Episode Transcript
[00:00:16] Amen. I remember a specific moment when I was a kid. I don't know how old I was, but this is before I moved in with my grandparents. They adopted me at age 13. My mom had passed away when I was 7. And so I lived with my stepdad between 7 and 13. And I remember a specific moment where I was supposed to be in bed, but for whatever reason, I got up out of bed and I walked into the living room, and my stepdad was watching a movie called Saving Private Ryan. So if you've never seen the movie Saving Private Ryan, it is, I think, one of the most effective war movies. I don't know that I can call it. It's not an enjoyable movie by any stretch of the imagination, but it is effective. And so as I walked into the living room, he had just turned the movie on, and it was the D Day scene where. Hey, babe, that's my K.
[00:01:03] The D Day scene where the Allies are storming the beaches of Normandy, and as the gates on the boat get dropped, they just get plowed down by Nazi forces.
[00:01:17] And so watching this scene, and it really impacted me, so much so that I actually had to cover my eyes because of how realistic it was at the time. And I just went back into bed and went to sleep and didn't watch the movie in full until many years later. I say all this to say what's interesting about D Day. And I didn't know this until I read this in a book this week. This might just be common history for many of you, but when the Allies stormed the beaches of Normandy, what is now called D Day, that happened on June 6, 1944.
[00:01:45] And when that happened, the US and its allies had already effectively won the war. Okay, so the Nazis were defeated at that point. They had nowhere to go. And so this was the final quarter, so to speak, of a war that had already been won. The war ended when the Nazis surrendered on May 8th of 1945. So 11 months later, they call that VE Day, was when the Nazis finally surrendered to the Allies and the war was over. And what was interesting about thinking about this historical reality is thinking about those guys storming the beaches of Normandy, going into battle, knowing many of them were not going to make it. They were going to die, though the war had already been won. Kind of reminds us a little bit of the reality of the Christian life.
[00:02:35] The Christian life is a war.
[00:02:39] I think it's common for us to wake up every day thinking, believing that we're living in peacetime.
[00:02:48] So we expect peace, we expect comfort. We expect ease. And when those things don't happen and suffering comes our way, or trial, or temptation, or we fall to sin again, whatever the case is that you and I experience, it's surprising.
[00:03:05] But the reality is all of the New Testament attests to this, that you and I are living in a war. And it's not just a spiritual war. Outside of us, though, that's certainly a reality. We don't wage war against flesh and blood, but against the rulers and the principalities. Paul says in the book of Ephesians. But much of this war doesn't just happen outside of us, spiritual war. It happens in our hearts, that there's actually a war going on in your heart and in my heart. If you are a follower of Jesus.
[00:03:36] And when somebody turns from sin and believes upon Jesus, Jesus says in John, chapter three, that they are born from above, they're born of the Spirit. And the way the Apostle Paul writes about this reality in his letter to the Romans in chapter seven, he says, it's kind of like this. It's like, I don't do the things I want to do, and I do the very things I hate.
[00:03:59] And he kind of. It's almost like you're reading the inner workings of the Diary of a Madman. But I totally relate to it.
[00:04:07] It's like, I don't do the things I want to do. I do the very things I hate. Who's going to deliver me from this body, oh, wretched man that I am? And then he launches into the good news of what has been done on his behalf through faith in Jesus. He's articulating a war going on inside of his heart. So you need not believe, if you're a Christian, that because you're suffering, because you're struggling with indwelling sin and you hate that sin and you want to love God more, but you feel like you don't love God enough. And all those kinds of things, like, welcome to Christianity and praise God that the spirit of God lives in you and that you do feel that war.
[00:04:41] So the reason I bring all this up is to say that Jonah has a war going on inside of him.
[00:04:47] And we followed it throughout the whole book.
[00:04:50] Okay? So Jonah is called by God. He's a prophet of God. He's called by God to take a message of repentance or a message of destruction, actually, to take a message of destruction to a group of people called the Ninevites. These were the enemies of the Israelite. People hated, hated them.
