They Greatly Feared

Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life

Tim Keller

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

4.8 • 15K Ratings

🗓️ 26 October 2022

⏱️ 43 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Jonah is a prophet. God has come to him and told him to go to Nineveh, the capital of Assyria, the implacable foe, the implacable enemy of his country. “Go to that city and preach against it. Warn them about God’s anger.” What Jonah does, of course, is he runs away. He refuses to do it. He goes in another direction. Jonah’s on the run. Why? Because Jonah has fear in his heart. He’s afraid to go to Nineveh, because–why put himself in the very midst of his enemies? We’re going to see what the Bible says about fear by noticing three features of the story: the stormy sea, the religious sailors, and the willing substitute. The stormy sea is who we are. The religious sailors show us the wrong thing to do about it. And the willing substitute is what 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. The book of Jonah can appear at first glance like a simple
0:07.0	fable with an implausible high point, a great fish swells a rebellious profit. But the
0:12.5	story is about so much more. It touches on racial prejudice, toxic nationalism, and the
0:18.2	struggles believers have when it comes to obeying and trusting God. Today on Gospel in Life,
0:23.5	Tim Keller continues exploring the fascinating story of Jonah, the prodigal prophet. Now
0:28.6	here's today's message. Our scripture reading this evening is from the book of Jonah chapter
0:34.3	1 verses 4 through 17. Then the Lord sent a great wind on the sea in such a violent storm arose
0:41.8	that the ship threatened to break up. All the sailors were afraid and each cried out to his own
0:47.5	God and they threw the cargo into the sea to lighten the ship. But Jonah had gone below deck where
0:53.6	he lay down and fell into a deep sleep. The captain went to him and said, how can you sleep?
0:58.5	Get up and call on your God. Maybe he will take notice of us and we will not perish. Then the
1:05.5	sailors said to each other, come, let us cast a lot to find out who was responsible for this calamity.
1:12.1	They cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah. So they asked him, tell us who was responsible for
1:18.4	making all this trouble for us. What do you do? Where do you come from? What is your country?
1:24.3	From what people are you? He answered, I am a Hebrew and I worship the Lord, the God of heaven,
1:31.0	who made the sea and the land, this terrified them and they asked, what have you done?
1:37.6	They knew he was running away from the Lord because he had already told them so.
1:42.5	The sea was getting rougher and rougher so they asked him, what should we do to you to make the
1:47.6	sea calm down for us? Pick me up and throw me into the sea he replied and it will become calm.
1:55.1	I know that it is my fault that this great storm has come upon you. Instead, the men did their
2:01.4	best to row back to land but they could not for the sea grew even wilder than before.
2:07.2	Then they cried to the Lord, oh Lord, please do not let us die for taking this man's life.
	...

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