Hurled into the Deep Jonah and the Cross

Brethren, we'll be reading from Jonah chapter 2. Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish, saying, I called out to the Lord out of my distress, and he answered me. Out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and you heard my voice. For you cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the flood surrounded me.

All your waves and your billows passed over me. Then I said, I am driven away from your sight. Yet I shall again look upon your holy temple.

The waters closed in over me to take my life. The deep surrounded me. Weeds were wrapped about my head.

At the roots of the mountains, I went down to the land whose bars closed upon me forever. Yet you brought me up my life, you brought up my life from the pit. Oh Lord, my God.

When my life was fainting away, I remembered the Lord. And my prayer came to you, into your holy temple. Those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love.

But I, with the voice of thanksgiving, will sacrifice to you what I have vowed I will pay. Salvation belongs to the Lord. And the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah out upon the dry land.

Well, as the men pass out bread and a drink, we're going to partake of the Lord's supper. And if you're visiting here, you're more than welcome to partake with us if you've professed to be a believer and you've obeyed the command to be baptized. So we want to remember the Lord Jesus Christ.

And we get Jonah chapter 2 to consider the Lord Jesus Christ. Now I don't know about you, I've prayed in various places. Prayed, I remember years ago, praying scrunched inside Tim's minivan outside of Fatty's after we were disciplining someone, and Tim was the only elder, and a woman stood up in the prayer meeting and said, I disagree with you guys, it's an incredibly awkward moment.

And like five of us went and scrunched inside his minivan. I remember all the groanings happening in there. But I've never prayed inside the belly of a fish.

No light in there. Obviously, a miserable place. Sometimes that can be the best thing for you.

I mean, imagine being in the belly of a fish for three days. That's incredible. I would liken it to praying in a tomb.

And I think we're safe to do that because in Matthew 12, it says, for as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. Right? Obviously, speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ, He died and was buried for three days and was raised. And so Jonah is basically in a tomb, in this fish, crying out.

And look at verse 7. My life was fainting away, I remembered the Lord, and what happened? My prayer came to you. And if you have any thought, is the Lord going to hear my cry? There is a man disobeying the Lord, a disobedient prophet, didn't want to follow the will of God, and God sends His wrath upon the ocean of the ship that this man is on. He ends up in the belly of this fish for three days and he's crying to the Lord.

And even there, my prayer came to you in your holy temple. I mean, think of the difference. Belly of a fish in the ocean in a holy temple.

And the prayer made from the belly of the fish in the darkness there, ascends and is heard by the holy, holy God in His holy temple. I mean, that's incredible. There's one reason.

There's one reason God can be just and do that. There's one reason God can hear that prayer and respond, and that's what these very symbols are pointing to is the Lord Jesus Christ who has died for us on that cross. And if you look at, I think there is a picture here of the gospel, the fact that Christ even brings up as Jonah was in the belly of the fish.

And if you look at chapter one in Jonah, you can see some of these things in a clear way. If you go to verse four, but the Lord hurled a great wind upon the sea, see that God hurled his wrath and his anger upon the sea. At that moment, there is very specific reason a disobedient prophet was on that boat.

Seems that storm would not have come if Jonah was not on that boat. So the Lord hurled. And then that what happens when there's a calamity in your life? You start thinking about it and they cast lots, verse seven, and it falls upon Jonah.

So Jonah wasn't exactly, you know, confessing all of his sin and knowing that this was brought upon him initially. He wasn't doing that. It took some lots and the lots are cast.

They cast the lots and then verse eight, then they said to him, tell us whose account this evil has come upon us. What is your occupation? Where do you come from? What is your country? Those are those questions we ask sometimes to people. Where are you from? What do you do? What people are you of? He said, verse nine, I am a Hebrew.

He says, I fear the Lord. The God of heaven really made the sea and the dry land, then the men were exceedingly afraid and they 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 that. Then they said to him, what shall we do to you? The sea may that the sea may quiet down for us.

For the sea grew more and more tempestuous. He said to them, pick me up and hurl me into the sea. Same word.

Hurl. Right. God hurled.