[00:05:09] Want you to go to the Ninevites. And I want you to say this. In 40 days, you're going to be overthrown. And Jonah's like, I'm not doing that. I'm going the opposite way. And we find out why in just a little while. He goes the opposite way to a place called Tarshish, gets on a boat. God sends a storm.
[00:05:22] The storm is so intense that it almost breaks up the boat. And so Jonah goes to the sailors on the boat and he says, toss me in. If you do that, God's gonna calm the storm on your behalf. And so that's what happens. They throw him in the ocean or in the sea. God causes the sea to cease. And as Jonah's sinking down into the depths of the sea, God sends a great fish or whale to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah is in the belly of the fish for three days.
[00:05:48] And while in the belly of the fish, it seems like Jonah kind of hits a spiritual high of sorts. He begins to recognize that he needs God's grace. And so he cries out to God for mercy. And God delivers him, says that God calls the fish to spit up Jonah onto dry land. And so that's what does. That's what the fish does. Jonah goes to Nineveh, and He says, In 40 days, you're gonna be overthrown. And the people of Nineveh repentance. And that's where we find Jonah. In this particular scene this morning, in verse five, the people of Nineveh, the leaders of Nineveh, everyone, man, woman, child, repent.
[00:06:26] They confess their need and they cry out to God for mercy.
[00:06:34] And that's where we. We find Jonah. But the question we want to answer today, or the question that we want to spend a little bit of time thinking about, is as we see this inner heart war happening inside of Jonah, who is a believer, by the way.
[00:06:49] Okay? So this has brought me great encouragement as I've walked through the book of Jonah, in studying and preparing these sermons, is just to be reminded, like, what a mess Jonah is.
[00:06:58] Like, he's just an absolute ridiculous mess. And he's a believer at the same time.
[00:07:05] And so what does. What does God do? How does God approach Jonah? What's God's method with Jonah in this particular scene? I think we see it on full display, and there are a few things about it I think that hopefully will.
[00:07:19] Will encourage us this morning. So let's look at verse 5.
[00:07:25] Verse 5 of chapter 4 says, Jonah went out of the city and sat to the east of the city and made a booth for himself there.
[00:07:34] He sat under it in the shade till he should see what would become of the city. Why did God. I'm sorry? Why did Jonah go outside the city? It's because of what we're told. In chapter three, verse 10, at the end of chapter three, it says that God relented of the disaster that was to come upon Nineveh because Nineveh repented of their sin and. And believed upon God the disaster that God was going to bring upon them because of their evil, wicked ways. God relented from it. He turned from it. Because that's what God does. When sinners repent, it's not when sinners get their act together and start living better lives. It's when sinners relent, God relents.
[00:08:22] When sinners repent, God gives grace. It doesn't matter what the sin is or who the sinner is.
[00:08:30] And so because God relents from disaster and gives grace, Jonah in chapter four, verses one through four, says that Jonah saw it as exceedingly evil of God to do this. And he was angry.
[00:08:46] And so in his anger, he goes outside of the city. He steps outside of the city walls, and it says that he makes a booth for himself in order to shade, to provide shade for himself in hopes that maybe God would change his mind or maybe the Ninevites would do something they weren't supposed to do and God would bring about the disaster that Jonah so greatly wanted to see happen to the people of. Of Nineveh.
[00:09:13] There are a lot of things to be said about why Jonah's doing this and what all this means.
[00:09:21] I do think it's important to note that because of Jonah's bitterness toward his enemies, because of his hatred toward these particular people, Jonah was completely inactive as it pertained to the mission of God.
[00:09:35] I mean, Jonah's living a missionary's dream, okay? A church planter's dream. A Christian's dream.
[00:09:42] Mass revival, okay? Not from a great sermon, by the way.
[00:09:48] Like, God's going to overthrow you in 40 days. And everybody. That's amazing. Like, that is amazing.
[00:09:55] Everybody repents.
[00:09:57] And because Jonah has this contempt in his heart, he steps outside of the city and he. He builds a booth and he pouts. And he looks out upon the Ninevites and he just hopes for their destruction. He was totally inactive. What, Jonah. What should Jonah have been doing in this moment? Well, mass revival had taken place.
