00:01:53.990 - 00:02:32.000

Josh Apieczonek: And as a story told in our family, in our extended family, and I won't mention the name to protect identities, but of a child who was asked what they wanted to be when they grew up, and they said, a pizza chef. And they said that because they loved eating pizza. And they also said, I wanna make pizzas for the whole family so we can always get together and spend time with each other, which has, uh, warmed the heart, the motivations of a child, if not their aspirations. But we also said soon afterwards that they followed up this claim for what they wanted to be by saying, but if that doesn't work out, I'll be an astronaut.

00:02:34.390 - 00:03:02.440

And it sounds a bit interesting, and yet I find it interesting that even this child from that which had their hopes and dreams for the future, for their story, they also had and saw threats and fears for the future and had a contingency plan, a fallback plan like many of us do. And I thought, they're not that different from the rest of us, are they? We have hopes and dreams for our future. We have hopes of getting married, hopes of having children, hopes of finding a job, or planning a church or serving somewhere.

00:03:02.790 - 00:03:22.080

But we have threats also there about those stories not being realised. We have fears about not getting married or not having children. We have fears about our health, concerns for our health, or ask for our family, for our extended family. And we have stories in our churches that go back years.

00:03:22.140 - 00:03:53.330

Moore has a story that goes back more than a century, and we have stories from the surrounding culture that impinge on us, just like the people of God always had the surrounding culture, whether we have war coming in impinging on us, whether Ukraine or. Or Iran or Sudan or, or we have the culture wars coming in and consuming our minds and our desires and our passions. And we have the rise of AI coming in and we have just questions about, will I find a job post-College? Am I suitable for full-time ministry?

00:03:53.890 - 00:04:07.190

And will I be healthy or will my family be healthy? And these are stories that come in and the question is, will we be distracted by those other stories? Will we be consumed by the stories within our own little borders or. Will we.

00:04:07.550 - 00:04:37.620

Will we actually hold onto God's greater story in our lives here and in our ministries in the future? God's greater story goes from the creation of this beautiful world through the fall into rebellion, and then that convoluted, one step forward, two steps back, all the way up to the redemption in Jesus, doesn't it? His death resurrection, his life, his ascension, and then we're in that in between period as we wait for the. Glorious day of all the nations and people of tongues and tribes, of all nations around the land praising God.

00:04:37.620 - 00:04:53.360

And that's the greater story, and this is Mission Awareness Week. And our hope is to remind ourselves of God's greater story, his glory amongst the nations. And we're gonna look at Jonah. As I said, as we've said, and I think it's the greatest short story in the Bible, maybe in in all human history.

00:04:53.360 - 00:05:00.770

I just think it's an amazing story, and you may have read it many times and heard talks on it. Who heard the Quip talks? They were great. Anyone hear the equipped talks?

00:05:00.770 - 00:05:09.110

How I Yes, they were great. Good, fantastic. It wasn't meant to be read once. Jonah's meant to be read many times.

00:05:09.320 - 00:05:21.890

The Jewish people read it every year in the day of Atoma Yom Kippur for more than 2000 years. It's meant to be read many times, and Jonah is one of the 12 minor prophets. As you know, it's always a bit hard to find in the Bible. I always like to think of it as.

00:05:22.340 - 00:05:43.430

The prophets of the word of God is like the double-edged sword as Hebrew four 12 tells us, you kind of, you see them all lined up and you have like Haggai with this critique of the home renovations and they're all like sort of swords and daggers and knives. And then you get to Jonah, it's like a bright pink plastic balloon sword. You. What is this?

00:05:43.430 - 00:06:05.210

There's fugitives and storms and and fish and vomit and worms, and it just feels a bit outlandish, almost feels a bit silly. Almost feels exaggerated and melodramatic. And it's comical. And it's comical, but cunning because as Clifford Warren used to say, great communicator from here, he'd say, when we hear a sermon, we kind of prepare our defences.

00:06:05.540 - 00:06:31.480

But who has a defence against a story? And the story is welcomed in and we hear it and we listen to it. And we're meant to laugh at Jonah, and I think you'll know you've really understood Jonah, when you end up just laughing a bit at yourself, I'm gonna story tell the book of Jonah because it's Mission Awareness Week. And so I actually want you to close your Bibles and turn off your phones or just close them.

00:06:31.720 - 00:06:36.520

See I got the okay from Mark here. Wherever Mark is or you got. I literally did. It's all good.

00:06:36.520 - 00:06:47.640

It's only for this week. We're going to storyteller 'cause mission takes us to strange, unusual, different places, right? And we see things slightly differently. So I'm gonna story tell, it might feel a bit weird.

