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First Baptist Church of El Dorado - Sermons
Tune in each week as Pastor Taylor Geurin leads us into a study of God's Word.
First Baptist Church of El Dorado - Sermons
Into the Deep: God's Unexpected Rescue | Jonah 1:17-2:10
God's gracious activity often arrives in unexpected ways, and the story of Jonah demonstrates how divine rescue can come through the most unlikely means. The fish that swallowed Jonah wasn't just punishment—it was God's sovereign provision of salvation when Jonah deserved death.
• God's sovereign rule extends beyond cosmic forces to even the digestive system of a fish
• The most unexpected aspect of Jonah's story isn't the fish but that God saved him at all
• Jonah finally acts like a prophet in chapter 2 when he prays from inside the fish
• God's unexpected grace deserves our worshipful response, as we see in Jonah's beautiful prayer
• True worship acknowledges that "salvation belongs to the Lord," not to our efforts
• God gives second chances, shown when "the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time"
• The Christian life follows this pattern: unexpected grace → worshipful response → daily obedience
• When we understand our freedom in Christ, obedience transforms from duty to delight
Join us next week as we continue exploring the book of Jonah and discover how God works through reluctant servants to accomplish His purposes.
1st Baptist, baptist El Dorado. Will you join me now in listening to our sermon from this week?
Speaker 2:Amen, open with me to the book of Jonah as we continue in our series. Today will be the very end of chapter 1, jonah, 1.17 through chapter 2. I want to read 1.17 for us. 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. Let's pray together. Lord Jesus, thank you for your word. Would you teach us through your word, transform us through your word and, lord, by your spirit, would we leave change? Today, lord, we need you and we need to hear from you. We ask this in Christ's name, amen.
Speaker 2:Have you ever asked in any situation, what are the chances that something happens in your own life? That seems like an impossibility and you just have to ask what in the world are the chances here? My favorite novel of all time and second place isn't even remotely close is Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird. It's the first time I read it. I loved it and I think every word and every line is perfection. But Harper Lee, as she's writing this book, in many ways it's very autobiographical. In many ways she's writing about her own life and upbringing in Monroeville, alabama. As you read To Kill a Mockingbird, you hear about a friend named Dill who would come down and hang out with Scout and Jim every summer. Every summer, dill would come down and they would play games All hours of the day. They were together. That was based on one of Harper Lee's friends in Monroeville, alabama. That would come down every summer, a young man named Truman Persons. Truman Persons would come every summer and they'd play for those three months. Truman would later live in New York City where he would move with his mother and his mother's new husband. Truman would take on the name of that new husband and he would become, instead of Truman Persons, truman Capote. Now what are the chances? Chances, when you look at the top 10 American authors American novels you see number one, to Kill a Mockingbird. Number eight is Truman Capote's In Cold Blood. What are the chances that two of the top 10 American authors spent all their summers together in nowhere else but Monroeville, alabama? How is this possible? As a side note, what are the chances? In Harper Lee's life when she lived in New York City, she lived on the first floor of an apartment building and just down the hall, one of her first floor neighbors, two young men that were just struggling artists at the time, named John and Daryl. You may know what their last names were and what they came to be known by Hall and Oates. So what are the chances? With Harper Lee in her life is unbelievable.
Speaker 2:But as we turn to Jonah this morning, we can't help but ask this what are the chances? How in the world could this be that Jonah seems to be in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, just the right storm brings just the right moment, that he gets thrown overboard at just the right time, that just the right fish at just the right moment is where that fish needs to be to provide Jonah with the saving he desperately needs and doesn't even know he's looking for. What are the chances? Well, when you think of Harper Lee and Truman Capote, the chances they can't be none, but they can be slim. When you think about Jonah in the middle of the ocean but you're dealing with the sovereignty of God the chances are absolute. And that's what we'll see this morning.
