This is an excerpt from a sermon I preached at Fairview Baptist Church. You can watch the whole sermon here.
Jonah’s ministry was built on the fact that he serves as a mouthpiece for God. However, in the first chapter of Jonah, it becomes clear that he does not want to answer God’s call to go to Nineveh and serve his purpose. However, he cannot stay home or his rebellion would be exposed.
The choice was simple. Go to Nineveh and be obedient. Stay home and be exposed. Or quit the ministry and begin a new life with a new identity in another place. That is what Jonah chooses.
Like Jonah, if we take our eyes off of ourselves and consider those around us, we will realize that our response to God’s mission affects others. As you read chapter one, the question that should naturally arise is, “what will happen to the Ninevites?”
The progression of the text is telling, there is a continued movement down. Jonah headed down to Joppa and found a ship (1:3). Jonah boarded a ship that was headed down to Tarshish (1:3). On the boat Jonah went down into the bowels of the boat to sleep (1:5). The imagery of going down is a picture for death. The suggestion is that each step away from the presence of the Lord is one step closer to to death. it’s not only Jonah’s life that is at stake, but also the sailors and the Ninevites. His rebellion affects others.
We know from the story that as the Ship set sail, God hurled a storm at the sea. As you see in 1:4, it was such a violent storm arose on the sea that the ship threatened to break apart. Jonah became stiff-necked and admitted he was running from God’s call. Jonah was about to go down in his rebellion, and he was about to take everyone on the boat down with him.
Disobedience always brings forth death of some sort. The thing we often fail to admit with disobedience and sin is that it affects others. Sin never just affects us, it has implications on everyone around us. When we rebel, we turn our backs on what God has called us to.
In the midst of the storm Jonah knows there is only one way to save those on the ship. Jonah tells the sailors to hurl him overboard. He was to blame for the storm that God had hurled at the sea. The sailors even tried to row themselves out of the storm, but their efforts would not save them.
By hurling Jonah into the sea to face God’s wrath, the sailors were saved. Consider Jesus compared to Jonah. He was in heaven ruling with power at the right hand of the Father. The Father said, your mission is to go to another place where you will be rejected and despised. A place where you will be slaughtered and sacrificed. We are Nineveh, and Jesus came to save us. Thankfully, unlike Jonah, Jesus said yes. Moreover, like the sailors and Ninevites, we need to be saved from God’s judgment against our sin.
The good news for us is that Jesus (even though he did not deserve it like Jonah) hurled himself into the storm of God’s wrath so that you and I might be saved. When Jesus sunk to the depths of death on our behalf, he made it possible for us to arrive safely on the shore of eternity. That is not only good news for us, it’s also good news for those around us. Being saved, we are now called to go proclaim that Jesus offers salvation from the only storm that no man can row himself out of.
There will always be a ship in the harbor ready to take you away from what God has called you to. When you board that ship and abandon God’s call, you abandon the people God has called you to.
The good news of the gospel is that Jesus has provided a way of salvation. But if we rebel against our missionary call we place the lives of those God has called us to in danger! Isn’t this what happens when we place boundaries on where we will live, who and when we will serve? Your response to God’s mission always affects others.
Matt Capps 