00:06:47.640 - 00:06:53.430

Good. We'll do a little example. I'm gonna do the first two verses. I want you to listen for the three main characters.

00:06:53.460 - 00:07:07.490

Okay, here we go. The word of the Lord came to Jonah, son of Amai. Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it because its wickedness has come up before me. Three characters.

00:07:07.580 - 00:07:11.660

Who are the three characters we have there? Anyone wanna shout out one? Be bold. Anyone?

00:07:12.140 - 00:07:16.640

Jonah. Jonah. Nice one. Makes sense.

00:07:16.700 - 00:07:18.950

Well done. Well done. It wasn't Jesus, that was good. Jonah?

00:07:18.950 - 00:07:21.620

Yes. Anyone else? Anyone? Another one.

00:07:21.620 - 00:07:24.320

Neva. Sorry? Nva. Nva.

00:07:24.680 - 00:07:26.300

Nve. Yes. Very well. Nineveh is there.

00:07:26.300 - 00:07:29.690

Indeed. One of the other characters. And our last one. The Lord.

00:07:29.690 - 00:07:32.750

The Lord is there as well. Brilliant. Three main characters. The Lord, Jonah, and Ninevah.

00:07:33.020 - 00:07:49.460

Now the Lord as we know, you didn't read it sadly because you would know it was in capitals and it's shouting to us, isn't it? That behind, that's the Hebrew word, Yahweh. And Yahweh must have been hard to describe to other nations there, God, the Israelites. 'cause there God was both further above.

00:07:49.870 - 00:08:11.410

Closer to them than other gods, wasn't he? This God most other nations had, you know, they were part of creation. They had their specialised niche portfolios of storms or harvest or fertility or rivers. But this God, the Lord, was the creator of creation, set apart, holy, but also above and beyond, and yet closer to them.

00:08:11.930 - 00:08:30.200

Than any other nation closer to them because he gave them his name closest to them. Deuteronomy four, seven. What are the nations so greatest to have their gods near them? This God created the heavens, but speaks to a human peerless, but personal and this God cannot stand wickedness.

00:08:30.590 - 00:08:42.550

That's the Lord. And then we have Jonah, Jonah, the real prophet in the Bible from our Old Testament reading, two Kings 14. He's in the eighth century BC and just successful, like a positive prophet. Isn't that nice?

00:08:43.130 - 00:09:11.830

He predicted, spoke of the restoration of the borders of Israel despite Al's sin. Keep that in the back of your head for later, for a couple more days, but right now he's restored the boundaries of Israel and God calls him to cross those borders and to go into the nations, to Nineveh, who are part of the nations now. Nineveh is the capital of Assyria, the growing empire of the eighth century. Not a nice empire, but it's fair to say you don't get to be an empire through cuddles and kisses, right?

00:09:12.310 - 00:09:27.750

Empires don't send out feedback surveys asking how they can be a better empire for you, right? Empires empire, and they are scary. They inspire chills, and that's Nineveh. They're a threatening story for the people of Israel in that day.

00:09:27.900 - 00:09:39.210

So three main characters. The Lord tells Jonah to preach judgement on Nineva. Just to let you know the start, no other prophetic book starts like this. There's no, in the year of, there's no place, there's no this sort of, there's none of that.

00:09:39.480 - 00:09:59.970

There's no other prophetic book sends a prophet to the nations and no other prophetic book has action like this. Now we're a bit used to this 'cause now golden age of television with the West Wing and the Wire and the bear and all sorts of things. We understand stories. The Maxims show don't tell, right.

00:10:00.590 - 00:10:11.540

The best stories show, don't tell 'em. So we've gotta dive in a bit. We've gotta get inside the plot, interrogate the characters, dive into their minds and thinking. And as we do, we've gotta let Jonah give us context and teach us.

00:10:11.540 - 00:10:23.660

We've gotta let the Bible, the broader context, get us into that and we're gonna do it. And it's gonna be fun because Jonah is a classic kid story, right? And so we need sound effects as we're hearing Jonah. So can I have sound effects?

00:10:23.660 - 00:10:31.820

If we just say when there's wind, if you hear the word wind, can you just give us a bit of wind just. That's pretty good. That's pretty good. Okay.

00:10:32.000 - 00:10:41.630

And now if there's a storm, you can, some people can keep doing the wind. Keep doing the wind. And some of us need to do the storm. Just a bit of just gentle.

00:10:41.630 - 00:10:48.200

Gentle. It's a storm, a bit of work. And now if it gets rougher, we get rougher. Yep, yep.