Speaker 2:And I want us to see a few things, and the first is this that God's gracious activity may not come in the way that we expected. God's gracious activity may not come in the way that we expected. Verse 17 again. 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. Now, in verse 17 of chapter 1, I want to start right here those first words that and the Lord appointed a great fish.
Speaker 2:The Lord appointed when we think about the sovereign rule of God, the sovereign rule and reign of God over all of creation, we usually think of that in terms of really big, dramatic things. We think of the sovereign rule of God in things like his ability to put the universe in place, his ability to rule over the stars and the galaxy, his ability to rule over the earth in such a way that he keeps it spinning on an axis. And if, for even a second, he looked away and caused us to get a fraction of an inch off life as we know, it would be over. But God's sovereign rule and reign keeps all of these things moving and in place. We think of God's sovereignty in really big ways, but I also want to do this. I want you to think of God's sovereign rule also in very small ways, that God's sovereign rule even reigns over the digestive system of a fish. That's just how mighty God is, that he doesn't just deal with the big, but he deals with the small. And so when we read that, and the Lord appointed a great fish that in this moment God called upon a fish, gave that fish a duty to carry out, and that fish just said yes, sir, that fish did it. He went where he was supposed to go, where God told him to be.
Speaker 2:But God's gracious activity might not look like we expect.
Speaker 2:This moment where the Lord appoints this great fish look at this to swallow up Jonah, this is a moment of God's grace. This is a moment of absolute gracious activity on the part of God. Is there God's judgment mixed in with this? Absolutely, jonah rightfully deserves. He's a rebel running from God. He deserves the judgment of God and God's judgment is mixed in in this moment. God did not put a Hilton Garden Inn at the bottom of the sea. He appointed a fish to swallow Jonah in this moment.
Speaker 2:I imagine these three days were a little uncomfortable, not the most desirable, and yet this is God's salvation for him. This is Jonah, as we'll see in just a moment through his prayer. That has no hope that when Jonah gets overboard, he knows that he is as good as dead. He knows that him being thrown overboard is a death sentence. He knows he's not coming back from this, and yet, as he's floating down to the bottom of the ocean, god provides his salvation in this unexpected form of a really big fish to swallow him up. And so this is God's gracious activity. And I just wonder who could have seen this coming? Nobody, jonah didn't know. Again, as we talked about the sailors didn't even know. When the fish woke up that morning, he didn't even know. And yet, in God's mercy, god knew.
Speaker 2:And I just wonder have you seen God's unexpected gracious activity in your life? Have you known in your own mind that you needed God to move in your own thinking in a certain way, and it had to be a certain way. It needed to be this way, which lines up perfectly with my way, the way I dreamed and desired. And then you've seen God move in your life in a totally unexpected way. And yet on the other side of it, you see that all the while, god was orchestrating what only he could do to get you right where you needed to be at the time you needed to get there, that what you saw in your life as an absolute closed door that you wanted to be open. You saw instead that all the while God had opened another and that one made all the difference. You saw a relationship come to a close and yet you see later that God was just preparing you for something else. You saw the career move that you didn't get the promotion. You didn't get the promotion you didn't get. You thought that will be the end of me and my career going forward and you saw in God's sovereignty that was just the beginning, because God moves in unexpected ways in our lives and does things we could not see coming, so that on the other side of it, we'll see in a minute. We will give him, and him alone, worship, but have you seen God move in unexpected ways in your life? We will give him and him alone worship, but have you seen God move in unexpected ways in your life? I wonder if, even in these days now, you even walk into this room in a moment in your own life where you wonder what in the world has God up to? What in the world is God doing? Why have I been praying for this thing and God hadn't moved in this way yet? Or why is God not moving me forward or calling me back? I don't know. We got this devastating news, we got this difficult diagnosis and we wonder what in the world God is up to. It may be, I would argue, that God is moving in some unexpected ways, or, on the other side of it, we can look back and see God's faithfulness all the while. If you want to know the most unexpected way we see God's sovereign activity in our lives, and any lives, we only have to look to our own salvation, don't we? We only have to look to the cross. I love the moment.
