Summary
Pastor Safrit walks through Jonah 1:1-6, highlighting Jonah's initial rebellion against God's command to go to Nineveh. He emphasizes that running from God leads to a complete rejection of His will and invites His wrath, as seen in the storm that threatens the ship. The sermon calls believers to recognize their own tendencies to avoid God's mission and encourages them to actively share the hope of Christ with others, rather than remaining silent like Jonah.
Welcome and Housekeeping
Thank you for listening to Pleasant Grove Baptist Church Sermon Audio. For more information, please visit our website, pgbcronda.com, or visit on all social media platforms. Thank you, Choir, for singing.
If you have your Bibles, we'll go to Jonah chapter 1. If you've got a kid that wants to go to Children's Church, I'll be dismissed at this time.
The hardest thing about singing How Great Thou Art is everyone knows it the way Elvis, well, I say everyone. I know the way Elvis sang it, and Elvis adds a lot of flair and pauses and grandioso to it.
And so I try to sing it like that, but I'm not like Elvis, and so I just try to look like him. And so Jonah chapter 1 is where we'll be at today.
We are starting, we're going to walk through the book of Jonah over the next six or seven weeks, depending on how the Lord leads.
And so hopefully you will enjoy this. You can read along with us beforehand, and that's a good way to prepare our hearts and minds for where we're going to be at over the next couple of weeks.
And so today we're just going to look at the first six verses, and we're going to sort of look at the history of Jonah, how Jonah came about. And I've really, really enjoyed this study so far, and I hope you will as well.
And so if you have your Bibles and you've turned there, it's in the Old Testament. It's a small book.
You may know where it's at right after Obadiah. Jonah will read the first six verses.
Let's all stand out of reverence of God's Word today. I'll give you one more chance to stand if you can and you're willing and able. The Bible says, Jonah got up and fled to Tarshish from the Lord's presence, and he went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish.
He paid the fare and went down to it and to go in with them to Tarshish from the Lord's presence.
But the Lord threw a great wind into the sea, and such a great storm arose in the sea that the ship threatened to break apart. The sailors were afraid and each cried out to their own God. They threw the ship's cargo into the sea to lighten the load.
Meanwhile, Jonah had gone down to the lowest part of the vessel, had stretched out and fallen into a deep sleep. The captain approached him and said,
What are you doing sound asleep? Get up. Call to your God. Maybe this God will consider us, and we will not perish.
Lord, we love you. We thank you for what you've done. We pray, God, that you would have your will and way today. I thank you for your blessings and music so far and just the safety that you've given us.
Prayer for Guidance
I pray that your name would be lifted high today and that you would give the honor and glory of everything that's done and said. In your name we pray. Amen. You can be seated.
Jonah, if you've been around church any period of time, is a hot debate topic. People will always and often ask, and probably until the end of time will ask, Was Jonah a true story or was Jonah just a made-up fairy tale that people like to talk about?
Hopefully, over the next course of five, six weeks, we'll be able to address some things, and I really think the very end will help us understand how it's true in the church. But as we think of the story of Jonah, oftentimes Jonah is portrayed like this in the church.
Jonah is, there's a little boy that has been running through the church, and that little boy's got a little bit of a gifting, and he's excited, and parents or even people in the church will say, you know what,
one day that little boy's going to go into ministry.
And they'll begin seeing how the Lord's working in his life, and the boy grows up a little bit, runs from the Lord, and goes and does his own thing. And the boy comes back and eventually surrenders into ministry, and the people of the church will say,
Man, I'm really glad that boy stopped running like Jonah and surrendered into ministry.
And if we leave this story just to preachers, I believe it's a great misjustice to the church and to Christians, because the more we look at Jonah throughout this study, I believe the more we're going to look at it and say, Jonah is more like me than I realized.
I am more like Jonah than I realized. And if we would like to admit that in this room, I think that we can begin to understand God is wanting us to do some great things,
but oftentimes we run from the Lord. Oftentimes we don't want to admit that we run from the Lord, and Jonah is a great way to look at this. And so as I begin to study through the history of Jonah, often people don't know that Jonah is not the first time he's mentioned, he's not in the book of Jonah.
