When God Comes

Jonah 4:11 ESV

And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?”

Jonah 4:11 / Luke 19:41–44

0) Setup (1–2 min)

I hear alot of people talking about Jesus coming back soon.

We see where we are at in our country

and all we see is death, destruction, and division.

And people normally see this, and think that very thing…

Jesus must be coming back soon.

We cant old out too much longer

And yet God has given me a heart of revival

as response to this

not just removal.

I dont want to see this world removed

or us taken from it

or for it to end.

don’t get me wrong -

if he decides its time tomorrow

im not gonna say “oh hey no dont come yet.”

But God has given me a heart

and a belief in revival and restoration.

Cultures have been in worse spots than we are

You think were the first hyper sexualize culture,

you think were the first country to feel like its gonna fall apart?

But, i just like any of you,

have no idea when Christ will actually come back.

And today we are going to talk about

When God Comes.

But i don’t mean end times,

or anything like that -

i mean when God’s presence arrives on the spot

And moreso, i’d like to ask -

When God comes

will you recognize him?

This is easy to have a quick answer too

But what if you’re wrong?

Before we open Jonah -

lets hop into the most literal account of “God coming”

1 — God Comes Near

(Luke 19:35–44 scene)

Luke 19:35–40 ESV

And they brought it to Jesus, and throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it. And as he rode along, they spread their cloaks on the road. As he was drawing near—already on the way down the Mount of Olives—the whole multitude of his disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen, saying, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” And some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples.” He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.”

The crowd is throwing down their coats -

essentially rolling out the red carpet.

and they begin to hail him King

They had rulers like Herod—powerful, sure, but propped up by Rome.

So when the crowd crowns Jesus ‘King,’

they’re not thinking cross…

they’re thinking coup

and their declaration of this

was them also declaring him as the messiah,

as this was their view of the messiah -

that he would come to take his rightful throne

and overthrow rome

to reestablish the davic kingdom -

reestablish a throne even greater than david’s

And yet -

what is Christs reaction

to all the comotion

to all the cheering?

Crying

English Standard Version Chapter 19

41 And when he drew near and saw the city,

he wept over it,

Christ knows Jerusalems heart.

He knows where this leads

and he knows beneath their welcome is wrath

He knows that they have already missed him

as Christ says

English Standard Version Chapter 19

you did not know the time of your visitation.

They missed the very one

that they spent centuries waiting for

how is it that they missed himwhen he was quite literally right there?

Jerusalem missed the boat when God came -

and yet as weve been talking the past weeks -

in the book of Jonah -

we see a city that God Comes to -

and yet we see a different outcome

2 — God Came Before

(Jonah as the mirror)

were gonna run through this story one last time

Jonah gets called to a disgusting horrible city

to preach repentance to them -

and he runs.

He runs because he is afraid

of what God will do

when he comes to this city

But hes not afraid of God destroying it -

thats what he wants

He is afraid

because he knows

that God will have mercy upon it

And that is exactly what we see -

jonah preaches a absolute joke of a message to them

-in that we see,

that this Revival of ninevah

wasn’t powered by great preaching,

but by a Mericiful God

and a humble people

And we left last week

on a cliff hanger a bit -

We leave last week

with a retorhical/irony questionquote from God

English Standard Version Chapter 4

10 And the LORD said,

“You pity the plant, for which you did not labor,

nor did you make it grow,

which came into being in a night

and perished in a night.

11 And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city,

in which there are more than 120,000 persons

who do not know their right hand from their left,

and also much cattle?”

This last line -

I can’t read this

without laughing a bit

You bit a plant

that you did nothing to get,

but you cannot pity this people

who don’t even know their own wrong doing.

Oh and dont forget the cows

3 — The Difference

(the sermon spine)

And yet -

this outcome and this heart of God

nearly feels different

than the one we saw in jerusalem doesn’t it?

Christ says this regarding jerusalem

English Standard Version Chapter 19

Luke 19:43–44 ESV

For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.”

This is what is to come to jerusalem.

The “Holy city”

the “city of God”

the capital city of his chosen nation -

will be seiged and destroyed.

And while just before this

Christ seems to be talking about a spiritual reality,

the mood has switched in this line

Christ is talking in the upmost literal way.

This isn’t a spiritual truth he’s referring to here.

he is referring to the destruction

of the city of Jerusalem

and 40 years after he says this

Comes the very thing Christ described

It’s recorded by 1st century jewish historian - Josephus

“The famine became so severe

that things happened inside Jerusalem

that even Roman soldiers could not stomach.”

“Hungry rebels “staggered from house to house searching for food…

shoe leather and grass was gnawed on.”

This was the reality

of what was coming for Jerusalem -

and this brings more depth

to the tears of Christ.

And yet -

he declared this upon them.

He says

English Standard Version Chapter 19

Would that you, even you,

had known on this day

the things that make for peace!

If you would have known

the things that make for peace -

this is Christ saying -

“if you would have recognized

that God has Come”

If they would have recognized Christ

for who he was…

but then he doesn’t even really complete the thought,

he doesn’t say what would have happened,

but that for the city as a whole its to late now

and yet -

how is it that in all of this

jerusalem suffers those atrocities

and ninevah -

the one who deserves it

gets mercy?

After all this -

you almost want to get where jonah is coming from huh?

You want to hop into Jonahs camp.

