Sermon Tone Analysis

repentance is the path from death to life

intro me...

Today we’re thinking about that moment when all hope is lost.

We’re looking at the famous story of Jonah from the bible, and we’re in the middle of it if you’ve just joined us.

Last week, in the heart of an epic storm, we saw Jonah thrown overboard.

The sailors were sure Jonah would die - they even pray about it: Jon 1:14 “do not let us die for taking this man’s life” they say to God, assuming they are taking his life by throwing him into the wild sea, far from land.

All hope was lost.

I was thinking about that Chinese plane that went down so tragically and suddenly this week.

And those facing death minute by minute in Ukraine, in other wars around the world.

We’re going to read about a big fish when all hope seemed lost - no big fish for them.

But I think today’s passage has a lot to say to us still about that moment.

Let’s read together from Jonah, and we’re starting at chapter one, verse 17, on page 928.

Rachel’s going to be reading for us this morning.

Page 928.

Jonah chapter one, big one, verse 17, tiny 17.

Let’s read together.

Last week we had verse after verse narrating the ship’s battle through the storm, the increasingly desperate steps the crew took.

The increasingly ferocious waves.

It was like the author was trying to bring us into the storm with them, to have us see, hear, feel the extreme situation.

This week, we get J5-quality prose continuing the story - and that’s being unkind to any J5’s here.

No dramatic glimpse of the fish tail through the storm as the lightening flashed, an awesome fishy-roar echoing over the waters.

No gaping teeth-filled mouth open rushing towards Jonah as he shrieks in terror.

It’s just the bare facts of the matter.

The narrative which wraps Jonah’s prayer here is like revision notes, digested down to the absolute minimum: the Lord provided -or appointed- a big fish to swallow Jonah.

He was inside three days where he prayed.

The Lord spoke to the fish and bleugh!

Jonah’s back on dry land.

All the focus goes on to Jonah’s reflective prayer to God.

So that’s where we’re going to put our focus this morning too.

If you wouldn’t call yourself a believer, though, I imagine you could well be having quite a hard time swallowing this story - if you’ll forgive the metaphor.

Just a really brief word on that before we move on:

Some scholars argue this little book of Jonah isn’t meant to be read as something that actually happened - I mean, could anyone really survive in a fish, even a huge fish, for three days?

They’d tell you it’s a picture of Israel turning away from God’s calling for them, and tells us how he’ll respond.

And there are some reasonable arguments for reading it that way.

We’re going to approach it as a literal story of something that actually happened, though - because Jesus did: in Luke’s gospel, in chapter 11, Jesus refers to what happened to Jonah, and what happened to the people of Nineveh as a real historical event, a parallel to his own coming death and resurrection, also a real historical event.

It’s definitely extraordinary, no question.

No-one is saying fish swallow people and then vomit them out somewhere else on a regular basis, it’s not a common mode of prophetic transport.

Quite possibly it’d require an actual factual miracle, an alteration to some of the “laws of nature” inside the fish.

But Christians do believe in miracles - Jesus’ resurrection from the dead is the cornerstone of our faith.

That is not natural.

That does not happen in the normal flow of life.

We believe in a God who can do stuff which just “does not compute” according to the normal order of things.

We’re not a bunch of fools who believe anything and everything we hear, tooth fairy included - there are some seriously educated people in this church - many of the world’s great scientists and mathematicians have been serious followers of Jesus.

But we do believe in a God who can “break the rules” of his world if he chooses, one who sits outside of it, above it.

So if you’re struggling with a big fish, can I challenge you to try not to get too hung up on that at least at first, and to explore with us this morning some of the other things going on here - things our writer puts the emphasis on?

We can talk more about big fish in the Q&R later if you like!

What we’ve got here in Jonah’s prayer is a record of his journey to the bottom.

There’s a summary in that first verse - not so much a trailer as a spoiler: “I called to the LORD and he answered me,” delivered in classic Hebrew duplicate: “I called for help and you listened to my cry” - then Jonah fills in the details of what happened to him pre-fish.

[slide with v3 on the surface of the sea]

“You hurled me into the depths” - that’s a bit unfair since it was the sailors who threw Jonah overboard as we heard last week!

But Jonah understands he’s in the deep sea as a result of God’s judgement on his disobedience, on his determination to go the exact opposite of the way God has told him to.

He understands he’s going to die.

When we reed “depths” here and “the heart of the seas”, that might seem to imply that Jonah is immediately deep under water but that’s not quite right.

“the depths” means something that has great depth - it’s the wild ocean, not a paddling pool.

Jonah can’t touch the bottom is the point.

The heart of the sea is simply the centre of it - far, far from land is the point.

That explains why, thrown into the sea, but still on the surface for a moment, waves and breakers from the storm can sweep over Jonah.

[then add v5-6 under the dark sea]

But only for a moment.

He’s going down.

Verse 5 “the engulfing waters threatened me” - or more literally, as you can see in the footnote there, the waters were at his throat.

He’s sinking - you have to imagine him spluttering as waves crash over him.

Then suddenly he is engulfed by the ocean, swallowed by it, surrounded by it, under the surface, going down, down, down.

That’s how I make sense of seaweed being wrapped around him in the middle of the open ocean: he’s approaching the ocean floor.

And there he lands: at the roots of the mountains, down to the seafloor beneath the deep.

As Jonah reaches the bottom, he thinks he has gone down and he is staying down - Jon 2:6 “the earth beneath barred me in forever”.

That’s the picture: Jonah’s life is being snuffed out.

There is no hope for him at all, abandoned in the middle of the open ocean.

He has only moments to live as he sinks down towards its floor, water pressing on him more and more.

His life is ebbing away.

He is beyond any rescue.

But hang on - remember our spoiler?

Jonah called for help and God listened.

Jonah’s prayer of distress, of desperation from the midst of a wild ocean reaches God’s ear.

And this is where we find the first application of what we’re reading for you and me, here today.

It seemed like there was no hope for Jonah at all - but it’s never hopeless with God.

There’s always reason to hope.

The sailors on the ship above, drifting happily over the now-calm ocean would be forgiven for thinking there was absolutely no hope for Jonah.

It didn’t seem like there was - dumped in the heart of the deep without so much as a life ring.

But there’s always reason to hope.

Most likely, they never saw Jonah again - most likely they never knew how things ended.

I think there’s comfort for us here as we think about people in desperate situations, people taking their last breath, even.

Perhaps people we’re not personally connected to, just we know their situation is desperate, that the end is nigh.

Perhaps it’s someone close to you, someone running away from God just like Jonah.

When at our very last glimpse there doesn’t seem to be any hope left, this story teaches us it’s never hopeless with God.

We do not know how things ended.

We just don’t know.

What we do know is rescue is possible - that God could respond to a cry for help from the very last breath, from the bottom of the ocean.

Probably not a big-fish-style rescue, that’s a one off.

But as Jonah tells us here, salvation comes from the LORD - and the LORD can hear a cry for help, and save forever at the very last moment.

I think there’s another thing for us here today too: we also see it’s never too late with God.

Do you feel like you’re overboard in a storm, perhaps a storm of your own making?

Is your life totally out of control, do you feel utterly helpless as waves crash over you?

Or do you feel like you’ve already sunk?

That you’re drifting down towards the bottom?

That your life is utterly hopeless from here on, and only death is ahead?

It is not too late for you.

It’s never too late with God.

It’s not too late to call out to God for help.

It’s not too late for him to turn things around.