Jonah is actually mentioned in 2 Kings, and these verses will be on the screen for you to look at. But this is the first mention of Jonah, 2 Kings chapter 14.
I think I may have had that about there, guys. I don't know if I did or not. But it says this,
Now if you're like me and you read through Scripture, a lot of times through the kings, you're like, Okay, there's a whole bunch of names here. I'm just going to skim through them, get my Bible reading out for the day, check off my Bible reading plan, and not really understand what's going on.
But then in verse 24, it says this, He did evil in the sight of the Lord. And he did not turn away from his sins. And Jeroboam, the son of Nabat,
had caused Israel to commit a great sin. And he restored Israel's border from Liban Hamath, as far as the sea from Arab,
according to the word of the Lord, and the God of Israel, who had spoken through his servant, the prophet Jonah, son of Amidah,
from Gath Helper. So we see here in the very beginning of the first time that Jonah's mentioned, Jonah's mentioned speaking to an evil king of Israel and saying, You've done wrong. You've committed a great sin. Turn from your ways. And according to Scripture,
after this king prayed for 41 years, Jonah came and spoke to him. And it says that he restored everything that Israel's border was. He turned from the Lord, from what he was doing, and turned the nation back to the Lord.
And so the very first time we see Jonah mentioned in Scripture, Jonah is preaching the word, and he's doing mighty things in the land.
You see, the great ministry success that Jonah had wasn't in the book of Jonah. The book of Jonah is another part of his story. The Lord used him in a mighty way before Jonah's story in the well ever happened.
Think with me for a moment. Think with me that Jonah knows the power of the Lord.
He has seen God work in a crazy, mighty way in his own people. He saw the comfort of the Lord come into a nation that was turned and doing wicked things. He saw healing come in. He saw judgment.
He knew the Lord was the protector and the strong tower as we look for many, many weeks in the book of Psalms. And yet, when the Lord comes to Jonah and says,
go on this awesome mission, I'm going to give you a mission that's going to be so great that you're not even going to understand how great it's going to be. And Jonah responds by saying, I'm good.
I don't really want to charge hell with a squirt gun. I'm going to go do my own thing. God, what you want me to do, it's to people that I don't really like. These are Gentiles.
I'm a Jew. I'm going to go and do my own thing. And so Jonah runs from the Lord.
And so we title this running from God. And we're going to look at how running from God today as the opening message begins to lay the found work. The first is this. Running leads to a complete rejection of God.
Verses one through three. When we run, it leads us to completely reject who God is and what God has done.
God's Command to Jonah
God gave Jonah a simple command, a simple two-letter command, go. He said, go into this land of Nineveh. And Jonah said,
I don't really want to do this. You see, this isn't a new task for him. We just looked at 2 Kings.
We see that he had already seen the power of God work. He had already seen God work in a mighty way, in an unexplainable way. But this was not the culture that he wanted.
This was a culture that if you've ever done any story of research of the city of Nineveh, Nineveh had this, they were completely wicked. They were a horrible nation. They had devised what they called the slide of death.
And what they would do is if you came in and you did not agree with their gods, if you did not agree with what they liked, they would take you up to this high mountain.
And they had this slide that they had formed. And they would put you at the top of the slide and they would slide you down feet first. And at the bottom of this slide was a saw.
A type of sword, you could say. And as you went down this slide, it was inevitable for you to avoid this slide and it would cut your body in half. And everyone knew that this was Nineveh. Everyone knew that Nineveh was an evil, wicked empire.
And God says, Jonah, I want you to go and I want you to preach there. And he knew if I go and preach there, they're going to take me to the top of that slide. And I don't like that.
God, you're taking me out of my comfort zone. God, you're taking me somewhere where I don't want to go. This Assyrian empire that has taken over many, many different nations and they're ruining these nations.
And he's saying, you want me to go into their nation and fix their nation?
