SPEAKER_01: Hello, I'm Pastor Creighton, and thank you for tuning in to New Sun Churches Podcast.
SPEAKER_01: We're a gospel centered church in Port Perry, Ontario, proclaiming the true and life-giving word of Jesus as we love and serve our neighbors.
SPEAKER_01: May God bless you today through his life-giving word.
SPEAKER_00: The first reading is from the book of Jonah, chapter one, starting in verse 17.
SPEAKER_00: And the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah.
SPEAKER_00: And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.
SPEAKER_00: Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his gun from the belly of the fish, saying, I called out to the Lord out of my district, and he answered me.
SPEAKER_00: Out of the belly of Sheel I crummed, and you heard my voice.
SPEAKER_00: For you passed me into the deep, into the heart of the disease, and the flood surrounded me, among your breakers and your waves to be passed over me.
SPEAKER_00: Then I said, I am driven away from your sight, yet I shall again look upon your holy temple.
SPEAKER_00: The wonders closed in over me to take my life.
SPEAKER_00: The deep surrounded me.
SPEAKER_00: Weeds were wrapped around my head.
SPEAKER_00: To the roots of the mountains I went down, to the land whose bars closed upon me forever.
SPEAKER_00: Yet you brought up my life from the pit, O Lord my God.
SPEAKER_00: When my life was fainting away, I remembered the Lord, and my prayer came to you into your holy temple.
SPEAKER_00: Those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love.
SPEAKER_00: But I, with the voice of thanksgiving, will sacrifice to you what I have vowed I will pay.
SPEAKER_00: Salvation belongs to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah out upon the dry land.
SPEAKER_00: The word of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Salvation belongs to the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_01: Lord Jesus, we come ever needful of your grace and loving kindness towards us.
SPEAKER_01: Even in ways, Lord, that we've yet to fully recognize.
SPEAKER_01: And so we pray, Lord, by your Holy Spirit, would you illumine to our understanding this word and your scriptures?
SPEAKER_01: That we would look to you with hearts full of faith and find life and hope, even in what seems to us to be the most hopeless of circumstances.
SPEAKER_01: Show us your grace.
SPEAKER_01: Show us your goodness.
SPEAKER_01: Show us your glory, we pray.
SPEAKER_01: In your precious name.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Please be seated.
SPEAKER_01: Well, last Sunday we began a new study on the book of Jonah.
SPEAKER_01: We've discovered a couple things about Jonah from chapter one.
SPEAKER_01: First and foremost, we discover that Jonah is certainly not the hero of this story, is he?
SPEAKER_01: He's reluctant, he's resistant, he's even rebellious, he's fearful, he's selfish.
SPEAKER_01: Nothing like us, right?
SPEAKER_01: It's hard to relate to him.
SPEAKER_01: He's not the hero, though he is the prophet that God is calling to bring his word to those he feels least deserves it.
SPEAKER_01: Now, by way of a bit of a review, I thought it would be good for us to go to uh what is a fantastic textbook, I think, on the book of Jonah, and that's the Jesus Storybook Bible.
SPEAKER_01: Have you read the Jesus Storybook Bible?
SPEAKER_01: I hope you have.
SPEAKER_01: If you haven't, I hope you pick up a copy because I'm not kidding when I say this is such a life-giving book.
SPEAKER_01: In seasons where I just feel so spiritually dry, this is a book that just warms my heart.
SPEAKER_01: And so, anyway, I'm gonna just read a portion of uh of Jonah today.
SPEAKER_01: So listen up, boys and girls.
SPEAKER_01: This is called God's Messenger.
SPEAKER_01: God had a job for Jonah, but Jonah didn't want it.
SPEAKER_01: Go to Nineveh, God said, and tell your worst enemies that I love them.
SPEAKER_01: No, said Jonah, those are bad people doing bad things.
SPEAKER_01: Exactly, said God.
SPEAKER_01: They have run far away from me.
SPEAKER_01: But I can't stop loving them.
SPEAKER_01: I will give them a new start.
SPEAKER_01: I will forgive them.
SPEAKER_01: No, said Jonah, they don't deserve it.
SPEAKER_01: I'll run away, Jonah said to himself, far away, so far away that God won't be able to find me.
SPEAKER_01: Then I won't have to do what God says.
SPEAKER_01: It's a good plan, he said.
SPEAKER_01: Because as far as he knew, it was a good plan.
SPEAKER_01: But of course it wasn't a good plan at all.
