Welcome to today's Beach Talk in Jonah chapter one. I wanna help us understand every word of God that's in the word of God in this chapter of the Bible. Jonah chapter one, my objective is always simple and always the same. It's disciples making disciples and churches planting churches. So the grassroots movement of Jesus can continue all over the world wherever God wants it to go.
So in 2021, our vision is to multiply from four ocean waters in two countries to eight ocean waters in four countries. This is big, we need you to pray because God is big and he can help us to do this. So we hope to see you in person soon in San Clemente or Rancho Mission Viejo or Costa Mesa or Ocean Beach or in a Palmer Cito El Salvador.
Now in verse one, it says, now the word of the Lord came to Jonah, the son of Amitai saying, arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it for their wickedness has come up before me. Now we see Jonah's attempted escape and God's call to Jonah, just like he has a call for us. Now God spoke to Jonah in a unique and powerful way and he told Jonah to do two things. First to go to Nineveh and second to cry out against it.
That is to rebuke them for their sin and to call them to repentance, to turn around the life that they had been living. Now the city of Nineveh was the capital of the Assyrian empire and it was a large and prominent city in its day. It was a city that God called Jonah to go to. It was a pagan city, it was a Gentile city and he wanted to call them to repentance. Now, ancient historians say that Nineveh was the largest city in the world at that time.
It was large, it was important, it was the capital of a dominating empire and surely it must have been an intimidating place for Jonah to go. Now God wanted Jonah to go there because he saw their wickedness. None of their wickedness was hidden from God, just like in our own life, God sees everything and it may come to a point where he demands the specific warning and even the judgment of God. So look at verse three, "'But Jonah arose and fled Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.
He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish. So he paid the fare and went down into it to go with them from Tarshish from the presence of the Lord." Now here we have Jonah's attempt to flee God's call. Jonah was a reluctant prophet. He didn't wanna go to where God had told him to. Now, several reasons for this have been suggested. Now one, it may have been because he was given a difficult job.
Sometimes God asks us to do difficult things and Jonah had every reason to expect that at the very best he would be mocked and be treated like a fool. He might be attacked and even killed if he had done what God was asking him to do. This is an intimidating group of people. Now it was also because Jonah didn't want the Assyrians in Nineveh to escape God's judgment. Now we all have people that we don't naturally like. This is the group of people that God told Jonah to go to.
Think about this right now. Do you have a group of people that you don't like? Is God asking you to go to them? Think about that. Now we may speculate on why Jonah did not want to do what God had told him to, but it's even better to think about why we don't do what God asked us to do. Now God told Jonah to go and preach.
Now all of us as disciples have the same command as we just looked at in Matthew 28 verses 18 to 20, the Great Commission last week, that we have a command from God to go and do this. Now the distant city of Tarshish was thought to be towards the end of the earth and it is always associated with ships in the Bible. Now Jonah wanted to go as far as he could to escape God's presence, but this was a futile attempt because we can never get away from God and what he's trying to do in our life.
Now Nineveh was east of Israel and Tarshish was about as far as you could go west. It was on the coast of what today is Spain, past the Straits of Gibraltar. In heading intended to get as far away from Nineveh and the calling of God to go there as he possibly could. Doesn't this sound like us? Now we don't doubt that Jonah felt like going to Tarshish, but there was an impulse within him driving him there, but it was just a dangerous impulse.
Now we may take Jonah as an example of the danger of doing things solely under an impulsive or solely by our feeling. Now Charles Spurgeon wisely pointed out, he said that he sometimes meets people that felt like they should go do so and so. It came upon me that I must do so and so. I'm afraid of these impulses, very greatly afraid of them.
People, listen, may do right under their power, but they will spoil what they do by doing it out of mere impulse and not because the action was right in and of itself. Now how many times have we been led by our feelings? Now an impulse may be very brave, yet wrong. Very brave in embarking on such a thing like a sea journey. An impulse may appear to be self-denying, yet it can be wrong. It costs Jonah much in money and comfort to go to this place.
An impulse may lay claim to freedom, yet be wrong. Wasn't Jonah free to go to Tarshish? So all the arguments that we make up in our own heads. Now an impulse may lead someone to do something that they would condemn and others. What would Jonah say to another prophet who is disobeying God? An impulse can make us, due to God or others, what we would never want to be done to ourself. Now many people take their inner impulses and say, the Lord told me to do this or that.
Now this is dangerous, even when it doesn't seem so immediately. Now it seemed easy enough. Perhaps Jonah felt that the Lord provided the money for the fare. This shows the danger of being guided by circumstances. Now, nevertheless, when you run away from the Lord, you never get to where you're going and you always pay your own fare. When you go to the Lord's way, you not only get to where you're going, but the Lord provides the fare. He pays for it all. This is a good lesson for us to remember.