And he said, no, I'm not going to go into the bully's backyard. And I'm not going to tell them how to repent and to turn from their ways. And so we see Jonah run to Joppa, run away from Nineveh. He is headed in 180 degree different direction than Nineveh is.
And all throughout this first part, if you've ever looked at the story of Jonah, look at how many times it says he went down. He went down.
He went down into the bottom of the ship. He went down into the lowest part of the vessel. He continues to go down and down and down away from the Lord. He runs away.
And his active rebellion of God calling him, trying to escape what the Lord had for him, led to ultimately what we're going to see in this story today.
The Great Commission Reminder
And so what does the Lord tell us as believers in this story? Right? What is Jesus's last words to the disciples before he ascends into heaven? Then he looks down into his disciples and he says this in Matthew chapter 28. The same command he gives to Jonah, he gives to us. Go.
He told Jonah, go into Nineveh. And he's telling us as Christians, us as churches today, go therefore and make disciples of all nations.
Not just the ones you want to make, but of all nations. Baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit. Verse 20, teaching them to obtain everything I've commanded you.
And remember, I am with you always until the end of the age. We have the same command that Jonah had. And how often, church, and I'm guilty of this as I've studied this all week,
do we more often than not run from this command instead of run for the command?
God says, go into all the nation. And we say, you know what, I'm going to go and do what I want to do, not what you want me to do, Lord. John always wrote it like this in a famous song called Jesus Saves. We have heard the joyful sound, Jesus Saves, Jesus Saves.
Spread the tidings all around. Jesus Saves, Jesus Saves. Bear the news to every land. Climb the steeps and cross the waves. Onward tis our Lord's command.
Jesus Saves, Jesus Saves. Look at verse 2 with me. Waft it on the rolling tide. When times are hard, Jesus Saves, Jesus Saves. Tell the sinners far and wide, Jesus Saves, Jesus Saves. Sing you to the islands of the seas. Echoing it back the ocean cave. Allow the earth to sing her jubilee.
Jesus Saves. And one of my favorite verses of all of them, verse 4, Give the winds a mighty voice. Jesus Saves.
Jesus Saves. Because we tell this all these things, what does the nations do? Let the nations now rejoice that Jesus Saves. Shout salvation full and free. Highest hills and deepest caves. This is our song of victory that Jesus Saves. Church, this is what Christ has told us to do.
He tells us to go into the nations and tell them that Jesus Saves. And often times when we look at our life, we begin to see that Jonah is living inside of us. And we want to run from what God is telling us to do. Just as Jonah does.
And what does it do? It leads us to a complete rejection of what God has for us. A complete rejection of Jesus saving the nation.
This should be our mantra to tell the nation that Jesus's salvation is there if just they'll believe.
Not just to the ones we like. Not just to our best friends. But to everyone that we see. Everyone that we come in contact with. We are telling them to go and repent of their sins.
You see, often times we don't tell those that are just closest around us. We begin to see the effects of Jonah in our life. We begin to see God's wrath poured out in our life. You see, when this is a daily lifestyle of telling people about Jesus,
we get to see a crazy thing happen of Acts. Where God blesses the church and the church grows astronomically.
Or we can begin to do like Jonah does and go through our daily tasks and never mention Jesus one time in our day. Never tell the co-worker that's struggling with addiction.
Never tell our best friend that's struggling with suicide. Never tell our best friend that's struggling with their identity. That Jesus loves them. And Jesus came to die for them. And if only they'll repent, they can have this forgiveness that we have experienced. We go our whole day never mentioning Jesus to anyone.
So what does this do? It leads us to a complete rejection of God as we see in Matthew. And about how Jonah goes through this. But it also invites the wrath of God in our life. Verses 4 and 5.
Look at what's we hear. But the Lord threw a great wind into the sea. Such a great storm arose out of the sea that it threatened to break the ship apart. The sailors who were...
I don't have time to go through the sailors in my study. But these sailors, they knew the sea.
They knew what was going on. They were so afraid that they began to cry out to their own God.