Verse four, the Lord hurled a great wind upon the sea. And here Jonas says, pick me up, hurled me into the sea and the sea will quiet down for you because I know it is because of me that this great tempest has come upon you. And what did they do? Did they hear this way that they could appease the wrath of God and just do it right away? Did they do that? No, they did not.

This is what this is what many some of you here are not Christians are doing. You're doing verse 13. You've heard the gospel.

And then verse 13, nevertheless, the men rode hard to get back to dry land. And what happens when you oppose God's way of salvation? You try to save yourself. They could not, for the sea grew more and more.

The anger of God, the temper of God, the storm, it just all the more was flaring up as these people, they're ignoring the way to appease the wrath and they're trying to save themselves. Therefore, they called out to the Lord, O Lord, let us not perish for this man's life. And they say this, verse 14, and lay not on us innocent blood.

Jonah's already admitted he's not innocent. Yet they say innocent blood for you, O Lord, have not done as it pleased you. Verse 15, they picked up Jonah.

And hurled him into the sea and the sea ceased from its raging. Pretty incredible, right? Brethren, we're here to remember the Lord Jesus Christ. God in his justice has hurled his wrath upon this earth because one man sinned and sin entered the world and through sin entered death.

And Romans 1 mentions the wrath of God is revealed against all ungodliness of mankind. John 3, 36 says whoever believes in the truth will be saved from the wrath of God. Whoever does not obey the truth has the wrath of God remaining on him.

All of humanity. This is where we were at at one point in our life. We might not have been on a boat with a storm.

But there was this sense of wrath in our own life as an individual. And it's not going away and the harder we're trying to row to save ourselves, it's like the storm is getting worse. And we're looking, how can we stop this storm? How can we appease this wrath? And Jonah here was thrown into the sea in a way as a sacrifice.

And he was eaten and in the belly of the fish for three days. And that prevented the wrath from consuming the ship. Now Jonah was in sin himself.

But brethren, we've got something far greater. You know what this points to? This points to the one perfect man. And did God the Father have to take his son and throw him overboard? No.

Jesus Christ willingly hurled himself over that boat into the wrath of his own father. And he did it bearing our sins in his own body on that tree. And that's the glorious good news of the gospel.

And here we are in our own sin. We're not innocent. And you could be in the darkest place in your life.

And that's where we were when God saved us. When we look back, it's like the Lord had to bring this storm, bring all this darkness. And we prayed.

And as verse 7 says, my prayer came to you. And you know what we acknowledge? What verse 9 says. Salvation, it belongs to the Lord.

That's what we're declaring by taking these symbols. Salvation belongs to the Lord. Salvation is not something we've worked about.

It's not something we've earned. We gave up rowing. We stopped trying to row ourselves to safety.

And we just cried out to the Lord. And we saw that God the Father hurled His Son on the cross. And hurled His wrath upon His Son.

And He satisfied His wrath that we could have life. And we can say here today, praise God. Salvation belongs to the Lord.

And so brethren, let me pray. And then we'll partake of these. Father, Lord, we thank You.

We thank You so much that even in the midst of our own disobedience, Lord, You took us out. And You opened our eyes. Lord, we might not be able to understand all of it.

But we can say like the man in John, I once was blind, but now I see. Lord, we might not know a lot, but we know that. And Lord, we look around and see the storm of Your wrath.

It's gone. But there was a man who was thrown overboard. And it was Your innocent Son.

When it should have been us. Lord, You should have grabbed us and bound us hand and foot. And hurled us into hell.

As we read that the angels will do to those who do not know You. And Father, we're here today remembering what Your Son has done. And the fact that we're not going to be bound hand and foot.

And hurled into hell on the great day of judgment. But Lord, we're going to be led into paradise. And we're going to have You use Your hands and feet to serve us.

Lord, the most unlikely of people, Father. Lord, that's because of Your great love. Father, thank You for Your Son.

Thank You for not sparing Your own Son. But giving Him up for us. Lord, we thank You.

In Jesus' name, Amen. We gave the bread. Let's eat this and drink in remembrance of Christ.

Let's sing some songs to the Lord.