Speaker 2:In Matthew 12, 38 through 40, the religious leaders come to Jesus and they say this Jesus, we want you to give us a sign, we want you to show us something. Basically this we want to see a spectacle. It can be a hocus pocus, abracadabra. We just need to see something amazing. And if you do that, if you create this spectacle, then maybe we'll all believe that you are who you say you are. Just show us something, jesus. And Jesus says this I'm not going to give you a sign, except for one. I will give you the sign of Jonah. That's his words, the sign of Jonah. He says this for three days, jonah spent in the belly of the fish. So too will the Son of man spend in the heart of the earth. Jesus says this if you want to know the sign that I give, look no further than where I'm going. We know he's talking about his very death, where he will go into the tomb and on the third day rise again.
Speaker 2:But you talk about the unexpected grace that comes to us in the person of Jesus Christ. We couldn't have drawn up the fact that our Savior would be the suffering Savior, that literally the moment that we consider and celebrate and look back to as believers would be the moment when the Lord of glory is put on the cross, faces Roman execution beside two criminals, and certainly on that Friday afternoon we couldn't imagine that Sunday morning he's going to get up from the grave. This is unexpected grace through and through that God would move in a way that we couldn't even imagine. And yet I think for Jonah and I think for me as well, we can take it a step further to say it's not just the fact that the way Jonah was saved was unexpected. It certainly was.
Speaker 2:But another thing that was so unexpected is this that Jonah was saved at all. It doesn't just blow me away that it was a fish, as if it had just been some other boat that pulled up, it would make more sense. It might, in my rational mind, make a little more sense. But the reality is this Jonah is one can we just be honest doesn't deserve saving. He is a prophet of God, so he says, but he's a prophet on the run who every step of the way, wants to get as far away from the will of God and the plan of God over his life as he possibly can. And yet, whether it be a fish, whether it be anything else, jonah saved.
Speaker 2:What may be so unexpected in this moment is just the gracious activity of God at all, is just the gracious activity of God at all that God would be willing to find someone like Jonah. We could take it a step further someone like me, someone like you, in the middle of the ocean and provide salvation. Whether it be a great fish or the cross of Jesus Christ, provide salvation for us. So number one is this God's gracious activity may not come in the way that we expected, but I also want to see this. God's gracious activity always deserves our worshipful response. God's gracious activity always deserves our worshipful response.
Speaker 2:Response Chapter 2, we see this verse 1, then Jonah prayed to the Lord, his God, from the belly of the fish. Again, then Jonah prayed to the Lord, his God, from the belly of the fish. Finally, it takes us all the way to chapter 2, but we finally see the prophet of God acting as if he were a prophet of God. Think about in this moment, throughout this book, who we have seen praying to Yahweh, praying to the Lord. So far we have seen these formerly unbelieving sailors who, again 15 minutes ago, were calling out to every God lowercase g they could think of, and then they're praying to Yahweh himself. And finally, in chapter 2, we actually see the prophet of God pray to Yahweh. But I will say this he does make up for lost time because we see a beautiful prayer in this moment. But I will say this he does make up for lost time because we see a beautiful prayer in this moment. I want to walk through it in its entirety.
Speaker 2:Verse 2, he says this I called out to the Lord out of my distress and he answered me. Out of the belly of Sheol, that means the place of the deep, I cried and look at this, and you heard my voice. I like verse three, for you cast me into the deep we might be tempted to say, jonah no, he didn't, jonah. The sailors cast you into the deep. Or we could even say, jonah, actually that was your idea for the sailors to cast you into the deep.
Speaker 2:Yet Jonah has an even deeper understanding of what is going on here, that this is God's divine judgment. God threw him into the sea. Met with God's divine grace, as we see. 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 Verse 4,. 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 around 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 and to 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. Here it is Salvation belongs to the Lord.
