Faith | Hope | Love

      Jonah 2:4 “Then I said, ‘I am driven away from your sight;

yet I shall again look upon your holy temple.’”

We are given a rare glimpse into the life of someone that is going through the process of spiritual transformation. Jonah knew that saving grace and living grace was entirely of the Lord. He experienced this grace and learned very quickly what it really means; Grace is an undeserved gift from an unobligated giver. Basically, something that nobody deserves or could ever earn. Well then, if grace is a gift, what’s the gift that Jesus gave us? Simply this, His life.

So let’s explain verse four. He looks at the temple because he knows that the answer to his problem is in there. To us 21st Century Americans, that doesn’t mean much. But there is something bewildering about it that we’ve got to understand. What he remembers about the Temple is that sin is taken seriously, there must be a punishment, so blood is shed as a consequence of sin. But it’s not the sinner’s blood.

This is perhaps the most life-changing truth taught in the astonishing true story of Jonah. See, God cannot overlook or dismiss sin. He never has and He never will. But He does not deal with it according to the justice system we have in mind, where he punishes sinners until they’ve paid in full. He chooses to forgive the sinner by punishing his innocent Son.

But wait, there is an amazing parallel here that we won’t see at first, so we’ve got to dig in a little more to understand this. Like we said earlier, Jonah is a picture of us, but he is also a picture of Jesus. See, God sent Jonah to preach repentance to Nineveh, just like Jesus was sent by God to bring repentance to the world. Nineveh was deserving of the wrath of God, just like the world. But neither the world nor Nineveh have received the punishment they deserve. God sent his wrath on Jonah through the storm, just like He sent His wrath on Jesus on the cross. And Jonah spent three days in the belly of the whale, just like Jesus spent three days in the grave.

When they both came back, they brought revival through repentance to Nineveh and the world. Jonah suffered for Nineveh’s salvation and Jesus suffered for ours. So when Jonah looked toward the temple, he was thinking about the sacrifices that had been made for him, and the ultimate sacrifice that would be made for us. He was looking to Jesus. The one who gave His life. The one who deserves our obedient love.

Jonah shows us that Jesus dying on the cross in our place is the greatest gift we would ever receive. And once Jonah became emotionally available to God’s grace, he understood the process of receiving that grace through faith.

So grace is a gift offered by Jesus that we can only receive with faith. What then is faith? Faith is a dependence, a trust, in anything at all. I have faith that a grandé white mocha latte with a pump of peppermint will quench my desire for deliciousness. I also have faith that Jesus dying on the cross is enough to pay for my sins and provide forgiveness and redemption for me.

Jonah’s looking toward the Temple helps us to understand the process by which God works in our hearts to bring about spiritual change. Grace is God offering the gift of eternal life. Faith is us receiving that gift by putting our trust in Jesus and His death and resurrection.

That’s the process. That’s how we first experience repentance, and how we always will thereafter. We call this The Gospel.

Jonah 2:9 “But I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you;

what I have vowed I will pay. Salvation belongs to the Lord!”

           

There’s a simple truth about repentance written all throughout Scripture that tends to get treated like a secret. I mean, God wrote it in a book and it’s been published throughout the entire world, so it’s really no secret. But it’s often treated like one. Some people don’t like to talk about it because they say it’s too personal, or they’re too embarrassed, or that they don’t completely understand it themselves. But we’re going to unwrap this ‘secret’ to repentance and lay it out on the table for all to see so we can experience a spiritual breakthrough.

Jonah announces while in the fish’s belly that salvation is of the Lord. This is both a confession and an acknowledgement of a lesson learned and it’s really quite astounding. In fact, the entire theme of the Bible can be summed up in that statement, “Salvation belongs to the Lord.”

See, there are different people in the world and they have different beliefs about salvation. There are the Rebellious People, who defiantly say, “I do not need salvation.” Next are the Religious people, who stubbornly say “Salvation is of me.” Then there are the Repentant people, who humbly say, “Salvation is of the Lord”

Until you come to the realization that salvation belongs to the Lord, you cannot and will not experience spiritual breakthrough. That is true for people just coming into a relationship with Christ today for the first time, but it is also true for people that have already started a relationship with Jesus but desire a deeper spiritual breakthrough. And, by the way, everybody falls into one of these two categories: those in need of salvation today, and those in need of a spiritual breakthrough.

Both types of people cannot come to the realization that salvation belongs to the Lord on their own, however. It first requires God extending an invitation to them. He says, “Come and know me.” That is called grace. We can only respond to the invitation and start a relationship with Him. That is called faith.

