The Ungrateful Servant

Introduction

How would you feel about me if someone came up here to be saved one Sunday morning, and I didn’t say anything about it, but instead I just walked out this back door, go over to that tree on the edge of the parking lot, and just sat there and pouted? Well that’s exactly what Jonah did…he didn’t want to see Nineveh repent, he wanted to see them burn…

Background:

Jonah was called, rebelled, was swallowed by a fish and then spit out on dry land. God taught Jonah about His grace. The truth is that Jonah didn’t want Nineveh to repent because he hated them. He wanted God to judge them. But now Jonah has been spit out back onto shore, and he is headed towards Nineveh

Context:

But just because he is headed towards Nineveh doesn’t mean he’s happy about it. What we are going to see in these last two chapters of Jonah is a man called a prophet, who is pouting because people are repenting of their sin.

I. Jonah’s Calling

Jonah 3:1–2 NKJV

Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying, “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach to it the message that I tell you.”

Here we are back at square one.

Has God ever reset you back at square one and told you to go back and do exactly what He told you to do in the first place?

The truth is that God stands ready to give you a second chance in your life…

Now, you might say, “Preacher, I’ve had so many chances, I don’t think God can use me anymore.”

Well, you don’t really understand grace then do you? Because there isn’t a single person on this planet that only needs two chances from God.

Matthew 18:21–22 NKJV

Then Peter came to Him and said, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?” Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.

What Jesus was trying to communicate to Peter is that the grace of God is sufficient for him, and that we can forgive as many times as necessary, because God forgives as many times as necessary.

But, even though God’s grace was sufficient for Jonah, He still required something from him.

What God required from Jonah was that Jonah be obedient to what God called him to in the first place.

Church, that’s exactly what God requires of us.

God is building our character, and He is building our trust in Him…and the only way for Him to accomplish that is if we obey Him.

Think of how sheep are…they are really good at wandering off the path…the Great Shepherd of your life isn’t going to move forward until you get back on the path that He set you on.

What He has to do is He has to go off course, find you, and then bring you back to the place where you started to wander…and once you’re back to where you were before you wandered away, you and Him can continue moving forward.

The Good Shepherd is not going to continue moving forward until He has His sheep accounted for…that’s what makes Him a Good Shepherd.

So, Jonah, even though he heard from God again, still had a choice to make. Was he going to run away for the second time, or was he going to do what God asked him?

Jonah 3:3 NKJV

So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord.

It’s a good thing that we serve a God Who loves us enough to forgive us and to restore us…to put us back in the places that we have fallen from.

You know, we can be really hard on ourselves.

Max Lucado came out with a book the other day, and the purpose of the book is to teach how we can transform our life.

The basic idea of the book is founded on Romans 12:2

Romans 12:2 NKJV

And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

In this book, Lucado cites sources that say for every five thoughts we have, four of them are negative and self-condemning.

He says that on average, we have 70,000 thoughts per day…56,000 of which are negative.

That’s a lot of negative thoughts.

But here is what God says about us….”Even though you ran, even though you don’t deserve love, I love you, and if I can love you in your condition, then you better believe that you’re worth it.”

Here’s the truth…we don’t have to be prim and proper for God to love us…He just does!

Romans 5:8 NKJV

But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

He loved you when you were in sin, He loves when you are in sin, He just loves you…period.

I don’t like that kind of preaching, I think it’s wrong to love yourself! The Bible says we’re to be humble!

Well, the Bible also says this…

Matthew 22:39–40 NKJV

And the second greatest commandment is: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’

Church, if you don’t love yourself, if you don’t think that you matter, if you don’t think that you’re worth it, then you won’t love others, you won’t think others matter, and you won’t think others are worth it.

It’s not wrong to love yourself…the Bible commands it.

Think of the church…the church is a place where we come to worship God, but it’s also a place where we come to hear the preaching of God’s Word. The purpose of preaching is to rebuke, it is to teach, it is to correct…but it’s also to encourage!