[00:10:16] Jonah had an easy job at this moment. He could have gone back into Nineveh and just taught them the ways of God.
[00:10:23] Okay, you've repented. They don't know Anything.
[00:10:25] They don't know who God is. They don't know the beauty of his character. As we talked about last week as Jonah's like, hey, this is the reason that I turned from you and ran the other way in the first place is because I know this about you. You're compassionate, you're kind, you're slow to anger, you're abounding in steadfast love. I know those things. I knew what you were gonna do and so that's why I left. Like, the Ninevites don't know any of this about God. What do they keep saying throughout the course of the book? They keep saying, perhaps God will give us mercy.
[00:11:00] Perhaps.
[00:11:02] Well, that word perhaps derives from the heart and mind of a person who doesn't know the character of God.
[00:11:09] So Jonah had the opportunity to go back into Nineveh and just in light of all of these people sitting in sackcloth and ashes and crying out to mercy, say, hey, this is who God is.
[00:11:19] And this is what it means to follow Yahweh.
[00:11:22] But he doesn't do it.
[00:11:25] And so a question I want us to consider, just first question I want us to consider is what, if anything, is keeping you back, friends, from living on the mission of God?
[00:11:38] What, if anything, might be keeping you back from engagement in your particular context around the people that God has placed in your life that don't know this God that you know, Is it bitterness?
[00:11:55] Is it apathy?
[00:11:57] Is it unbelief? Like God could never save them. Hey, he saved you.
[00:12:04] And as we'll see in our brother Jonah, like so much of our problem lies, I think, in this reality of grace, amnesia, that we simply have just forgotten what he's done.
[00:12:20] And so Jonah steps outside the city.
[00:12:23] I don't want to talk to him. I don't want to see him. I'm going to step outside the city. I'm going to build this little booth for my. And who knows what that booth looked like. It was probably pretty pathetic given the fact that God is about to do what he's going to do with this plant.
[00:12:35] Probably didn't shade him very well from the hot Mediterranean sun. And he's suffering under his own little booth, wallowing in his own self centeredness.
[00:12:46] So this is where we find our friend, our brother, in this ridiculous, sad, self absorbed state of bitterness, looking about, looking out upon the city and just hoping for.
[00:13:01] Hoping for the worst. How does God respond to Jonah in the midst of this moment? We ask this question a lot at Redemption Hill. For you and I to consider that in our worst moments, if you do belong to Jesus, if you are a follower of Jesus, in your worst moments, what do you believe is God's heart posture towards you then in that moment?
[00:13:22] Not after you confess and repent, though you should do that. We all should do that.
[00:13:29] Not after you walk in victory for a little while, but in that moment, what's God's heart posture towards you like? What do you think he's like?
[00:13:39] How do you think he looks at you?
[00:13:42] What do you think he thinks about you in that particular moment? I think we get a sweet picture of that through how he responds to Jonah. I mean, this is ridiculous, isn't it?
[00:13:51] Unfortunately for us, our lives are not written down in the Bible for the whole world to see.
[00:13:58] Okay, but let's look at how God responds to Jonah in this moment of immense weakness.
[00:14:05] Verse 6.
[00:14:07] Now, the Lord God.
[00:14:09] The Lord God appointed a plant and made it come up over Jonah that it might be a shade over his head to save him from his discomfort.
[00:14:22] So Jonah was exceedingly glad because of the plant. Interesting phrase.
[00:14:30] When he says that Jonah was exceedingly glad. It's almost like the direct opposite of Jonah being exceedingly angry because of what God had done for the Ninevites. So if he saw that it was great evil that God had forgiven the Ninevites, now he's saying he rejoiced with great joy over the plant.
[00:14:47] Most biblical commentators, for what it's worth, believed that this plant was a castor oil plant, which is a large plant that produces big leaves that would have been big enough to actually shade Jonah, provide adequate shade for Jonah through the hot Mediterranean sun.
[00:15:04] So how does God respond to Jonah in the midst of his rebellion? The first thing God does is he's going to disciple Jonah through a demonstration of his sovereignty.
