I want to tell you what our friends at Unchained Prison Ministry were up to last weekend. They rode three hundred and something miles down towards south Texas and held a worship service in the prison down there. They had one on Friday and one on Saturday. Then they all rode home Saturday evening. Speedy said they were exhausted but had an incredible time of worship and had two men come to have a life-changing relationship with God through His Son Jesus because of it.
And we can all say “amen” to that. But let me ask you some questions. First of all, was it really worth it? I mean, really. Was it worth the time and expense to ride those Harleys nearly 700 miles round trip just to see 2 men saved? Couldn’t that time and money be spent elsewhere with more effect? Well, I’ll tell you how I feel about that. I hope you are sitting out there thinking, “Those are horrible questions, Todd!”
Because they are horrible questions, especially in a church that has as its statement of purpose that we will do whatever it takes to lead people to have a life-changing relationship with Jesus. Ok, so we all agree that what Unchained did was a great thing ordained by God, led by God, for God’s glory, right?
Now let me ask another question and I want you to just think about it. Don’t answer out loud. What if one of those two men saved was the man that killed your wife? Or what if one of those men was the man who raped your daughter? Does that change your view? The man planned, chose, premeditated something that would cause you great personal harm and overwhelming grief. Are you still glad that man received grace from God? Or does grace seem unfair to you?
With that mindset you come to understand a little of what Jonah was going through when God told him to go preach to Nineveh. Nineveh was the enemy. They had warred against Israel for years and years. They were vicious and unmerciful. They were savages. Not only that but they weren’t God’s chosen people. They didn’t even know who Abraham was much less have a part in the covenant between him and God. So when God told Jonah to go over there and preach to them, he didn’t want to because he didn’t want them to receive God’s grace. Because they were really bad people who didn’t deserve it.
In Jonah chapter 4 we see Jonah just coming out of some of God’s grace. God had provided a fish to keep Jonah from drowning and then caused the fish to vomit Jonah onto dry land. And while some grace feels and smells better than others, this grace was welcome by Jonah. God had gone to great lengths to protect and provide for him and Jonah was glad for God’spreferential treatment.
We all enjoy preferential treatment, right? When I flew to Nicaragua a couple of months ago, I was in the cheap seats in the back with all the other peasants. And this was especially difficult for me because I had known what it is like to have preferential treatment and this wasn’t it. I felt like just one more head of cattle. But on my previous trip I somehow flew first class.
We still don’t know how it happened. I didn’t pay for. Didn’t ask for it. The missionary didn’t arrange it. There were plenty of cheap seats to be had but for some reason my tickets got me on board first at the front of the plane with plenty of room for my stuff. I had a big leather recliner to sit in. And when the others got on board, I was already sitting there like Donald Trump drinking a cold Dr. Pepper, wiping my face with a hot towel and enjoying a first-run movie with a flight attendant asking me if I needed anything else.
You know how long it took me to get used to that? Not long! And so, on this last trip when we are being herded into our cramped little cattle car I passed by the first class section and I see this little kid sitting in that big leather chair, I almost got mad. It’s a little kid. He doesn’t deserve to be there. He didn’t do anything to deserve that. He’ll probably sleep through most of the flight anyhow. That should be me. I need room to stretch my long legs.
And that may sound pretty silly to you but you’ve never had that first-class preferential treatment like I have! You probably don’t even deserve it either. J
Jonah chapter 4is our text today and it is at times fascinating, funny and confusing. It is unlike any other biblical book you will read. The author, who was probably Jonah, tells a fascinating story but the ending is horribly written. The last sentence is God asking Jonah a question but we never hear his answer. We don’t know much about Jonah and this book doesn’t paint him in a good light. If I was writing about me I think I would have worked on that a little more but what do I know?
As you remember, God called Jonah to go east young man and preach to Nineveh. Jonah goes west, encounters Moby Dick and decides it is better to just do what God says to do than spend any more time with him. So he goes to Nineveh and with one sentence the whole city has revival and is saved by God’s compassion for them. And Jonah is furious. He’s mad because he sees Nineveh getting that preferential treatment that they don’t even deserve. And we pick up in chapter 4 with Jonah voicing his opinion of the matter with God. Watch what happens.
But to Jonah this seemed very wrong, and he became angry.2 He prayed to the Lord,“Isn’t this what I said, Lord, when I was still at home? That is what I tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity.
***Let me stop right there for a second. Do you hear Jonah’s tone with God? He points his bony little finger at God and accuses him of being compassionate and loving! I told you it was funny. Let’s continue.