Speaker 2:We see such a beautiful prayer in this moment that moves from hopelessness to hope. That moves from hopelessness to hope. Jonah is not shy to describe the hopelessness he was facing. I mean, you see the language? He's thrust down into the deep. You see the seaweed wrapping around him, the bars of the deep closing over him, this poetic language to describe exactly what has happened. As Jonah is sinking down and as we say again, this being thrown overboard was an absolute death sentence, jonah's life will be over, should be over. There's no way out unless God intervenes. And in this moment, as Jonah sees, I look to the Lord. I remember the Lord, but long before that the Lord looked to me and appointed this fish and he saved me in this moment. What we see here is that God's gracious activity leads to a worshipful response by Jonah.
Speaker 2:I think of Luke 17, 11 through 19, that these 10 individuals come to Jesus. Each one of them has leprosy, this skin disease that would cause them to be absolute outcasts in town. There's really no way back from this diagnosis. And they all come to Jesus. They know he's passing through their village and they come, beg him for healing. Jesus tells them go and see the priest. And as all 10 of them are on their way to the priest, all 10 of them are healed just as they're walking that way. Leprosy is gone. They have, in so many ways, new life. Now Leprosy is healed. Nine of them go about their business. One of them stops, runs back to Jesus, falls on his knees, on his face before Jesus and says nothing but thank you and gives him nothing but worship and Jesus says your faith has made you well, your faith has made you well. I imagine that these nine individuals are very content with the healing and just content to get back to what they did before their diagnosis. But this one knew exactly where his healing had come from and would not go about his business until he worshiped the one who gave it.
Speaker 2:Do we return in worship as we see God's gracious activity In our own lives, in the lives of others, in the life of this church, in the life of this world? Do we return our worship to the Lord when we see his gracious activity? Imagine and it might not be hard to imagine, because seeing Jonah's character in the other three chapters of this book, it's not far-fetched but imagine in this moment if Jonah had instead just taken all the credit. When I had the great idea to dive over the side of the boat when I pinpointed the exact fish that could give me a ride right back to where I needed to be, wasn't I wise to do that? It sounds ridiculous to say out loud. And yet, when you and I are unwilling or simply forgetful to give God the glory he deserves for his gracious activity in our lives, if we're not careful, we can sound exactly like that, at least in our actions, taking credit for what only God can do.
Speaker 2:I hope that we will be a people that, as we see the movement of God in our lives, in this church, in our families, in this world, that we would have nowhere to look but up and be a worshiping people that say Lord Jesus, all glory to you. You are the one who has made a way, you are the one that has made this possible. As we talk about the unexpected ways God moves, you were the only one that could do this, and so in my life I want to return and I simply want to say thank you. Now we do have to talk about this and many have talked about it through the years that Jonah's words are beautiful, yet they're not quite perfect. We do see in this moment that at no point does he come to the Lord with some kind of repentance. It would have been a great moment for Jonah to look back at the Lord in his prayer and say this I have done wrong, I have messed up in some really big ways. We don't get that. But we also see this, that in chapters 3 and 4 Jonah is going to go right back To his sinful ways of wanting mercy for himself but for absolutely no one else. And this prayer is beautiful, but in some ways it's not perfect. I'm not sure how well it sticks once Jonah is removed from the fish, and that's why I see point number three, which is this God's gracious activity should lead us to further obedience. God's gracious activity not only deserves a worshipful response, but should lead us to further obedience.
