Episode Transcript
[00:00:16] All right, Jonah, chapter one, verses one, verses one and two. This is what I want us to consider a question in just a moment that I'm going to. I'm going to pose to you. Before I do that, I do want to share a very short story. So the Lord Jesus saved me as a senior in College. I was 21 years old. I did not grow up in the church. I didn't have church background or experience.
[00:00:39] I didn't particularly care for Christians at this time in my life. And so when stuff began to hit the fan in my life and I began to struggle deeply with depression and kind of thoughts of suicide ideation, and I was just in a very dark place in my life, I began to search around for answers to life, that there has to be something more than what I can see, feel, hear, touch, smell.
[00:01:03] Maybe there is a God out there, but I have no idea who he is or what he's like or if he wants anything to do with me.
[00:01:08] I've certainly done some really horrific things. And so I was wrestling with all of these massive life questions. And so I began to look into all sorts of religions. But Christianity, it's like the one thing I didn't want anything to do with.
[00:01:22] And in the middle of all of that, God pursued my heart.
[00:01:27] And one night in my apartment, I opened up my Bible that had been gifted to me from a Christian friend from a few years before, opened it up to the book of Matthew, and it was like the Holy Spirit just unveiled my eyes and I saw the beauty of Jesus for the first time.
[00:01:42] That Jesus really did live, that he really did die under Pontius Pilate, and that he really was raised from the dead on the third day, and that he really was alive. And that what he was calling me to do was to repent and believe. He wasn't calling me to work my way to him. He wasn't calling me to clean up my life before I came to Him. He was calling me to cease from living for myself and to turn and believe upon him and what he had accomplished on my behalf. That's what the Bible calls the good news. This is the gospel that God has sent his only beloved Son to rescue sinners and sufferers so that we might enjoy him forever and be forgiven of our sin. That's the good news of the Gospel. And that's available to everybody in the room. If you've never done that by God's grace. And so that happened in my life. And it's not like it was just this progressive climb in me getting Better as a person.
[00:02:35] Things were very up and down. Things are still up and down in a lot of ways.
[00:02:40] But at some point in the middle of all of that, as I was growing in my love for the Bible and I had graduated from college, I was working as a full time job substitute teacher for the public school system in West Texas, in San Angelo.
[00:02:56] And while I was in the classroom with high school kids particularly, I found myself just like insatiably wanting to share the good news of Jesus with these kids. I knew I wasn't allowed to do it, but I was like, I don't really care. I'm a sub, so I can do it and then I can leave and they can't do anything to me.
[00:03:10] And so I was getting paid like $50 a day anyway, so it didn't matter. And so I was doing that and I was like, man, I think that God might be calling me to ministry. So I reached out to a pastor friend of mine and he said, yeah, I think I would affirm that you should go to seminary. I was like, great. So this is back in 2011.
[00:03:29] So started seminary online through Southwestern, was working at a childcare development center in the First Baptist Church of San Angelo, Texas with a whole bunch of kids teaching those kids the Bible and going to seminary full time. It was wild. It was a wild time.
[00:03:44] And, and what I found was that over time, as I got more and more opportunities to preach and to teach and to do ministry, that the things that were so awe inspiring to me in those early days, like there is a God and he actually loves me and he's saved me and he's forgiven me of my sin and I can enjoy a relationship with him forever. And when I die, I'm going to go to heaven and I'm going to be with him forever and I'm going to be with like all those amazing things kind of became academic to me.
[00:04:19] And so I remember vividly one of the first times I had the opportunity to preach Big church was what we used to call it.
[00:04:26] And I'm in front of this group of people and I'm preaching on Ephesians 5 that says, Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church. And I get up there and it's like embarrassing to say, but I get up there on the stage and I have all the husbands stand up in the room.
[00:04:41] And mind you, I'm not married at the time, so I have all the husbands stand up in the room and I just begin to berate these men over what it means to love Christ. Like what it means to love their wife like Christ loves a church. And it's not to say that I couldn't have done that as a single man. I could have, because the word of God is true, regardless of whether I'm married or single. But my tone lacked grace.
[00:05:02] And so it was like I had this concept of grace in my mind.