SPEAKER_01: It was a silly plan.
SPEAKER_01: Because you can run away from God, but he will always come and find you.
SPEAKER_01: Doesn't that sum up chapter one so well?
SPEAKER_01: So where did we leave Jonah?
SPEAKER_01: We left Jonah in the middle of a raging storm, right?
SPEAKER_01: God is, pardon me, Jonah has tried done his best to resist God, but we find even when we resist God, we cannot outrun our God of grace.
SPEAKER_01: And so God in his severe mercy has caused this storm, and Jonah has been hucked overboard as the source of guilt and the source of this storm, and now the storm has ceased, but Jonah we left plunging into the depths.
SPEAKER_01: Jonah, it's clear, has come to the very end of himself, the very end of his self-reliance.
SPEAKER_01: And it's at this moment, Jonah gets swallowed by a fish.
SPEAKER_01: So naturally, we ask the question that we moderns, I think, find to be a very sophisticated question, which is, really?
SPEAKER_01: Really?
SPEAKER_01: Three days, three nights, Jonah got eaten by a fish and survived.
SPEAKER_01: Now, there's many Bible scholars that I have great respect for who would suggest that the right way to read Jonah is to read it through the lens of a parable, right?
SPEAKER_01: We don't believe that there was historically a father and an older brother and a younger son, the prodigal son, but we see God's character, you know, shining through this story in Luke 15.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe we should read Jonah the same way, suggests some.
SPEAKER_01: And while that might relieve certain tensions within the text, I suspect that the text itself wants us to understand that Jonah is, in fact, a real person who God really called.
SPEAKER_01: And before we get our head in knots about this fish, we should recognize that the first thing we confess in our creed is that God created the heavens of the earth.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: God's power isn't limited.
SPEAKER_01: So let's be careful before we put a limit on God's power at work in time and in history.
SPEAKER_01: Let's remember that at the center of our faith is someone who is risen from the dead by God's power.
SPEAKER_01: If we're going to take a certain interpretive route in Jonah, let's not let the limit of God's power be the reason that we take it.
SPEAKER_01: So Jonah, one way or another, has come to the end of himself.
SPEAKER_01: And here he is, swallowed whole by this fish.
SPEAKER_01: And chapter two records this heartfelt prayer that Jonah is making, without any other hope, plunging into the depths, into the darkness, into hopelessness, pardon me, Jonah finds his hope.
SPEAKER_01: Pastor Tim Keller says in a quote that I have somewhere here it is only when you reach the very bottom, when everything falls apart, when all your schemes and resources are broken and exhausted, that you are finally open to learning how completely, pardon me, how to completely depend upon God.
SPEAKER_01: This is what Jonah's learning.
SPEAKER_01: God's grace goes deeper than we can sink.
SPEAKER_01: That's what Jonah's learning.
SPEAKER_01: God's grace goes deeper than we can sink.
SPEAKER_01: And if we can recognize that truth, then we can both recognize the importance of obedience, the obedience that Jonah failed to follow through on, but we can also rest assured of God's generous heart towards those of us who know what it is to sink into the depths and into despair.
SPEAKER_01: God's grace goes deeper than you or I can sink.
SPEAKER_01: So let's open up the book of Jonah together.
SPEAKER_01: Let's open up your order of service or open up the Pew Bibles to page 726.
SPEAKER_01: Let's discover how God's grace goes deeper than we can sink.
SPEAKER_01: We see God's grace in three ways in particular in this text.
SPEAKER_01: We see God's grace shown through the way that God answers Jonah.
SPEAKER_01: We see God's grace through the way God raises Jonah, and we see God's grace through the way he saves Jonah.
SPEAKER_01: Answers, raises, and saves.
SPEAKER_01: Let's see God's grace.
SPEAKER_01: Verses two and three.
SPEAKER_01: 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.
SPEAKER_01: Out of the belly of Sheul I cried, and you heard my voice.
SPEAKER_01: For you cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the floods surrounded me.
SPEAKER_01: All your breakers and your waves passed over me.
SPEAKER_01: This is Jonah's prayer.
SPEAKER_01: And he's praying in the midst of great distress.
SPEAKER_01: I can't imagine a circumstance in life that would be worse than this.
SPEAKER_01: To be not just swallowed by a fish in the belly of this great beast, but plunging into the very depths of despair.
SPEAKER_01: Jonah knows exactly where he is and how desperate his situation is.
