Conversion of the Pagan Sailors

The point: Human nature has not changed; ease and prosperity still lull men into fatal indifference to spiritual realities.

Describes typical sailors' behavior—superstitious prayers, amulets, profanity—to contrast their initial state with their later conversion, highlighting their carnal security before God's intervention.

And perhaps as sailors who are known to be full of superstition, perhaps they chanted one of the prayers to their gods. Perhaps they stroked a little chain around their neck, some kind of a superstitious icon. But after they had, as it were, done their thing with respect to the religious elements of their lives, no doubt like most sailors, once they set the sails and were on their way, their minds were filled with the things that most sailors' minds are filled with. And their mouths belched forth the profanities and the ugly verbiage for which sailors are noted. And all is well until, until, u...

8:40 - 10:06 Read in full sermon

The point: Human nature has not changed; ease and prosperity still lull men into fatal indifference to spiritual realities.

The tempest is an analogy for God's providential interventions that jar people loose from their carnal security in the world of sense and time, forcing them to confront spiritual realities.

Now, you see, fear was a wonderful blessing to these pagan sailors. As long as the sea was calm and the skies were blue and the sails were set, nothing but the things of earth, of sense, and of time filled their minds and occupied the concentration of the soul. And when God sends this unusual tempest upon the sea, it jars them loose from their carnal security in that world of sense and of time. And that other world into which they know they shall enter if they die begins to press in upon that present world of sense and time.

12:46 - 13:39 Read in full sermon

The point: Consider if you have been awakened to the reality of the spiritual world, which is the only world that ultimately counts.

God's merciful action of 'blasting their castles of sand' illustrates how He shatters worldly comforts and illusions to bring people to realize the greater importance of God, sin, death, and eternity.

The world in which God and sin and death and eternity are the substantial commodities. But left to ourselves, sin so stupefies us that like those pagan sailors, we live as though there were no world, but the world that occupied their conversation and their interest until God hurled the storm upon the sea. How merciful of God to blast their castles of sand and to bring them to the realization by means of a natural fear that there's something more than the goods in the world and the girls in the sales and judgment and God and righteousness. These are the great commodities which deserve attention...

14:08 - 15:26 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: God miraculously spoke through Jonah and the storm, revealing Himself as the God of heaven, Creator, moral Governor, a God of inflexible justice, and ultimately, a God of…

The storm-tossed ship becomes a 'strange sanctuary' where God proclaims knowledge of Himself, emphasizing God's ability to work in unlikely and chaotic circumstances.

Can you picture it now? Here is the picture that the writer gives to us. A storm so fierce it's about to break the ship in pieces. Not just little three or four foot waves.

26:09 - 26:21 Read in full sermon

The point: You will never be converted until you come to know the essential truths about God that these sailors learned: one true God, Creator, moral Governor, inflexible justice, and pardoning mercy.

Contrasts heathen deities, who could be placated with small offerings or caught in a 'good mood,' with the true God's inflexible justice, which demands life for sin even from a worshipper like Jonah.

They got it on the slippery decks of that heaving ship that day. They no doubt reasoned if Jehovah, the true God, the God who makes heaven and earth, the God to whom we are accountable, if He deals with such vengeance upon a true worshipper of Himself who dares to disobey Him. What must His attitude be to us who for our lifetime have called upon false gods, who violated His law, who day after day spill forth oaths from our mouths? They came to a shocking awareness that unlike their heathen deities who could be placated with the blood wrung from a chicken whose anger could somehow be turned awa...

33:20 - 34:44 Read in full sermon

The point: Understand that God is a God of forgiving mercy, who delights to show pity to sinners, enabling them to face death with calm through Christ.

The sailors learning God's mercy when Jonah is swallowed by the sea is an analogy for believers learning God's mercy through Christ being 'swallowed up under billows of divine wrath' on the cross.

And there's a beautiful analogy. I'm not saying that God had this in mind when He gave it, but I can't help but see it. Just as those sailors learned God's mercy when they saw Jonah swallowed up in the billows of that watery grave. You and I can look to another point in history.

42:17 - 42:39 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The sailors' conversion was completed by their saving response: crying to Jehovah in submission, fearing Him exceedingly (a spiritual fear), offering sacrifice, and making vows…

The story of Ananias being assured of Saul's conversion because 'Behold, he prayed' illustrates that genuine, heartfelt prayer is a key indicator of a saving response to God.

Do you remember when Ananias couldn't believe what his ears heard? That Saul of Tarsus, great enemy of the church, has been converted? How does the Lord encourage him? Behold, he prayed.

46:48 - 47:00 Read in full sermon

Driving home: When all cause for carnal fear is gone, true spiritual religious saving fear is placed in their hearts.

The question of what the sailors had left to sacrifice on the ship highlights that the external act of sacrifice was a channel for heart religion, consistent with God's revealed way of approach.

And then it further manifests itself in the language of the next phrase. And they offered a sacrifice unto Jehovah. Now curiosity would ask what in the world did they have left to sacrifice on the ship when they threw out I don't know and I don't care. If it was any of my business God would have told me.

49:20 - 49:44 Read in full sermon

The point: Recognize that the situation of impenitent Israel, despite privileges, is reproduced in the church today, where some exchange the true God for pagan idols.

The 'one sermon preached by angry billows, a disobedient prophet, and an execution' vividly describes the powerful, unconventional means God used to convert the pagan sailors.

And look at the story. One sermon they received. One sermon preached by angry billows, a disobedient prophet, and an execution. What a sermon.

55:48 - 56:04 Read in full sermon

The point: You have every warrant to cry to God right where you are, acknowledging your folly, accountability, and unpreparedness for death and judgment.

Quoting Christian from Pilgrim's Progress, who flees because he knows he must die and go to judgment unprepared, illustrates the desperate fear of death and judgment that should drive people to conversion.

I know that I cannot face death with calmness or I try to forget it and drive it out of sight. But when you bring death near, Lord my heart trembles. I know I'm not prepared to die. Or in the language of John Bunyan, you remember placed in the lips of Christian what are you doing?

63:51 - 64:12 Read in full sermon