 00:11:43.629 --> 00:11:52.019 decides to move forward and and it fails. But something, something happens along 129 00:11:52.059 --> 00:11:56.379 the way. A God intervenes, he sends this tempest, he creates this 130 00:11:56.620 --> 00:12:07.450 turn of events and eventually he calms down the sea. Was Their plan successful? 131 00:12:07.809 --> 00:12:11.250 was there a plan to throw Jonah overboard successful? Well, from the 132 00:12:11.289 --> 00:12:16.679 sailor's perspective, yes, and no. On the one hand, the sea 133 00:12:16.759 --> 00:12:20.799 is calm and they're all alive. On the other hand they are afraid. 134 00:12:20.840 --> 00:12:24.480 Did the plan work? And we're not exactly told what happens after this. 135 00:12:26.000 --> 00:12:31.110 They sort of just sail off into the into the story, and we're left 136 00:12:31.230 --> 00:12:35.789 sort of wondering, in a way, what about from Jonah's part? Was 137 00:12:35.830 --> 00:12:43.149 Jonah's plan successful? Well, I guess in a way he got what he 138 00:12:43.269 --> 00:12:46.340 wanted. He didn't have to go to an INNOVA, he was thrown overboard. 139 00:12:48.259 --> 00:12:50.860 But and of course, in another way not so much because, as 140 00:12:50.940 --> 00:12:54.940 we will read in chapter two, he comes to see that he doesn't want 141 00:12:54.980 --> 00:13:01.129 to die and he will call out to the Lord for Salvation. But the 142 00:13:01.210 --> 00:13:07.370 most important question when we think about the successfulness of this plan is God's perspective. 143 00:13:07.850 --> 00:13:13.519 God's perspective did it. Did God get what he wanted in the answer 144 00:13:13.600 --> 00:13:16.320 there is is yes, and that's a good thing, because when God gets 145 00:13:16.399 --> 00:13:22.679 what he wants, which he always does, it ultimately benefits us, and 146 00:13:22.799 --> 00:13:28.070 that's what happens here. That's something, another way to think about the togetherness 147 00:13:28.190 --> 00:13:31.830 of these these events. Again, Jonah goes out as an individual in his 148 00:13:31.909 --> 00:13:35.830 own sin, but ends up impacting and affecting all of these other people. 149 00:13:35.549 --> 00:13:41.620 Buy At these ship people, these mariners, but more than that, the 150 00:13:41.179 --> 00:13:46.019 sailors and Jonah are all used by the Lord to affect people that they would 151 00:13:46.019 --> 00:13:54.620 never know. You, me and God works like this. In the life 152 00:13:54.620 --> 00:13:58.529 of humans we like to ask, what's your plan? What are you doing? 153 00:14:00.450 --> 00:14:05.210 And when we maybe figure out just the tiniest sliver of it, there's 154 00:14:05.250 --> 00:14:09.279 a whole host of other things that are involved. God does this thing here 155 00:14:09.679 --> 00:14:15.559 in this time and this history, but in the context of all that he 156 00:14:15.919 --> 00:14:20.320 reveals all kinds of things to all of us. These lessons that were learning, 157 00:14:20.440 --> 00:14:26.830 these things that he's teaching us, are being taught to US people thousands 158 00:14:26.029 --> 00:14:33.710 and thousands of years later. That togetherness in which we're connected is is important 159 00:14:33.750 --> 00:14:37.909 thing to remember in life. But what are the ways in which the story 160 00:14:37.950 --> 00:14:43.620 benefits us. Well, we can think about the contrasts of the story Jonah 161 00:14:43.860 --> 00:14:48.779 and the these Pagan sailors, or Jonah and the sea. This this lesson 162 00:14:48.899 --> 00:14:54.529 about fear. So many people don't fear God at all. They even find 163 00:14:54.610 --> 00:14:58.889 the fear of the Lord Repugnant. But this story, these events, the 164 00:15:00.009 --> 00:15:03.009 actions of the sailor's, the actions of a Jonah, they teach us to 165 00:15:03.049 --> 00:15:11.240 fear the Lord. They teach us who he is. How can you read 166 00:15:11.440 --> 00:15:15.679 this story, how can you hear this story and then think of God lightly? 