[00:15:17] He's going to disciple Jonah or teach Jonah in this moment through a demonstration of his sovereignty. And he's done this throughout the entire story, hasn't he?
[00:15:29] He's shown us that he's sovereign over the elements, that God is the one who brings the storm and God is the one who takes the storm away.
[00:15:41] God's over that.
[00:15:42] We see this in the life of Jesus, almost a direct parallel, showing that Jesus is the better Jonah, that Jesus is the better prophet, that he's the one who completed and fulfilled perfectly what Jonah did not do.
[00:15:55] Jesus is asleep on the boat, the disciples, a storm is about to break up their boat. So they wake up Jesus and Jesus says, peace be still, and calms the winds and the waves of the sea. Because Jesus alone has sovereignty over the elements.
[00:16:12] He showed us in chapter 1, verse 17 that God has sovereignty over salvation.
[00:16:23] God has sovereignty over salvation. God is the one who appoints the great fish to swallow up Jonah. He saves Jonah so that Jonah would not drown and die. And it's in the belly of the fish that Jonah recognizes, at least to some extent, his sinfulness and his need and cries out to God for mercy. In chapter three, verse five, we see that God is the one who's underneath the Ninevites belief in God.
[00:16:52] Why did the Ninevites believe in God? Why did they recognize their sin and confess their sin? Is because God was sovereign over all of it.
[00:17:01] Romans 8:30 tells us this. It says, and those whom he predestined, he also called.
[00:17:10] And those whom he called, he also justified.
[00:17:14] That means to be made right with God in his sight. And those whom he justified, he also glorified. So essentially, what the apostle Paul's saying is, from beginning to end, salvation belongs to the Lord. And this is what Jonah says in chapter 2, verse 10, salvation belongs to the Lord. And this ought to be great news. And I think you and I, because we are Westerners, have a propensity, if we're not careful, to idolize autonomy, like we just want some part in it. No, but it was my faith. No, but it was my repentance. No, but I. Like, I chose. Like I made a decision. Okay, but here's the emphatic teaching of the Bible from beginning to end. It all belongs to God. He's sovereign over all of it. Before the foundation of the earth was laid, before you took a breath, friends, before you had the ability to articulate that you're a sinner and that you need a savior, and that you're believing upon Christ as your Savior. God was underneath it all.
[00:18:16] And that ought to add immense comfort to you, not lead you to want to go out and debate semantics with another Christian at a coffee shop, but to take great comfort in that reality.
[00:18:31] If God was the one who initiated it in you, and he was you only love because he first loved you, John says in First John, chapter four, then God will see you all the way through to the end.
[00:18:47] He's in control of everything. He's sovereign over it all. And we see this all throughout, all throughout the story of Jonah.
[00:19:02] So he displays his sovereignty in that he's sovereign over the elements. He's sovereign over salvation. But he also demonstrates his sovereignty to Jonah in this, that he is sovereign over Jonah's comforts.
[00:19:18] Like it's not Enough for God to just make you and I righteous in his sight. That would be plenty.
[00:19:27] Like, it would be plenty for God to just say, righteous. Not going to hell, going to heaven.
[00:19:33] You're just. But he doesn't do that, does he?
[00:19:35] He adopts you and I.
[00:19:37] That's an unnecessary thing for him to do.
[00:19:41] He doesn't have to do that.
[00:19:44] Like adoption from a parent. We have families in our church who have adopted children. We have people in our church who have been adopted. I was adopted.
[00:19:52] Like, adoption is an extraordinary act of love from one person to another.
[00:19:59] It's a choosing knowing that the person or child that they're choosing probably has a lot of baggage, but it's a willingness to move toward that child and snatch them out of peril and bring them into their family as an act of love.
[00:20:16] So it's not enough for God to just merely justify you and I. God also provides your comforts.
[00:20:22] And he provides mine.
[00:20:25] Says that he appointed a great plant to come up over Jonah.
[00:20:33] Why? That it might be a shade over his head to save him from his discomfort. That is. That's otherworldly kindness.
[00:20:43] Jonah's acting like a fool.
[00:20:45] He's being selfish. He's being rebellious. He's being.
