Jonah Series: Jonah 1:16-The Crew Worships The Lord
Doctrinal Bible Church
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Sunday January 18, 2026
Jonah Series: Jonah 1:16-The Crew Worships The Lord
Lesson # 18
Jonah 1:14-16 records the crew worshipping the Lord after He silences the storm and after praying for him to deliver them from death.
Jonah 1:1 The word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai: 2 “Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.” 3 But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the Lord. 4 Then the Lord sent a great wind on the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up. 5 All the sailors were afraid and each cried out to his own god. And they threw the cargo into the sea to lighten the ship. But Jonah had gone below deck, where he lay down and fell into a deep sleep. 6 The captain went to him and said, “How can you sleep? Get up and call on your god! Maybe he will take notice of us, and we will not perish.” 7 Then the sailors said to each other, “Come, let us cast lots to find out who is responsible for this calamity.” They cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah. 8 So they asked him, “Tell us, who is responsible for making all this trouble for us? What do you do? Where do you come from? What is your country? From what people are you?” 9He answered, “I am a Hebrew and I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the land.” 10 This terrified them and they asked, “What have you done?” (They knew he was running away from the Lord, because he had already told them so.) 11 The sea was getting rougher and rougher. So they asked him, “What should we do to you to make the sea calm down for us?” 12 “Pick me up and throw me into the sea,” he replied, “and it will become calm. I know that it is my fault that this great storm has come upon you.” Instead, the men did their best to row back to land. But they could not, for the sea grew even wilder than before. 14 Then they cried to the Lord, “O Lord, please do not let us die for taking this man’s life. Do not hold us accountable for killing an innocent man, for you, O Lord, have done as you pleased.” 15 Then they took Jonah and threw him overboard, and the raging sea grew calm. 16 At this the men greatly feared the Lord, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows to him. (NIV84)
“The men greatly feared the Lord” expresses the fact that the crew had reverence and respect for the Lord, or in other words, they worshipped Him because He commanded the storm to cease immediately.
This worship of the Lord by the Phoenician crew was the appropriate response by these men to the manifestation of the Lord’s omnipotence and sovereign rulership over creation.
There are four English words, “reverence,” “respect,” “awe,” and “wonder,” which express the concept of worshipping God.
Webster’s New Universal Unabridged Dictionary defines the noun “reverence”: “A feeling or attitude of deep respect tinged with awe; veneration.”
Therefore, paraphrasing this definition we would say that the crew’s response to the Lord silencing the raging sea was to possess an attitude of deep respect and awe for Him.
Webster’s New Universal Unabridged Dictionary defines the noun “respect”: “esteem for or a sense of the worth or excellence of a person, a personal quality or trait, or something considered as a manifestation of a personal quality or trait.”
The crew’s response to the Lord silencing the raging sea was to esteem the excellence of the Person of God as manifested through His personal qualities or attributes such as love, faithfulness, mercy, compassion, justice, righteousness, truth, omnipotence, omnipresence, omniscience, immutability, and sovereignty.
Webster’s New Universal Unabridged Dictionary defines the noun “awe”: “an overwhelming feeling of reverence, admiration, fear, etc. produced by that which is grand, sublime, extremely powerful or the like.”
The crew’s response to the Lord silencing the raging sea was to possess an overwhelming feeling of reverence, admiration for the Lord.
Webster’s New Universal Unabridged Dictionary defines the noun “wonder”: “to be filled with admiration, amazement or awe; marvel.”
The crew’s response to the Lord silencing the raging storm was one of being filled with admiration, amazement and awe.
Warren Wiersbe writes, “True wonder reaches right into your heart and mind and shakes you up. It not only has depth, it has value; it enriches your life. Wonder is not cheap amusement that brings a smile to your face. It is an encounter with reality, with God, which brings awe to your heart. You’re overwhelmed with an emotion that is a mixture of gratitude, adoration, reverence, fear-and love. You’re not looking for explanations; you’re lost in the wonder of God” (Real Worship, page 43, Baker Books).
Therefore, paraphrasing this comment by Wiersbe on wonder we would say that the crew’s response to the Lord silencing the raging storm reached right into their hearts and shook them up and enriched their lives.
The Lord silencing the raging sea overwhelmed them with an emotion that was a mixture of gratitude, adoration, reverence, fear and love for the Lord.
The crew wasn’t looking for explanations since they were lost in the wonder of God.
Therefore, the crew offered sacrifices to the Lord in order to approach Him to worship Him in the sense that they were manifesting an attitude of deep reverence, respect and awe of the Lord for saving their lives with such a magnificent display of His power and sovereign rulership over creation.
Therefore, when the crew offered sacrifices to the Lord, they were worshipping Him and expressing their thanks to Him for saving their lives by silencing the raging ocean that threatened their lives a few moments before.
Worship is adoring contemplation of God as He has been revealed by the Holy Spirit in the Person of Christ and in the Scriptures and is also the loving ascription of praise to God for what He is, both in Himself and in His ways and is the bowing of the soul and spirit in deep humility and reverence before Him.