167 00:15:16.679 --> 00:15:22.190 How can you walk away from God sending tempests and Pagan sailors calling out 168 00:15:22.269 --> 00:15:28.029 to him and in fear and all of the rest, God knowing every event 169 00:15:28.309 --> 00:15:31.950 and mind and of our minds and our thoughts, and then walk away and 170 00:15:31.110 --> 00:15:35.659 saying, yeah, I think I'll do what I want anyway. That's like 171 00:15:35.820 --> 00:15:41.700 watching somebody get pulled over on the freeway for speeding and then you just zoom 172 00:15:41.779 --> 00:15:46.019 passed and then you watch the next person get posh all over, the next 173 00:15:46.059 --> 00:15:48.700 person get pulled over, the next person I called over, and you just 174 00:15:48.980 --> 00:15:52.409 ume and you see a bunch of cop cars all lined up on the street, 175 00:15:52.409 --> 00:15:56.289 all of them with your lay our guns pointed at you and use it 176 00:15:56.409 --> 00:16:00.090 doesn't make sense right, but this is what we do. We hear a 177 00:16:00.169 --> 00:16:03.409 story like this about Jonah, we hear about the mighty works of the Lord 178 00:16:03.450 --> 00:16:08.000 and we right into our sins. Where is the fear of the Lord? 179 00:16:08.279 --> 00:16:15.559 It bewilders me about my own sin and the ways that I do this. 180 00:16:17.080 --> 00:16:19.990 How can I hear a story like this? How can I preach a story 181 00:16:21.110 --> 00:16:26.549 like this and then be impatient with my children to speak sinfully, when I 182 00:16:26.669 --> 00:16:33.740 know God hears everything and sees everything? How can I doubt God hates my 183 00:16:33.940 --> 00:16:38.980 sin and my rebellion when he's made that so perfectly clear? It's bewildering. 184 00:16:41.100 --> 00:16:45.299 It shows us the darkness of Sin. It shows us the whole that sins 185 00:16:45.379 --> 00:16:51.009 out has on us and how much we need him. Some people will say, 186 00:16:51.049 --> 00:16:55.450 Hey, don't talk about this fear of the Lord and God's judgments and 187 00:16:55.490 --> 00:16:59.649 all that, because God loves you. You don't need to fear him now 188 00:16:59.850 --> 00:17:07.279 because these sins that you're worried about he's forgiven. What do you think about 189 00:17:07.319 --> 00:17:11.480 that, honestly, do you think you should fear the Lord or not? 190 00:17:15.680 --> 00:17:18.950 Well, of course we ought to agree that God forgives our sins. When 191 00:17:18.990 --> 00:17:23.710 we trust and put our faith in him, of course we should agree that 192 00:17:23.789 --> 00:17:30.859 our relationship with him changes dramatically so that we are no longer in terror before 193 00:17:30.859 --> 00:17:36.099 him, fearing the Judgment Day, because in Christ, as I said earlier 194 00:17:36.140 --> 00:17:41.220 in the service, judgments has already come. I am not in terror because 195 00:17:41.220 --> 00:17:47.849 of God's judgment on me. But should that make me fear him less? 196 00:17:48.569 --> 00:17:55.130 Does the fact that God's power and love coming into the world to rescue me, 197 00:17:55.529 --> 00:18:00.279 even as it rescued Jonah from death? Should that make me, or 198 00:18:00.319 --> 00:18:04.119 Jonah or you think, oh well, then God must be no big deal 199 00:18:04.160 --> 00:18:14.230 anymore. As much as I know that God loves me with an everlasting love, 200 00:18:15.190 --> 00:18:18.910 that he's granted me any Turtle Kingdom through Jesus Christ and on the cross 201 00:18:19.430 --> 00:18:26.029 that he's wrapped me up, and in the arms of a body of believers 202 00:18:26.309 --> 00:18:30.900 who are walking together with me and following the savior, all of these amazing, 203 00:18:30.940 --> 00:18:37.619 powerful, life changing things of God, should that make me think lightly 204 00:18:37.740 --> 00:18:45.769 of him? No, God's salvation and judgment is I'm sorry, God's power 205 00:18:47.130 --> 00:18:55.049 in judgments is evident, but so is his power in salvation and causing the 206 00:18:55.130 --> 00:19:00.880 fish to come and causing Jonah to be kept and causing him to be spit 207 00:19:00.039 --> 00:19:07.440 out and reborn in another way, to go forward in obedience. That's power, 208 00:19:07.680 --> 00:19:12.789 to a lovely power, a wonderful power, but something that should cause 209 00:19:12.829 --> 00:19:21.430 us to fear God, to stand in awe before him. It shouldn't make 210 00:19:21.470 --> 00:19:26.700 us fear him less, but more. How do you feel about God? 211 00:19:27.980 --> 00:19:33.900 Do you feel his weightiness in your life? If not, then you're missing 212 00:19:34.059 --> 00:19:42.690 the lesson of Jonah. You're not connected to the story. If you don't 213 00:19:42.690 --> 00:19:47.529 feel the weightiness of God, of his name, of his works, these 214 00:19:47.650 --> 00:19:51.849 things in your life, then it doesn't matter what