They threw all the valuable things out of the sea to lighten the load while Jonah was sleeping in the bottom part of the ship. You see, oftentimes we sit and we think we can do whatever we want and God doesn't care. The story of Jonah tells us mistakenly that it's wrong.
The Lord of heaven and earth will not turn a blind eye to our rejection of him.
They will not turn a blind eye to a rebellion that we can think we can do whatever we want. If we think that we can ignore God and do whatever we want to do and God's going to sit by and do nothing to the Christians, we are gravely mistaken.
Eric Redman said it like this in his commentary.
Consequences of Disobedience
God was prepared to break up this ship, drown Jonah, and let all these idol-worshiping sailors perish. All in response to Jonah running from him.
And if we think, church, that we can do whatever we want and we can do whatever we desire and not expect God to respond to us, we are gravely mistaken. You may ask, why did God respond so fiercely? Because to God, rebellion and running is a serious thing.
It's a serious sin. It's a sin that if I have learned anything in my life over my years of living, and you probably as well can attest to this, that God hates sin. God hates it. He abhors it. And it is a salt to God's holiness when we sin. 1 John 1.5.
I love how the CSB puts it. God is light.
And there is absolutely no darkness in him. He is completely void of darkness at all.
When we look at God's response to Jonah, the Bible says, he threw a great wind into the sea.
That right there just tells us the power of God, that he's able just to speak and to throw a wind into the sea that these experienced fishermen feared for their life. They feared so much that it begins to say that they began to pray as if they've never prayed before.
One commentator said that they prayed so earnestly that they began to almost be praying in a yelling sense of, God, I don't know what's going on here. Not to the one true God, but to their gods.
And these fishermen began to look around and they began to see that this was not stopping.
And so maybe they were carrying something on their ship. This ship who, this was their lifestyle. This was their finances. They began to say, we don't need this anymore.
We're going to unload everything. And maybe if we offer this sacrifice to the sea gods, these things will stop.
And so they got rid of all their finances, all the things that they were in their job for, and still nothing happened. You see, when we see that, it's a reminder. The Lord doesn't want our stuff. The Lord said, you can give me all the stuff that you have. I just want you.
I just want what you have, what you are, the essence of who you are. That's what I want you to come to me. You know, if you're like me, I didn't, when I began dating Allison in our marriage, before we got married, I didn't say Allison.
How much money do you have in the bank account? You don't have any. All right. What kind of car do you drive? Oh, you don't have a car.
I've got to buy you a car. Okay, great. How wealthy is your family? Okay, not really a lot there either. Came from Hot Springs, Arkansas. Pretty rough.
And all of a sudden, I didn't say, you know what, you've checked all the boxes that work for me, then I'll take you on with my wife. No, I said, I want you. You're the prized possession. I married up. I married higher than I've ever thought I would marry.
That's the person that I wanted, and God gave her to me. He didn't say, I'm giving you all the stuff that she's got. And God says, and he looks down at us, and he doesn't say, hey, hey, you've got all these great things. Give them to me.
And he says, I just want you. I want you to go into the nations. I want you to go and tell people about Jesus.
Just like that, God says, I want you. He wants us to be a child that is obedient to what he has called us to do. And if anyone in here, in this story specifically, should be petrified for their life, it should be Jonah. And what is Jonah doing? He's sleeping.
He's down in the bottom of the ship, sleeping his fears away.
As believers, if we think we're safe from the judgment of God, we are mistaken. Look with me at Hebrews chapter 12. It says this, have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons?
My sons, do not take the Lord's discipline lightly or lose heart when you are reproved by him. Verse six, you ready? For the Lord disciplines the ones he loves, and he punishes every son he receives.
When we receive the punishment of God, when we receive the correction of God, it's because God loves us.
He cares for us. We just were in the vehicle for 2,400 miles in six days. There were multiple times that I loved my kids, and I loved their safety, and I'm trying to drive in traffic, and they're making noise. And because I love them, I've got to turn around and pop them. Because I love them.