In fact, Jesus says that the only way the world can know who we are is if we love one another.

And we can’t love one another if we don’t first love ourselves.

How can we love ourselves without arrogance and pride?

I heard a story one time about a little dog named lucky.

This dog got lost and his owner put up posters all over town…and the poster said “Lost Dog: His name is Lucky…he’s got one ear and one eye. He’s missing a leg and he might not hear if you call him because he’s deaf.”

Then that story said, “You know what made this dog Lucky? The fact that he was loved enough to have someone go after him”

Church, we are more than lucky, we are blessed.

That’s how we can love ourselves despite all of our negative thoughts, because we have a God in Heaven that won’t give up on us, even if we run away.

Jonah 3:3–4 NKJV

Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, a three-day journey in extent. And Jonah began to enter the city on the first day’s walk. Then he cried out and said, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!”

Once, we get done in Jonah, we’ll go over to the book of Nahum, because Nahum was also a prophet pronouncing judgment against Nineveh.

The Bible describes this city as great…and here is some of the history of Nineveh…

It was founded by a guy named Nimrod. He was the grandson of Noah.

Something important to know for the book of Nahum is that Nineveh is one of the leading cities in the Assyrian empire. It was city that was situated near the Tigris river, which is where all civilization began, and it had its own river flowing through it called the Khoser River.

Any time a city is situated on a major water way, it’s going to be a wealthy city and prosperous city. And any time there is wealth and prosperity, there is going to be some great sin.

The sins of Nineveh are what we’re concerned with here, because Jonah says, “in forty days, Nineveh will be overthrown.” Obviously, they are going to be overthrown because of their sin.

What was the morality like?

Well, Assyria was very violent.

When we studied the Book of Daniel, we focused on the Babylonians. And the Babylonians wanted to captivate their enemies and their slaves with beauty and with intelligence. They put them through programs to train them and to assimilate them, and that’s how Daniel ended up in the government there.

The Assyrians were not like that…

They didn’t show any kind of mercy to their enemies.

They would take their captives and would impale them and then stand those poles up in the desert to let them roast.

They would take their enemies and behead them and then give em a good ole European mount there at the entrance of their cities…if you don’t know what a European mount is, it’s where they would skin the flesh away from the skull, and then they would display those skulls as trophies.

If they were in a really bad mood, they would just take people and skin them alive.

So not only were they violent, they didn’t respect life as valuable in any fashion.

They didn’t make provisions and say things like, “We need to let the women and children live”. They just didn’t care. It was in their policy of war that all babies and young children should be killed so that they wouldn’t have to be cared for.

We can blush, and we can shake our heads at this, but our society does the same thing. It’s legal for a woman to go and have a baby vacuumed out of her womb, or to have their baby’s brain scrambled like an egg if they feel like they can’t afford them or if it gets in the way of their preferred life.

It’s really a sick and disgusting mentality to view children as an obstacle to be avoided instead of a responsibility to be loved.

Now, when the Bible says that it was a “three-days journey”, it means this is how big the city was, that it would take three days to get to the other side.

Jonah is one day into this city, and then he stops to preach.

Unfortunately, the only thing we know is that Jonah said, “you’ll be judged in 40 days”. Obviously, this story of Jonah is more about God’s faithfulness to misbehaving saints than it is about the sins of Nineveh.

So, Jonah’s calling was reinstated by the God second chances.

II. Nineveh’s Repentance

Jonah 3:5 NKJV

So the people of Nineveh believed God, proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the least of them.

This means that the entire city was in lament over their sin.

Now, I’ve been saying this often...but something that we miss in our life is lamentation. What we miss so many times in our relationship with God is a deep mourning over our the sin in our life and the sin of our world.

We just don’t lament. We want all positivity and no mourning because it just doesn’t sit right with us…but here is an entire nation on their knees before God, mourning over the things that they were doing. This repentance was so sincere and so widespread that even the king of Nineveh repented.