kind of lip service that 215 00:19:51.970 --> 00:19:56.480 you give to his sovereignty or his power, the way, the things that 216 00:19:56.599 --> 00:20:00.160 you say, the theology that you confess, if practically that's not the way 217 00:20:00.160 --> 00:20:07.309 you live. Well, how do you fix a weak practical theology? How 218 00:20:07.390 --> 00:20:14.829 do you fix a situation where you all find yourself thinking lightly of God, 219 00:20:15.549 --> 00:20:19.349 not fearing him as you want? Well, the answer is that you you 220 00:20:21.460 --> 00:20:27.259 grow through faith in the power of him who comes and it was given us 221 00:20:27.339 --> 00:20:33.180 His grace. We can't deep down, dig down deeper into our own darkness 222 00:20:33.259 --> 00:20:38.769 and find light. You can't go back further into into the cave and hope 223 00:20:38.809 --> 00:20:45.650 that you're going to somehow find the end. No, you have to you 224 00:20:45.769 --> 00:20:51.000 have to receive the the gift that God gives to you, the light that 225 00:20:51.160 --> 00:20:56.799 comes to you, the life that comes to us in Jesus. We have 226 00:20:56.960 --> 00:21:00.559 to find our hope in God, and Jonah has not yet found that. 227 00:21:00.359 --> 00:21:06.670 Jonah consigns himself to death. Throw me into the sea. I guess we'll 228 00:21:06.710 --> 00:21:11.950 just end at all. But when he calls out to the Lord, this 229 00:21:11.990 --> 00:21:15.750 is a chapter two, verse one. I called out to the Lord in 230 00:21:15.869 --> 00:21:22.420 my distress and he answered me. When Jonah was not going to cling to 231 00:21:22.500 --> 00:21:26.859 his sins anymore, but cling to the Lord, salvation appeared and it was 232 00:21:26.900 --> 00:21:30.900 always there. You don't have to wait, I heard recently. You don't 233 00:21:30.900 --> 00:21:36.730 have to wait to get to the the bottom floor before getting off the elevator 234 00:21:37.289 --> 00:21:45.289 right. God Is there. He's offering himself to us, and that's what 235 00:21:45.450 --> 00:21:51.920 this story tells us. It reminds us of these truths and these things. 236 00:21:52.039 --> 00:21:56.240 It points out our hardness, it points out our blindness, the evil of 237 00:21:56.400 --> 00:22:00.750 it, the sharedness of it, the consequences we share together, the way 238 00:22:00.910 --> 00:22:08.710 that in Adam, in our humanity, the ship is just broken apart already. 239 00:22:11.670 --> 00:22:18.779 We're all lying dead, floating around in the water. There's no hope 240 00:22:18.859 --> 00:22:26.140 in that unless we receive the resurrection of God. Well, in order to 241 00:22:26.220 --> 00:22:32.690 understand that and some of these things that I've been saying so far, you've 242 00:22:32.690 --> 00:22:37.970 got a wide in your field of vision beyond Jonah one, because Jonah one 243 00:22:37.049 --> 00:22:42.049 is in a context not only of Jonah but in the whole Bible. You've 244 00:22:42.049 --> 00:22:47.920 got to go and open up to the gospels themselves, where we learn about 245 00:22:47.960 --> 00:22:55.039 Jesus, who speaks of himself explicitly as a prophet greater than Jonah, as 246 00:22:55.200 --> 00:23:02.190 one who has come to do something similar to Jonah but better than Jonah. 247 00:23:03.309 --> 00:23:07.670 He's similar to Jonah in that he, like Jonah, suffer first. He, 248 00:23:07.910 --> 00:23:14.259 like Jonah, goes down for three days and three nights into suffering, 249 00:23:14.299 --> 00:23:18.259 Jonah into the belly of the fish, Jesus into the belly of the earth, 250 00:23:18.299 --> 00:23:25.500 or into the earth. God sends this New Prophet into the world. 251 00:23:25.859 --> 00:23:30.009 In Jesus, he adds human nature to His divine nature and in that way 252 00:23:30.329 --> 00:23:36.730 we are he is a prophet like Jonah, but he speaks a better word. 253 00:23:37.609 --> 00:23:41.559 This book of Jonah is preparing us for Jesus who is to come, 254 00:23:41.680 --> 00:23:49.000 Jesus who comes and preaches this word that is less like Jonah and in some 255 00:23:49.119 --> 00:23:56.789 ways more like like another boat story in the Bible, like Noah, in 256 00:23:56.950 --> 00:24:02.829 Jesus, when we come aboard the boat, we are lifted up above the 257 00:24:03.029 --> 00:24:08.309 judgment waters. We ride high above the mountains of the Earth and above judgment, 258 00:24:10.900 --> 00:24:15.579 because of him, being found