00:10:48.680 - 00:10:54.510

And then when I do this, you stop. You ready? Oh, that's pretty good. Let's do this.

00:10:54.570 - 00:11:06.840

You ready? Okay. The word of the Lord came to Jonah, son of Amai. Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it because its wickedness has come up before me.

00:11:07.260 - 00:11:33.630

But Jonah. Ran away from the Lord and headed for ish. He went down to Joppa where he found a ship bowed for that port, and after paying the fare beep, he went aboard and sailed for ish to flee from the Lord. I. Then the Lord Centi great wind upon the sea and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up.

00:11:34.440 - 00:12:00.050

All the sailors were afraid and each cried out to his own God, and they threw the cargo into the sea to lighten the ships. But Jonah had gone below deck where he laid down and fell into a deep sleep. The captain went to him and said, how can you sleep? How can he sleep?

00:12:00.740 - 00:12:06.350

This isn't an ad break. How can Jonah sleep? Why is Jonah sleeping? Talk to the person next to you.

00:12:06.350 - 00:12:17.670

Have 30 seconds. Why is Jonah sleeping? Go. Oh, not bad.

00:12:17.880 - 00:12:23.960

Okay. Why is Jonah asleep? Who thinks Jonah was a really bad sailor? Who?

00:12:23.960 - 00:12:49.220

Who thinks Jonah was a really good sleeper? Who thinks Jonah's trying to avoid the sort of dirty, gentle, salty sea dog sailors who thinks he's kind of in shock at what he's done and he's just trying to escape reality? Just sleeping. Who thinks Jon is just so obsessed by his own little world that he doesn't care whatever else is happening about him, and he just sleeps.

00:12:50.660 - 00:12:57.020

Well, the answer is we don't know. Right? The text doesn't tell us. We don't know why he slept.

00:12:57.020 - 00:13:12.170

In The book of Jonah uses a technique called textual information gaps. Right? And as readers, all listeners, when the story raises sort of a question, it kind of set something off for us. George Saunders is a great writer.

00:13:12.170 - 00:13:29.520

He is, won huge prizes and he reckons it's sort of just, we feel it. And we can't even articulate it, but it sets off a sort of thread in asterisk for us, and it hangs over until it's explained and Jonah's full of them, right? The first one is obviously where he runs. That's a big textual information gap.

00:13:29.520 - 00:13:38.550

And then he sleeps in a storm, both of them in that way. Now he's running from the Lord is bizarre. Tells him to go on land to the east, he takes the ship to the west. Tar sh.

00:13:39.130 - 00:13:50.230

Now some prophets plead and complain before God. Moses, you know, I'm not very good at speaking Jeremiah, I'm so young, you know? That's fine. That's all part of the standard Prophetic Commission narrative.

00:13:51.070 - 00:14:12.150

But Jonah, no nothing, no words, anything. And that flight from God is the sort of mother of all the textual information gaps that hang over Jonah, right till chapter four. And of course we do know why, but we're gonna just hold onto another question. Why is that there and what does it accomplish in the story?

00:14:12.330 - 00:14:23.400

Well, we'll hold onto that, but we're gonna focus on why he sleeps here. The captain's reaction tells us it's bizarre. How can you sleep? What happens is, I think, and this is what the commentators think.

00:14:24.100 - 00:14:48.770

What happens is the gaps we fill almost subconsciously with our assumptions. And as the story goes on, our assumptions get sort of approved right or wrong by the story, and it reveals something about ourselves. 'cause you see, I think our assumptions help us do what another author Elizabeth Straus says is the job of the author. The job of a story is to reflect on the human condition.

00:14:49.860 - 00:15:04.680

Now the Bible is just a great reflection on the divine condition, isn't it? The character of our God, the acts of our God, the Word of our God, all the way through, and we're gonna find that in Jonah. As we go into Jonah. We're gonna see all sorts of things about God.

00:15:05.130 - 00:15:25.310

The Bible is also a reflection on the human condition and a deep, deep way. You'll think about this when we get to the New Testament. The New Testament tells us, one Corinthians 10, these things occurred as examples for us. We see Hebrews forces don't follow their example of their having hard hearts.

00:15:25.600 - 00:15:39.290

Two Peter two, Jude tells us, so Maura served as an example. Paul and Jesus are call us to be imitators of them. And James five tells us the prophets were an example of patience in the face of suffering. Not this prophet.

00:15:39.870 - 00:15:54.670

Okay, but the Old Testament is a deep and biblical narratives. They almost do application like a blender with the lid off. Do you know what I mean? And we've gotta be careful and thoughtful about what it teaches us about the human condition.