[00:05:07] I knew much about it. I was learning theology. I was studying the Bible and church history and all these kinds of things. And so my mind was becoming more and more inflated with the things of God, but my heart was growing cold toward God.
[00:05:23] And so the question I want to pose to you and how we're going to see that it relates to the Book of Jonah, is how well do you know the grace of God?
[00:05:34] Like you personally, how well do you know the grace of God?
[00:05:39] Here's why this question is important, because our brother and friend Jonah, whom. If you know anything about Jonah, we'll talk about his name in a moment and how it. There's a lot of satire in the Book of Jonah. It's funny in a lot of ways, okay?
[00:05:53] But if you know anything about Jonah, here's Jonah's problem.
[00:05:57] Jonah knew much of the grace of God, but it didn't necessarily mean that he had internalized it.
[00:06:06] While his mind knew much of the grace of God, he had seen God move in miraculous and gracious ways and delivering the people of Israel and serving as a prophet and all these things. In many ways, this brother's heart was far from experiencing the grace of God for himself.
[00:06:23] And so one of the prevailing questions of the Book of Jonah is a beautiful one, is throughout this book, who's God after?
[00:06:32] Who's he after?
[00:06:34] He's certainly after this group of people called the Ninevites that we'll talk more about in the weeks to come. This wicked, idolatrous, evil group of people. But he's also after Jonah.
[00:06:45] And the same is true for you this morning. However long you've walked with Jesus, or maybe you come in and you haven't walked, you don't know Jesus.
[00:06:52] But wherever you are on that spectrum, you're here because the Holy Spirit's after you.
[00:07:01] God's desire is for you personally, not just cognitively, but in the deepest recesses of your soul, for you to know God and to know the grace of God. And here's how you can know when you're answering that, when you're asking that question in your mind, one of the ways you can know how well do I know the grace of God? Is are you A compassionate person in many ways. You and I.
[00:07:33] How well we know God in many ways is exposed in our relationship with each other.
[00:07:41] Did you know that.
[00:07:45] That John's first letter. John was one of the apostles of Jesus. One of the early disciples of Jesus, the one that Jesus loved.
[00:07:53] Says that we cannot say we love God if we don't love people.
[00:07:58] We cannot say that we love a God whom we cannot see if we don't love people who we can see. You can't say that. But I know a lot of theology, but I have a seminary degree. But it doesn't matter.
[00:08:10] Those things are dangerous things. You know that helpful, dangerous.
[00:08:18] So how well do you know the grace of God? How well do I know the grace of God? I think this is going to be a prevailing question for us throughout the summer. And I have high, high hopes because I know how good and gracious God is and how much he loves you and how much he loves me. That the Holy Spirit is going to do great things in our heart as we just simply study His Word through this book.
[00:08:38] It's a precious book.
[00:08:40] How well do you know the grace of God? So let's look at the book together.
[00:08:46] Jonah, chapter one, verse one.
[00:08:49] This is how one author, Sinclair Ferguson, kind of summarizes the book of Jonah as we get into it. He says Jonah is really a book about how one man came through painful experience to discover the true character of the God whom he had already served in the earlier years of his life.
[00:09:10] He was to find the doctrine about God with which he had long been familiar come alive in his experience.
[00:09:19] So do you desire the doctrine of God that you, some of you, know so well.
[00:09:24] To actually come alive in your life experience, to be a felt reality in your life?
[00:09:33] So much so that you and I would be transformed into the image of Jesus together?
[00:09:39] That's what God's doing in Jonah, and that's what God is doing in us. So the hope for the elders and I, for us, for me, for us, for you, is that we pray that together we're awakened by the Holy Spirit this summer through this book. To not only know, but experience the grace of God in a fresh way. That's what we want this summer, to not only know, but experience the grace of God in a fresh way. That we might become agents of grace in our life.
[00:10:09] That we might be an agent of grace in our home and an agent of grace in our neighborhood and an agent of grace among one another at the church and among our coworkers, et cetera. That we would, we're only going to become an agent of grace to the glory of God if you and I experience the grace of God for ourself.
[00:10:26] So that's our hope. Okay, so here's what we want to do today.
[00:10:28] We're just going to do the first two verses, and I want to spend the rest of our time talking about the three main characters in the book of Jonah. And here's who they are. Jonah, the Ninevites, and God.