So the first type of people accept God’s grace by faith. Let’s call that saving faith. The second type who have already accepted God’s grace continue in their faith. That’s called living faith.

So are you ready for the secret? Here it is in one sentence:

Grace is not just the way you have your first encounter with God, but how you have every encounter with God.

Accepting God’s grace through faith is how you are going to have a spiritual breakthrough. If you depend on your works to make you better, if you depend on your knowledge to get you closer to God, if you depend on your talent to do great things, you won’t make it. We have only one thing to depend on and that’s God’s grace.

But that’s just it. So many of us so many times rely on ourselves for our spirituality. “If I just read my Bible more I would be more spiritual.” But we have to have a change of mind; a change of dependence. And that’s exactly what repentance is. The word ‘repent’ literally means “to change one’s mind.” The question then is, “What do I need to change my mind about?” In this case, to have a spiritual breakthrough, we have to change our mind about who we depend on.

When I was teen, my friend showed me what it means to be dependent on the wrong thing. We had gone to spend the weekend at his grandparents’ cabin with his family. One day we were exploring down by the river, and we found this giant branch sticking out over the water about three stories high. So my friend says, “Hey! Let’s make a rope swing!” So he goes and gets a dog leash, he climbs the branch, ties the leash up, but realizes it’s too thin to hold on to. So he does the logical thing and grabs a log and ties it to the other end. Then he says, “Ok, who’s first!?” And the rest of us are like, “Bro, you made it, you have to do the first swing!”

So he climbs up a little and sits on a lower branch for a while trying to work up the courage. And in one awful moment he jumps off the tree trunk and puts all of his weight on this homemade rope swing, depending on it to hold him. But as it tightens, the log rolled, and he slipped. And fell. I’m pretty sure my heart stopped as I watched him plummet to what I felt strongly was his death. He fell about two stories down into about one foot of water with huge rocks underneath. I’m thinking, “Oh my soul! I just witnessed the death of my best friend!” For about two seconds, that felt like two hours, he’s underneath the water, then he bounces up and says, “Well, that didn’t work!” He was lucky to walk away with a small scratch on his knee. Needless to say, nobody else depended on the dog leash rope swing.

If you and I are going to move to a new level of spiritual breakthrough we must change our mind about who we depend on. Are you depending on your own goodness and effort for a spiritual breakthrough? Or are you ready to depend on God’s grace to give you a breakthrough? You’ll be launched to new heights with barely enough time to hang on when you let go and let God.

But how does Jesus give us His grace? I mean, what in the world is grace anyway? Next month, I’ll answer the question; What is the process by which Jesus gives us His grace?

RUN

Pt. 5 The Cure for Running

           

Jonah 1:15-17 “So they picked up Jonah and hurled him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging. ¹⁶Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows.

¹⁷And the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.”

At first, if you’re like me, your thought is of the terrible consequences. “God punishes those who run from Him!” After all, He created a storm and a giant, awful fish to eat Jonah. But here is the amazing truth, and you have to get this.

The storm wasn’t just Jonah’s punishment, it was really Jonah’s salvation. Hear me out. The storm was raging and Jonah accepted the fact that this was God’s wrath being sent to him. So he decided that there was no more running. He stopped running, he turned and faced God and the storm, and he dove into the waves of his consequences. But just below the storm (the wrath of God) lay a fish prepared by God (salvation). It was when Jonah had no other choice that he plunged himself, by faith, into the wrath of God fully expecting death, that he actually experienced the Lord’s salvation.

Now here’s the deal, God hasn’t really changed. The way He dealt with Jonah is how He is still dealing with us. I mean not with a big fish, of course, but the same principles. We run from God, and His wrath is sent towards us. But instead of us receiving the wrath when we stop running, we receive grace and forgiveness. Isn’t that the story of the cross? God’s wrath is poured out on the world. But Jesus steps in and takes the wrath upon Himself, so all that’s left for us is salvation. In the end, what we believe to be an ocean of God’s wrath turns out to be an ocean of forgiveness and acceptance.

Jesus taking God’s wrath was the most extreme act of love the world has ever seen. It has provided us an escape. But the escape is only through Jesus; by putting our trust in Him and what He did for us. We dive into Jesus, who took the wrath of God, and we receive salvation. And not just salvation from God’s wrath, but salvation from our own rebellion as well. The cure for your running always has been and always will be Jesus’ love. So stop running. When you turn and face the consequences of your sin, you will escape the punishment. You will embrace His love and you will live.

