Relentless Pursuit of God

We are embarking on a journey that will take us through the great Old Testament book of Jonah. Why Jonah? Isn’t it just a weird story about a man being swallowed alive by a huge fish? I want you to catch this right up front: the whole theme of this short book is that God is pursuing you. It’s about sin and grace. Sin is all about us running from God. Grace is all about God pursuing undeserving sinners. Sin is running away from God, and grace is God chasing us down, hunting us down in love, and rescuing us from our self-destructive behavior.

Everybody knows about Jonah. People who have never read the Bible know about Jonah and the “whale.” Jonah has entered our folklore. Stories are the most prominent biblical way of helping us see ourselves in “the Story of God,” which always gets around to the story of God making and saving us.

Stories, in contrast to abstract statements of truth, tease us into becoming participants in what is being said. We find ourselves involved in the action. We may start out as spectators or critics, but if the story is good (and the stories of the Bible are always great!), we find ourselves no longer just listening but inhabiting the story. So I want to encourage you: don’t just read the story of Jonah, let this story read you.

One reason that the Jonah story is so captivating is not so much because it is about a man getting swallowed by a big fish. It is that Jonah is not a hero too high and mighty for us to identify with—he doesn’t do anything great. Instead of being held up as an ideal to admire, we find Jonah as a companion in our own struggles. Here is someone on our level. Even when Jonah does right (like preaching, finally, in Nineveh), he does it all wrong (by getting angry at God). But the whole time, God is working within and around Jonah’s very ineptness and accomplishing His purposes in him.

So, let’s look at how the great story of Jonah begins. The story starts in verse 1: "Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah, the son of Amittai, saying, 'Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me.’"

Every great story begins this way: the word of the Lord came to Jonah. God is calling Jonah to be caught up in His great redemptive mission to redeem all of creation to Himself. We all, in different ways, have this calling. We are called to live our lives in such a way that we sing of our Creator's goodness, grace, and glory in all that we do. God has spoken, and now it is Jonah’s turn to respond. How does he respond to God’s voice? He runs! Look at verse 3: "But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD.”

SIX WARNINGS ABOUT RUNNING
We find in the first chapter of Jonah six warnings about running. They are crucial for you to not only know yourself but to know how to live out the great redemptive mission God is calling you to in your life.

WARNING #1: We all run from God (v. 1-3)
We read in verse 3: “But Jonah rose to flee to 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 to Tarshish, away from the presence of the LORD."

First of all, we are all fugitives. Until you acknowledge you run from Him, you can’t find Him. Not only do you have to know you run from Him in order to find Him, but you have to know how we run from Him if you’re ever going to grow personally.

Every one of us has unique ways of hiding from God. We all have unique, habitual ways of running away. Until you know what yours are, until you see them, you can’t really grow as a Christian, as a person. So that’s what it’s about. It’s about running and chasing. Did you know that you can sit in a church pew week after week and year after year and still be running from God?

Why do we run from God? We run from God when we try to run our own lives. New Year's resolutions often center around us trying to get some aspect of our lives under control, like our weight, finances, blood pressure, or kids. After this past Thanksgiving, a guy told me he made a New Year's resolution to lose 15 pounds. He said, “I only have a month left and have 25 pounds to lose.” That’s New Year's resolutions for most of us.

Let me recommend a New Year's resolution for you for this next year. Instead of trying to gain control, why don’t you surrender control of your life to God? What we are going to discover in the story of Jonah is that we have very little control of our lives anyway. Why was Jonah running from God? Reading chapter one doesn’t reveal Jonah’s motivation for running. You have to go to chapter 4 to discover Jonah’s heart in running from God. Jonah 4:2 tell us, “And he prayed to the LORD and said, “O LORD, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster. “

Here’s the astonishing reason Jonah took off: he was not afraid of failure. No! He wasn’t really afraid of going and failing; he was afraid of success. He was afraid they might repent. He did not want the Ninevites to experience God’s grace and mercy. He wanted them destroyed.

The point is that Jonah was not in a position to preach grace. He couldn’t call people to repent. He couldn’t preach about sin and grace because he was a stranger to it himself. The gospel is that all people, all human beings, every one of us is completely fallen away from God…every one of us…and it’s only by the sheer mercy of God that we can be rescued from the three-headed dragon of Satan, sin, and death and be welcomed into His presence by free grace. If you know that, and to the degree you know that, you cannot feel superior to anybody else. If you feel superior, that pride blocks the grace. Jonah had never been in a position where anything had come into his life to show him that he defined himself based on his pride in his national pedigree and his race. But now it’s revealed. His pride had blocked the grace of God from entering his life, so he could not feel compassion for the lost people of Nineveh.