Now Jonah should have read Psalm 139, where it says, where can I go from your spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you're there. If I make my bed in hell, behold, you are there. If I take the wings of the morning and I dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, like the ocean behind me, even there, your hand shall lead me and your right hand shall hold me. You can't escape the presence of God. Now all the while, the ship sailed smoothly over the sea.
Jonah forgot God. You could not have distinguished from him the biggest person who was farthest from God. He was acting just like everybody else. Now look at verse four, but the Lord sent a great wind on the sea and there was a mighty tempest on the sea so that the ship was about to be broken up. So here, God prevents Jonah's escape by sending a storm. It was the Lord who stirred up the storm.
Now we often think of Jesus as calming the waters and he can do that, but God can also stir up the storm in our lives when he's trying to get our attention. Now the ship and the sailors were in a dangerous place. This was all due to Jonah being on the ship. There was nothing wrong with the sailors being on the ship, but Jonah had no business there. Though on other circumstances, it might have been fine for him to go to Tarshish. Now Jonah might've wondered, I can go to Tarshish if I want to.
I paid the fare, I'm not a stowaway. Well, if you do a wrong thing in the rightest way, it can be done, it doesn't make it right. So look at verse five now. It says, then the mariners were afraid and every man cried out to his God and threw the cargo that was in the ship into the sea to lighten the load. But Jonah had gone down into the lowest parts of the ship, had laid down and was fast asleep. So the captain came to him and said to him, what do you mean, sleeper?
Arise, call on your God, perhaps your God will consider us so that we may not perish. So the sailors of the ship seek their superstitious God. So when in trouble, we do our best to fix the problem. In this case, they threw the cargo overboard. When this isn't enough, we also instinctively turn to our fake gods. If we don't know the true God, the Lord, before we are in trouble, we may sincerely turn to a false God or an imaginary God, one of our own making.
We trust in material things or position or power. Now many people assume that they can put off doing their business with God until they choose a better time to do it. Well, it is presumptuous to think that in the moment of crisis, we'll be able to call upon God if we have not dealt with him before our moment of crisis. So when the storm raged, Jonah slept.
Now, perhaps because the storm outside seemed insignificant to him in comparison to the storm inside, the storm that came from his resistance against God. Now, all the sailors were religious men devout in their prayers to their gods, yet their gods were really nothing and could do nothing. There was one man on board who had a relationship with the true God who knew his word and who worshiped him, yet he was asleep.
So the nature of Jonah's sleep is also instructive and too much like the sleep of the careless and distracted disciples we just talked about in Matthew chapter 27. Jonah slept in a place where he hoped no one would see him or disturb him. You see, sometimes sleeping disciples like to hide out in the back of the church. Jonah slept in a place where he could not help with the work that needed to be done. You see sleeping disciples stay away from working for God.
Now, Jonah slept while there was a prayer meeting up on the deck. Now, sleeping disciples don't like prayer meetings at all. Now, Jonah slept and had no idea of the problems around him. Sleeping disciples don't know what is really going on. Now, Jonah slept when he was in great danger. Sleeping disciples are in danger, but don't know it. Jonah slept while the heathen, the sinners needed him.
Now, sleeping disciples snooze on while the world needs their message and the story of Jesus to encourage them. Now, sleeping disciples protest if they're not asleep at all. Now, we talk about Jesus, but you can talk in your sleep. You see, we have a walk for Jesus, but you can't walk in your sleep. You see, we have a passion for Jesus. I just wept in worship the other day, but we can't cry while we're sleeping. So God wants us to be awake.
Now, when you have joy and rejoice in Jesus, we can laugh and we'll be awake, we'll be alive with him. When we think about Jesus all the time, our mind will be focused on him and thinking about him. Now, what do you mean sleep or arise? Call on your God. The captain knew that his crew cried to their God, but it didn't do anything. Perhaps Jonah's God could do something in this moment of crisis, so they call for Jonah.
Now, it must have seemed ironic to Jonah that the sailors demanded that he call on his God. His only reason for being on that ship was to escape his God. Now look at verse seven. And they said to one another, come, let us cast lots that we may know for whose cause this trouble has come upon us. For they cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah. Then they said to him, please tell us for whose cause, who has caused this trouble to come upon us. What is your occupation and where do you come from?
What is your country? And what people are you? Here we see the sailors discover that Jonah is the source of the trouble. That we may know for who causes this trouble has come upon us. It is hard to know what motivated the sailors to think that the storm was sent because one of them had wronged their God. Perhaps it was because of some spiritual insight. They sensed a spiritual power in the storm or perhaps it was just an accidental correct superstition.
Now, once the lot fell on Jonah, the sailors wanted to know as much as they could from Jonah so that they could solve the problem and save their lives and by the way, all of their cargo. Now, second Kings 14 says that Jonah was a recognized prophet when he was asked, what is your occupation? And he answered, prophet. Then the sailors must have been even more terrified. Now, verse nine, so he said to them, I am a Hebrew and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.