I don't want to wreck. I don't want to run into another car because they're distracting me. It's because I love them I do that.
If I didn't love them, I would allow them to continue to distract me so that we would wreck and we wouldn't be here today. But because I love them, there's a judgment upon their life. And because God loves us, God recommends us.
He reprimands us. He disciplines because he loves us. And to reject God's love is to reject the best purpose for our life.
The Bible says in Jeremiah, he created us in our mother's womb. He knew us from before the foundation of the world.
He set our life on a track that we are going to live, that we're going to exist in this world. And when we run from what God has called us to do, we're saying, God, what you're telling me to do is not really that great. I want to do my own thing.
And God says, no, no, I've put this plan together for your life. Yeah, there's going to be hills. Yeah, there's going to be values. There's going to be hard times in your life. But just trust me in those times.
And we go through the hard times and we say, God, I don't like this. I don't like what you're doing. And so I'm going to go and do my own thing. I'm going to go down to Joppa.
I'm going to run away from what you've got for me. And what does it do? It invites the wrath of God in our life. He's got to step in. He's got to correct us. He's got to tell us you're doing wrong.
Get back to where I want you to be at. Judgment comes in our life because God loves us.
And when we run from God, the wrath of God is going to be there as well. But what does it do lastly here? When we run, the worst part of running denies the sinners the hope of God. Verse 6.
The thing that we have that no other religion has is we have hope. We have the hope in a God who loves us so much that he sent his son to come and die for us. To pay our payment of sin so that we can one day live forever with him.
And until that time comes, we live together for him right here on this earth. And it's interesting as I look at this story. As I look through these first six verses. We see that everyone on this ship turns to a God and prays except one.
The only one that had the God on this ship that could make a difference was Jonah. And Jonah didn't turn to prayer.
It's actually, in fact, we don't ever see him turn to prayer until chapter 2. And the end of chapter 2 where he repents to the Lord in a half-hearted repentance. And the Lord still accepts it.
But we see these men are looking for a way of escape. We see they're looking for something, someone around them to give them hope. To give them answer. And the answer to their problems is sleeping below the ship. And I fear so often that the answer to our co-workers problem.
The answer to our neighbors problem. The answer to our friend at school's problem is our sleeping on the job.
Us sleeping and not telling them what the God of heaven has said to them. One writer put it like this. He had the opportunity to alleviate the fear of all the sailors. By telling them the knowledge of the one true God. But instead decided to go below the deck and fall asleep.
He decided that it was more important for him to sleep and run from God than it would be to tell these sailors. About the one true God that would redeem them of their sins. That if only they would turn and repent. Then God would come down and forgive them.
People everywhere all throughout eternity. All throughout our time today are searching for answers. I believe even more so today than all of human history.
Searching for Hope in Christ
People are searching for an answer. The latest statistic. I listen to podcasts and statistics often. The latest statistic that says our newest generation.
Gen Z and Gen Alpha. Are the greatest generation searching for hope and answers. Than any other generation in the world has ever seen. I think one statistic that said 46% of Generation Z.
Our generation right now. Brody's age and that age. That teenagers down to the five and six year olds. That generation right now. Are asking more questions about God than any other generation in the history of time. Has asked about God.
And what are we doing? We sit around and we say. Well I've got the answer. And I'm going to run. And I'm going to go to sleep and not tell anyone. They're looking for it. They're looking for it in social media. They're looking for it in drugs and alcohol and pornography.
And everything else. They're looking for hope. And they don't find it. And nothing satisfies their longing heart.
Until they hear of the hope of Christ. The death and the burial and the resurrection. Why is it that the counseling realm is so big right now? Because everyone wants to go see a counselor. And there's nothing wrong with that. I've got my counseling certification. I'm a biblical counselor.
I love sitting down and hearing people's story. And giving hope and help from the Bible. But why is it that so many people have to go see their counselor? Because they're searching for something to fill the void in their heart.
And we're sitting here with the answer. The Bible clearly lays out the answer. The hope is Christ and in Christ alone. And we sit on a daily basis. Myself included. Without sharing this hope of eternity with them.