in him, being saved in him. 259 00:24:15.619 --> 00:24:22.380 Jesus says he's like Jonah, because Jonah had to suffer in order to bring 260 00:24:22.420 --> 00:24:26.890 about and end of suffering. But there's a difference. Unlike Jonah, Jesus 261 00:24:26.970 --> 00:24:32.690 was a true prophet and he didn't die because of his sins. He died 262 00:24:32.809 --> 00:24:37.490 because of our sins. He descends down, down, down, not in 263 00:24:37.640 --> 00:24:44.440 disobedience away from the presence of the Lord, but in our disobedience, taking 264 00:24:44.519 --> 00:24:48.640 on the weight of our sins and our judgment, and that means that in 265 00:24:48.920 --> 00:24:56.069 our togetherness with him, we also rise with him. God's servants and God's 266 00:24:56.150 --> 00:25:00.349 people have proved themselves, like Jonah, over and over and over, of 267 00:25:00.430 --> 00:25:08.500 being incapable of doing what God requires or being in him and with him as 268 00:25:08.619 --> 00:25:14.180 God desires, even when the word is clear, even when the message is 269 00:25:14.420 --> 00:25:18.940 clear. We flee from the presence of the Lord and in disobedience, we 270 00:25:18.099 --> 00:25:26.529 continually plunge ourselves into an ocean of Sin and judgment. So how is a 271 00:25:26.690 --> 00:25:30.849 mission of grace and peace possible, of hope to the world, this mission 272 00:25:30.890 --> 00:25:37.279 that Jonah is supposed to be on? It can only be accomplished by God 273 00:25:37.519 --> 00:25:42.720 sending another Prophet, by God sending Jesus Christ, who goes on this mission 274 00:25:42.799 --> 00:25:47.440 to the world to bring grace, to bring hope, to bring peace, 275 00:25:47.480 --> 00:25:53.309 and he does it not simply by proclaiming the message, but by becoming the 276 00:25:53.390 --> 00:26:00.190 message. It wouldn't just take a prophet, but the very son of God 277 00:26:00.349 --> 00:26:10.380 to come and die and live again, and in that we have the amazing 278 00:26:10.420 --> 00:26:17.740 power of God which should cause us to fear. When Jesus hung on a 279 00:26:17.980 --> 00:26:26.210 cross and died, we read that the earth itself trembled, that the sky 280 00:26:26.450 --> 00:26:37.480 went black, that the temple curtain tore into it was a terrifying time as 281 00:26:37.599 --> 00:26:42.839 judgment, as the judgment of God, came down upon sins, and it 282 00:26:42.960 --> 00:26:48.549 will be again a terrifying time when the judgment of the Lord comes, when 283 00:26:48.549 --> 00:26:55.150 Jesus Christ returns. But not, brothers and sisters, for you. You 284 00:26:56.390 --> 00:27:00.430 will fear him and his awesome power. You will wonder at as might as 285 00:27:00.470 --> 00:27:04.539 you see Jesus riding on the clouds accompanied by the host of Heaven, a 286 00:27:06.180 --> 00:27:10.940 myriad of angels. You won't see that on that day and think Oh cool, 287 00:27:11.819 --> 00:27:18.890 you will, I don't know, praise God, throw yourself at his 288 00:27:18.049 --> 00:27:23.609 feet, worship him, rise up and resurrected bodies. The trumpets of the 289 00:27:23.690 --> 00:27:29.730 angels will be blasting that new eavans and the new earth will be revealed as 290 00:27:29.809 --> 00:27:36.720 they stars in the Sky Melt and and the planets descend and the world changes. 291 00:27:38.000 --> 00:27:45.109 It will be the most amazing thing you have ever seen. But you 292 00:27:45.750 --> 00:27:51.829 will be caught up in the power and reverence and awe and fear. But 293 00:27:52.390 --> 00:27:56.789 but in all of that will be joy and love and peace and satisfaction, 294 00:27:57.349 --> 00:28:03.140 knowing that you belong to it, you are a part of it, as 295 00:28:03.299 --> 00:28:08.980 one of God's chosen ones, as a child of light, as one who 296 00:28:10.180 --> 00:28:17.130 is lifted up in a new and resurrected body, not to die, not 297 00:28:17.329 --> 00:28:22.730 to be separated to him, from him, but to live in him and 298 00:28:22.009 --> 00:28:29.799 with him forever. When we wide in our SK are, when we widen 299 00:28:29.920 --> 00:28:33.599 the field of view, and Jonah one. This is what the Lord teaches 300 00:28:33.720 --> 00:28:40.559 us. He shows us that the judgment and the salvation that we have here 301 00:28:41.029 --> 00:28:48.829 is proclaimed in Jesus. Know Him, trust him, and you will find 302 00:28:48.950 --> 00:28:52.670 life in him. Let's pray