The Grace of God on Full Display

Preacher: Dr. Shaun Miles  |  Passage: Jonah 1:1-17  |  Series: Jonah (first message)

Most of us think we know the book of Jonah. A wayward man and a big fish. But as Dr. Shaun Miles opened our new series, he warned us that reading it that way misses almost everything: “It’s going to blow your mind, because some people are just thinking, oh, it’s a wayward man and a big fish. I’m telling you, it’s the grace of God on full display.”

Last week we finished Colossians looking at what he called the Mount Rushmore of the faith. Those testimonies can leave us discouraged, because we look at our own lives and know we are nothing like them. Jonah is different. Most of us relate to Jonah far more easily than to the heroes. And that is the mercy of this book: God was doing a work in Jonah while He was trying to do a work through Jonah.

The big idea of Jonah 1 is this: the Lord is serious about His word, and He is serious about His covenant commitment to His people. When God enters into covenant with His children, He takes it seriously. His name is at stake, and He will not break it. The Hebrew word is chesed — the loyal, faithful, covenant-keeping love of God.

1. The Word of the Lord Came to Jonah

The book opens with the word of the Lord coming to a man already in relationship with Him (Jonah 1:1-2). That alone is worth pausing over. It tells us that even when we are not thinking of Him, He is thinking of us. Even when we are not reaching for the holy or the majestic, He is reaching for the lowly and the broken.

And the word did not merely inform Jonah — it commissioned him. “Arise, go.” This was not a message to be broadcast from a safe distance; it had to have footsteps to it. Dr. Miles connected it to the Great Commission: don’t just yell it from the mountaintops, don’t just type it on social media — go, meet with somebody, encounter somebody. Jonah was invited to be part of what God was doing. So are we.

This, he said, is the one thing that has always separated the children of God from the world: God’s people hear His word and obey it. Abraham heard and obeyed. Moses, Joshua, David, the prophets — they heard and obeyed. Jesus said, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me” (John 10:27). Which leaves a piercing question: What have you done with what He has already spoken? We keep asking God for a new word while the last one sits unobeyed.

2. Jonah Rebelled — and Rebellion Always Goes Down

God said arise and go. Jonah arose and fled (Jonah 1:3). He ran in the exact opposite direction, toward Tarshish, the place the Jews considered the farthest point from Israel and from the presence of the Lord.

Watch the trajectory in the text. He went down to Joppa. He paid the fare and went down into the ship — rebellion always costs more than you thought it would. He went down into the hold. He went down into the sea. He went down into the belly of the great fish.

Sin always promises freedom. But every step away from God is another step down.

Why would God let a man He loves sink lower and lower? Because He loves him. Hebrews 12 says the Lord disciplines the son He receives, and that if we are without discipline we are not truly sons. Earthly fathers discipline us as seems best to them — Dr. Miles admitted with a laugh that he sometimes corrects his boys mostly because they embarrass him. God is not like that. He disciplines us for our good, so that afterward it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness. If your rebellion is taking you down, that descent is not evidence that God has abandoned you. It is evidence that He has not.

3. The Revelation of the Grace of God

Here is where the chapter turns. Watch who is actually moving. Jonah exits stage left, but God stays center stage the whole time. Jonah flees; God pursues. Jonah sinks; God holds. Jonah despairs; God preserves. Jonah thinks he is getting farther away, and all the while he is being drawn nearer.

Dr. Miles walked through what he called the “God is” section of Jonah 1:

• God is gracious (v. 2) — He sends His prophet to Nineveh, a heathen city at war with His people, because His heart is for the nations. Israel thought they were the only ones God loved; sometimes we think the same about ourselves. But God loves the lost, the broken, and even those who blaspheme His name. That is why the church still exists here and has not been raptured out.
• God is omnipresent (v. 3) — Jonah ran for the one place he thought God was not. Psalm 139 answers him: “Where can I go from Your Spirit? Where can I flee from Your presence?” If I ascend to heaven, You are there. If I make my bed in the depths, You are there.
• God is omnipotent (v. 4) — The Lord hurled a great wind on the sea. He holds power over creation itself, and He will spend it on one person. Like the famine in the far country that brought the prodigal son to his senses (Luke 15), God will use cataclysmic resources to reach a single wandering child.
• God is all-knowing (v. 17) — The Lord appointed the fish. Long before Jonah was ever in the water, God had the provision. “Your Father knows what you need before you ask Him” (Matthew 6:8).

Then came the line that lands the hardest. In all of Jonah 1, the wind obeys the Lord. The sea obeys. The lots obey. The pagan sailors end up fearing the Lord and offering sacrifices. Even the great fish obeys. The only one in the entire chapter who refuses to obey is God’s own covenant prophet.

Jonah, Jesus, and the Grace That Will Not Let Go

The chapter ends by pointing past Jonah. Jonah was thrown into the sea because of his own sin; Jesus became sin on our behalf. Jonah deserved the storm; Jesus took the storm. Jonah nearly died because of his guilt; Jesus died in His innocence. Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights; Jesus was in the grave three days. Jonah is the rebellious son — and Jesus is the faithful Son who fulfills everything the rebellious son could not, so that in Christ we can be made right.

The saddest detail in the chapter may be this: Jonah would rather have died in the bottom of that boat than confess and repent. That cannot be our testimony.

You can run from the will of God, but you will never escape the grace of God.

His grace is relentless. His grace is enough. Yes, it may have brought you low, and yes, the situation may be hard — but it is good, because He is bringing you to a place of obedience. He will not force you. But He will use everything He has to bring you to yourself. His grace is on full display, even in our rebellion.

Small-Group Discussion Questions

1. Dr. Miles asked, “What have you done with what God has already spoken?” Is there a word from God you have been sitting on while asking Him for a new one?
2. Jonah’s rebellion took him progressively down — and cost him more than he expected. Where have you seen sin promise freedom and deliver descent instead?
3. Hebrews 12 frames God’s discipline as proof of sonship rather than rejection. Can you look back at a hard season and see God’s discipline as His grace toward you?
4. In Jonah 1, the wind, the sea, the lots, the sailors, and the fish all obey God — only the prophet does not. What is one area where you are the last holdout in your own obedience?
5. “You can run from the will of God, but you will never escape the grace of God.” How does that change the way you think about someone you love who is currently running?
6. What single step of obedience do you need to take this week?