Jonah in this story said. God I don't really want to do what you want to do. I don't really care to share hope. As I said at the very beginning. Jonah had seen a tremendous work of God. A wicked king turned away from everything.
And God said go do the exact same thing to someone else. Help out someone else.
And Jonah said no I don't really want to do that. I want to do my own thing. As Terry comes. How do we make this super practical in our life? Right.
If we can't apply the story of Jonah in our life. And say God. How can I do this practically throughout this week? Then it's really useless. And so the practical way is this. I wrote down four basic things. Go on the offense on Monday morning.
If you work a job. If you're out in the public.
When you arrive at Monday morning at work. Nine times out of ten. Someone's going to ask you. How was your weekend?
How were things this week? Maybe you're in the grocery store. And you're a traditional shopper. Maybe you go to Dollar General every Monday. Or Walmart every Monday. And you go and you see the same cashier. And you've got your traditions.
Maybe it's a restaurant that you go to. And someone says hey how was your weekend? Most times nine out of ten. We'll say oh it was a good weekend. Why can't our answer be. You know this past weekend. I learned about Jesus.
I learned about the Savior of the world. That came to redeem us of our sins. Do you know that Savior? Do you know Jesus? Go on the offense immediately.
They ask the question. They're asking us to give an answer. And often times we fail to even mention Jesus in that moment.
Be clear about what the gospel. Number two. Be clear about the gospel and its significance. Jonah didn't seem to grasp the significance of his mission. His mission was to go to a great city. And preach against their wickedness.
God said you've been given the gospel. Of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. That comes to redeem sinners. Of their sins. And when we are not clear about this gospel. We lead people astray.
Maybe tonight when you go home. You begin number three. To pray for opportunities to share the gospel. Pray for opportunities that the Lord will bring into your life. To say God give me a moment today. Tomorrow.
Tuesday. Wednesday. Whatever day it is. That I can courageously and humbly share gospel. Share the gospel with someone. I promise you this. You pray that prayer. God will put someone in your life that you can tell about Jesus.
You will begin to open your eyes to see someone in need of hope. Someone in need of encouragement.
And you'll be able to step over and say. Hey I don't know what you're going through. But can I pray with you? Can I tell you about Jesus for just a moment? They may say no. Get away from me.
And that's all we have to do is just tell others about Jesus. Our goal is not the response. Our goal is to tell others. And then actively. Number four. Actively and regularly invite people. That are within your sphere of influence.
To come to church. And to see God work in a mighty way. Every day in our life. Actively be saying. Hey. Do you have a church community? Do you have a faith based community? That is going to be there when times happen. When troubles happen in your life.
That's going to be able to give you the hope and the help. And actively be looking for people that are around us. I'm not saying every day we go out into a cold knocking of doors. We're going to do that this week. But I'm saying the people that you're close to.
Actively be inviting them to come to know Jesus. And come to church with us. Whatever it may be in your life. Maybe you're here this morning. You're saying. You know what Pastor James? Never accepted Jesus.
I don't ever want to get to a service where I don't ask that question. Maybe you've been coming for 80 years. But maybe today's the day where you say. I want to finally give my life to Jesus. I've been running too long from God like Jonah. Today is the day.
Maybe you've been running and you've accepted Jesus.
Seeking God's Help in Obedience
Jesus. Jonah knew God. Jonah knew the power of God. He knew the power of prayer. He knew what God could do in a city. And yet he still ran. Maybe that's us today.
Maybe we just need to come and say. God help me today. Maybe I'm in struggle with your faith. I don't know what it is. But whatever you see fit today.
Respond to the Lord. Let's pray. Lord we love you. We thank you for what you've done. God I thank you for this. This awesome story of Jonah. Lord it's encouraged me. It's convicted me.
It's worked in my life all week long as I've meditated on it. I'm so excited about being able to study more of it. And share what you've given me to the people of your people. God help us to focus on you every day.
And to tell others about you as well. In your name we pray. Amen.
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