About two years ago I went to the funeral of a man I don’t know. The grandpa of two sisters in our student ministry was honored and remembered at this funeral. As I sat in the service, they had several family members and friends stand up to talk about Robert. It was made apparent from the very beginning that Robert was a good man. He loved God, he loved his family, and he loved his friends. As I looked around the auditorium I was impressed to see how many people came to remember Robert. He had lived a life that was impactful. He served in the church, he served in the city, he served in his family, and his life influenced many people, and they had all come to the funeral to honor his memory.

But as the service went on, the Pastor said something that struck me. He said, “We’re not here to make Robert out to look like he was perfect, because he had his flaws.” These girls’ Papaw had times in his own life when he ran from God. But here’s the thing that made him such a good man. In those times that he ran from God, it wasn’t long before he would stop, turn to face Jesus, and make the courageous decision to dive into the ocean of God’s wrath only to find it to be an ocean of His love.

I know you’re not perfect. But Jesus’s grace says you don’t need to be. His grace simply says, “Stop running. I lived perfectly FOR you. I took the wrath FOR you.” So let me ask you a question; When your time has come, and the funeral is yours, will people remember you as a good man or woman who loved God and loved people? I know you’ve already sinned, you’ve already messed up, and maybe your reputation right now is pretty lousy. But listen; that can change. You can be remembered as a man or woman who glorified Jesus if you stop running from God, face the consequences, and live in grace. If you want that, your only hope is in Jesus Christ.

Jonah 1:3-14 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.

⁴But the Lord hurled a great wind upon the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship threatened to break up. ⁵Then the mariners were afraid, and each cried out to his god. And they hurled the cargo that was in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them. But Jonah had gone down into the inner part of the ship and had lain down and was fast asleep. ⁶So the captain came and said to him, “What do you mean, you sleeper? Arise, call out to your god! Perhaps the god will give a thought to us, that we may not perish.”

⁷And they said to one another, “Come, let us cast lots, that we may know on whose account this evil has come upon us.” So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah. ⁸Then they said to him, “Tell us on whose account this evil has come upon us. What is your occupation? And where do you come from? What is your country? And of what people are you?” ⁹And 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.” ¹⁰Then the men were exceedingly afraid and said to him, “What is this that you have done!” For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the Lord, because he had told them.

¹¹Then they said to him, “What shall we do to you, that the sea may quiet down for us?” For the sea grew more and more tempestuous. ¹²He 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.”

¹³Nevertheless, the men rowed hard to get back to dry land, but they could not, for the sea grew more and more tempestuous against them. ¹⁴Therefore they called out to the Lord, “O Lord, let us not perish for this man's life, and lay not on us innocent blood, for you, O Lord, have done as it pleased you.”

The journey away from God at first appears harmless on the outset. Jonah goes to the port, finds a ship going to Tarshish and pays the fare. It may have appeared way too easy, there just happened to be a ship and he just happened to have the money. It all seemed like the right thing to do for him. Which proves the point, when you really want to disobey the Lord there is always a way. You don’t have to look hard to find an alternative path to flee from the presence of the Lord.

But as I mentioned in an earlier post, if you choose to take that alternative path, there is a cost. The fare Jonah paid to get a ride was only the beginning of what he would have to pay for running from God.

The Bible says he was fast asleep in the ship. He was so distressed, rebellious, depressed, and freaked out that he had no interest in life and no energy to face his circumstances. You could say he was dying in his sleep trying to escape his troubles. The captain comes down to where he was sleeping through a crazy storm and shouts at him, “What are you doing, you sleeper!?”

Have you ever been so depressed like Jonah that all you want to do is sleep your problems away? Men and women who have spent time in jail or prison know this feeling very well. There are countless stories of inmates who were released after some time of being locked up whose sleep schedule is totally out of whack because they slept through most of their sentence. When they get a job, they struggle to make it on time because of their wrecked sleeping schedule. Depression, specifically brought on from rebellion, might begin as only a mental state, but it costs a person physically, socially, emotionally, and spiritually.

And it all happens because God has wired you in a specific way. He has a plan for you, and when you choose to follow your own plan, it’s like a lion choosing to cage itself. The lion needs to hunt and roar. Those caged lions at the circus all look depressed because they’re not getting the adventure they’re wired for.