SPEAKER_01: He knows where he is, he knows who sent him there, and he knows that he deserves it.
SPEAKER_01: Jonah has no hope to solve this situation for himself, does he?
SPEAKER_01: Do we know that feeling?
SPEAKER_01: We survey life's circumstances and we think, I'm powerless to do anything about this.
SPEAKER_01: It's in this situation that Jonah calls out to God and then he recognizes this amazing truth in verse 2.
SPEAKER_01: I called out to the Lord out of my distress, and what happens?
SPEAKER_01: He answered me.
SPEAKER_01: That's very interesting to me, because that's past tense, isn't it?
SPEAKER_01: It's not just hope that he will answer.
SPEAKER_01: That's not just wishful thinking.
SPEAKER_01: He has answered me.
SPEAKER_01: What answer has Jonah received here?
SPEAKER_01: Because isn't he still in the belly of the fish?
SPEAKER_01: That's very interesting.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what Jonah knows: he knows that as deep as he is sinking, God's ongoing commitment to him, God's ongoing generosity towards him, God's ongoing patience with him, God's ongoing kindness towards him has not failed.
SPEAKER_01: He may be sinking into the depths, but God's grace goes deeper still.
SPEAKER_01: Jonah knows what Julian of Norwich knows when she says, all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well.
SPEAKER_01: John Lennon gives a bit of a spin on that when he says everything will be okay in the end, and if everything's not okay, then it's not the end.
SPEAKER_01: I kind of like the way Julian of Norwich puts it, though, personally.
SPEAKER_01: That's the truth that Jonah knows.
SPEAKER_01: In his grace, no matter how deep we sink, God still hears and answers our prayer.
SPEAKER_01: In our greatest distress, God has not abandoned us, God has not forgotten us.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, God gives an amazing promise to his people in Isaiah 49, or let's just say an amazing image of God's mindfulness of us, right?
SPEAKER_01: Into a people facing exile, right?
SPEAKER_01: Being wondering whether or not God has forgotten his promises towards him.
SPEAKER_01: God says to his people, can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb?
SPEAKER_01: Even these, God says, may forget, yet I will not forget you.
SPEAKER_01: Is God trying to say that mothers forget their nursing infants?
SPEAKER_01: He's saying, of course they don't.
SPEAKER_01: But they're more likely to forget that than I am to forget my people.
SPEAKER_01: That's an amazing promise of assurance.
SPEAKER_01: God is saying there is no possibility that I will ever neglect you, that I will ever forget you, that I will ever, that I will not will your very good.
SPEAKER_01: Even in the midst of our distress, God has not abandoned us and he will not refuse a broken and contrite heart.
SPEAKER_01: God remains committed to us in our distress.
SPEAKER_01: He hears our prayers.
SPEAKER_01: He is more committed to us in our distress than we could ever be committed to him.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe that's what Jonah's recognizing.
SPEAKER_01: So how do we pray in our distress?
SPEAKER_01: I want to suggest that what Jonah is praying here is a very honest prayer, isn't it?
SPEAKER_01: He's recognizing some very painful truths for himself.
SPEAKER_01: And I think when we are in the midst of distress, let me speak in the first person, when I'm in the midst of distress, I do this funny thing where I pray in the way that I think God wants me to pray.
SPEAKER_01: I pray as I think I ought to pray, as if that's going to twist God's arm into doing the thing that I want him to do for me.
SPEAKER_01: But that's not what Jonah doing here, is it?
SPEAKER_01: In his fallible, flimsy way, Jonah is recognizing some brutal truths that he has re- or he has denied, he has run away from all through chapter one, and now he has no choice but to face them for what they are.
SPEAKER_01: I want to suggest that in the midst of our distress, our prayers need to be as honest as that.
SPEAKER_01: C.S.
SPEAKER_01: Lewis writes in a letter of his about prayer, actually, there's a great book, Letters to Malcolm, Chiefly on Prayer, would highly recommend.
SPEAKER_01: I'm recommending all sorts of books today.
SPEAKER_01: Sorry.
SPEAKER_01: C.S.
SPEAKER_01: Lewis writes, we want to know not how we should pray if we were perfect, but how we should pray being as we are now.
SPEAKER_01: It is no use to ask God with fictitious earnestness for A when our whole mind is really filled with the desire for B.
SPEAKER_01: We must lay before Him what is in us, not what ought to be in us.
SPEAKER_01: Do you see the difference there?