[00:20:49] He's being hateful and spiteful.
[00:20:51] He's turning away from God again.
[00:20:54] He's hating people made in the image of God. He's being unforgiving. He's being bitter. He's doing all these things. And what does God do?
[00:21:02] He comforts him.
[00:21:06] That's just amazing.
[00:21:08] James 1:17 says, Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of Lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.
[00:21:30] So I want us to consider, how might your life look different if you and I began to learn that everything in life is a gift?
[00:21:42] Everything.
[00:21:44] You're like. But I worked really hard to get this job. Who gave you the gifts to do the job?
[00:21:53] Yeah. But I worked really hard to make this money so that I could put this food on the table and I could provide for my family and et cetera.
[00:22:02] It's because we think this way, at least in some degree, that we lack gratitude.
[00:22:10] Everything in life is a gift.
[00:22:14] Everything.
[00:22:16] Your children are a gift.
[00:22:19] Your spouse is a gift. Your friends are a gift.
[00:22:23] Your job is a gift. Your money. Every dollar is a gift. Every single dollar.
[00:22:30] Your home is gift.
[00:22:35] Like, if you're here this morning and you have shelter to go home to, God has given you that as a comfort.
[00:22:47] When you taste that food over lunch, whatever that food is that you're going to go eat and your taste buds begin to work. And that's a gift.
[00:22:58] Clean water is a gift.
[00:23:04] Everything comes down, every good and every perfect thing comes down from not some impersonal force, not from the universe, but from the Father of Light with whom there is no variation or shadow.
[00:23:24] This God who appoints a plant to cover this rebellious, sinful prophet is the same God that provides comforts to you and I today.
[00:23:35] He's sovereign over over our comforts.
[00:23:43] But these aren't the only kinds of gifts that the Father provides that are good and perfect. And from above we also see that God is sovereign over Jonah's trials.
[00:23:53] He's sovereign over his salvation, he's sovereign over his comforts, and he's sovereign over his trials. This is a bit of a perplexing text and as I was talking to Sidney about it earlier this week, and we're just kind of wrestling with some of the implications of it. If you're not.
[00:24:13] For some of us, it might be difficult to hear what I'm about to read that God does to Jonah in light of the plant that he's just provided and not walk away thinking that sounds a little bit maniacal, sounds a little bit mean for God to do this. Let's read, let's read what God does.
[00:24:30] Verse 7. But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the plant so that it withered.
[00:24:39] When the sun rose, God appointed a scorching east wind.
[00:24:44] And the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so that he was faint.
[00:24:49] And he asked that he might die and said, it is better for me to die than to live.
[00:24:59] So while God was the one who appointed the salvation, appointed the comfort, he's also the one who appoints the trial.
[00:25:10] He appoints a worm to eat the plant. He appoints a scorching east wind. Did God do this to harm Jonah?
[00:25:20] No.
[00:25:22] God did this to heal Jonah.
[00:25:28] God didn't do this to harm Jonah.
[00:25:31] He did it to heal him.
[00:25:34] I've shared that. Joni Eareckson Tada is one of my favorite authors. Favorite modern day authors. You've never read her? You should.
[00:25:43] She became a quadriplegic when she was a kid. Dove into shallow water, broke her neck.
[00:25:50] Prolific Christian author. Loves Jesus, loves his word. Amazing testimony.
[00:25:56] And she tells the story of when she was diagnosed with cancer.
[00:25:59] As an older adult, her and her husband go to the doctor's office and the doctor, you know, she. She gets the diagnosis and they're back in the car and she just has this moment where she's like, I don't understand what God is doing in this.
[00:26:12] And she said her husband says something along the lines of this, you know, in God's word, he never promises not to harm our body, but he always promises to never harm our soul.
[00:26:29] God's after something much deeper than Jonah's comfort.
[00:26:34] And for those of us who are parents, it's not difficult to see some reality behind this and that. What would your kids become if you gave them everything they wanted in every moment?
[00:26:48] That's not your job.
[00:26:50] That wouldn't be a loving and kind thing for a parent to do.