Warren Wiersbe defines worship, “Worship is the believer’s response of all that they are –mind, emotions, will and body-to what God is and says and does. This response has its mystical side in subjective experience and its practical side in objective obedience to God’s revealed will. Worship is a loving response that’s balanced by the fear of the Lord, and it is a deepening response as the believer comes to know God better” (Real Worship, 26).
If we paraphrase Wiersbe’s definition, we could say the following: The crew is worshipping the Lord in that they are responding in their minds, emotions, and bodies to what the Lord is and did silencing the storm (cf. Ps. 2:11; 95:6-7).
Worship is adoring contemplation of the Lord and is the act of paying honor and reverence to Him and affection for Him and flows from love and where there is little love, there is little worship.
It is the loving ascription of praise to the Lord in gratitude and appreciation for who and what He is, both in Himself and in His ways and in His work on the Cross for us.
It is the bowing of the soul and spirit in deep humility and reverence before the Lord (Ps. 29:2).
Worshipping the Lord is adoring contemplation of Him as He has been revealed by the Holy Spirit in the Scriptures and is also the loving ascription of praise to Him for what He is, both in Himself, His Work on the Cross and in His ways and is the bowing of the soul and spirit in deep humility and reverence before Him.
The believer is to worship the Father spiritually by means of truth, i.e. the Word of God (cf. John 4:23-24).
The church’s destiny is to worship the Lord, as revealed in Revelation 4-5.
“They offered a sacrifice to the Lord” was a collective act of worship of the Lord and undoubtedly took place once the crew reached land and did not take place on board the ship.
“Made vows” refers to making a binding promise to the Lord and was an act of voluntarily and verbally dedicating and devoting oneself to the service of the Lord.
Vows were not contracts or limited agreements but rather they were verbal and voluntary acts of submission to the Lord and the reorientation of one’s life to meet the Lord’s standards.
Therefore, we see that this Phoenician crew will reorient their lives as a result of this encounter with the true and living God.
The crew left home as heathens worshipping vain idols and now after this encounter with the Lord their lives have taken on a whole new different meaning since the Lord has revealed Himself to them in a mighty way.
Since the Lord has revealed Himself to this crew by exercising His omnipotence and sovereign rulership over creation and the storm the crew has committed themselves to living according to the standards of the living God.
Therefore, we see that the crew collectively has had a life changing experience.
Jonah Series: Jonah 1:16-The Crew Worships The Lord
Doctrinal Bible Church
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Sunday January 18, 2026
Jonah Series: Jonah 1:16-The Crew Worships The Lord
Lesson # 18
Jonah 1:14-16 records the crew worshipping the Lord after He silences the storm and after praying for him to deliver them from death.
Jonah 1:1 The word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai: 2 “Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.” 3 But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the Lord. 4 Then the Lord sent a great wind on the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up. 5 All the sailors were afraid and each cried out to his own god. And they threw the cargo into the sea to lighten the ship. But Jonah had gone below deck, where he lay down and fell into a deep sleep. 6 The captain went to him and said, “How can you sleep? Get up and call on your god! Maybe he will take notice of us, and we will not perish.” 7 Then the sailors said to each other, “Come, let us cast lots to find out who is responsible for this calamity.” They cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah. 8 So they asked him, “Tell us, who is responsible for making all this trouble for us? What do you do? Where do you come from? What is your country? From what people are you?” 9 He answered, “I am a Hebrew and I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the land.” 10 This terrified them and they asked, “What have you done?” (They knew he was running away from the Lord, because he had already told them so.) 11 The sea was getting rougher and rougher. So they asked him, “What should we do to you to make the sea calm down for us?” 12 “Pick me up and throw me into the sea,” he replied, “and it will become calm. I know that it is my fault that this great storm has come upon you.” Instead, the men did their best to row back to land. But they could not, for the sea grew even wilder than before. 14 Then they cried to the Lord, “O Lord, please do not let us die for taking this man’s life. Do not hold us accountable for killing an innocent man, for you, O Lord, have done as you pleased.” 15 Then they took Jonah and threw him overboard, and the raging sea grew calm. 16 At this the men greatly feared the Lord, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows to him. (NIV84)
“The men greatly feared the Lord” expresses the fact that the crew had reverence and respect for the Lord, or in other words, they worshipped Him because He commanded the storm to cease immediately.
This worship of the Lord by the Phoenician crew was the appropriate response by these men to the manifestation of the Lord’s omnipotence and sovereign rulership over creation.
There are four English words, “reverence,” “respect,” “awe,” and “wonder,” which express the concept of worshipping God.
Webster’s New Universal Unabridged Dictionary defines the noun “reverence”: “A feeling or attitude of deep respect tinged with awe; veneration.”
Therefore, paraphrasing this definition we would say that the crew’s response to the Lord silencing the raging sea was to possess an attitude of deep respect and awe for Him.