00:15:54.850 - 00:16:12.770

But we see, even in Jonah, these two sides of Jonah, don't we? We see a very active Jonah going down to the port, finding a ship, booking a passage boarding, and then we find passive Jonah asleep in the belly of the ship. We don't know why Jonah does all of the things he does. Chapter four explains some, but not all of that.

00:16:13.610 - 00:16:24.860

And on one level he seems utterly unrelatable. God speaks to him. He's in a storm. He's got anger issues and he is a serious IMR of that, but he's also a bit like us.

00:16:25.550 - 00:16:51.650

When he's all too relatable. Have you ever been just clueless about a situation almost as if your eyes were closed to a situation like when I realised I was a submarine Christian and just God revealed it to me? Or maybe you've ever tried to avoid or escape a problem by doing all sorts of other things, maybe literally sleeping like Jonah. Jonah, he seems like a cartoon figure, but perhaps we seem like cartoon figures as well.

00:16:52.280 - 00:16:58.310

Well, let's get back into the story. Well hold off on the storm. When you see the storm getting louder, come back in. Okay?

00:16:58.670 - 00:17:03.710

Okay. The storm will come back in and then I want the wind and the waves to come back in. Everyone with me on that? Okay, here we go.

00:17:04.580 - 00:17:24.380

Then the captain went to him and said, how can you sleep? Get up, call on your God. Maybe he will take notice of us so that we will not perish. The sailors said to one another, come, let's cast lots and find out who is responsible for this calamity.

00:17:24.770 - 00:17:39.170

And so they cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah. And so they asked him, tell us who's responsible for making all this trouble for us? What kind of work do you do? Where are you from?

00:17:39.290 - 00:18:02.150

What is your country? From, what people are you, Jonah replied. I am a Hebrew and I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land. This terrified them and they said, what have you done?

00:18:02.840 - 00:18:26.220

Uh, they knew he was running away from the Lord because he'd already told them, so the sea was getting rougher and rougher. And so they asked him, what should we do to you to make the sea calm down for us? Pick me up and throw me into the sea, he said, and it will become calm. I know it's my fault.

00:18:26.220 - 00:18:45.040

This great storm has come upon you. Instead, the men did their best to row back to land, but they could not. But the sea grew even wilder than before. And so they cried out to the Lord, please Lord, do not let us die for killing this man.

00:18:45.040 - 00:18:59.590

Do not hold us accountable for taking an innocent life for you. O Lord have done as you pleased. And they took Jonah and they threw him overboard. And the raging sea grew car.

00:19:00.790 - 00:19:20.790

At this. The men greatly feared the Lord. And they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows to him. Then the Lord provided a huge fish to swallow Jonah, and he was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.

00:19:20.910 - 00:19:28.760

I. What a story. Let's look at these three main characters. We don't have Nineveh, but we have the sailors. Who are the nations?

00:19:28.760 - 00:19:45.770

What do the sailors tell us about this great story? Well, they start with no connection to God. Sailors were wild, salty sea dogs. When you Hebrew listeners heard them crying out to their little fake gods, they would've sneered at them with disdain.

00:19:45.800 - 00:19:58.270

They were kind of those characters, you know, movies where who you think. He's gonna die la That's what you think of the sailors, but. As time goes on, we see them, don't we? We see them.

00:19:58.580 - 00:20:18.170

They understand the supernatural source of the storm. They know something bigger that's going on. Their questions to Jonah are actually about which God is offended and is acting, and then they listen to Jonah. They try to save Jonah by rowing to land, and then they come in fear to God.

00:20:18.170 - 00:20:37.910

In fact, they're fear shifts, doesn't it? First it's just from the storm. Then it's to this God who's created everything, and then it's the Lord revealed in all these glor. As the storm stops, instantly they pray, they fear the Lord, and then they make sacrifices and vows to this God.

00:20:38.780 - 00:20:50.090

They're like a, they were fear. He was a guy in France in Leon, who was not an idol worshipper. He was a football worshipper. He would go, he was an ultra of Olympic, uh, Leone, Olympic Leon.

00:20:50.360 - 00:21:12.110

And he would spend his weekends there behind the goals with all the other crazies with a flair, dancing, drinking, carrying on his whole life. Taken with that, and his girlfriend for some reason brought him along to church one time and he turned up and I thought, another thought. This rowdy guy, there is no way. He's becoming a follower of the Lord Jesus.