[00:26:56] Trials unlike anything else have a way of revealing what needs to be revealed in Jonah's heart, which is idolatry and self righteousness.
[00:27:09] God is in a sense acting like a good surgeon.
[00:27:18] And in doing this, he reveals some dark things in Jonah's heart. And this is something really friends. And I don't like this reality. I've spoken to one of my counselors one time after a session as I was kind of venting about some things, by the end of it, he said, hey man, you know, And I forget the way he said this, but essentially he just said, you know, you really hate pain.
[00:27:42] It's like, yeah, I do. I really hate pain.
[00:27:47] But here's the thing about pain. And CS Lewis testifies to this reality. He says, pain insists upon being attended to.
[00:27:56] God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks to us in our conscience, but shouts in our pains.
[00:28:04] It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.
[00:28:10] If you and I were without pain, if we were without suffering, if we were without trial, then we would be left to sit in the thing that is killing us, namely our own idolatry and self righteousness.
[00:28:26] There's something about pain, there's something about trial that God uses as a good surgeon and a good father to free us from the thing that we need to be freed from so desperately ourselves.
[00:28:42] And that's what God is doing in Jonah's life. What does he reveal? Look at verse eight. Jonah says, it's better for me to die than to live.
[00:28:53] What is that?
[00:28:55] You ever been there?
[00:28:58] The thing something is taken from you and your gut reaction and or what you find to be your disposition of heart is, I'd rather die than live without this thing.
[00:29:12] Friends, that's an idol of the heart.
[00:29:16] An idol is simply something that's taken the place of God in your life.
[00:29:22] It's the thing that you look to trust in, rest in, that you think will bring you preeminent joy.
[00:29:32] What does it say that Jonah did? After God provided the plant, he was exceedingly joyful.
[00:29:40] That's not to say that gifts ought not bring us joy.
[00:29:43] We ought to take joy in our house, joy in our food, joy in our friendships, joy in our relationships, joy in our health, all those things.
[00:29:51] But when those things become in ends, in and of themselves the source of our joy, then this is the response when it's taken away from us. I'd rather die than live.
[00:30:06] Now Jonah was blinded in his idolatry. He just couldn't see it. And so God, in loving kindness and gentleness, sends a worm and says, I'm going to take it away from you.
[00:30:21] And take it away so that Jonah would, as it says in the valley of vision, gain his place of vision in the valley, in his place of pain, in his place of trial, Jonah, hopefully, by the grace of God. And we don't know how Jonah's story ends, but by the grace of God, Jonah would see more clearly that there is a super. There's a preeminent joy over the joy of the plant.
[00:30:49] That over all his comforts and all his delights, all the things that he hopes for in this life, there's a superseding joy beyond that, that God, his Father and ours is working to get him to see.
[00:31:07] Jonah, ironically, in chapter two, verse eight, says this. In the belly of the fish. That those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love.
[00:31:17] The problem is, our friend just didn't see it for himself, as is often the case, isn't it?
[00:31:26] He just didn't see it for himself. He knew that those who worship idols are miserable without seeing the idols in his own heart.
[00:31:38] But here's the beautiful reality about who God is. God does not just pursue the irreligious like the Ninevites.
[00:31:47] God pursues the religious.
[00:31:50] Who's God after in the book of Jonah?
[00:31:53] He's after the Ninevites for sure. He's after the pagan sailors for sure. He's also after Jonah.
[00:32:02] So God takes away the comforts.
[00:32:06] We see that he appoints salvation.
[00:32:09] He appoints comfort, he appoints trial.
[00:32:16] He displays his sovereignty. And then the last thing that he displays, we see in verses 9 through 11.
[00:32:24] Verses 9 through 11.
[00:32:27] But God said to Jonah, so. So God has demonstrated his sovereignty in these ways. And now he's going to teach him something through his words.
[00:32:36] So in verse nine, it says, God said to Jonah, do you do well to be angry for the plant?
[00:32:44] God is a wonderful counselor. As it says in Isaiah, chapter nine, wonderful counselors don't just diagnose problems they don't have. God has all the data. He has all the information. So this doesn't apply to God, what I'm about to say. I'm talking about humans.