SPEAKER_01: Pray with utter honesty, Lewis says.
SPEAKER_01: That's the kind of prayer that Jonah is making before God.
SPEAKER_01: Pray with what's in you, not with what you think ought to be in you.
SPEAKER_01: God answers prayer, he hears our prayer.
SPEAKER_01: There is no depth to which we can sink, or God will not hear this.
SPEAKER_01: But we should notice this that God's answer is not necessarily an easy flip-of-the-switch solution, is it?
SPEAKER_01: Because Jonah's still in the belly of this whale.
SPEAKER_01: Jonah knows that God answers prayer and he recognizes his grace in it, but he recognizes God's power is greater still.
SPEAKER_01: God can show his grace in raising us from the depths itself.
SPEAKER_01: Verse four.
SPEAKER_01: Then I said, I am driven away from your sight talking to God, yet I shall again look upon your holy temple.
SPEAKER_01: The waters closed in over me to take my life, the deep surrounded me, weeds were wrapped around my head, to the roots of the mountains I went down, to the land whose bars closed upon me forever.
SPEAKER_01: Yet you brought up my life from the pit.
SPEAKER_01: O Lord my God, when my life was fainting away, I remembered the Lord, and my prayer came to you in your holy temple.
SPEAKER_01: Jonah's sinking not just into the depths of despair, not just into the depths of the sea.
SPEAKER_01: Jonah, we see in verse two, understands that he is crying out from the very belly of Sheol.
SPEAKER_01: And that's the imagery that Jonah is giving.
SPEAKER_01: It's Sheol imagery.
SPEAKER_01: Now, what is Sheol?
SPEAKER_01: Sheol, for the Hebrew people, is the place of the dead.
SPEAKER_01: It's where souls go that depart from the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: And the imagery that Jonah is evoking here is very much associated with Sheol.
SPEAKER_01: It's a place of forgottenness.
SPEAKER_01: It's deep in the depths of the earth, never to emerge again, being barred in kind of imagery.
SPEAKER_01: So it raises an interesting question here because while most commentators suggest that Jonah is speaking in figurative language, it's as if he's descending into Shiul.
SPEAKER_01: There is another interpretive tradition that suggests that perhaps Jonah, having been eaten by a whale, is actually descending into Shiul.
SPEAKER_01: He is actually going to the place of the dead, having departed from the world.
SPEAKER_01: Now, whether it's figurative or whether it's actual, we can recognize that Jonah is in an utterly hopeless situation.
SPEAKER_01: And there's nothing he can do to fix it for himself.
SPEAKER_01: But it's in this very depth of hopelessness that Jonah recognizes a gospel truth, yet, you, God, brought my life out of the pit.
SPEAKER_01: There is no defeat, even death itself, that can thwart God's good work for us, and his commitment and his generosity and his kindness towards us.
SPEAKER_01: There is no defeat that can thwart God's work.
SPEAKER_01: And that is Jonah's hope, even in the place where no hope lives.
SPEAKER_01: Jonah's hope is in God, who raises what has gone down into the pit.
SPEAKER_01: In his grace, in other words, no matter how deep we sink, God can still raise us up.
SPEAKER_01: I was reading earlier this week Genesis chapter 22, which admittedly is a very thorny chapter, if you know it.
SPEAKER_01: That's the chapter where God calls Abraham to take Isaac up on the mountain and sacrifice him.
SPEAKER_01: And at the last minute, right, God prevents Isaac from sacr or Abraham from sacrificing his son Isaac and provides instead a ram to be sacrificed.
SPEAKER_01: And the imagery is very vivid there.
SPEAKER_01: God will provide the substitute for what he requires, right?
SPEAKER_01: It's very salvation, you know, Christ imagery there.
SPEAKER_01: But nevertheless, it's a bit of a thorny chapter, and we wonder what is going on through Abraham's mind as they make this journey up the mountain.
SPEAKER_01: The book of Hebrews tells us exactly the sort of faith that is revealed in this story.
SPEAKER_01: Hebrews chapter 11, reflecting on Genesis 22, says this Abraham considered that God was able even to raise Isaac from the dead.
SPEAKER_01: So why is it that Abraham was willing to take this journey?
SPEAKER_01: Why is it that Abraham was willing to make this sacrifice when God said, It's through this son Isaac, that my promise to the whole world will come into being?
SPEAKER_01: God knows even if this sacrifice goes through, God is able to raise the dead.
