Steps to Spiritual Renewal –Jonah chapter 2.
Several years ago Ruby and I were visiting relative in Whitby, Ontario when one of my nephews introduced me to a new computer game called ‘Flight Simulator.’ In this simulated air flight you chose an airplane and you could fly it to any of over 200 major airports in the world.
While the airplane was something he built for himself from supplies in the program, the airports were actually pictures of the real airports taken vial satellite and downloaded each day into the program.
When asked what airline I’d like to go by I naturally said ‘Air Canada.’ When asked where I would like to go, I naturally said Jamaica. So off we went flying an Air Canada plane into Jamaica. As we approached the airport he focused in on a nearby beach where a new hotel was being built. He pointed out a huge crane parked close to the unfinished building and said, “That wasn’t there yesterday.”
After landing at Kingston airport we decided to fly to Montego Bay and he chose a route that took the plane right over the house where Ruby grew up as a child. We could see the house clearly and all the familiar things we knew over the years Ruby and I had gone back there.
Finally we got to Montego Bay and he had to bring the plane down low over the sea to get to the runway. As he was coming in to land the wheels caught a low fence which could hardly be seen in the pictures and the plane tipped over and crashed on the landing strip. There were plane parts all over the airfield and a fire burning on the fusillade.
My nephew looked and me and said, “Don’t worry Uncle, it will put itself back together and we can start all over again.”
Don’t you wish life was like that? Don’t you wish that when life comes crashing down for us all we had to do was click the ‘Start Over’ button and life would somehow gather up all the pieces, put them back together and start over afresh.
But the truth is, life doesn’t work that way. We can’t put it back together for ourselves, so what can we do? We can call out to the One who can do it. As Christians we all have a ‘Start Over’ button and when we go to Him He is the One who picks up the pieces and with amazing wisdom and skill He puts us back together and back on the flight.
Over the last three weeks we have been looking at the life of a man named Jonah. Jonah was on a flight but it was a flight away from God – Chapter 1:3 – Jonah ran from the presence of the Lord. But Jonah didn’t get far when his world came crashing down around him. He found himself a passage by ship to Tarshish but he never made it. A storm at sea threatened to destroy the ship and the only way the sailors could save the ship and themselves was to throw Jonah overboard with everything else they threw out of the ship.
Jonah expected to die, perhaps by drowning, but he was even more shocked when he was swallowed up alive by a large fish. Instead of dying immediately he found himself been burned and bleached by the digestive acids in the stomach of the fish and living in total darkness. For three days he waited for death but death never came and finally it occurred to him that it was the Lord’s doing. It was the nearest thing to Hell that a man could ever experience in life.
Finally Jonah did the only sensible thing left for him to do. He cried out to God for help and God began to take pick up the pieces and put him back on the right path.
What I want us to observe today are the steps that Jonah took to get back on the right path, for you see, when life crashes around us, even though we have no power to put ourselves back together, we have a responsibility to do certain things to get the ear of the Sovereign God who does have the power to do so. Jonah took those steps and you and I can too. So let’s look together at:
Steps to Spiritual Renewal.
1. Calling Upon the Lord – 2:2.
The very first thing that Jonah does here is to call upon the Lord – he prayed to his God. It is really a very simply principle that works for people everywhere whenever life falls apart for us – pray to the Lord. But we tend to forget it. We want a more complicated pathway, something in which we have the major part and God is just there to give us a little extra push when we need it. There are two things I want us to notice in these two verses.
A. Notice the difference between a person ‘in grace’ and a person ‘outside of grace.’
By that I mean a person who has a relationship to God and one who doesn’t. Jonah had a relationship with God. He knew God and understood the heart and mind of God. But he allowed his fears to drive him away from God and from the will of God. So, when God stops Jonah in his wrong pathway and makes a fish swallow him alive, Jonah does not complain to God or curse God. Jonah humbles himself and calls to the Lord.
A person who knows God through Jesus Christ wants to call upon God when he is in trouble. A person who doesn’t know God complains about how God isn’t doing anything to help him in trouble.
B. Note, the first basic step for finding spiritual renewal is calling upon God.
James writes about this in James 5:13, ‘Is any of you in trouble? He should pray…’ This is what Jonah did. He was in trouble and he prayed. He could have given up and simple stayed there and die, but he knew that death would not end it all. He did what he knew to be right – he prayed.
2. Coming to the Throne of Grace – 2:3 – 4.
Whenever we come to seek God’s help out of trouble it is to a Throne of Grace we come. Hebrews 4:16 says, ‘Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in times of need.’ Jonah may not have had that verse in his time but he understood the principle. It is not to the Cross that we go for the Cross is in the past. It is to the throne where Jesus Christ is alive and reigning as the Lamb and from which all the benefits of the Cross are dispensed.
