Chapel – Pastor Paul Woodburn
GEORGE SWEETMAN: Shall we continue in a posture of prayer? Let's pray together. God, in these moments of silence, and from the words that we have just sung, we are so acutely aware of Your creativity and generativity, that we are able to come and behold You. In a world that goes so fast and lightning speed, sometimes it's hard to sit still and behold anything, let alone You. But this morning, You're inviting us into that, that moment in time where we can behold - behold Your beauty, Your Majesty, Your creativity, Your greatness, in this place that it's so easy to behold in. In these moments together that we can spend sitting side by side with brothers and sisters in Christ, in silence, in stillness, to behold Your glory. God, may this be our posture as we move into receiving the word from our friend, Pastor Paul Woodburn, this morning. We're so grateful that he can be with here, with us here, and we pray your peace upon him, and that our hearts, in turn, will be open to the words that He has prepared for us through Your Spirit. So, God be with us this morning, we pray these things in Jesus' name, Amen.
Pastor Paul Woodburn is our special speaker today. He is the lead pastor at First Alliance Church here in Toronto, friend of Tyndale's. He has actually been in this pulpit before. I remember that sermon even to this day. It was two, three years ago, and one of his desires for his congregation, as well as for us, is that we continue to move into greater intimacy with Jesus Christ. And I am sure, as he reflects on Jonah this morning, that that will be true also. He has been in full time ministry for over 30 years. He and his wife are proud parents to two children, a man and a woman, a son and a daughter. His son is actually here in Toronto right now, visiting from New Brunswick. He is actually a captain in the Canadian Air Force. So, we're grateful that he is able to spend, that Paul is able to spend a moment of his week with us this morning, Paul.
PAUL WOODBURN: Check, check, check, here we are. Can we try it one more time? Good morning. I'm glad to be here with you this morning. I always count it a privilege to be here. God is present in the gathering of His people. Words of the book of Jonah,
The word of the Lord came to Jonah, son of Amittai, saying, "Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it for their wickedness has arisen before Me." Jonah arose to flee to Tarshish, away from the presence of the Lord. I have to pause there just to highlight that Jonah is not running from Nineveh. He's running from the presence of the Lord. Nineveh was a key city of Assyria at the time, Assyria was a dominant power in the region. But he's not running from a city, he's not running from Assyria. He's not running from a king. He's not running from an army. He's running from the presence of the Lord. The text is clear. That's maybe a good place to pause for reflection. What are you running from?
And the Lord said, "Do you do well to be angry, Jonah, for a plant? And Jonah said, " Yes, yes, I do well to be angry to the point of death." And the Lord said, "You have compassion for a plant for which you did no work. You did not plant it or water it or cause it to grow. It sprang up in the night and was gone in the night. And I should not have compassion for the great city of Nineveh, with 120,000 souls who do not know their left hand from their right hand and animals besides." And that's where the story ends. It's an unusual ending for a story for us, and there are lots of questions about the story of Jonah. And I put it to you that there are many, many, many lessons from the story of Jonah as well, but I want to suggest that it is a great mirror that reflects how we often approach faith. For example, many of us as Christians have no desire to do what God tells us to do. We do not obey, though we know what it is that He is calling and inviting us to do. We do not do it. Now, as I said many of us, the truth is that all of us have some area in our life, where God continues to invite us to move forward, and we are often hesitant to obey, like Jonah in chapter one. Like Jonah in chapter one, we are warned that if we continue to ignore His voice, it is easy for us to become comfortable in disobedience. There is Jonah in the middle of a storm that has experienced sailors running around frightened, and he is sleeping comfortable in his disobedience. We are cautioned against becoming comfortable in our disobedience. In chapter two, Jonah's prayer, there are many scholars and theologians smarter and more educated than I am who see in chapter two Jonah's prayer of repentance. Sorry, with all due respect, I disagree. The man is masterful. He knows his Psalms well. He knows the Psalms of David and Solomon and Asaph and Moses, and he weaves them masterfully into this prayer, but I see no repentance here. I do not see, "Create in me a clean heart, O God, renew a right spirit within me." I do not see, "Against You and You only have I sinned and done what is wrong." What I see is, "Those who worship vain idols, they don't deserve what I've got, but I, with the song of thanksgiving." When we see this kind of thing in the New Testament, we call it pharisaic. The Pharisees who had this wonderful appearance of righteousness, but it was completely empty. And I put it to you that chapter two, the book of Jonah, cautions us against a faith that is all appearances, where we have all the right words to say and all the right songs to sing and raise our hands in tears at the right time, but it's all appearances, a righteousness that is empty. Chapter three, we get to, we get to the obedience. And for many of us, this is the whole point of the story. God speaks Jonah disobeys. Bad things happen. God speaks Jonah obeys. Revival breaks out. Woo hoo. Yay. Story is done. The story is wonderfully crafted. We are told that Nineveh is a city that is three days journey end to end. Jonah begins to enter the city, and the message that he proclaims is all of five