SPEAKER_01: Not even death can thwart God's plan for salvation.
SPEAKER_01: And yes, God in his way provides the sacrifice, right?
SPEAKER_01: Hebrews 11, figurative speaking, Abraham did receive Isaac back, but in the midst of his distress, Abraham knows that checkmate is not the end of the game.
SPEAKER_01: If we play chess, we know that checkmate ends that game.
SPEAKER_01: We know what it is to be in the end game and to recognize the sequence of moves here that's going to lead to checkmate.
SPEAKER_01: But checkmate does not thwart God's purposes.
SPEAKER_01: What we think is the end, God can still raise up.
SPEAKER_01: This is the hope that Abraham has.
SPEAKER_01: This is the hope that Jonah has.
SPEAKER_01: In the midst in the depths of Sheol, God can raise up.
SPEAKER_01: Which is exactly why Jonah twice says that he will either look upon or pray towards God's holy temple.
SPEAKER_01: Did you notice that in verses 4 and verse 7?
SPEAKER_01: Twice he brings up the holy temple.
SPEAKER_01: What's Jonah talking about here?
SPEAKER_01: He's talking about that place where God's dwelling is made manifest amongst his people, right?
SPEAKER_01: Where God's covenant promises are represented here.
SPEAKER_01: And Jonah in the depths of Sheol knows there is nothing that he can do to solve this problem for himself, to raise himself up.
SPEAKER_01: And so in his heart, he turns his attention towards the place where God's promises rest.
SPEAKER_01: He turns his heart there in thanksgiving and in praise.
SPEAKER_01: He turns his heart there in prayer and in petition.
SPEAKER_01: And friends, when we are in the midst of the despair and depths and desolation, we too need to turn our hearts to the place where God makes his dwelling known, where he makes his promises manifest.
SPEAKER_01: Today's the conversion of Paul, and in the letter in his letter to the Corinthian church, Paul writes that you, church, that's plural, you, you know that you.
SPEAKER_01: You yourselves are God's temple, and that God's Spirit dwells in your midst.
SPEAKER_01: Under the old covenant, God's presence was made known in this physical location.
SPEAKER_01: In the new covenant, now in Christ, God makes his presence known amongst his people, the church.
SPEAKER_01: And so when we recognize God's power to raise up, raise us up from hopelessness and desperation, we can come into God's church with hearts full of thanksgiving and praise and make that known to God.
SPEAKER_01: But then those of us who are in the midst of our distress, in the midst of desolation, we need to come into God's church and we need to hear proclaimed the words of promise that God makes all things new and bring that to bear on our desolation and on our distress.
SPEAKER_01: We need that proclamation, we need that promise that is being made manifest amongst God's people.
SPEAKER_01: We look, we pray unto God's holy temple in praise, in proclamation, and thanksgiving.
SPEAKER_01: What other hope has Jonah?
SPEAKER_01: He has none.
SPEAKER_01: That's why Jonah makes his final declaration here.
SPEAKER_01: God answers us in our distress, he raises us up from the pit of despair itself.
SPEAKER_01: Finally, Jonah recognizes God alone saves.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 8.
SPEAKER_01: Those who pay regard to vain idols, Jonah says, forsake their hope of steadfast love.
SPEAKER_01: But I, with the voice of thanksgiving, will sacrifice to you what I have vowed to pay.
SPEAKER_01: Salvation, Jonah says, belongs to the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Salvation, deliverance, victory, help.
SPEAKER_01: This same word is used in Psalm 20 to talk about a military victory, right?
SPEAKER_01: One army defeating another.
SPEAKER_01: The same word is used in Exodus chapter 14, describing God's saving his people from Egypt through the Red Sea.
SPEAKER_01: It's deliverance, salvation, security.
SPEAKER_01: And it belongs to the Lord, which is to say, it is his working.
SPEAKER_01: God makes his salvation manifest in real history and in real time in his way, and we are recipients of it.
SPEAKER_01: All of this would suggest that Jonah is beginning to recognize that salvation, his salvation, doesn't belong to him.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: If salvation belongs to the Lord, then it cannot belong to Jonah.
SPEAKER_01: Jonah got himself into this mess.
SPEAKER_01: Jonah got himself plunging into the depths of the sea, the very depths of Sheol itself.
SPEAKER_01: He needs a power greater than himself to raise himself up.