[00:10:41] There are other characters in the book, but these are going to be the three main ones. Who is Jonah? Who are the Ninevites, and who is God?
[00:10:51] So let's look at Jonah first. Who is Jonah? Verse 1 says, now the word of the Lord came to Jonah, the son of Amitti.
[00:11:01] So who was Jonah? Jonah was a Jewish prophet.
[00:11:07] A prophet was a person from the Old Testament. So the Bible, if you're unfamiliar with the Bible, the Bible is broken up into Old and New Testaments, okay? These are promises from God to his people. The Old Testament primarily can be categorized or understood by law, and the New Testament primarily categorized and understood in the context of grace fulfilled in the person of Jesus and his life, death, resurrection and ascension. Okay, so Jonah is a book that takes place in the Old Testament time. Jonah was a prophet, meaning that he heard directly from God and was commanded by God to relay that message to either the people of Israel or in this case, a nation outside of the people of Israel. So Jonah was a Jewish prophet. Jonah more than likely was a successor to the prophets Elijah and Elisha found in the Book of First Kings.
[00:12:05] Many, at least a handful of commentators think that Jonah might have been a direct disciple of Elisha, which is really interesting.
[00:12:14] Jewish prophets were called by God to be messengers primarily of two things. Messengers of repentance, calling the nation of Israel to turn from their evil ways and turn back to God and follow God. And they were called to be messengers of grace, reminding the people of God of the grace of God. So that's Jonah. That's his job. We see this in The Book of Second Kings, another Old Testament book, chapter 14, verses 23 through 20.
[00:12:41] This is really where we hear about Jonah for the first time in the Bible. Second kings, chapter 14, verses 23 to 28.
[00:12:49] I'm just gonna read verses 23 to 25 to introduce him.
[00:12:54] So he, Jeroboam II, that was the king at the time, did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. He did not depart from all the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, which is his father, which he made Israel to sin.
[00:13:08] He that being Jeroboam ii, restored the border of Israel from Lebo Hamath as far as the sea of Arabah according to the word of the Lord, the God of Israel, which he spoke by his servant Jonah, the son of Amittai, the prophet who is from Gath Hepher. Okay, so that that particular place that Jonah's from was not far from from Nazareth, where Jesus was from.
[00:13:34] So Jonah, in many ways, as we'll talk about in a moment, serves as a.
[00:13:38] As a type of Jesus, the Messiah, the one, the one to come. But this is our first introduction to Jonah. So Jonah was a Jewish prophet.
[00:13:46] Jonah was also. He wasn't just a prophet. He was a recipient of and observer of God's grace. So listen to what the rest of the text in Second Kings says. It says Jeroboam.
[00:14:01] Sorry, those are my notes. 2 Kings 14, 26, 28 goes on to say, for the Lord saw that the affliction of Israel was very bitter, for there was none left bond or free, and there was none to help Israel. But the Lord had not said that he would blot out the name of Israel from under heaven. So he saved them by the hand of Jeroboam, the son of Joash. So here's what's happening in Jonah's time, and it's important for us to understand the world by which this prophet lived. So Jonah was a prophet of God, but up to the point where God calls him to do what he's about to do. In the Book of Jonah, Jonah served as a prophet of grace.
[00:14:38] The people of Israel at the time were deeply in rebellion against God.
[00:14:43] God called them out of Egypt, took them into a promised land, showered love and grace and mercy upon them, redeemed them with a strong right hand. And what did the people of God do and and response to God's loving grace and kindness toward them?
[00:14:56] They worshiped other things.
[00:14:59] So God parts the Red Sea and he shows these miraculous feats of power, and the people make it to the other side of the Red Sea as their enemies are swallowed up by the waters. And as soon as they make it to the other side, they begin to worship a golden calf. And this sets the trajectory of how God's people respond to him. Time and time and time again. God rescues the they rebel, they cry out to God for help. God helps, he rescues, they rebel. On and on and on it goes. And so this is the world by which our prophet, our friend Jonah lives.
[00:15:32] Jeroboam ii, who's king at the Time of Jonah is a bad king.
[00:15:37] He doesn't turn from the ways of his father, who led the people of Israel into idolatry. He perpetuates it.