Webster’s New Universal Unabridged Dictionary defines the noun “respect”: “esteem for or a sense of the worth or excellence of a person, a personal quality or trait, or something considered as a manifestation of a personal quality or trait.”
The crew’s response to the Lord silencing the raging sea was to esteem the excellence of the Person of God as manifested through His personal qualities or attributes such as love, faithfulness, mercy, compassion, justice, righteousness, truth, omnipotence, omnipresence, omniscience, immutability, and sovereignty.
Webster’s New Universal Unabridged Dictionary defines the noun “awe”: “an overwhelming feeling of reverence, admiration, fear, etc. produced by that which is grand, sublime, extremely powerful or the like.”
The crew’s response to the Lord silencing the raging sea was to possess an overwhelming feeling of reverence, admiration for the Lord.
Webster’s New Universal Unabridged Dictionary defines the noun “wonder”: “to be filled with admiration, amazement or awe; marvel.”
The crew’s response to the Lord silencing the raging storm was one of being filled with admiration, amazement and awe.
Warren Wiersbe writes, “True wonder reaches right into your heart and mind and shakes you up. It not only has depth, it has value; it enriches your life. Wonder is not cheap amusement that brings a smile to your face. It is an encounter with reality, with God, which brings awe to your heart. You’re overwhelmed with an emotion that is a mixture of gratitude, adoration, reverence, fear-and love. You’re not looking for explanations; you’re lost in the wonder of God” (Real Worship, page 43, Baker Books).
Therefore, paraphrasing this comment by Wiersbe on wonder we would say that the crew’s response to the Lord silencing the raging storm reached right into their hearts and shook them up and enriched their lives.
The Lord silencing the raging sea overwhelmed them with an emotion that was a mixture of gratitude, adoration, reverence, fear and love for the Lord.
The crew wasn’t looking for explanations since they were lost in the wonder of God.
Therefore, the crew offered sacrifices to the Lord in order to approach Him to worship Him in the sense that they were manifesting an attitude of deep reverence, respect and awe of the Lord for saving their lives with such a magnificent display of His power and sovereign rulership over creation.
Therefore, when the crew offered sacrifices to the Lord, they were worshipping Him and expressing their thanks to Him for saving their lives by silencing the raging ocean that threatened their lives a few moments before.
Worship is adoring contemplation of God as He has been revealed by the Holy Spirit in the Person of Christ and in the Scriptures and is also the loving ascription of praise to God for what He is, both in Himself and in His ways and is the bowing of the soul and spirit in deep humility and reverence before Him.
Warren Wiersbe defines worship, “Worship is the believer’s response of all that they are –mind, emotions, will and body-to what God is and says and does. This response has its mystical side in subjective experience and its practical side in objective obedience to God’s revealed will. Worship is a loving response that’s balanced by the fear of the Lord, and it is a deepening response as the believer comes to know God better” (Real Worship, 26).
If we paraphrase Wiersbe’s definition, we could say the following: The crew is worshipping the Lord in that they are responding in their minds, emotions, and bodies to what the Lord is and did silencing the storm (cf. Ps. 2:11; 95:6-7).
Worship is adoring contemplation of the Lord and is the act of paying honor and reverence to Him and affection for Him and flows from love and where there is little love, there is little worship.
It is the loving ascription of praise to the Lord in gratitude and appreciation for who and what He is, both in Himself and in His ways and in His work on the Cross for us.
It is the bowing of the soul and spirit in deep humility and reverence before the Lord (Ps. 29:2).
Worshipping the Lord is adoring contemplation of Him as He has been revealed by the Holy Spirit in the Scriptures and is also the loving ascription of praise to Him for what He is, both in Himself, His Work on the Cross and in His ways and is the bowing of the soul and spirit in deep humility and reverence before Him.
The believer is to worship the Father spiritually by means of truth, i.e. the Word of God (cf. John 4:23-24).
The church’s destiny is to worship the Lord, as revealed in Revelation 4-5.
“They offered a sacrifice to the Lord” was a collective act of worship of the Lord and undoubtedly took place once the crew reached land and did not take place on board the ship.
“Made vows” refers to making a binding promise to the Lord and was an act of voluntarily and verbally dedicating and devoting oneself to the service of the Lord.
Vows were not contracts or limited agreements but rather they were verbal and voluntary acts of submission to the Lord and the reorientation of one’s life to meet the Lord’s standards.
Therefore, we see that this Phoenician crew will reorient their lives as a result of this encounter with the true and living God.
The crew left home as heathens worshipping vain idols and now after this encounter with the Lord their lives have taken on a whole new different meaning since the Lord has revealed Himself to them in a mighty way.
Since the Lord has revealed Himself to this crew by exercising His omnipotence and sovereign rulership over creation and the storm the crew has committed themselves to living according to the standards of the living God.
Therefore, we see that the crew collectively has had a life changing experience.