Jonah 3:6–9 NKJV

Then word came to the king of Nineveh; and he arose from his throne and laid aside his robe, covered himself with sackcloth and sat in ashes. And he caused it to be proclaimed and published throughout Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything; do not let them eat, or drink water. But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily to God; yes, let every one turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. Who can tell if God will turn and relent, and turn away from His fierce anger, so that we may not perish?

Repentance and Action

This displays the most important part of repentance, and that’s action. Someone who really means it when they say I’m sorry is going to change their behavior.

We apply this in our faith…we say that if there isn’t any change in a person’s life when they claim to have been saved, then that should be a red flag.

The book of James discusses this when he says that he will prove his faith by his good deeds.

In chapter two of James, James explains some things about the reality of sin and about the reality of repentance and faith in God.

First, he says that if you break any part of the law, you are guilty of all the law.

Some get in their minds that their sin isn’t bad enough to have them condemned to Hell. But the Bible clearly teaches that while some sins are worse than others, all sin is bad enough to separate us from God.

Are some sins worse than others?

Well, yes and no.

All sin is punishable by death according to God, but not all sin carries the same consequence.

A prime example of this is when Rahab tells a lie to protect the spies in Jericho…it was a lie and it was sinful, but not as sinful as it would have been to turn them over and have them murdered.

Think of it this way…I’d rather have someone come into my home and steal my bread than to come into my home and kill me and my family.

But regardless of that, all sin is enough to separate us from God, which is where people get it wrong.

Some will say, “Well, I’m a good person because I haven’t done anything that bad.” The Bible clearly teaches, and James reiterates that any and all sin is enough to condemn us.

Second, James says that when we are truly of the faith, then we will experience a change in our life.

James 2:17–20 NKJV

Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble! But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead?

What’s his point?

His point is that a real and genuine faith in God always results in an actionable response.

How do we know this city truly repented?

We can know that they truly repented because of the faith they displayed.

The faith that they displayed was believing that God was going to judge them when His prophet said so.

They didn’t have to see the judgement to believe it, they believed it based on a promise.

Look again in v. 4,

Jonah 3:4 NKJV

Then he cried out and said, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!”

When Jonah declared that promise from God, the people responded in faith, and they displayed that faith with repentance and with mourning.

If they didn’t really believe it, if they didn’t have a real faith, they wouldn’t have had a nation wide revival!

Repentance and Salvation

This is how we know that repentance and salvation go hand in hand.

The Bible does not command that we become perfect at the point of salvation, that’s a different term we call sanctification.

That is, it’s God’s job to make us perfect, which He does when we are saved. If you are saved, that means that in the heavenly places you are seen as a perfect person.…He then continues to make us perfect as we live, meaning He saves us every day…and finally, He saves us in the end when we are resurrected from the dead and then given a glorified body.

So, we are saved, we are being saved, and we will be saved, at the end of time.

Jonah 3:10 NKJV

Then God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God relented from the disaster that He had said He would bring upon them, and He did not do it.

There is repentance…and when they repented, there was salvation.

What exactly happens in repentance?

Look at the text.

First, in v. 4, the Word of God came.

The prophet of God declared openly that God was the judge and His judgement was coming in 40 days.

Then, in v. 5, it says that there was belief in all of Nineveh.

When the Word of God is preached, then faith, which is belief, can take hold.

Romans 10:17 NKJV

So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

Repentance is agreeing with God’s word concerning your sin

What does God say about your sin? He says that you are a slave to your sins, and that you are deserving of death and eternal judgement. He also says that you have no goodness in you, and that you cannot make it to Heaven on your own.

When you come to that conclusion, then you are in a state of repentance.

Repentance and Salvation go hand-in-hand

When you are in a state of repentance, you acknowledge that you cannot possibly help yourself under any circumstance, that you need someone to save you.