We are going to unpack more of this self-righteousness that had filled Jonah’s heart when we get to chapter four. However, it is worth pointing out that self-righteousness is a way we run from God, a way we try to control our lives. Until Jonah comes to the end of himself and realizes that he has no righteousness in and of himself, he will not see how desperately sinful he is and how desperately he needs God’s grace. He needs it as much as the evil Ninevites God was calling him to preach the gospel of grace to. Jonah would have to experience God’s grace before he could preach God’s grace. This is what the real story of Jonah is all about.

WARNING #2: When we run from God, there is always a way (v. 3)
Verse 3 tell us: “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 to Tarshish, away from the presence of the LORD.”

Nineveh was about 500 miles west, toward what is now modern-day Mosul, Iraq. Tarshish was about 2,500 miles east, in southern Spain. He literally decided to get as far away from God as he possibly could. So he got a one-way ticket to the ends of the earth at that time. He found a ship bound for that port. You can find your “ship” to take you to your place of disobedience.

It never ceases to amaze me that when we want to run, we can always find a way. When I want to run, I can find a way. We waste a lot of time and money running from God. We can waste a whole lifetime running from God.

Here is the problem with running from God — it is always a downward spiral. If I read the entire passage, we will see the “downward spiral” — down to Joppa, down to the bottom of the ship, down to the bottom of the sea. When we run from God, there is always a way.

WARNING #3: We Can Run, But We Can’t Hide (v. 4-6; Psalm 139:7)
We see in verses 1 and 2 that God calls Jonah to the city of Nineveh. However, in verse three, we see “but Jonah...” We love to say, "But God…" There is something important we need to understand about God: He has the first word and the last word. He is the Creator, and He is sovereign. We see this play out vividly in verse 4-6

Read verses 4-6

Where was Jonah during all of this? He was asleep at the bottom of the boat. He thought he had escaped God. He thought he could hide. The most absurd part of this whole story is that Jonah actually tries to run and hide from God. You can’t hide from an all-knowing, all-powerful God. Where are you going to go? It’s like playing hide and seek with my daughters. When they were small they would run and hide in a house that I built. It’s absurd, but since Adam, we have all tried to hide from God.

Psalm 139:7 asks a great question:  “Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?” We run and we hide, and if you don’t see that, you don’t know yourself. Oh, the ways we hide: blame, negotiation – we even hide in church.

When we run from God, we always do foolish things – running to a boat (i.e., stuck out at sea). We do foolish things when we turn our back on the source of wisdom. We make bad decisions, get into bad relationships, and go in bad directions. Everybody around us knows we are making bad decisions except us.

When we run from God, we can expect storms. I want to come back to this truth in a moment, but first, I want to warn you that when we run from God, others are affected.



WARNING #4: When we run, others are affected (v. 7-8)

Read verses 7-8

We never sin in isolation; others are always affected by the consequences of our sin. One of the sick twists of sin is that it is never personal. We live in a culture that propagates the myth that sin is personal. We hear all the time that our spirituality is personal. "What I do in secret doesn’t impact anybody else."

First and foremost, sin is never personal; it is always against God. Sinning is not just breaking the law of God, it is breaking the heart of God. Secondly, our sin also breaks the hearts of those around us. Sin is so deceptive that it often blinds us to the impact it has on others.

For example, when my heart is not centered on Jesus, it’s hard to love my wife well. If it’s centered on other things, then I will neglect my wife for those things. If it’s centered on her, then I will have expectations of her that are unrealistic and crushing. If it’s centered on Christ, then I am freed to love my wife with all the grace and mercy that I find in Christ. When I’m running from God, I am not only sinning against God, but I am also sinning against those I’m called to love.

WARNING #5: We can keep on running, but God is running everything (9-16)
Look at Jonah’s response to the sailer questions: What is your occupation? And where do you come from? What is your country? And of what people are you?” This is the first time that Jonah speaks.
Read verses 9-11

Who’s in control? Let’s crunch the numbers and see:
Jonah—what is he in control of? Getting on a boat.
God—what is he in control of? The wind, the sea, the waves, the dice, and soon, a great big fish. I think God wins hands down. He is in control.

God sends a killer storm to save Jonah’s life. When we run from God, you can expect storms. Whenever we try running from God, He’s committed to making our lives miserable—for our sakes. And often, He’ll use some kind of storm to do it, not to punish but to mercifully intervene. Until we see God-sent storms as interventions and not punishments, we’ll never get better; we’ll only get bitter.

Some difficult circumstances you’re facing right now may well be a God-sent storm of mercy intended to be His intervention in your life. It’s your response to the storm that will make or break you, that will make you much harder or much softer, wiser, and deeper.