[00:32:59] Good counselors don't apply quick solutions.
[00:33:04] They ask questions, good questions, heart diagnosing questions. And that's what God's doing here. God has all the data he needs. He knows everything that Jonah needs. He knows the end from the beginning. He's sovereign over all of those things. And yet he still pursues Jonah's heart with a question. Do you do well to be angry for the plant? And Jonah said, yes, I do well to be angry. Angry enough to die.
[00:33:28] 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.
[00:33:39] And should I not pity Nineveh, that great city in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left?
[00:33:50] And all so much cattle.
[00:33:56] The compassion of God runs so deep, he includes the cattle.
[00:34:05] I just want us to end in considering the word pity.
[00:34:09] What the word. What does it mean that God pitied the city of Nineveh? What does it mean that Jonah pitied the plant?
[00:34:17] So here's what we have so far, just to wrap everything up, hopefully with some clarity. Okay, Jonah has rebelled again as a believer.
[00:34:26] And in the midst of Jonah's rebellion, God is teaching Jonah, pursuing Jonah's heart and teaching him in part by displaying his sovereignty. He's sovereign over salvation. He's sovereign over his comforts. Jonah didn't work for the plant. God provided the plant, and he's sovereign over his trials. God provided the worm that ate the plant. He provided the scorching east wind. Provide all to bring Jonah to this pivotal point that you and I are at today.
[00:34:55] And then he asks this question, do you do well to be angry over the plant?
[00:35:02] So the final thing that God does in teaching Jonah is God disciples Jonah or teaches Jonah through a demonstration of his compassion, through a demonstration of his compassion.
[00:35:16] The word pity and compassion can be used almost synonymously with one another.
[00:35:22] And here's what compassion means. Here's what it means that God. Here's what it means to pity something.
[00:35:27] It's to grieve over something or someone.
[00:35:33] To have your heart broken over something or someone.
[00:35:43] See, Jonah was blinded by his own idolatry, his own idols, and by his own self righteousness. Jonah simply thought he was better than what he was.
[00:35:57] And because he measured himself against other people like the Ninevites, it was easy for him to conclude that, of course I'm better than them. I'm not murdering, I'm not raping, I'm not oppressing, I'm not doing all of these kinds of things.
[00:36:11] Jonah failed to measure himself against God because true self knowledge, friends, only comes first from a knowledge of God.
[00:36:21] You will never know yourself rightly.
[00:36:24] I will never know myself rightly unless you know yourself in comparison to God, to His holiness, his grandeur, his beauty, his perfection.
[00:36:38] It is the only true way for you and I to measure ourselves.
[00:36:45] But Jonah was.
[00:36:47] Jonah was blinded by this. And so instead of pitying people made in the image of God, Jonah grieved over and had his heart broken over the plant.
[00:37:05] And God says, jonah, as you have grieved over this plant by which you did not work for, you did not provide for yourself.
[00:37:15] I'm brokenhearted toward people and toward their lostness and their brokenness.
[00:37:27] That's what.
[00:37:28] That's what grieves the heart of God.
[00:37:32] God is grieved in his heart for sinners.
[00:37:40] And ironically enough, friends, receiving that reality is the cure for Jonah's problem and ours.
[00:37:54] Where Jonah failed, here's the cure.
[00:37:58] Where Jonah failed, where we fail, the better Jonah, Jesus was victorious.
[00:38:10] Luke 19:41 and 42. And I want you to think about this as a parallel, as a Think about Jonah's response to Nineveh. He goes outside the city.
[00:38:19] He goes outside the city to do what? Self, Preserve, pout and hope for their destruction.
[00:38:27] In Luke 19, Jesus stands outside the city and this is what it says.
[00:38:33] When he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, would that you, even you on this day, the things that make for peace, but now they are hidden from your eyes.
[00:38:52] Jesus looks out at the lostness of the city and he weeps.
[00:38:59] And he doesn't just weep over the city.
[00:39:02] He doesn't just grieve over the city. And he certainly doesn't stay outside of the city out of self preservation.
[00:39:12] He ends up outside of the city.