Speaker 2:Verse 10 of chapter 2, and the Lord spoke to the fish and it vomited Jonah out upon the dry land. I'm sorry for that word vomited that's just what the ESV gave me. The Lord appointed or spoke to the fish and it vomited Jonah out on to dry land. So once again we see the sovereignty of God even over the digestive system of a fish, where he can speak to that fish and in that moment that fish responds to God's command and spits Jonah out onto dry land. Now the text doesn't actually tell us where Jonah is, where that fish gets Jonah, but I would imagine it's much closer to Joppa and Nineveh than it is to Tarshish. Many assume that it's right back at Joppa, right back to where Jonah started. But wherever it is, this fish and really the Lord working through this fish gets Jonah back to dry land Again. His death sentence becomes a second opportunity to serve the Lord and be faithful to the Lord and, as we've seen his worshipful response now he will have an opportunity to be led towards further obedience. And in 3, verse 1, we see this then the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time. Now we're going to break down chapter 3 another day, but just that verse 1, that the word of the Lord would come a second time. Verse 1, that the word of the Lord would come a second time. Does that not blow you away? That the word of the Lord came to Jonah the first time and Jonah did nothing but run away, nothing but get as far away as he could. But in God's mercy, the word of the Lord comes a second time Reminds me of Genesis, chapter 15, 16, and 17.
Speaker 2:Genesis 15, god makes a covenant with Abraham that I'm going to give you a nation and a people and a land. You'll be as numerous as the stars in the sky. This beautiful covenant that is given. You are going to have a child, abraham, and from him will come this mighty nation that will bless all the nations through this nation. This beautiful covenant that God makes. That's chapter 15. Chapter 16, what happens? Abraham messes every single part of that up. He and Sarah have an idea. You know we're not able to have a child. There's Hagar, my servant. A child is born with Hagar, outside of what God had just told them to do. They're disobedient, seemingly at every stop. And then we see that's 15, then 16. What's going to happen in 17? I would imagine God would be done with Abraham.
Speaker 2:Genesis, chapter 17,. What does God do? He comes to Abraham and in his grace he doubles down on that covenant promise as numerous as the stars in the sky, so your descendants will be. We serve a God of second chances, and that's good news for folks like you and me who sure need second chances. But in this moment God's word comes again to Jonah, and Jonah has the opportunity now, the second time around, to obey God.
Speaker 2:Now Jonah doesn't do it perfectly. We're going to see Jonah gets to Nineveh, but he does so pretty reluctantly. He preaches to Nineveh and I'm going to be honest, it's not the most exciting sermon he's probably ever preached. He doesn't even sound that excited about giving it, and yet Nineveh is going to repent, nineveh is going to be saved. So Jonah is reluctant. But I wonder this in our own lives, jonah is reluctant. But I wonder this in our own lives, as we've seen God move in unexpected ways, as I hope we've returned to worship accordingly. Has, then, that led us to further obedience?
Speaker 2:I want to return to Harper Lee for just a second. I'm reading a book, or just finished a book this week on Harper Lee, and unfortunately y'all have to be the beneficiary of this. But the year was 1956, and Harper Lee just couldn't get any words on the page. To Kill a Mockingbird would not come out until 60, and here she is in 56. She knows she's got a book in her soul, but she just cannot get it on the page. What makes matters worse is that at this time she's not the accomplished author that she would be. And so she's got a day job and it's hard to even find time to write when you've got a nine to five and you're living in New York City and there's a lot of hustle and bustle and there's a lot going on and you just need a few quiet hours to write. And she absolutely can't find it.
Speaker 2:But at Christmas of 1956, she has two dear friends, michael and Joy Brown. They give her a Christmas gift that changed everything. For Christmas they gave her a check. That check equated to a year's worth of her wages and they told her you have a year, go write your book. They said you have a year. Go get those words on the page, don't worry about the day job, don't worry about the day job, don't worry about the distractions. You now have the freedom to work. And with that new freedom, harper Lee did not need a year because within 10 months she had the finished manuscript handed over of what, through some editing phases, would become To Kill a Mockingbird.
Speaker 2:And why did this happen? How did this happen? Why, because through such a freedom comes such an obedience. The gift of such a freedom leads us to further obedience as we realize the freedom we have. As Harper Lee realized the freedom she now had to write. She was obedient to that call of you've got a year.