00:21:12.650 - 00:21:39.660

And yet he came back and he came back and he came back. And slowly but surely the Lord convinced him of his rebellion and his need to be in relationship with the God of the universe. And he became a Christian, was baptised in a lake and he joined and. Rahab and Ruth and these sailors and those of the nations in the greater story of God and he's still there serving the people there.

00:21:40.410 - 00:21:53.010

God is working. If you feel sometimes like, oh, my family or the other people I talk, no one listens. God is drawing people in to his kingdom all over the world. Trust his story.

00:21:53.010 - 00:22:06.950

Trust his greater story. Well, what does Jonah teach us? Well, as I've said, stories reflect on the human condition, and Jonah's a confusing guy, right? As we see him on our first couple of readings.

00:22:06.980 - 00:22:12.410

We don't quite see ourselves in him. He runs from God. He goes down and orders a ship. He sleeps in a storm.

00:22:12.410 - 00:22:21.780

He gets found out. He tells them he worships the Lord who made the sea on which he's running away from. Yet he's told the sailors this already. I'm, I'm always a bit confused.

00:22:21.780 - 00:22:38.220

Did he tell 'em that in his boarding papers? Do you know what I mean? Name Jonah. Job profit, reason for travel, fleeing the Lord, what's going on with him and, and how should I tell that part where he says, pick me up and throw me into the sea?

00:22:39.150 - 00:22:50.280

Is it in defiance? Is it in resignation? Is it with a bit of guilt as he started to see the sailors? How do we understand him?

00:22:51.120 - 00:23:10.280

We find out later he's still an still anti mission. He doesn't like God's mercy on him. We might not have his anger issues or, you know, have the same backstory as him, and yet we can be every bit as incoherent as Jonah. You'll notice he passed his doctrine.

00:23:10.280 - 00:23:17.060

Viva right? I'm a Hebrew. I worship the law. The god of heaven passes his doctrine.

00:23:17.060 - 00:23:30.040

Viva, but fails his mission assessment, doesn't he? His heart. He's wildly at, at odds with God's heart, and we can say, I believe in God, the Father Almighty. We can say, I believe in Jesus Christ.

00:23:30.040 - 00:23:49.160

His only Lord who was conceived, who was born, suffered, crucified, died, was buried. Rose again, will come again to judge the living and the dead. But I don't act like he's coming again. I don't act like he's going to judge with the just judgement of people who will be lost without.

00:23:50.100 - 00:24:03.750

Salvation of Jesus. Jonah reminds us we can say the right things about God. We can be part of the Mission Awareness Committee. We can be the head of Department of Missionary College and yet have a weak prayer life.

00:24:03.750 - 00:24:27.890

For the Lost Kafka said a book should hit us like a disaster. It must be the axe for the frozen sea within us. I pray that Jonah is an axe for our hearts to be broken, melted and concerned for the lost. And as we've been laughing at Jonah, we might end it by laughing at ourselves and it might feel a bit uncomfortable.

00:24:29.030 - 00:24:49.330

But the joy, of course, is to consider God in this text, isn't it? 'cause this is the God who cannot stand wickedness. This is the God who sends a storm, who is sovereign over the winds and the waves, the casting of the lots who turns up the dial and then turns off the storm. Who accepts the sailors into his kingdom?

00:24:50.110 - 00:25:03.700

And think about what's happened in chapter one. It's the story of the whole Bible, isn't it? God gives a message. His people rebel and are hopeless about it, and God, despite and through them, brings people into his kingdom and his nation.

00:25:04.750 - 00:25:20.900

That's the story of the Bible. If I can misquote Tim Keller, you are much more ridiculous than you ever thought. But God will use you more than you ever imagined. And Jonah shows us this, and it reminds us of a story of another group of sailors, doesn't it?

00:25:21.650 - 00:25:45.720

In another sea, in another century, in another storm with another man asleep in the bottom of the boat, only this man. Fleeing the word of God. This man is the very word of God. And when he stands, the wind and the waves hear their maker's voice and they're silent.

00:25:47.160 - 00:26:15.540

And his sailor disciples are consumed with fear just like these sailors, and they start to give their lives to their mission of making this one known throughout all the nations. You and I are the result of this, and it won't stop here. It'll keep going. Will you let God's greater story shape and change your story?

00:26:15.540 - 00:26:45.860

Will it take you beyond your boundaries of your church or your group and have a heart for the lost like God? Let's pray as we finish our Father God, our hearts and desires are so bound up in our stories. Help us to seek your kingdom first and to know that all other thing, parts of our stories will come under your greater story. Give us a heart like you have for the lost and help us keep your greater story always.

00:26:46.750 - 00:26:50.240

At the front of our mind. I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.