[00:39:15] But it's not out of self preservation. It's out of self sacrifice.
[00:39:20] And as he hangs on the cross in Luke 23:34, he says, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they're doing.
[00:39:31] God says, shouldn't I have pity on the Ninevites who don't know their right hand from their left?
[00:39:37] They don't know what they're doing.
[00:39:38] That sure does not justify their Sin, it doesn't make their sin right. As a matter of fact, the sin of the Ninevites and ours, friends, is so heinous, it's so evil, it's so treacherous that God himself had to die for it.
[00:39:57] But the love of God is so mind blowingly massive, it's so all consuming, it's so otherworldly, it's so life changing that Jesus, out of pure self sacrifice and love, went outside of the city gates, hung upon a cross, took all the wrath that you and I deserve because of our sins, once for all, stopped breathing, was buried, and then on the third day rose victorious over it.
[00:40:30] That good news, that gospel.
[00:40:34] The gospel is not something you live out.
[00:40:39] The gospel is something that's happened.
[00:40:41] And the gospel is something you are to receive as a gift, as the greatest gift.
[00:40:51] And it's in receiving of that good news again that the Holy Spirit begins to change our affections from living under the illusion of our own self righteousness and from our idols.
[00:41:10] The grace of God is the cure.
[00:41:14] It's God and his grace that pursued Jonah the whole time.
[00:41:19] We don't know what happened to our friend.
[00:41:23] But what are you going to do with this?
[00:41:27] Maybe that's the point of the cliffhanger, is that God leaves us with an open ended book and he says, friends, what are you going to do with my grace?
[00:41:42] Are you going to receive it?
[00:41:45] Are you going to recognize that you, that I, on my own, am desperately hopeless?
[00:41:57] That face to face with the Holy God, nothing I ever do will make me right with him.
[00:42:08] And so face to face with the Holy God, I must be desperate for one thing and it's a rescuer.
[00:42:17] Will you receive his grace?
[00:42:22] And in receiving his grace again, even if it's for the thousandth time, if you're a Christian, as Jonah was a believer God saying Jonah, the same thing that the Ninevites needed is the thing that you need, son.
[00:42:43] So I just want to conclude with three realities of what happens when you and I receive the grace of God in the person of Jesus Christ.
[00:42:57] Tim Keller reminds us that when we look to Jesus, he says we can only look and wonder at such a heart.
[00:43:06] The contrast between Jonah and Jesus could not be more stark.
[00:43:11] And as we, as we look to the person of Jesus, as we close and we get ready for communion and we get ready to sing, we picture Jesus in our minds. So let me invite you to do this. Let me invite you to close your eyes for just a moment.
[00:43:35] If you are a believer in Jesus Christ, if you have said yes to Jesus as your Savior and as your Lord.
[00:43:44] This person Jesus is your righteousness.
[00:43:55] Would you dare to believe that?
[00:43:57] I want you to picture this Jesus.
[00:44:00] Picture the person of Jesus.
[00:44:03] Picture the person of Jesus hanging on a cross for you.
[00:44:12] It's by looking to Jesus that the Word of God, the Bible, becomes precious to us.
[00:44:23] When the Word came to Jonah, Jonah fled the other way.
[00:44:27] What's going to lead you and I to not do the same?
[00:44:31] But when we read the Word of God to seek by the power of the Spirit to obey it, it's looking to Jesus and being reminded of what he's done for you.
[00:44:44] It's by looking to Jesus that we begin to see the world as God sees the world.
[00:44:54] When we look to Jesus and we remember what Jesus has done for you on the cross, then and only then will you be able to look out at other ethnicities, other countries, other people groups and see them as God sees them.
[00:45:21] It's by looking to Jesus and looking to Jesus alone and what he's done for you through his grace that you and I, by the power of the Spirit, will learn to be people of grace.
[00:45:35] Being a person of grace doesn't mean you compromise truth.
[00:45:41] But being a person of grace means that we hear about non Christians becoming Christians and maybe people who have hurt us before being forgiven and being blessed by God. And we rejoice in those things because we recognize how deeply we need grace.