The beautiful city of God

is destroyed when God comes -

but something as dirty and horrible as ninevah

is saved

without having to pay a penny for their sin

And yet -

why is this

God comes to both -

Through Christ, God himself,

and through Jonah

And you’d think -

If Christ comes to you -

you should get the better outcome,

over ninevah getting a prophet

who wants them to die

So why is there such a stark contrast

between these two stories

of God’s Coming?

It can’t be righteousness

Israel was righteous on paper

Ninevah was not righteous in any way

Lineage - Israel vs gentile

it really can only come down to one thing

Ninevah - Receives

Jerusalem Resists

Nievah Repents

Jerusalem rebels

Ninevah takes Gods revealing of himself

for what it is - merciful

and they dont reject this mercy

but they repent immediately

upon warning

But when God reveals himself

to his own covenant kingdom -

his own flock -

They not only reject his heart and glory -

but they also kill him

We have a pride that evlauates God

and a repentance that receives God

That’s been the tension of this entire book.

Jonah knew God was merciful —

he just didn’t like who God was merciful toward.

Jerusalem knew the Scriptures —

they just didn’t like how God showed up.

Both had expectations.

Only one humbled themselves.

4 — The Reveal

(why “when God comes” matters)

God’s visitation reveals who He is (merciful)

and who we are (needy).

Mercy is offered —

but it’s only received by the humbled.

So we find in this ,

when God comes -

he reveals himself

and shows us who we are-

He is merciful

and we are needy.

And he offers this mercy,

but if we don’t recongize

that we are in need,

then we reject God himself.

We don’t need his mercy

But when we humble ourselves like ninevah -

we can truely receive God

for who he is - Merciful

But -

that also begs the question -

why did Judgement have to come?

Why couldn’t we have just ended the story.

Judgement came before God did.

Ninevah was sinful and evil,

Jerusalem was falsely righteous, legalistic

and evil in its own right

They judged themselves -

as we all do

Romans 3:23

“for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”

And yet -

when God comes and reveals himself

he reveals mercy.

We see this in Exodus 34:6

in one of the most comprehensive self description

Yahweh ever provides

Exodus 34:6 ESV

The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness,

When describing himself -

The first things he says are “merciful and gracious”

This is the center of who he is -

this is his glory.

So when we as a damned - needy - broken people

reject God,

We reject mercy itself

and were only left with Judgement

This is why Christ weeps

outside the gates of Jerusalem.

He walked with them

not just for 33 years as incarnate God -

but with Israel for thousands of years prior -

and now they are bringing

one of the worst atrocities

they will ever experience

upon themself.

And the very temple that Yahweh instructed them to rebuild -

and the very city that he brought them out of exile to rebuild

will be rubble

at their own hand

This judgement is the result

of Refusing God on God’s terms

The city of God

cannot stand without God himself

5 — Greater Jonah

(gospel climax)

And thats who this city was bless with

as their messenger -

God came to them in the flesh

The book of Jonah

leaves us wanting something more.

It leaves us wanting a better prophet.

A prophet who doesn’t run.

A prophet who doesn’t rage.

A prophet who doesn’t sit outside the city

hoping it burns.

And that’s exactly what Jerusalem received.

Jonah sat outside the city

filled with rage for it -

it lived

Christ sits outside the city

filled with despair -

it will die

Jonah warned Judgement

Jesus Absorbs juddgement

Because Jesus didn’t come just to announce what God is like —

He came to show what God is like.

A preacher named Fleming Rutledge says it like this:

It is in the crucifixion that the nature of God is truly revealed. -Fleming Rutledge

Christ - God was God and came to reveal God -

and to Jerusalem he was the Jonah they never deserved.

He was compassionate - mericful - and wept ver them

He was the greater Jonah

and

Ninevah was the city Christ deserved -

the greater Jerusalem - They repented - not rejected

But Christ was the best Jerusalem could ever get -

God decided to best reveal himself to them

it would be done by himself

And because they rejected him -

God has shown us the most full image of himself

He not only told us about mercy,

or showed mercy,

but he showed us the cost of it.

it is the ultimate revelation

of God’s heart for you

It shows us his glorious heart,

and the depravity of ours

6 — Invitation

And that means we don’t get to stay neutral.

When God comes,

everybody responds.

So here’s the real danger:

it isn’t being far from God.

It’s being near Him

and still resisting His terms.”

This is what jonah did -

and we don’t know how that story ended -

but by looking at jerusalems rejection

we can probably imply

that it didn’t go well for him

jerusalem resisted

because they thought

they were getting someone else

So to repose our question from the start

If God comes -

would you recognize him

We’ve been saying

we want God to come here.

We want Him to move in this town.

We want Him to revive this church.

But Jerusalem wanted God to come too.

They just wanted Him

on their terms.

Because when God actually comes,

He doesn’t come to affirm us —

He comes to reveal us.

And that’s exactly how the book of Jonah ends —

with a question that exposes the heart.

Luke 19 shows us

what happens when that question

is answered with pride.

The cross shows us

what happens when it’s answered with mercy.

One city repented.

One city resisted.

Receive Him as He actually is.

Lay down your version of Messiah.

Stop evaluating Him — and bow.

Humble yourself like Nineveh…

before we become Jerusalem.

The book never told us

how Jonah responded.

Now it’s our turn.

How will we respond?