3 Now, Lord, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live.” 4 But the Lord replied, “Is it right for you to be angry?” 5 Jonah had gone out and sat down at a place east of the city. There he made himself a shelter, sat in its shade and waited to see what would happen to the city. 6 Then the Lord God provided a leafy plant and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head to ease his discomfort, and Jonah was very happy about the plant. 7 But at dawn the next day God provided a worm, which chewed the plant so that it withered. 8 When the sun rose, God provided a scorching east wind, and the sun blazed on Jonah’s head so that he grew faint. He wanted to die, and said, “It would be better for me to die than to live.” 9 But God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?” “It is,” he said. “And I’m so angry I wish I were dead.” 10 But the Lordsaid, “You have been concerned about this plant, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. 11 And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left—and also many animals?”
Jonah, the great evangelist, the Billy Graham of his time, walks in the west gate of Nineveh, says his one sentence and walks out the east gate. He then goes up on a hill overlooking the city and throws a huge pity party with God the only guest. He’s not the first preacher to get depressed after a great revival, nor is he the last. Elijah wanted to die also after he had called fire down from heaven.
Martin Luther and Charles Spurgeon wrote about being depressed. I even heard just this week a popular radio preacher tell how he often struggles with it especially on Sunday nights and Mondays after having great worship on Sunday morning. I can relate to a pastor I heard say one time that the hotter he burns on Sunday, the more he is charred ash on Monday. There is something physically, mentally and even spiritually exhausting about proclaiming the truth of the Word of God.
And I know that Jonah has just walked 500 miles to get to Nineveh. He probably hasn’t slept well or eaten well on this trip. He is tired. But there is something else about Jonah that we see here. I don’t know how better to describe it and it’s not anything I have read in any commentaries. But I see a type of greed or selfishness here in Jonah. It is a greed that wants all of God’s grace for himself and for his country of Israel but not for those people over there who don’t deserve it.
As if Almighty, All-powerful, All-knowing, All-loving God can only give out a certain amount of grace and then it’s all gone. Jonah not only has a skewed vision of God’s grace but also of what grace is and how it is given out. I mentioned last week that the prodigal son repented and came home and it says that his father was watching and saw him from a long way off and had compassion on him.
The father showed the prodigal son great grace. And that is a beautiful picture of how God waits for us to repent so He can show us compassion and grace. But do you remember what happened when the prodigal son’s brother came home and found everybody celebrating? In Luke 15 verse 28 it says the brother got angry and refused to join the party. He was mad that his father would show his brother grace. It was basically giving him permission to break the law.
But he, too, had a skewed vision of what grace was and how it is given out. Ironically, Jonah nails it when he complains to God about how God works. In verse 2, Jonah, being a good prophet and having read the scriptures, quotes almost exactly what Moses said in Exodus 34:6. ““The Lord, theLord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness…”
That word “gracious” has the sense of “nurturing” or “bringing up” like a good parent does with a child. Have you ever thought that God gives us grace, not because He feels sorry for us, but instead because He wants us to grow and mature and to become more like Him? And so in his sovereignty and wisdom, He shows us grace when we need it. It’s not because of His pity for us or because we deserve it. If we deserved it, it wouldn’t be grace. And it is most certainly not because He is soft on sin. But like a good parent He shows grace when He knows grace will be more teachable than justice.
Illustration: Charles Spurgeon and Joseph Parker both had churches in London in the 19th century. On one occasion, Parker commented on the poor condition of children admitted to Spurgeon's orphanage. It was reported to Spurgeon however, that Parker had criticized the orphanage itself. Spurgeon blasted Parker the next week from the pulpit. The attack was printed in the newspapers and became the talk of the town. People flocked to Parker's church the next Sunday to hear his rebuttal. "I understand Dr. Spurgeon is not in his pulpit today, and this is the Sunday they use to take an offering for the orphanage. I suggest we take a love offering here instead." The crowd was delighted. The ushers had to empty the collection plates 3 times. Later that week there was a knock at Parker's study. It was Spurgeon. "You know Parker, you have practiced grace on me. You have given me not what I deserved; you have given me what I needed. Moody Monthly, December, 1983, p. 81.
God nurtures us, giving us what we need by His great grace. Jonah then goes on to “accuse” God of being slow to anger. That word literally means to be long-tempered or the opposite of short-tempered. Notice that in the last couple of chapters that Jonah wasn’t complaining about God’s long temper. Oh, no, not Mr. “Salvation is from the Lord.” Not while Jonah was in the belly of that fish praying while he had seaweed wrapped around his head. He wasn’t complaining about God’s lack of anger there, was he?
He wanted all of God’s grace and nurturing love he could get right there. So, what makes God mad? Sin, right? And what is sin? Sin is anything that displeases God. And the Bible is full of examples of people who sinned who paid dearly for making God mad. Whole families, cities and towns have been destroyed because of God’s anger at sin. And Nineveh was about to be on that list. But what happened? What keeps God from getting angry at sin and wiping people off the planet?