SPEAKER_01: Salvation belongs only to the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: See, in his grace, no matter how deep we sink, God can do for us what we cannot do for ourselves, to save us, to rescue us, to redeem us.
SPEAKER_01: It's precisely for this reason that Jesus, responding to his critics, the Pharisees and scribes, points to this story of Jonah to frame the salvation that he will accomplish.
SPEAKER_01: The scribes and Pharisees say to Jesus in Matthew chapter 12, Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you, which is to say, you know, we've just been talking about how a tree is known by its fruit.
SPEAKER_01: We want some proof that you're legit, Jesus, so give us a sign.
SPEAKER_01: But Jesus answered them an evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it, except the sign of the prophet Jonah.
SPEAKER_01: What does Jesus mean by that?
SPEAKER_01: For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man, that's himself, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
SPEAKER_01: The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.
SPEAKER_01: Did you catch that?
SPEAKER_01: Just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
SPEAKER_01: Something greater than Jonah is here.
SPEAKER_01: Jonah is just the sign, the reality that it points to has arrived.
SPEAKER_01: And that's me, is what Jesus is saying.
SPEAKER_01: Three days and three nights, Jonah was, that's inclusive, by the way, because I know that's kind of tricky, but we're talking three nights, three three days, three nights inclusively.
SPEAKER_01: Jonah, so Jonah was plunged into the very depths of death itself, so too will I be plunged into the depths of death itself.
SPEAKER_01: And just as God raised Jonah up by his power, so too will God raise me up by his power.
SPEAKER_01: But here's the important difference it's Jonah's guilt that got him into this situation, isn't it?
SPEAKER_01: It's his resistance and his rebellion against God that has made for the consequence of his being brought down into the depth itself.
SPEAKER_01: Jonah has no one else to blame but himself.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is not the guilty one.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is not the one who deserves the death that he receives, but he willingly bears our guilt, the world's guilt.
SPEAKER_01: He willingly takes that upon himself on the cross and so plunges it into the very depths of Sheol itself, so that when he is raised in righteousness, he can share with us that righteousness.
SPEAKER_01: And we can stand before God in perfect confidence, not in our ability to do for ourselves what we think God requires of us, but with confidence in Christ who has accomplished that on our behalf.
SPEAKER_01: Friends, if you are in Christ, your guilt has sunk to the very bottom of the sea, to the very depths of Sheol itself.
SPEAKER_01: It lies in hell.
SPEAKER_01: But you have been raised to new life.
SPEAKER_01: You are a new creation, and there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: You have been brought up to new life, and one day that new life will be made manifest when we will all be raised with him in his everlasting kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: But that life has started now in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: That's who you are.
SPEAKER_01: You've been raised by his power and the power of his resurrection.
SPEAKER_01: If that's Jesus' power, to raise up from death our very souls, our very life, then who else does salvation belong to but the Lord, who makes himself known in the Lord Jesus?
SPEAKER_01: Maybe that's why Jonah says in verse 8, those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love.
SPEAKER_01: He knows the one to whom steadfast love belongs to, the true God, the creator God.
SPEAKER_01: Any other vain idol, any other false God, anything, any deliverer that we could set up for ourselves is really just vanity, vacuous and empty.
SPEAKER_01: We need the real salvation that comes from the only real God.
SPEAKER_01: And therefore, spiritual growth comes when we recognize the idols of our hearts, those false saviors we set up for ourselves, those things we think will deliver us and bring security in times of distress, those things that substitute themselves for the true God, for our Lord Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And spiritual growth comes when we recognize those things and we hand those over to Him.
SPEAKER_01: And our allegiance and our trust is found solely and completely in the Lord Jesus' power to save.
SPEAKER_01: But friends, that's tricky, isn't it?
SPEAKER_01: That's tricky even for Jonah, I think, by the way, because truthfully, I'm not quite sure who he's talking about here.
SPEAKER_01: Who is it that trusts in vain idols?
SPEAKER_01: Is Jonah talking about his own people, Israel, and their ongoing struggle with false gods, their ongoing lapse into unbelief?
SPEAKER_01: Maybe.
SPEAKER_01: Is Jonah talking about the sailors that he was just with who asked Jonah to call out to his god just like they're calling out to their gods?
SPEAKER_01: Maybe.
SPEAKER_01: Is he thinking about the Ninevehes who he's been called to go and preach to?
SPEAKER_01: Quite possibly.