[00:15:43] And so he leads them into more and more idolatry. But here's what God does.
[00:15:48] Instead of God condemning his people, which he had every right in the world to do, he would have been right. And just in doing so, God sends the prophet Jonah to prophesy grace to the people of Israel. I'm actually going to extend your borders despite your idolatry and rebellion.
[00:16:05] And so that's the world by. So Jonah saw God's grace.
[00:16:09] He saw it with his eyes. He was a preacher of it.
[00:16:14] God's like, I'm not going to shut down your borders. I'm going to extend your borders.
[00:16:20] So Jonah was a recipient of grace, and he was an observer of grace.
[00:16:26] And lastly, Jonah, like those of us in the room who are Christians, was a saint, a sinner, and a sufferer.
[00:16:39] Here's what that means.
[00:16:40] Jonah was a part of the people of Israel.
[00:16:44] He was a child of God.
[00:16:46] He was a part of the people of Israel. He was loved by God, chosen by God, not just as a person, as being a Jew, but as a prophet. He was chosen by God. But Jonah, as we'll see throughout the course of the book, was also a sinner. And he was a sufferer. He was a sinner. And we see this explained in the way that Jonah responds to God, as we'll see in a few weeks. Jonah's name, the name Jonah actually means dove, means the word dove, which was.
[00:17:22] And I didn't know this, thought it was interesting, which was a symbol for Israel being silly and senseless.
[00:17:29] That's what Jonah's name means as being silly and senseless.
[00:17:35] I think many of us can relate to that. We say this a lot at Redemption Hill. This is a quote from Ray. Or you can either be known or impressive, but you cannot be both.
[00:17:45] Because if you and I choose to step into this realm of being known by God and by others, you'll find quickly, as I will, that you're not impressive.
[00:17:56] I'm not impressive.
[00:17:58] Like, as I read through the book of Jonah and I, it's. While it's tempting to say, oh, my gosh, Jonah, I never do that. I never act that way. If God audibly came and. But I do it every day.
[00:18:13] So that's Jonah.
[00:18:15] He was a member of the people of God as a Jew. He was a prophet. He was a sinner.
[00:18:23] He often rebelled against God, but he was also a sufferer.
[00:18:29] And he wasn't just a sufferer in the vague sense of the word. He was a sufferer of the very people that God is about to call him in the next verse to go and minister to Jonah was a sufferer, specifically at the hands of those God now is going to call him to take this message of repentance and grace to the very people who oppressed Jonah and oppressed his people are the very people God is going to say, I want you to go call them to turn from their sin and believe what a conflicting place Jonah is in says saying, arise, go to Nineveh. This is what God, the word of the Lord comes to Jonah and this is what God tells him to do.
[00:19:13] Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up and I'm going to stop it there. And we'll finish the rest of the verse in just a moment. Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city and call out against it, for their evil has come up. Nineveh, who is Nineveh? We've got Jonah, who's Nineveh. Nineveh was considered a great, which that word is used, I think 14 times through the four chapters of the Book of Jonah. That's a, that's a theory is how big everything is. Big fish, big city, big plant, et cetera.
[00:19:48] If you don't know what I'm talking about, that's okay. You're like, what in the world?
[00:19:51] You'll find out in the weeks to come. But he says, go to that great city. Nineveh was a great or large city located roughly 500 miles from Israel and roughly 220 miles from what is today modern Baghdad, Iraq.
[00:20:07] That's where Nineveh was.
[00:20:09] Nineveh was the military capital of Assyria.
[00:20:12] Assyria was the enemy of God's people.
[00:20:16] Nobody oppressed God's people like the Assyrians oppressed God's people.
[00:20:21] They were absolutely brutal in their oppression.
[00:20:27] I want you to consider as we think about this and I'll share a short story without going into detail. I was going to share detail, but I feel like it would distract from the purpose of the message. But I came across a news article probably two weeks ago about a modern day terrorist group that's a decentralized terrorist group that targets kids.
[00:20:49] They do it online, they do it through various platforms of social media and video gaming and different things.
[00:20:54] They consider themselves to be a satanic group and they just do. They do wicked things that are beyond what I Feel comfortable sharing with you from a public stage.
[00:21:05] Absolutely demonic, terrible, heart wrenching, makes you want to vomit when you read it. Kind of, kind of stuff.