Then the men were exceedingly afraid and said to him, why have you done this? For the men knew that he fled from the presence of the Lord because he had told them. Wow, so Jonah tells them about who he is and what he has done and this makes them terrified. Now, the God of heaven who made the sea and the dry land, Jonah knew the truth about God, even though his claim to fear the Lord was only partly true because he was running from the Lord.
Now, even a believer who is in a state of rebellion can give glory to God if he will only tell the truth about God, although it is tragic that Jonah's life contradicted his knowledge of God. See, however, at the moment when Jonah said, I fear the Lord, he may have already repented of what he had expected of running away, turning back to God because of the present circumstance. It just takes a moment to connect our hearts back to God and to be in his good graces. Now, have you ever done this?
Have you ever paused in your heart and said, God, I'd like to turn around right now. You can do it even now, even while you're watching this on a screen, on your phone or at home or on Facebook or wherever. Now look at verse 11, then they said to him, what shall we do to you that the sea may be calm for us? For the sea was growing more. It was getting really wild. Today's rather calm behind me. It's have a little south wind. And he said to them, pick me up and throw me into the sea.
Then the sea will be calm before you. For I know that this great tempest is because of me. Nevertheless, men rode hard to return to land, but they could not for the sea continued to grow more tempestuous against them. Therefore they cried out to the Lord and said, we pray, oh Lord, do not let us perish for this man's life and do not charge us with innocent blood. For you, oh Lord have done as it pleased you. So they picked up Jonah and threw him into the sea and the sea ceased from its raging.
Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly and offered a sacrifice to the Lord and took vows. What's happening here? Well, now Jonah at his own request asked to be thrown into the sea and the sailors reluctantly agree. The more the sailors hear, the worse the situation gets, the sea was growing more rowdy, more stormy. Jonah was willing to sacrifice his life to save everyone else on the ship. Now we may consider what his motive might've been. Now, perhaps it was compassion for the sailors, maybe.
Perhaps it was a desire to be forced into complete dependence upon God alone. After all, there was nothing safer than casting yourself totally upon the grace of God. Or perhaps it was a feeling that anything was better than his continual resistance against and running from God. Perhaps because he had already truly repented, if this was the case, it illustrates that repentance is not only a matter of heart and mind, but also a matter of action.
In all of this, Jonah is a wonderful picture of the Messiah that would come after him, Jesus Christ. Jesus threw himself into the fury of God's storm and to rescue us who were far from God. However, there are many differences between Jonah and Jesus. And one of the greatest was that Jonah was disobedient and guilty and Jesus was completely obedient and totally innocent.
Now, the sailors did not want to throw Jonah into the sea because they believed his God was for real and they feared the consequences of throwing a prophet, even a disobedient prophet into the sea still when all hopes seem to be lost, they took precautions. We pray, oh Lord, please do not let us perish for this man's life and do not charge us with innocent blood and threw Jonah into the sea.
Now, the immediate end of the storm proved that Jonah's God was for real and that Jonah's resistance to that God was the real problem. In a logical response, the sailors feared the Lord exceedingly, sacrificed to God and made promises to serve him. The sailors moved from fearing the storm to fearing the Lord, just the disciples in the boat did when Jesus calmed the storm. Now notice that the vows of the sailors came after they were delivered.
Based on this, many commentators believe that the sailors came to a true faith in God. Now, people, when they are tossed upon the sea of conviction, make desperate efforts to save themselves, just like we do. Things get messy and then we reach out to God. Our best efforts always inevitably fail. Our sorrow will continue to increase as long as it relies on ourself and our own self effort. That's why we need God's grace and we need to reach out to him.
Our safety is to be found in the sacrifice of another on our behalf, that's Jesus. Now, this concludes our time, looking at Jonah chapter one today. I want you to ask yourself the question, what was God saying to me today through the speech talk? And let's pray about it. Prayer is simply just saying, hey God, what did you say to me today and how can I respond? I always pray by saying, hey God, what are some things I need to reset in my life? What are some things I need to stop?
And what are some new things that I need to start? God is in the business of stopping and starting and giving us new chances. Every single day, the Bible says his mercies are new every morning. So even right now, would you just say, hey God, would you help me? Give me your mercy today, give me your grace today, help me to follow you today, in Jesus' name, amen.
Last thing I wanna do today is encourage us to be gracious and radically generous in our giving through what God is doing in and through ocean water. We're working hard on things in a lot of different places. We would love for you to give as part of your worship to us. You can do that on our website at Ocean Water. You can just click on giving, whatever God puts in your heart, please go there and do that. Or you can Venmo us at OCNWTR.
And we'll make sure and use that in the best possible way to multiply what God wants to do in our lives and through ocean water all over the place. And thank you so much for watching today's Beach Talk. And as always, I hope you have a beautiful day.