They Greatly Feared

Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life

Tim Keller

Christianity, Religion & Spirituality:christianity, Spirituality, Religion, Religion & Spirituality

4.9 • 16.2K Ratings

🗓️ 6 May 2026

⏱️ 43 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Jonah runs away for two reasons: fear and hate. God has told Jonah to go to Nineveh to warn them, but Jonah refuses. He’s afraid to put himself in the midst of his enemies, but he’s also filled with hate toward them. So the book of Jonah addresses in a real way the questions “What do I do about my fear?” and “What do I do about my anger?” Let’s notice three features of the story: 1) the stormy sea shows us who we are, 2) the religious sailors show us the wrong thing to do about it, and 3) the willing substitute shows us the right thing to do about it. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on September 23, 2001. Series: The Church in the City. Scripture: Jonah 1:4-17. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Gospel in Life. Where do you turn for reassurance in a crisis? When life feels out of control,
0:10.4	we can quickly discover that the things we turn to for our deepest security don't actually have the power to help us.
0:17.1	Today, Tim Keller looks at the story of Jonah to explore how life storms reveal what we're really trusting in
0:23.1	and how our fears are calmed when we look to Jesus who face the ultimate storm on our behalf.
0:36.4	Our scripture reading this evening is from the book of Jonah, chapter 1, verses 4 through 17.
0:42.8	Then the Lord sent a great wind on the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up.
0:49.7	All the sailors were afraid and each cried out to his own God, and they threw the cargo into the
0:55.3	sea to lighten the ship. But Jonah had gone below deck where he lay down and fell into a deep
1:00.8	sleep. The captain went to him and said, how can you sleep? Get up and call on your God. Maybe he
1:07.4	will take notice of us, and we will not perish. Then the sailors said to each other,
1:12.6	Come, let us cast lots to find out who was responsible for this calamity.
1:17.6	They cast lots and the locksel on Jonah.
1:20.8	So they asked him, tell us, who is responsible for making all this trouble for us?
1:25.8	What do you do? Where do you come from? What is your
1:28.9	country? From what people are you? He answered, I am a Hebrew and I worship the Lord, the God of
1:36.1	heaven, who made the sea and the land. This terrified them and they asked, what have you done?
1:43.1	They knew he was running away from the Lord because he had
1:45.9	already told them so. The sea was getting rougher and rougher, so they asked him,
1:51.3	what should we do to you to make the sea calm down for us? Pick me up and throw me into the sea,
1:57.6	he replied, and it will become calm. I know that it is my fault that this
2:02.6	great storm has come upon you. Instead, the men did their best to row back to land, but they could
2:09.1	not, for the sea grew even wilder than before. Then they cried to the Lord, oh Lord, please
	...

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