words in the Hebrew language,"Yeah, look God, I obeyed. I did what it is that you told me to do, and now I'm going to go exit the city and wait and watch for it to be destroyed." I put it to you that chapter three cautions us against a faith that is made up of rules and hoops. See, so when we reduce faith to rules and hoops, we draw lines and we say, all I need to do is make it to that line, jump through that hoop, and our faith becomes more about the rules than about the God who is inviting us into relationship. See, when, when we have rules, what we tend to do is we tend to do the minimum, "What's required of me for service, God? Okay, well, I'll do that. What's required of me for...? Okay, God, I'll give that. What's required of me in terms of fellowshipping with other believers? Okay, God, I'll do that." And we make this list of rules, and then we do the bare minimum to make sure that we're in and not out. Chapter three cautions us against this kind of faith. Then comes chapter four, the whole point. Many of us treat Jonah chapter four like that moment in the movie when the credits are scrolling, and maybe there's a little bit of animation that continues, and maybe you watch it, and maybe you don't, but we feel like the story is over. He did what he was supposed to do. He went to Nineveh revival broke out, yay, hurrah. But I put it to you that the whole point of the book is found in Jonah chapter four, and it is God's invitation for us to take on His heart and His likeness. Jonah was concerned for a plant, a plant rather than people. And God continues to try to woo him. "Jonah, you're concerned for a plant? Compassion for a plant? In the face of this great city with all of these people?" God invites us into intimate relationship with Him. He invites us not just to obey, but to obey from a heart that reflects His heart. And so we're back to it God being a God of graciousness and mercy and love and compassion. And again, if you are in the storm, know that He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love and relenting from disaster. And if you're not in the storm, and you're clicking on all cylinders and it's all going great for you, know this is God's invitation. Become gracious and merciful, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love. This is His invitation for us, yes. Would you stand with me? Let's pray together.
He went down to Joppa, found a ship of Tarshish, headed for Tarshish. He paid his fare and went down into it to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the Lord. It's repeated, in case you missed it the first time he's fleeing the presence of the Lord. Now the Lord hurled a great wind on the sea, and the sea became enraged. It became a tempest. The ship on which they set sail was tossed about, threatened to fly apart. The sailors were terrified. They were in awe of the power of the storm and the sea, they each cried out to their idol gods and hurled their cargo, their livelihood, into the sea to lighten the load. But Jonah had gone down into the innermost parts of the ship. He had laid down and he had fallen asleep. The captain of the vessel came to him and said, "What? What are you doing? Wake up, oh you sleeper, arise. Cry out to your god, perhaps he will give a thought to us so we do not perish." The sailors said, "Let's, let's cast lots and find out on whose account this evil has befallen us." So they cast lots, and the lot fell to Jonah, they said, "Tell us, you on whose account this evil has befallen us. What's your occupation? What do you do? What is your land? What is your people? Where are you from? Who are you?" Jonah said, "I am a Hebrew. I worship the Lord, God of the heavens. He made the sea and the dry land." At this the sailors were terrified because they knew he was fleeing from the presence of the Lord. Third time you've heard that, this is a story about a man and his God who he is trying to get away from. They were terrified. They knew he was fleeing from the presence of the Lord because he had told them. They said to him, "What do we need to do to you in order for the sea to become calm?", for the sea was becoming more and more enraged. Jonah said, "Pick me up, hurl me into the sea, and it will become calm, because I know that it is on my account that the sea has become this tempest." But they instead rode hard for sure, trying to make it to dry land. But the sea was ever more against them. The storm raged more and more. So they cried out to Jonah's God, "O Lord, do not let us perish on account of this man's life. Do not lay on us innocent blood. You, O Lord, have done as You pleased." They picked him up and hurled him into the sea, and the sea immediately became calm. At this the sailors were filled with terror, overwhelming awe. They were awestruck, no longer at the power of the storm and the sea, but the power of the God who controls the storm and the sea. They offered a sacrifice, they made vows, and the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. Do not get distracted by the big fish. It's not the point of this story. Then Jonah cried out to the Lord from the belly of the fish, "In my distress, I called to You, Lord, and You answered me. Out of the heart of the deep, I cried and You heard me. You cast me into the deep, into the heart of the sea. The flood surrounded me. Your waves and billows washed over me. I cried, 'I have been cast from Your sight, but I will yet again look upon Your holy temple.' Waves swept over me to take my life. The deep surrounded me, seaweed wrapped around my head. I went down, down to the roots of the mountain, deeper still, to the very bars of death. You, O Lord, redeemed my life. You raised me up from the depths. When my life was fading away, I remembered You, Lord, and my cry came up to Your holy temple. Those who worship vain idols forsake all hope of Your loving kindness. But I, with the song of thanksgiving, I will offer sacrifices. That which I have vowed, okay, that which I have vowed I will do for salvation belongs to the Lord."