That savior, that has been revealed to us today, and His name is Jesus Christ.

Here in the city of Nineveh, they were looking to God in faith that He might save them, and the Bible says there in v. 10, that the Lord did not destroy them.

We’ve seen Jonah’s Calling, we’ve seen Nineveh’s Repentance, now let’s see….

III. God’s Lesson

Jonah isn’t what we would call prophet material. He was rebellious and spiteful…he wanted Assyria to die so he refused to witness to Nineveh, and now where we find him is throwing a hissy fit because Nineveh was saved.

Jonah’s Temper Tantrum

Jonah 4:1–5 NKJV

But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he became angry. So he prayed to the Lord, and said, “Ah, Lord, was not this what I said when I was still in my country? Therefore I fled previously to Tarshish; for I know that You are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, One who relents from doing harm. Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live!” Then the Lord said, “Is it right for you to be angry?” So Jonah went out of the city and sat on the east side of the city. There he made himself a shelter and sat under it in the shade, till he might see what would become of the city.

God loved and loves His enemies…but too many times the people of God don’t love them.

I wonder how many people in this world have died and gone to Hell because the so called “people of God” wanted them to die?

Jonah wrote them off as unsavable and unlovable…but at the same time he was glad that God didn’t feel the same way about him…and I am glad that God doesn’t feel the same way about me.

Here’s what Weirsbe says about it

The heart of every problem is the problem in the heart, and that’s where Jonah’s problems were to be found.”

But rest assured, because even now the focus of this text isn’t on Jonah, but it’s on how God loves him and listens to him even though he’s acting like a little whiney baby.

God’s Teaching Moment

Jonah 4:6–11 NKJV

And the Lord God prepared a plant and made it come up over Jonah, that it might be shade for his head to deliver him from his misery. So Jonah was very grateful for the plant. But as morning dawned the next day God prepared a worm, and it so damaged the plant that it withered. And it happened, when the sun arose, that God prepared a vehement east wind; and the sun beat on Jonah’s head, so that he grew faint. Then he wished death for himself, and said, “It is better for me to die than to live.” Then God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?” And he said, “It is right for me to be angry, even to death!” But the Lord said, “You have had pity on the plant for which you have not labored, nor made it grow, which came up in a night and perished in a night. And should I not pity Nineveh, that great city, in which are more than one hundred and twenty thousand persons who cannot discern between their right hand and their left—and much livestock?”

Side note: when we were in chapter 2, we talked about how God, in my opinion, prepared a special fish to take care of this business with Jonah…now we see Him preparing a special plant and a special worm to do His work.

Church, if you think God can’t prepare you to do His work, then you just don’t know God that well.

What’s God saying? He’s saying, “Jonah, you’re made that a plant died, but you’re willing to watch 120,000 people die and go to Hell. Something is wrong here, Jonah.”

Here are some things in Jonah’s life that have gone wrong.

He cared more about God’s blessings that God’s heart

We know how this goes. We want everything that God is going to give to us except for His heart for the lost.

We want all the places of leadership but we don’t want a love for God’s people.

He received the grace of God, but didn’t understand the grace of God

We have some perfect people that go to church.

There are people in church and they think that everyone else is just undeserving to be there. They think their life is just so wonderful that they’re doing God a favor just by living.

What I like are people who understand what it means to be an outcast and unloved, because then when they get to know Jesus, then they want so badly to bring others to Jesus because they know how much He loves them.

He allowed bitterness to control his life

All of his drama and whining came from a bitter heart. He thought that Gentiles weren’t worth it, and because of his disdain for people of another race, he thought it was ok to challenge God.

I do know this, that race issues are a much bigger challenge her in Lawrence County than they were in Mobile County, and hating someone or looking down on someone because of where they come from or what skin color they are is cause by some kind of bitterness and resentment in your life.

Thanks be to God that when the Jews said you were unworthy, that God said were were worthy.

Conclusion