That’s exactly what happens to us when we try to do things our own way. Sure it looks a lot like freedom and it might even feel a lot like freedom. But only for a while. Soon you’ll slowly begin to realize you’ve put yourself in a cage and you’ll find yourself increasingly unsatisfied with the life you chose. That’s when depression sets in. But your stubborn sin nature will continue to fight it. Forcing you to run further and faster in search of something satisfying, not realizing that the only thing that can satisfy you is waiting just behind you with His arms wide open.

The personal cost of running from Christ is great and it’s not worth it. If you don’t want to take my word for it, you’ll find out soon enough the hard way. But you need to understand, it doesn’t just hurt you.

The storm of Jonah’s consequences brought trouble upon a lot of innocent people. The storm was so great that the most experienced sailors were terrified. Remember this…

When I was about 18 years old, I went on a mission trip to the desert lands of Utah to do some work at a ranch camp. On one of the days there we got to have a little fun on a horseback adventure. We were told to meet at the barn where the horses were, and they would help us get saddled up.

So once we were all saddled up we set off on our adventure, my friends all leading the way with me and my dusty steed, Billy, taking up the rear. The trail just took us around some rocky hills and through a couple fields. It was a pretty simple trail really. But Billy, the old horse, didn’t really like to follow in the line and he didn’t really want to listen to me. Instead he wanted to walk into the field and eat the wheat. Several times we were just walking along and he would lose his step and stumble just a little and my heart would jump into my throat. I was fully expecting this old boy to fall over on my leg and crush me and I would have to whisper my final words before I died in the dessert like a western movie. But he always caught his footing, and we kept moseying on behind everybody.

I also soon found out that this old, clumsy horse didn’t like other horses either. The reason we fell into the back of the line was because he didn’t like having another horse beside him. Once or twice we would end up beside the next horse and he would swing his head and try to bite the other horse. This made me fear for my life and start pleading with him to love his neighbor like he should.

Eventually we all wound up on top of a hill to catch an astounding view of the sunset. Sunsets in the desert are stunning to say the least. We all sat there gazing in wonder from the top of this tall hill. We could see far across the desert and watch the shadows growing. That’s when I realized… what goes up a hill must also go down a hill. Right then the tour guide, sitting on the precipice looks back at us and says, “Just lean back!” and he and his perfectly graceful horse plunged over the ledge.

One by one all of the others started slowly downhill, leaning as far back as they could, and their horses elegantly tiptoed down the hill. And then it was just me and Billy... “Billy, I know we’ve had our differences. But I ask, that just this time, you please follow the rest of them.” But Billy is old and Billy is clumsy. And Billy doesn’t like other horses. So with all of my faith in this horse, I lean back and he starts down the hill. All is going well. Billy is behaving like a true gentleman. Until the clumsy old man stumbled.

He quickly caught himself, but it sent us down the hill at a slightly quicker trot. It wasn’t long until we came up alongside the rider in front of us. Which Billy doesn’t approve of one bit. So Billy does what can only be expected from a grumpy, stubborn, clumsy horse. He starts bucking, kicking, and running down the hill full speed. Rocks are being kicked up in the air. We’re nearly beginning a land slide. We’re whizzing past all of the other riders. And all I can feel is my spine being whipped back and forth like a maraca.

No amount of pulling, tugging, or screaming would stop Billy. He was on a rampage. Over my own screaming and the laughing of all the others I hear the voice of the tour guide. “Pull back!!!” So for the sake of my own survival I pull back with all of my might on the reign and Billy slides to a halt at the bottom of the hill. Dust clouds swirling all around me. Knuckles white. Heart beating like a jungle war-drum. Prayers still echoing through the hills. And a justifiable anger in my heart towards Billy the grumpy horse. I didn’t talk to him the rest of the trip.

Billy basically made his own life miserable. He was unhappy and couldn’t get along with other horses. He refused to follow the path that was set before him. And every time he tried to take his own route, things got uncomfortable. But it wasn’t just Billy who suffered. The other horses suffered from his grumpiness and the rider most definitely suffered from his stubbornness.

Your rebellion doesn’t just affect you. Others are hurt when we try to forge our own trail. It happened with me and Billy. It happened with Jonah and the sailors. And it happens with you and those closest to you. So this is the final cost of running from God: The pain of sin and correction enter your life. Not only do you have to deal with the consequences but those around you, most often those who care for you the most, have to deal with the pain as well.

The good news is, there is a person who took the ultimate consequence of your sins so you could be restored to your Heavenly Father. Next month, we’ll examine the cure to running.