Let’s look at Jonah’s response in verse 12: He said to them, “Pick me up and hurl me into the sea; then the sea will quiet down for you, for I know it is because of me that this great tempest has come upon you.” Jonah tells them to throw him into the sea as a sacrifice - he’s finally willing to entrust himself completely to God and His grace. The storm has awakened him from his slumber, so to speak.

Look at how the sailors responded in verse 13: Nevertheless, the men rowed hard to get back to dry land, but they could not, for the sea grew more and more tempestuous against them. Some of you are in this spot - rowing and rowing, trying to get through storms yourself. You need to trust Jesus as your deliverer.
But these men wanted to survive the storm without the sacrifice. They turned again to their own means to save themselves (v. 13). This impulse to depend on our own resources and refuse God’s means of deliverance is deeply embedded within the human heart. “But they could not . . .” (v. 13). These four words are the turning point in the story. When the crew realized they could not beat the storm, they turned in desperation and staked their lives on the sacrifice of Jonah. The storm of God’s judgment is stronger than we are. We do not have the ability to escape such a storm, no matter how hard we try. The storm of God’s judgment will wreck us unless we depend upon His means of escape.

Look at how the sailors ultimately responded. Read verses 14-16.

They ultimately became dependent on the God who controls the wind and the waves, the God who controls everything. They finally surrendered to Him.

Don’t waste your storm! Let the storms of life bring you to deeper trust and reliance upon God. I know that most of you who are going through storms right now may not want to hear this. It’s kind of how my wife felt. When we were selling our house in Orlando to move to Boca, we decided to paint our ceiling because of a leak that happened through our roofing vents, which left a watermark on our ceiling. Of course, you can’t just paint over the watermark. You have to paint the whole ceiling. Our ceilings are nearly 18 feet tall, so we decided to rent scaffolding. I had finished painting a large section of our ceiling and was handing it down to my wife when I let go of it before she had it and ended up dumping the entire paint tray on her head. She reacted so graciously, but the last thing she wanted to hear from me at that moment was, “Don’t waste your storm.”

The only reason I bring it up this morning is that God graciously brings storms into our lives to often show us how little control we have and how much we need to surrender every area of our lives to His control. It is in the storms that we experience God’s grace in a deep and life-transforming way.

So don’t waste your storm. God is showing you His mercy in the midst of the storm. Surrender to Him. There is love beneath the waves.

WARNING #6: God is running after you! (v. 17; Matthew 12:40-41)
It’s a warning that is infused with great hope and encouragement. In verse 17, we see something that is almost unbelievable.  “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.”

Why did God chase after Jonah? Couldn’t He have found another prophet? The answer to that question is simply that God is merciful. God’s mercy is massive. This storm, this big fish tells us that God spares no expense in going after those who run away. He relentlessly pursues fugitives like Jonah, like me, and like you.

There is much debate about whether this story is true or not. I believe it’s true because Jesus did. In Matthew 12:40-41, Jesus said, “For 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. 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.”

God’s pursuit of fugitive humanity culminates at the cross. Therefore, we can say God saves us because Jesus Christ paid the debt we had before God as fugitives from Him and His will. He paid it for us out of sheer mercy and grace. The word "sheer" is great. Sheer means nothing else. A sheer cliff means nothing but cliff, no place to stand. Sheer mercy says there is nothing you have done to earn it; it is sheer grace and sheer mercy. Complete acceptance. That’s the essence of the gospel.

The Day of Atonement is Yom Kippur, a Jewish holiday devoted to atoning for sins. It's considered the holiest day of the year in Judaism. Observation of the day is marked by fasting and prayers of repentance during a daylong service in the synagogue. Jewish families would read the book of Jonah and repeat this refrain – “We are Jonah.” We are all fugitives. What is our response? Two things: repent and rejoice.

1. Repent - There’s no refuge from God; there’s only refuge in God. Here’s why: because the Bible tells us Jesus is the real person who was thrown into the storm of God’s wrath. Because He was thrown into the storm of God’s wrath, the storm of God’s wrath has subsided.

That is why Jesus could say, “One greater than Jonah is here.”

What area do you need to surrender control of in your life? Maybe for you, it’s your whole life. You have never fully and completely surrendered your life to a God who is full of mercy and grace. The greatest thing you can ever do is surrender to Him—repent of trying to control your life and give Him full and complete control. Surrender to Jesus as Savior and Lord of your life.

So, repent but also rejoice.
2. Rejoice - We haven’t truly repented until we rejoice in what a great savior we have in Jesus. Rejoice in the One who rescues us from ourselves and sin and pours out His mercy and grace upon us.

It is then, and only then, that we can answer the call to join God in His great redemptive mission of pouring out His grace and mercy on sinners like you and me—sinners who desperately need to know and experience the never-ending grace and mercy of God.

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