We talked about it last week. Repentance brings compassion, remember? Repentance keeps God from punting us off the earth. So, all we have to do is say we are sorry to God and He shows us grace? Is that it?
Augustine was the great preacher of grace during the fourth and fifth centuries. His motto was "Love God and do as you please." Michael Horton wrote “Because we have misunderstood one of the gospel's most basic themes, Augustine's statement looks to many like a license to indulge one's sinful nature, but in reality it touches upon the motivation the Christian has for his actions. The person who has been justified by God's grace has a new, higher, and nobler motivation for holiness than the shallow, hypocritical self-righteousness or fear that seems to motivate so many religious people today.” Michael Horton, The Agony of Deceit, Moody Press, 1990, pp. 143-144.
Make no mistake. Sin angers God. He sent His Son, Jesus, to pay the price for our sin and every sin we commit is another nail in His hands and feet. He has every right to be angry at our sin. But just like Jonah said He is slow to anger when repentance is involved. Nineveh repented. The sailors on the boat Jonah was on repented. Even Jonah finally repented and did what God wanted him to do but Jonah felt he was the only one who deserved God’s grace.
Notice then in verse 2 that Jonah says God is abounding in love. His love is abounding or abundant. The picture here is just wave after wave after wave of God’s love. Have you ever felt that? Have you ever felt the waves of God’s love? Breathe. Every time you take a breath is another wave of God’s love. If anybody should be able to appreciate breathing it would be Jonah who got dumped overboard of the boat and then spent 3 days in the belly of a fish gasping for breath.
And as the waves of the ocean passed over him, even there God’s abundant love was passing over him as well. 1 Peter 5:7says, “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.” George Muller restated it this way, “It matters to Him about you.” You know, I think I can understand how a non-believer might think that that is not God’s great love. I can understand that taking another breath for them is just one more pain; one more heartache; one more trouble. But in reality, for those unsaved, unchanged, unforgiven it is just the opposite. It is just another opportunity to confess their sins, repent and ask God for forgiveness.
And if you matter to Him and if you repent then the last part of Jonah’s accusation is true as well. He says he knew God to be a God who relents from sending calamity. The word “relent” is similar to the word “repent”. They both mean to change your mind; to go from doing one thing or going one way and to then do or go the other. And God is waiting for all of us to do just that. So, what keeps you from doing that? What keeps you from giving your life completely to Him?
Let me answer that question by closing with a story I heard told about an area preacher who was in the middle of a building campaign at his church. The building was not quite finished but he decided to go check on the progress late one Friday night. He made his way through the new hallway and checked out some new rooms, dreaming of what they would look like when they were finished. He opened one door that swung out and walked into that room and looked around.
Then he went out and pushed open a door that swung in and walked into that room. The door behind him closed and there was no light so he reached for the door knob…and it hadn’t been installed yet. His heart beat a little faster knowing it was Friday night and he could possibly be stuck there for a while. But then as his eyes grew accustomed to the dark, he sees… there is another man in the room.
His heart really starts to pound. His hands get sweaty and his mouth is very dry. He summons up all his pastoral courage and asks, “Can I help you?” But the man just stares at him. He takes a step toward the man…and the man takes a step toward him. And then he realizes he is in the men’s bathroom looking into a mirror. (Dr. Joel Gregory, 7/27/10)
I believe what Jonah was really mad about, what really caused him fear and is also what keeps people from committing their lives to Jesus is what they think is a fear of encountering God but is in reality a fear of encountering themselves. Let me say that again. Our fear of encountering God is really a fear of encountering ourselves. God is gracious, slow to anger and abounding in love.
Our problem is that we know we are going to have to change our ways and we don’t want to do that. We know that we are weak and frail and full of baggage and that we are going to fail. We know that changing our ways is going to make some people not like us or change our relationships. And that’s sometimes very true. But it’s not really God we are scared of dealing with. Nor should it be.
Nineveh heard truth from Jonah. You have heard truth from the Word of God today. It can change your life here and now and it can change your life for eternity, just like it did the Ninevites. They didn’t deserve God’s grace. You don’t deserve God’s grace. I don’t deserve God’s grace. But His grace is abundant and available to you today.
Ephesians 2:8 says, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God.” You don’t have to worry about being good enough or that your baggage is going to make you fail. It’s not about you. Aren’t you glad?
Confess your sins, repent of your sins and accept God’s grace. Do it today because we don’t have the promise of God allowing us to breathe another breath.
Jonah is all about God’s grace. And sometimes God brings the storm or the fish or the scorching wind. And sometimes he brings his never-ending bucket of grace. But both are meant to bring you back to Him.
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