Jonah part 3
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Last we met Jonah had spent three days in the belly of a whale and had just been vomited out on to the dry land. Today we will pick up where we left off with Jonah on his way to Nineveh.
Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying, “Arise, go to Nineveh the great city and proclaim to it the proclamation which I am going to tell you.”
The Lord calls Jonah again
God is persistent in His love and mercy. We see that this weekend in the whale’s belly wasn’t just a morality lesson for Jonah. God was committed to His plan of sending Jonah to the Ninevites. Isn’t it a great thing that we have a God who is persistent in His love. God goes to great lengths to see that His love is made known, and when He sets His plans into motion there is nothing that can keep stop Him from finishing what He has started.
Why are the nations in an uproar And the peoples devising a vain thing? The kings of the earth take their stand And the rulers take counsel together Against the Lord and against His Anointed, saying, “Let us tear their fetters apart And cast away their cords from us!” He who sits in the heavens laughs, The Lord scoffs at them.
How has God made His love known to you?
The greatest demonstration of God’s amazing love is found in Jesus.
But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. “For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. “He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
When we think of the ways the Lord loves us this should be the first thing we think of. There are countless other ways that the Lord has blessed us and shown love to us, but it is this transformative, sacrificial love that changes everything. This plan of redemption changes eternities. This hope is what God was bringing to the Ninevites through Jonah.
The most perplexing aspect of God’s plan is that He calls us to play a part. He uses regular, average people to carry out an extraordinary task. We read last week that salvation is the Lord’s. It isn’t our talents or ability to speak that wins hearts for the Kingdom. Instead God works through us by the power of His Holy Spirit.
And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong. I have become foolish; you yourselves compelled me. Actually I should have been commended by you, for in no respect was I inferior to the most eminent apostles, even though I am a nobody.
God works through our weakness to demonstrate the power of His plan. We cannot be cool and be effective for God’s kingdom. We cannot be strong and be effective for God’s kingdom. Paul says that he has become a fool to the world for the Gospel.
For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
To the world the ways of Christ are foolishness. Giving to the poor, loving our neighbors, worshipping together as God’s people, sharing the Gospel. All of these things are foolishness. To be effective for the Kingdom we must be weak and foolish in the eyes of the world. Many Christians struggle with this. We want to be loved by God and loved by the world. We want to have both things but Christ and the world are calling us in opposite directions.
You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
“For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul?
A lost world needs Christians that aren’t ashamed of the Gospel. Aren’t ashamed to be seen as week and foolish. Aren’t ashamed to be obedient in doing the uncomfortable things.
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
This Gospel we proclaim is the story of Jesus’ love toward sinners, the payment of mankind’s sins, and the free gift of grace and new life with God. It is salvation for all who would believe.
God was calling Jonah to go into this city of enemies. One man surrounded by thousands who would wish to cause him harm. That’s foolish. Not just that but he was called to tell them that the way they lived was offensive to God and they should repent. That is foolish. Jonah’s assurance was that it wasn’t his words. It wasn’t his own initiative. Salvation was the Lord’s. This was God’s call and God’s words. As Christians we aren’t basing our lives off of our own wisdom. We aren’t responsible with coming up with the content of our message. Our call is to preach Christ and Christ crucified. I don’t preach politics. I don’t preach opinions. I don’t sing songs about politics. I don’t sing songs about opinions. We preach and worship Christ and the good news of the Gospel. Any sermon preached without Christ and the Gospel center stage is a sermon void of power.
When you walk through the doors at your school you can have confidence knowing that God can work through your weakness. You don’t have to be good at sharing the Gospel or good at loving your neighbors you just have to faithful and authentic in doing it. There have been several times in my life when I had no clue what to do. I was nervous and anxious. I didn’t want to look like an idiot. I had all this information in my head and all these strategies for sharing the Gospel but the conversations weren’t going how it had been scripted to go in my head. But I was able to let go, and let God work through me. Don’t put up appearances, don’t be fake about it. Just love people genuinely and care enough about them to tell them about Jesus and what He has done in your life.
So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, a three days’ walk. Then Jonah began to go through the city one day’s walk; and he cried out and said, “Yet forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown.”
This city was quite large. It says that it took three days to go throughout the city preaching this message. I don’t think that means from one side to the other. But more likely it was as he went throughout the city around to different streets shouting this message.
What was Jonah’s message?
Repent or die in forty days.
Not much love or enthusiasm in Jonah’s message. As far as he was concerned this was a futile task. Nothing would really come out of this. He just needed to do what the Lord had called him to do. So he goes around shouting, “Repent or die in forty days”.