[00:21:15] Terrorist organization. When you think about Nineveh, when I think about Nineveh, we ought to think about them. We ought to think about it that way.
[00:21:25] Otherwise it might be easy for us, I think, to kind of downplay how significant this was that God was calling Jonah to take the message and his message of grace there to those people.
[00:21:36] Because my instinctive response as I'm reading this news story is I want them to die.
[00:21:44] I just want them to die.
[00:21:46] I want no mercy for those people.
[00:21:50] And so when I experience that and I sit in that for a moment, it isn't difficult for me to arrive at the same place that our brother Jonah does.
[00:22:03] That's how we ought to think about Nineveh when we think about this great city that God calls Jonah to take this message of grace to. We ought to think about modern day cartels. We ought to think about modern day terrorist organizations. We ought to think about the axis of evil as we call it in the political world, as they call it. I'm not in the political world, as they call it in the political world. We ought to think about these oppressive regimes that, that seek to kill and destroy their people. We ought to think about these kinds of things.
[00:22:37] These groups ought to make us angry. That's an appropriate response.
[00:22:44] It isn't emotionally or spiritually healthy to read a story like what I read a couple of weeks ago and just kind of look over it.
[00:22:55] That's not what Christians do. Christians grieve, Christians lament, and Christians get angry over evil things.
[00:23:05] But in our anger, Paul says we're not to sin.
[00:23:12] Unjust anger only desires revenge.
[00:23:18] So if I can parse out maybe just and unjust anger for a moment, unjust anger is what most of you. It's mostly what you and I experience on a day by day basis is unjust anger.
[00:23:31] And there are all sorts of ways we can know that it's unjust. But primarily it has to do with your kingdom and it's disproportional to the offense done against you.
[00:23:39] So somebody says something ugly to you or somebody gives you an off look and you want to talk about them behind their back.
[00:23:49] Somebody makes a sharp comment to you and you want to hit them. That's a disproportionate response to what's been done against you. That's unjust, sinful anger, just anger is about the kingdom of God.
[00:24:03] It's about the good and flourishing of people and societies.
[00:24:08] So when we hear about these stories, it should make us angry. It was right for Jonah to be angry at what the Ninevites had done, not just to him, but to the people of what they were doing to each other.
[00:24:18] Barbaric, evil, wicked, violent, oppressive people.
[00:24:24] It's wrong to be angry about that.
[00:24:27] But in Jonah's anger, and often in our anger, what he wanted was revenge.
[00:24:35] He cared nothing about the possibility that maybe God had a different plan.
[00:24:44] Maybe God's grace.
[00:24:45] Maybe he really didn't know God's grace as much as he thought he did.
[00:24:51] Like, we all want God's grace. We all want God's grace.
[00:24:56] But do we really, I mean, do we really? In the sense that Scripture highlights this grace that's so massive, so all consuming, it's so transformative that even a guy like Jeffrey Dahmer can have it if God so chooses.
[00:25:24] So Jonah knew much of God's grace and compassion for sinners. He had seen it with his eyes.
[00:25:29] But Jonah had not internalized this grace for himself.
[00:25:34] Have we.
[00:25:36] Have we internalized God's grace?
[00:25:41] Let's look at the final verse here.
[00:25:44] Says, arise. Go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it. This is Jonah's task. Further evil has come up before me. God says, who is Jonah?
[00:25:57] Who are the Ninevites? Who are. Who's this final character in the story?
[00:26:03] Who's God?
[00:26:06] Says, their evil has come up before me.
[00:26:10] This is a. It's an interesting phrase to me. It's similar to Genesis 3, 9, when right after Adam and Eve's sin, says the Lord, God called to the man and said to him, where are you?
[00:26:26] Did God know where Adam was?
[00:26:29] He did.
[00:26:30] He wouldn't be God if he didn't know where Adam was.
[00:26:34] So it's not a question of unknowingness.
[00:26:38] God's pursuing Adam. He's pursuing his heart.
[00:26:42] Where are you?
[00:26:46] Come out of hiding.
[00:26:51] God is not a clock maker who creates and watches his creation work apart from his intervention.
[00:26:58] God is there and he is not silent. So what is God saying here when he says that the evil of the Ninevites has come up before him?
