God's Grace for Hypocrites and Pagans (Jonah 1:4-16)

How did you become a Christian? Some of us were raised in the church for many years, while others came to Jesus at a later age with little previous understanding of Christianity. Our passage this week makes clear that both religious and irreligious people need God's grace. The Lord in his mercy will not leave Jonah to run from him, even as the religious prophet persists in his proud, hypocritical rebellion. And yet we're also surprised by the irony of God's grace at work in the pagan sailors whom Jonah encounters. This Sunday we'll see in depth the consequences of sin but also how neither hypocrites nor pagans are outside of the reach of God's amazing grace.