In Hebrew Jonah’s sermon is only five words long. Don’t you wish I would preach a five word long sermon? According to the software I use to write sermons this is my 1,750th word. Jonah didn’t put the same level of study and time into writing his sermon that I have. Yet, it was one of the most effective sermons we see in all of scripture. Given the size of Nineveh, the population could have been around 120,000 people. How do they respond?
Then the people of Nineveh believed in God; and they called a fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest to the least of them. When the word reached the king of Nineveh, he arose from his throne, laid aside his robe from him, covered himself with sackcloth and sat on the ashes. He issued a proclamation and it said, “In Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles: Do not let man, beast, herd, or flock taste a thing. Do not let them eat or drink water. “But both man and beast must be covered with sackcloth; and let men call on God earnestly that each may turn from his wicked way and from the violence which is in his hands. “Who knows, God may turn and relent and withdraw His burning anger so that we will not perish.”
The people responded in repentance. Every single person from greatest to least. The king himself put out a decree to have the people fast and repent in hopes that God would show mercy. This wasn’t performative. This was a genuine turn. We know this because Jesus tells us later in the gospels that this generation of people will stand up with the righteous in the judgement of the wicked.
As the crowds were increasing, He began to say, “This generation is a wicked generation; it seeks for a sign, and yet no sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah. “For just as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so will the Son of Man be to this generation. “The Queen of the South will rise up with the men of this generation at the judgment and condemn them, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and behold, something greater than Solomon is here. “The men of Nineveh will stand up with this generation at the judgment and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and behold, something greater than Jonah is here. “No one, after lighting a lamp, puts it away in a cellar nor under a basket, but on the lampstand, so that those who enter may see the light. “The eye is the lamp of your body; when your eye is clear, your whole body also is full of light; but when it is bad, your body also is full of darkness. “Then watch out that the light in you is not darkness. “If therefore your whole body is full of light, with no dark part in it, it will be wholly illumined, as when the lamp illumines you with its rays.”
God’s mercy can change even the most wicked of hearts.
There is something beautiful about the say the king responds. It says he stood up from his throne, laid aside his robe from him, covered himself with sackcloth and sat on the ashes. He wasn’t concerned with his own glory or status in that moment. His life wasn’t about his own honor or pride. He humbled himself, brought himself low, and pleaded with the Lord for mercy. There is a posture of repentance our heart must take. This physical posture taken by the king is reflective of his spiritual posture.
Do you have a spiritual posture of humility and repentance?
What does a posture of humility and repentance look like?
The king is brought low. He is confronted with his sin and understands there is nothing he can do but plead with the Lord. The incredible thing about this story is that it took a prophet of God to be nearly drowned and eaten by a fish for him to have this posture, while this pagan king is broken immediately over his sin. Where in your life is God calling you to take off sin and lay it aside. To take off earthly glory to put on Christ’s righteousness.
In Philippians we see this same posture of humility demonstrated to us by our Savior. He was without sin. He was clothed in eternal glory, yet He laid it aside to be born in human likeness. To be born of dust and in poverty. The king of kings emptied of His glory.
Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
The Lord Christ Jesus emptied Himself of honor and stooped down to dust so that we might be free from our shame, be stripped of our sinfulness and be clothed in His righteousness.
He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
“Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; Remove the evil of your deeds from My sight. Cease to do evil, Learn to do good; Seek justice, Reprove the ruthless, Defend the orphan, Plead for the widow. “Come now, and let us reason together,” Says the Lord, “Though your sins are as scarlet, They will be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They will be like wool. “If you consent and obey, You will eat the best of the land;
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
This posture of humility and of repentance isn’t worthlessness or self pity or self loathing. C.S. Lewis once said that “humility is not thinking less of yourself but thinking of yourself less”. This posture isn’t about beating yourself up or calling yourself worthless its exalting Christ to His worthy position of King of Kings in our lives. This is what the Lord desires. He wants our hearts. He wants to restore us and have relationship us. The Lord is ready to forgive and show love to the brokenhearted.
What happens if repentance and humility doesn’t remain constant? Well lets look at Jonah.
What is Jonah’s response?
When God saw their deeds, that they turned from their wicked way, then God relented concerning the calamity which He had declared He would bring upon them. And He did not do it. But it greatly displeased Jonah and he became angry. He prayed to the Lord and said, “Please Lord, was not this what I said while I was still in my own country? Therefore in order to forestall this I fled to Tarshish, for I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, and one who relents concerning calamity.