[00:27:07] He isn't saying that he wasn't aware of the evil of Nineveh prior to them committing it.
[00:27:12] God knows all things. He's sovereign over all things. He's showing us through this text that he is both indignant towards sin, that's angry towards sin and evil, and deeply compassionate towards sinners.
[00:27:29] Their evil has come up before me.
[00:27:32] This is similar to what he says in Exodus 2:25, when his people are being oppressed by the Egyptians and they cry out to God, even though they didn't deserve for God's deliverance and salvation.
[00:27:45] Says God saw the people of Israel and God knew their evil has come up before me. God says this statement is all about God's grace and compassion.
[00:28:01] He hates sin, he hates evil, and he will punish it.
[00:28:07] He has punished it, but he is a lover of his sinful people, not just from the nation of Israel, but across the globe.
[00:28:22] Their evil has come up before me.
[00:28:25] Their wickedness has come up before me.
[00:28:28] Their destruction has come up before me, and I'm not okay. God says to just sit back and let it happen out of deep compassion. I'm going to act.
[00:28:42] I was in a conversation with Sidney the other day, and I just.
[00:28:50] Any of you ever go, I struggle with compassion.
[00:28:54] Here's what the word compassion means. The word compassion means to suffer with.
[00:28:58] Okay, so compassion means to suffer with. Empathy means to suffer in.
[00:29:04] Okay, so we're talking about God's compassion, His ability and willingness to suffer with his people.
[00:29:11] I struggle with compassion. And as I was articulating this struggle with compassion, this irritability toward people, this impatience toward people, this just honestly desire just to want to recluse myself and be alone and not talk to anybody because everybody else is the problem, and I'm the one. I mean, you're thinking all these kinds of things. Cindy and I just had a really sweet conversation of being reminded of, like, yeah, that's how people in the Bible are.
[00:29:35] Moses was like that.
[00:29:36] David from time to time was like that.
[00:29:40] On and on and on it goes. Solomon was like that. Jonah's like that. We're like that.
[00:29:46] But do you know who is always compassionate?
[00:29:50] Jesus.
[00:29:52] Jesus is. He is the embodiment of compassion.
[00:29:57] This is who God is.
[00:30:00] Compassion isn't just something God does.
[00:30:03] Compassion is at the very heart of God's being.
[00:30:07] It is who he is.
[00:30:10] And God's compassion doesn't just feel what we feel, even though he does.
[00:30:16] Calvin said once that God didn't just put on our flesh, he put on our feelings.
[00:30:23] God entered into human history over 2,000 years ago in the person of Jesus Christ.
[00:30:29] And he didn't just put on flesh, he put on our feelings. He is a high priest who's not unable to sympathize, but one who in every way has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.
[00:30:40] But God's compassion doesn't just stop at his ability to feel suffering. With his people. God's compassion leads him to move.
[00:30:51] It leads him to action.
[00:30:53] It leads him to do something I about our condition, to bring about actual deliverance, actual healing. Jesus is the embodiment of compassion.
[00:31:05] Jesus, during his life on earth, had compassion on the crowds.
[00:31:10] Matthew 9:36 says, When Jesus saw the crowds, he had compassion for them because they were harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd. I mean, I don't typically feel that when I look upon the crowds of our culture.
[00:31:27] I don't look at the brokenness of our culture and all of the depravity and all of the craziness going on in the world. I don't look at that and instinctively feel a sense of suffering with these people.
[00:31:40] Jesus does.
[00:31:45] Jesus had compassion for individuals, so he didn't just care about the crowd. He had this uncanny and otherworldly ability to stop in the middle of all that he was doing and all of the pressures and all of the needs being imposed upon him by those following him and look eye to eye with a person and have deep compassion for that person.
[00:32:07] Luke 7:13 14 says, and when the Lord saw her, that's a widow. Jesus is being followed by crowds and crowds of people. A widow comes up who's just buried her son, followed by crowds of people at a funeral procession. And as easy as it would have been, in light of all of the busyness in his life, to walk right past the woman, Jesus stops and he had compassion on her.
[00:32:30] And he said to her, do not weep. Golly, he says, do not weep.