Speaker 2:As in our lives, we realize who we are in Christ Jesus and the freedom we have, as we realize what he's done for us, the unexpected way he has moved, first in our salvation, but then in every single facet of our lives, how he continually moves and works all things together for our good and for his glory. Our response is worship. And then that leads us. What so great a freedom that he has given us now leads us to greater obedience. That now, because of my freedom, I don't have to use the language of I better obey, I have to obey. Here it is, I get to obey, I have to obey. Here it is, I get to obey From duty to delight. We've talked about that before. That I get to look at God's word and see the man or the woman that he has called me to be, and I get to live that life. And I imagine I won't do it perfect, I imagine I'll miss the mark a time or two, or 10,000, but the privilege he's given me, the freedom I have, his unexpected gracious activity, my worshipful response, my further obedience.
Speaker 2:I was reading 1 Peter this week and saw this formula so clear in chapter 2, starting in verse 9. But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into marvelous light. Here's the formula. He calls us who we are. He shows us who we are in Christ Jesus, the life we've been given. Why that you may proclaim the excellencies? That leads us to worship. Then you jump down to verse 11. Beloved that we know who we are and we've worshiped him accordingly. Beloved. I urge you, as sojourners and exiles, to abstain from the passions of the flesh which wage war against your soul. There's the formula Unexpected grace, worshipful response that fuels daily obedience. If that formula we've talked before, if that formula gets out of order, you will spend your life striving to attain what you already have. You will spend your life thinking obedience is my constant hamster wheel of this life to try to earn the favor of God. When, all the while, god's favor has been placed upon you in the person of Christ Jesus, we worship in response to that and we get to live the life of obedience for him accordingly. That's the Christian life. In just a moment, I'm going to pray and we're going to worship together and I'll be honest, I'm not picking on you, I'm picking on me, I'm picking on all of us.
Speaker 2:There's sometimes probably a temptation in the final song, what we call the invitation song, and I'll just call it like I see it, because I've been tempted to. You're thinking about lunch, okay, you're thinking about it. You're thinking about what's ahead. You've got responsibilities this afternoon. Monday's coming. There's a lot on your mind in that last song. But in this moment, I wonder if we can just hang on for a little while and just do exactly what this text calls us to do.
Speaker 2:As we sing this song that talks about our gratitude to our heavenly father, if we could just for a moment recall in our own lives, through our salvation, through every time in between of our lives where god has been faithful to us, if we can bring those things to mind and, just for a few moments in this room, worship him accordingly, in the way that he deserves, in downright gratitude for all that he has done for us, completely undeserved, yet he delights to do it and he is faithful. And as we sing, if you'd like to respond in any way, I'll be down front. I'd love to pray with you. I'd love to talk to you about a relationship with Jesus. I'd love to talk to you about joining this church. However, you need to be responding, I'll be here to handle it. You come on down and see me.
Speaker 2:For the rest of us, let's worship and let's show our gratitude. Let me pray and then we'll worship together. Lord Jesus, I thank you for what you've done for us. I thank you for your mercy. I thank you for what you've done for us. I thank you for your mercy. I thank you for your grace and Lord, with so great a freedom, so great a salvation, lord, let us respond with our worship, respond with gratitude and thankfulness for who you are and what you've done. Lord, you are worthy of our praise.
Speaker 2:Each one of us in this room that know Jesus Christ personally, we know what it is to be like Jonah sinking to the bottom of the ocean. Yet we also know, in Christ Jesus, what it is to be saved by the cross and by his resurrection. And, lord, if there is any in this room that doesn't know that that is still in the ocean of their own lives. Would today be the day that they find the Savior. Lord, we have nothing to give you except for our heartfelt worship and gratitude. So, Lord, let us give that now. In Christ's name, amen. Would you stand now as we worship? I'll be down front if you come.