Jonah is upset at God’s mercy. He knew God would forgive these people and he ran the other way because of it. Jonah was bitter, angry, and prideful regarding the Lord’s mercy. He happily accepted it for himself but was upset when the Lord offered it to the Ninevites. Jonah shows a little hipocrisy here. Didn’t he say salvation was the Lord’s? Yet here he is wishing he could dictate God and who God is allowed to show mercy to.
Look at these characteristics of God Jonah communicates. Its an incredible theology. The Lord is gracious and a compassionate God. Slow to anger. Abounding in lovingkindness. The one who relents concerning calamity. Are these the characteristics you think of when you think of God?
Jonah continues in his displeasure.
“Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for death is better to me than life.” The Lord said, “Do you have good reason to be angry?”
Jonah wished to be dead. He would rather die than to live and see the enemies of Israel see redemption. He shows extreme hatred and prejudice. Hopefully you don’t feel prejudice for a group of people based on their race. If you do stop. But if all of us take time and reflect we might all say there are people in our lives that we dislike. People who we hate to see them succeed. Hate to see them win. If we were in this place that Jonah was in, would we be happy to see our enemies turn to Christ? Or would we have this same attitude?
A good question to ask ourselves is, “do we love people the way Jesus loves people? or is my love transactional?
“If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. “If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. “If you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners in order to receive back the same amount. “But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for He Himself is kind to ungrateful and evil men. “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. “Do not judge, and you will not be judged; and do not condemn, and you will not be condemned; pardon, and you will be pardoned. “Give, and it will be given to you. They will pour into your lap a good measure—pressed down, shaken together, and running over. For by your standard of measure it will be measured to you in return.”
In a commentary I read today it said, “check your ‘hate’ list and see who you need to take off. Check your ‘love’ list and see who you need to add”. I think that was a good way of thinking through this.
I love God’s response to Jonah. “Do you have good reason to be angry?”. The Lord gives Jonah an attitude check. Sometimes we need an attitude check in our lives to. Do we have a good reason to be angry with people? Is the thing that divides us from others of eternal significance? Does it really matter in the grand scheme of things? The reason Jonah was so mad was because he didn’t get his way. And we are about to see him throw a temper tantrum because of it. We need to ask ourselves, are the things that make me angry the same things that make God angry? There is a lot of sideways energy that comes with anger.
This you know, my beloved brethren. But everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger; for the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God.
There is a lot of time and energy exerted in human anger but it isn’t productive. Anger itself isn’t a sin. Jesus Himself got angry. But does your anger produce righteousness?
Then Jonah went out from the city and sat east of it. There he made a shelter for himself and sat under it in the shade until he could see what would happen in the city. So the Lord God appointed a plant and it grew up over Jonah to be a shade over his head to deliver him from his discomfort. And Jonah was extremely happy about the plant. But God appointed a worm when dawn came the next day and it attacked the plant and it withered. When the sun came up God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on Jonah’s head so that he became faint and begged with all his soul to die, saying, “Death is better to me than life.” Then God said to Jonah, “Do you have good reason to be angry about the plant?” And he said, “I have good reason to be angry, even to death.”
Again we see East and West. Jonah in his wicked anger sits East of the righteous city.
Everything we have seen in the story of Jonah, the storm, the sailors, the whale, the Ninevites, the plant, the worm, the east wind. Everything is obedient to the Lord except His prophet. Jonah was mad his plant was gone. He loved his plant. He loved it dearly. It was comforting to him. Even though he only knew it for ten minutes he loved that plant. Jonah hated Nineveh. Even though God had chosen to show love and mercy to them. Even though they were real people with eternal souls and families and lives of their own. He hated them and wished they would die.
Then the Lord said, “You had compassion on the plant for which you did not work and which you did not cause to grow, which came up overnight and perished overnight. “Should I not have compassion on Nineveh, the great city in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know the difference between their right and left hand, as well as many animals?”
This is how the story ends. We never see if Jonah’s attitude changed. We are left in suspense. Would Jonah’s heart break for the souls of people or would he continue to harden his heart in hatred. It’s a messy ending. We don’t see if they all lived happily ever after. The author of this story leaves us to ponder over Jonah’s fate and in doing so leaves us to ponder our own lives as well.
Are we running from God’s call on our lives?
Do we have an attitude of humility and repentance?
Does the lostness and brokenness of our communities move us to compassion?
Do we love our enemies?
Do we love plants more than people?
Are we governed by our anger and prejudice?
Do we love the way that Christ loves?
Whatever the answers are for those questions know that we serve a God of second chances. A God who is gracious, abounding in compassion, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast lovingkindness. He is quick to forgive. He chases down the runaway prophets and offers mercy to even the wickedest of offenders. He is a God who is relentless in His love towards us.