Now Jonah gives us some clues as to how we should come.
A. Recognize the real cause of the problem.
In Jonah’s case the real cause was his running away from God. This situation was not the sailor’s fault or the misfortune of falling in a spot where a big hungry fish just happened to be swimming. It wasn’t a case of the wrong man in the wrong place. Jonah recognized the hand of God and he admitted it. And there are times in the lives of Christians who are disobeying God when He will allow misfortune to overtake us and we need to recognize His hand at work. In fact, in every difficult situation we need to ask ourselves, ‘What is God trying to teach me here?’ Sometimes we have to ask that question of God Himself, “God, what are you trying to tell me?” Find out the primary cause of a problem.
B. Be concerned not just about the physical problems but about the spiritual.
In one sense Jonah was concerned about the physical. He has been ‘hurled into the deep’ and currents are swirling around him. That certainly is cause for concern. But his concern goes far beyond that. It is spiritual in nature for, note in verse 4, he felt he had been banished from the sight of God. That was of far more importance and significance to Jonah for, while he may not be able to escape the raging sea, he can do something about his banishment. What can he do?
C. Look to the place of Redemption
– v.4. Back there in Jerusalem was a Temple and in that place was a sacrificial altar where lambs were slain for the forgiveness of sin. He would not be able to tell what direction Jerusalem was in but he would look with the eyes of faith to that Temple and the place of sacrifice, the place of redemption. And when you and i find ourselves in that place where life crashes for us and the waters of distress and trials are swirling around us, there is a place and a person we can look to by faith. That place is the throne of God and that person is the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ our Lord. And He can rescue and redeem us all at the same time.
In the move towards spiritual renewal, step one is calling upon the Lord; step two is coming to the throne of grace. Step three is:
3. Comprehending the Goodness of God – 2:5 – 7.
Jonah had been in the belly of the fish for three days. During that time he was in total darkness. He had time to reflect upon this terrifying experience and here is what he found:
4a. His sin banished him from God’s eyes;
7b. His God brought him in – ‘my prayer rose up to you…’
6a. His sin cast him down…
6b. His God brought him up…
Jonah had stopped running and now he is thinking and reflecting on what is really true about God. And he is discovering that every bad thing that has ever happened to him was his own fault and every good thing came from God.
It’s always that way with us, isn’t it? What has God ever done us that we should run away from Him? Yet the Bible says, ‘All we like sheep have gone away. We have turned everyone to his own way,’ (Isaiah 53:6a). And when we accept that truth, that is when we begin to comprehend how much God loves us and how much He has done for us. We must comprehend the goodness of God.
And finally, step four.
4. Consecrating yourself to the Will of God – 2:8 – 9.
You will notice two things about Jonah’s thinking here.
A. He is beginning to think with Compassion again
–v.8. He begins to see again the terrible plight of pagan and ungodly people. By turning to dumb idols reject the grace of God. What’s to become of them? If someone doesn’t share the message of grace with them they will die in their sins and face the pure judgment of God. Jonah was feeling a bit of this judgment himself and he didn’t want anyone else to experience this.
In the old days we used to speak of this as ‘a passion for souls.’ And we used to pray that God would give us a passion for souls. A passion for souls was when you didn’t want to see anyone die in their sin and would do anything to see them place their faith in Jesus Christ. Sadly it is one of the lost experiences with this generation of Christians.
B. He Renews his Vows even though he thinks he is going to die –v.9
He thinks he is going to die but, with whatever time he had left, he would renew his vows to God. In him prayer he says, as it were, ‘Lord, if I ever get out of this I will worship you, sacrifice to you, and fulfill the vows I have made to you.
And then he says this, ‘Salvation is of the Lord.’ It was not the right of Jonah to pick and choose who receives salvation. It was only his privilege to proclaim it. And it is not your right or mine to pick and choose who should receive this great salvation. It is our privilege to take it into all the world.
Closing:
I prepared this message for those of us who have found ourselves running away from God or perhaps have lost our passion for the things of God. It was never meant to be an easy message, but it was meant to invite you to come and renew your spiritual passion. The steps that Jonah took are the same steps you and I need to take towards renewal. But like Jonah you may discover this:
a. Jonah’s circumstances had not changed but he had.
He was still in the belly of the fish but he was no longer running from God. He was home – home in the will of God.
b. If there was grace for the pagans of Jonah’s time, then there was grace enough for Jonah as well.
He looked to the place of redemption and found renewal. And you and I can discover spiritual renewal in the grace of God today.