[00:32:37] Then he came up and touched the buyer, and the bearers stood still. And he said, young man, I say to you, arise.
[00:32:45] Jesus had compassion on the crowds.
[00:32:49] Jesus has compassion on individuals.
[00:32:54] And the fullest display of his compassion is in Luke 23:34. While hanging on the cross, though perfect in all of his being and all of his ways, never sinned, never thought a sinful thought, never wronged anyone, though he had been tempted in every way as we have, yet he was without sin. Jesus hangs on a criminal's cross in our place, looks down at the people, mocking him, ridiculing him, spitting upon him, calling him a false messiah, crucifying him, and says, father, forgive them, for they know not what they do, and they cast lots to divide his garments.
[00:33:40] You ever feel alone?
[00:33:43] Jesus knows what it's like to feel alone.
[00:33:46] You ever feel betrayed?
[00:33:49] Jesus knows what it's like to be betrayed.
[00:33:52] You ever feel like you don't have any friends?
[00:33:55] All of his friends left him, and yet he permeated compassion.
[00:34:07] This is who he is.
[00:34:10] And this is what Jonah is about to find out.
[00:34:14] That God is a God of compassion.
[00:34:17] Here's what I want us to think about as we close.
[00:34:22] How well do you know the grace of God?
[00:34:27] How well do you know the compassion of God?
[00:34:32] Have you internalized the compassion of Jesus toward you?
[00:34:38] Or is grace merely an idea, something to study, something that really belongs out there but hasn't really taken root in here?
[00:34:57] How. How do we internalize the grace of God?
[00:35:02] So what I want to encourage us to do.
[00:35:04] How do we internalize the grace of God in the Gospel?
[00:35:08] As we confess our sin and we confess our self righteousness?
[00:35:18] Here's the grace of God that while you and I were still sinners, Christ died for us.
[00:35:24] That you can sit today. I can sit today. We can stand and sing. If you're a believer in Jesus, fully confident that you could never be more loved than you are right now by the Father, that you could never be more accepted than you are right now by the Son, that you could never be more helped than you are right now by the Spirit, that you have a relationship, a full blown, loving, affectionate relationship with God, not because of anything that you've ever done or ever could do, but all because of what Jesus has done on your behalf and on mine.
[00:36:01] Grace is getting what you did not deserve, what you do not deserve.
[00:36:07] Grace is getting what I don't deserve.
[00:36:10] Have you internalized that?
[00:36:13] And don't be so quick to say yes, this isn't a matter of saved or not saved necessarily.
[00:36:19] But for those of us, there are many of us who we know it, we believe Jesus, we've been rescued by his grace, we're filled with His Spirit.
[00:36:29] And this message of grace at some point has become non internal to us.
[00:36:39] And as we'll see in Jonah's response next week without a spoiler, Jonah doesn't respond well to this call from God to go preach to the Ninevites.
[00:36:51] I mean, there are just too many times in our life where we are unwilling to forgive that person.
[00:36:57] We're unwilling to extend grace to that person.
[00:37:02] We're unwilling to whatever, whatever the case is. We're too willing to harbor bitterness and resentment.
[00:37:09] Have you internalized the grace of God for you?
[00:37:14] Here's the good news for all of us who struggle with that in the room. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. And so what we ought to do is we ought to confess both our sin and confess our self righteousness. Today we have nothing to bring to God that would impress him.
[00:37:40] And so in our confession, do what David did in Psalm 51 when he committed the sin with Bathsheba.
[00:37:46] David didn't go to God and say, hey, God, on the basis of my mostly good life, except for this one terrible thing that I did, would you have mercy on me? He didn't do that.
[00:37:58] He pleaded with God on the basis of one thing, the compassion and mercy of God.
[00:38:06] And so when we do that, God, I plead with you on the basis of your mercy and your compassion for me alone. And I know your compassion and your mercy toward me, because I can look at the cross and see it in full.
[00:38:19] My sin has been paid for that I am righteous in your sight before you because of Christ and what Christ has done on my behalf.
[00:38:29] And then pray that the Holy Spirit, in light of that growing in the knowledge of his compassion, would make you and I more compassionate people for his glory. Does this make sense?
[00:38:39] I'm excited to walk through the book with you. It's going to be great. I'm going to pray for you.