And the Lord spoke to the fish and it vomited Jonah up onto dry land. Now, the word of the Lord came to Jonah, the son of Amittai, a second time, saying, "Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it what I tell you." So Jonah arose to go to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now, Nineveh was a massive city, three days journey, end to end. Jonah began to enter the city one day's journey, and he cried out, "Forty days and Nineveh is done!" The people of Nineveh believed in the Lord. They called a fast they put on sackcloth from the least to the greatest. Even the king got up from his throne, took off his royal robes, put on sackcloth and sat in ashes. Had a decree published throughout Nineveh, "By order of the king and his high officials, let no one man or beast, herd or flock, taste anything. Let them neither feed nor drink water, but let man and beast be clothed in sackcloth. Let them cry out mightily to the Lord. Let them turn from their evil ways and their hands from violence." For he said, "Who knows, perhaps the Lord will turn and relent and turn from His fierce anger so that we do not perish." Now, when the Lord God saw what the people of Nineveh did, how they turned from their evil ways, He did indeed relent from the disaster He had said He would do and did not do it. But this thing greatly displeased Jonah, and he became enraged, and he said to the Lord, "Is this not what I said when I was back in my home country? This is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish. I know You, God. You are gracious and merciful, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love and relenting from disaster."
And now let me pause again, because you remember when the sailor said to Jonah, "What do we need to do to you in order for the sea to become calm for us?", because it was becoming more and more enraged. And Jonah said to them, "Pick me up and hurl me into the sea, because I know it's on my account that the sea has become a tempest." What they were asking was, what does your God require of us? What do we need to do to appease your God? And what Jonah should have said is, my God is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love. See, according to Jonah 4, Jonah knows that all he needs to do is repent. All he needs to do is repent. But the image of God that he gives to these sailors is that God has no grace. He is not merciful, and He is unforgiving, and if you step out of line, He is going to pound you to pulp. Let me tell you this morning, if you are in the midst of a storm, whatever it might be, relationship, health, finances, whatever it is, if you are in the midst of the storm, know that God is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and He is right there with you. All you have to do is call out to Him. Jonah, after he said, "I know you, God, your gracious, merciful, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love", then prayed that he might die for he said, "It is better for me to die than to live." And the Lord said, "Do you do well to be angry, Jonah?" Jonah doesn't answer. He leaves the city, goes and sits east of the city, made a little booth for himself for shade, and sat beneath it to wait to see what would happen to the city. The Lord appointed a plant to grow up over Jonah, to provide shade for his head and to save him from his evil. Jonah was exceedingly glad for the plant, but that night, the Lord appointed a worm to attack the plant. The plant withered. By morning it had died. And when the sun arose, the Lord appointed a strong a scorching east wind and the sun beat down on Jonah's head so that he became faint. And once more, he prayed that he might die for he said, "It is better for me to die than to live."
God, our Father, even that is a wonder, just to be able to call You, Father. We, Your people, come before You, not because of anything that we have done or achieved, but by Your invitation alone You invite us into Your presence, and we respond. I pray, Father, for those who might be in the middle of a storm right now, whatever kind of storm it may be. Whether a storm of their own making choices, or the choices of others, or just circumstances that happen to have come through their life, my prayer is, God, that they would know that You are gracious and merciful, that they would sense Your presence and Your nearness in a tangible way. But even more so, Father, may You bring brothers and sisters in Christ around them to be Jesus, to be gracious and merciful, to walk with, to journey with. And Father, for those who may be experiencing abundance, and joy, and health, and happiness, and everything is going according to plan, may they hear Your call. Your call to be gracious and merciful, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love as we, Father, journey not just through this day, but through the weeks ahead, the months ahead. May we remember Your invitation, not just to obey but to take on Your likeness and to become more like Jesus. And it is in His name we pray, Amen. Have a blessed day.