SPEAKER_01: Almost certainly I would suggest Jonah is not thinking about himself and the idols in his own heart, and the idols that suggest that he has a self-righteousness that these sailors or these Ninevehes lack.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: This self-righteousness that justifies his callousness towards who need God's grace the most.
SPEAKER_01: But it's almost certain he's not talking about himself.
SPEAKER_01: And again, Tim Collar writes, Jonah sees the literal idols that the pagans worship and doesn't see the more subtle idols in his own life that keep him from fully grasping that he too, just like the heathen, lives only, equally by God's grace.
SPEAKER_01: And friends, isn't that true for us?
SPEAKER_01: Don't we live equally only by God's grace?
SPEAKER_01: It's tempting.
SPEAKER_01: It's tempting to recognize the idols in everybody else's life and everybody else's heart and never turn our attention to our own and hand those over in trust and discover that God alone answers and raises and saves.
SPEAKER_01: But nevertheless, God's grace goes deeper still, doesn't it?
SPEAKER_01: Because God does not forget Jonah.
SPEAKER_01: He is pursuing Jonah.
SPEAKER_01: Well, we see how silly Jonah's plan, isn't it?
SPEAKER_01: Jonah's plan is silly not just because he thinks he can outrun God, but because of the kind of God he thinks he can outrun.
SPEAKER_01: This God is gracious.
SPEAKER_01: This God is gracious not just to the Ninevehites, not just to enemies, not just those who don't deserve God's love.
SPEAKER_01: God's gracious to Jonah, even in the depths of desolation, despair, and death itself.
SPEAKER_01: That is our God.
SPEAKER_01: And he is as gracious to you as he is to Jonah.
SPEAKER_01: And Jonah's fear and selfishness and reluctance have all plunged him into this, into the depths, but God, by his grace and power, has raised him to new life.
SPEAKER_01: And that's the image we get.
SPEAKER_01: That the Lord spoke to the fish and it vomited Jonah out into the dry land.
SPEAKER_01: And I love that image.
SPEAKER_01: Death cannot hold us when God speaks life.
SPEAKER_01: God's grace goes deeper than we can sink.
SPEAKER_01: And if that's true, maybe we can recognize the importance of obedience.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Because Jonah and his disobedience has brought this upon himself.
SPEAKER_01: Because he didn't trust the good will of the God who has called him to proclaim his word?
SPEAKER_01: Can we trust the goodness of God?
SPEAKER_01: Can we trust it even when it doesn't seem to make sense?
SPEAKER_01: Even in the times where we know that so-and-so does not deserve to hear that word of grace and forgiveness, can we recognize that we too are sinners and we need God's grace and forgiveness?
SPEAKER_01: What is God calling you to that you might otherwise run away from?
SPEAKER_01: What is God convicting me of?
SPEAKER_01: The sin that I might otherwise cling to for security.
SPEAKER_01: Let's not be afraid of this gracious God, but let's run towards him.
SPEAKER_01: And let's run towards him, assured of his faithfulness in the depths of desolation and death itself.
SPEAKER_01: Because God's grace goes deeper than we could ever plunge away from God.
SPEAKER_01: God's heart is for you and for me and for us.
SPEAKER_01: And he is far more committed to you than you could ever be to him.
SPEAKER_01: Thanks be to God.
SPEAKER_01: With Jonah, through Jesus, we can say, Who is like the Lord our God?
SPEAKER_01: Strong to save, faithful in love.
SPEAKER_01: My debt is paid, the victory won.
SPEAKER_01: The Lord is my salvation.
SPEAKER_01: So we're gonna leave Jonah spewed up here on the beach with a decision to make.
SPEAKER_01: Where does he go from here?
SPEAKER_01: Friends, we who know God's grace in our Lord Jesus have a decision to make.
SPEAKER_01: Where do we go from here?
SPEAKER_01: Let's go deeper still.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: We hope that you've been blessed by God's word today.
SPEAKER_01: If you live in the Port Perry area, we hope that you'll come and worship with us in person on Sunday at 10 a.m.
SPEAKER_01: If you'd like to learn more about Newsong Church, we'd love to connect with you.
SPEAKER_01: Please find our contact information at newsongportperry.ca and reach out to us.
SPEAKER_01: Newsong's ministry is entirely funded by the generous giving of those who worship and journey with us.
SPEAKER_01: If you feel called to support our ministry with a financial gift, please go to newsongportperry.ca slash giving to make your contribution.
SPEAKER_01: Go in peace to love and serve the Lord.